Matthew 14:13-21

Feeding the five thousand (Mark 6:30; Luke 9:10; John 6:1). The only miracle recorded by the four evangelists, and also one of the most wonderful. It cannot be accounted for, as some of the miracles of healing possibly can, as the powerful effect of mind over mind, or of mind over body, but is distinctly a physical miracle incapable of natural explanation.

Some critics still accept Paulus's rationalising explanation of the miracle, viz. that the generosity of Jesus and His apostles in sharing their few loaves and fishes with others induced many more, who had brought food with them, to distribute it, and so enough was found for all. But Paulus's theory does not explain, (1) how St. Mark (i.e. Peter) came to describe it as a miracle; (2) how St. John, who was also present, came to describe it as a miracle; (3) why our Lord, if it was not a miracle, described it as such, and that in the oldest tradition (Mark 8:19 = Matthew 16:9); (4) why the multitudes, who must have known the facts, were stirred to such enthusiasm by this 'sign' that they were convinced that He was the Messiah, and sought to make Him king by force (John 6:14).

Considered as a parable the miracle teaches, (1) Christ's creative power and lordship over nature; (2) His benevolence and bounty, giving His people enough and more than enough; (3) that He is the spiritual food of mankind, the bread of life, sustaining the souls of those who believe on Him. In particular the miracle is a figure of the Lord's Supper, in which, through the agency of His ministers, He feeds the multitudes with 'the spiritual food of His most precious Body and Blood': see on John 6. St Mark's account is the fullest, and (except St. John's) the most graphic.