I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat

 

 Jesus departed from there, skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain and sat down there.  Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus' feet, and He healed them.  So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.

Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.  And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way."  Then His disciples said to Him, "Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?"  Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?"  And they said, "Seven, and a few little fish."  So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.  And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude.  So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left.  Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.  And He sent away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala.

 

- Matthew 15:29-39 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus departed to the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon.  And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David!  My daughter is severely demon-possessed."  But He answered her not a word.  And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, "Send her away, for she cries out after us."  But He answered and said, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."  Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, help me!"  But He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."  And she said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table."  Then Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman, great is your faith!  Let it be to you as you desire."  And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

 

Jesus departed from there, skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain and sat down there.  Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus' feet, and He healed them.  So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.  My study Bible comments that Christ's healing of the multitudes here shows that these Jews actually had less faith than the Canaanite woman (of yesterday's reading; see above).  St. John Chrysostom notes that Christ healed that woman's daughter "with much delay, but these immediately, because she is more faithful than they.  He delays with her to reveal her perseverance, while here He bestows the gift immediately to stop the mouths of the unbelieving Jews."

 

 Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.  And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way."  Then His disciples said to Him, "Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?"  Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?"  And they said, "Seven, and a few little fish."  So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.  And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude.  So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left.  Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.  And He sent away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala.   Jesus has already fed a multitude in Matthew 14:22-33.  That feeding was for a crowd of five thousand men and more women and children.  Here, there are four thousand men, besides women and children.  So these are separate and distinct miracles.  My study Bible comments that the variance in the number of loaves is significant.  In the first feeding, there were five loaves, which symbolizes the Law.  Here, there are seven.  Seven symbolizes completeness, a fullness -- here it indicates spiritual perfection.  So, in the first instance, Christ revealed Himself as fulfilling the Law, while here He shows that it is He who grants spiritual perfection.  My study Bible also notes that these crowds had been with Christ for three days, the number of days that He will rest in the tomb.  It says that participation in Christ's perfection can only come through being united to His death (see Romans 6:3-5). 

 

What do we feed ourselves with?  Jesus calls Himself the bread of heaven, and the "bread of God" (John 6:33, 50-51).  When we take the Eucharist, from the earliest times of the Church it was understood that we feed ourselves with Him (John 6:51-56).  So the notion of food, and of feeding, is central to our faith and our concepts of our faith in Christ, as offered to us by Him.  These separate feeding miracles of the five thousand and four thousand are central to the Gospels.  They are images of God from the Old Testament, who fed the Israelites as they followed Moses in the wilderness, going (or we might even say meandering) toward the Promised Land.  The "bread from heaven" of the Old Testament (Exodus 6) is a landmark event, and so are these two feedings by Jesus in the wilderness.  The first (Matthew 14:13-21) took place among a distinctly Jewish population, and has overtones (as explained in the notes from my study Bible quoted above) of the Torah, the giving of the Law.  The miracle in today's reading takes place after Jesus has praised the faith of a Canaanite woman (see yesterday's reading, above), and in a region of mixed populations of Gentiles and Jews (although those who follow Jesus we presume are Jews).  But the numbers, as my study Bible noted above, suggest more symbolism and meaning.  There is first of all the seven loaves, and seven has been explained as a number of fullness or completion.   There is also the number four thousand, a large number based on four which suggests the four points of the compass, all the world -- and also the four points of the Cross, which will go out to the world.  When we put these meanings together, we should think of the understanding that there is one place where we go which can feed the entire world, one Person to whom we turn who can give us the bread of heaven that is meant for all people.  There is One who can serve a world with the completeness of what spiritual perfection is and means -- and who may continue to offer that to all people.  There is One in whom we find that fullness, for -- as He has said in speaking of Himself as the bread of heaven -- He has given His flesh for the life of the world (John 6:33, 51), and He continues to give us the true food for the life of the world.  Because His is completion, perfection, an "end" which means that absolutely all things are included, His work continues and His food continues to feed us, for He is the beginning and the end, who is and was and is to come (Revelation 1:8).  His is the perfection we seek, the place we go in our need.  In a consumerist world, in which we are offered so many choices of what we will consume --  what news, what entertainment, what beliefs, what slogans, what information, what politics, what attitudes, and all manner of mores, ethics, values -- let us be discerning about what it is we choose to take in, what it is we feed on.  Christ has already offered us Himself, and He keeps on giving.   He should be our first stop, the One from whom we are guided through all the rest of what we think we need, and what really nurtures our lives.  He is our compassionate Savior, who loves us enough to give His life for us, and for the world.