CRITICAL NOTES
Luke 9:10. Went aside privately.—The reason of this retirement is stated by St. Matthew (Matthew 14:13) to have been Christ’s hearing of the violent death of John the Baptist. It was a precautionary measure, rendered all the more necessary by Herod’s desire to see Jesus. St. Mark says that it was for the sake of quiet (Luke 6:31)—as the excitement produced by the teaching of Jesus and His apostles was very great. There is no necessary discrepancy in the narratives: the retirement in question may have taken place for more reasons than one. City called Bethsaida.—This is not the Bethsaida near Capernaum on the west of the lake, but Bethsaida Julias on the north, in the tetrarchy of Philip, near which was “a desert place.”
Luke 9:11. Followed Him.—Jesus went by boat, and the people, seeing the direction in which He sailed, went thither on foot (Mark 6:33). Received them.—I.e. did not dismiss them, though their following Him defeated one of the purposes for which He had sought retirement.
Luke 9:13. Five loaves.—I.e. barley loaves (John 6:9), the food of the poor. The miracle that follows is the only one narrated by all four evangelists.
Luke 9:14. Five thousand.—Men, besides women and children (Matthew 14:21).
Luke 9:16. Blessed them.—“Agreeably to the Jewish custom, by which it was usual for the head of the family, at every meal, to pronounce a blessing on the food, previously to partaking of it, commencing with the words, ‘Blessed art thou, O God, who bringest bread out of the earth,’ etc.” (Bloomfield).
Luke 9:17. Baskets.—The word used in all the narratives of this miracle is κόφινος—a wicker-basket, such as the Jews were accustomed to carry their food in when they were on a journey. The word used in the account of the other miracle of the kind (Matthew 15:37; Mark 8:8) is σπυρίς—a large rope-basket, capable of holding a man’s body (cf. Acts 9:25). St. Luke omits a long series of events which followed this miracle, and which are related in Matthew 14:1 to Matthew 16:12; Mark 6:45 to Mark 8:30; and John 6.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Luke 9:10-17
Bread from Heaven.—The apostles needed rest after their journey. Our Lord suggested a brief retirement, and sought it at the Eastern Bethsaida, a couple of miles up the Jordan from its point of entrance to the lake. The curious crowd following on foot effectually destroyed all hope of retirement. Without a sigh or sign of impatience Jesus welcomed them. He received them patiently, because “He was moved with pity” (St. Mark), and saw in their rude crowding about Him the token of their lack of guides and teachers. They seemed to Him not merely a mob of intrusive sight-seers, but like a huddled mass of unshepherded sheep. Christ’s heart felt more lovingly than ours because His eye saw deeper, and His eye saw deeper because His heart felt more lovingly. If we lived nearer Him, we should see, as He did, enough in every man to draw out pity and help, even though he should jostle us and interfere with us. Coming to the miracle itself, we may divide the narrative into three parts: the preliminaries, the miracle, and the abundant overplus.
I. The preliminaries.—Our Lord leads up to the miracle by forcing home on the minds of the disciples the extent of the need, and the utter inadequacy of their resources to meet it, and by calling on them and the crowd for an act of obedience, which must have seemed ludicrous to many of them. The strange suggestion that the disciples should feed the crowd must have appeared to them absurd, but it was meant to bring out the clear recognition of the smallness of their supply. Therein lie great lessons. Commands are given and apparent duties laid on us, in order that we may find out how impotent we are to do them. It can never be our duty to do what we cannot do; but it is often our duty to attempt tasks to which we are conspicuously inadequate, in the confidence that He who gives them has laid them on us to drive us to Himself, and there to find sufficiency. The best preparation of His servants for their work in the world is the discovery that their own stores are small. Those who have learned that it is their task to feed the multitude, and who have said “We have no more than such and such scanty resources,” are prepared to be the distributers of His all-sufficient supply.
II. The miracle.—Like that of the draught of fishes, it was not called forth by the cry of suffering, nor was the need which it met one beyond the reach of ordinary means. It was certainly a miracle most plainly meant to strike the popular mind, and the enthusiasm excited by it, according to John’s account, was foreseen by Christ. Why did He evoke enthusiasm which He did not mean to gratify? For the very purpose of bringing the carnal expectations of the crowd to a head, that they might be the more conclusively disappointed. The miracle and its sequel sifted and sent away many disciples, and were meant to do so. He blessed the bread. What He blesses is blessed, for His words are deeds, and communicate the blessing which they speak. The point at which the miraculous multiplication of the food came in is left undetermined. The pieces grew under His touch, and the disciples always found His hands full when they came back with their own empty. The symbolical aspect of the miracle is set forth in the great discourse which follows it in St. John’s Gospel. Jesus is the bread of God which came down from heaven. That bread is broken for us. Not in His incarnation alone, but in His death, is He the food of the world; and we have not only to “eat His flesh,” but to “drink His blood,” if we would live. Nor can we lose sight of the symbol of His servants’ task. They are the distributers of the heaven-sent bread. If they will but take their poor stores to Jesus, with the acknowledgment of their insufficiency, He will turn them into inexhaustible supplies. What Christ blesses is always enough.
III. The abundant overplus.—Twelve baskets were filled: that is to say, each apostle, who had helped to feed the hungry, had a basketful to bring off for future wants. The “broken pieces” were not crumbs that littered the grass, but the portions that came from Christ’s hands. His provision is more than enough for a hungry world, and they who share it out among their fellows have their own possession of it increased. There is no surer way to receive the full sweetness and blessing of the gospel than to carry it to some hungry soul. These full baskets teach us, too, that in Christ’s gift of Himself as the bread of life there is ever more than at any given moment we can appropriate. Other food cloys and does not satisfy, and leaves us starving. Christ satisfies and does not cloy, and we have always remaining, yet to be enjoyed, the boundless stores which neither eternity will age nor a universe feeding on them consume.—Maclaren.
“Make them sit down.”
I. The command to make them sit down by fifties in a company was expressive of the authority of Christ over human multitudes whenever He comes into contact with them. There were five thousand men besides women and children present, and, according to three evangelists out of the four, special emphasis is attached to this command, “Make them sit down.” There was no doubt a growing confusion at this time: the night was at hand, and the multitude, wearied by a day of restlessness under a burning Eastern sky, and largely irritated by discussion, and carried away by the back-wave of the day’s excitement, had become well-nigh unmanageable. In the presence of that confusion the disciples had readily given their rough and ready solution, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the towns and country round about, and lodge and get victuals: for we are here in a desert place.” Christ, on the contrary, said in brief, “Nay, make them sit down.” He, as the master of assemblies, did not seek to rid Himself of the confusion by ridding Himself of the multitude. In this respect, as well as in a thousand other respects, He towered above all others. He was never excited, and never doubtful as to what should be done; but was always calmly confident amid the seething passions and conflicting voices of human multitudes. Thus, at the very outset, we find this distinctive attribute of Christ’s ministry. He never lost command, but was ever calm and masterful as the Lord of men.
II. But this command was not only expressive of the unique authority of Jesus Christ; it was also an illustration of His most tender consideration for those who needed it most. John tells us that only the men sat in fifties; and Mark intimates the same. There were women and children there, but, as Matthew too asserts, the five thousand consisted of men apart from women and children. Luke tells us that they sat down “by fifties in a company.” The words which Mark uses suggest that the multitude looked like a garden of flowers, well arranged in groups of living men, turning their faces as expectant to the Christ as the flowers turn theirs to the sun. But observe that women and children were not in these regular ranks of panting humanity. No one has been in a throng of five thousand men, when there has been rushing movement, discord, irritation, and weariness, without being impressed with the danger for women and children, especially when the overwhelming majority were men. Here we have one of the many beautiful touches of the Gospel narrative—the thoughtfulness of Christ concerning the weak. Order is the first law of heaven, and when Christ would perform this miracle order was the first essential. Thoughtful consideration for the weak who were in danger of being trodden underfoot was the second—“Make the men sit down”—so that in addition to the orderliness of their own ranks there may be opportunity for the women and the children to have their share. Christ never overlooks any section of the community, ignores no small one in the greatest mass of human life.
III. This command awakened new hopes and expectations in the hearts of the assembled multitude. They had walked along the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee into that desert place on the eastern coast, and were wearied by the journey and the fatigue of the day. The length of the journey would make it probable that the women and children were few compared with the men. This is another subtle proof of the accuracy of Gospel records. The few, however, were not overlooked. All were weary—especially the women and children—with the events of the day. Their hopes had to a large extent been satisfied, yet weariness and hunger had taken possession of them. Now Christ awakened new hopes in their hearts. No one awakens within the heart of man such expectations as Jesus Christ. They soon came to the conclusion that the great Teacher was about to feed them. Where all was to come from they did not know, save that it would come from the same source of power and of grace as many other provisions for the need and sorrow of men had come in that unique ministry; and so every one in that vast throng was encouraged to hope for and expect some wonderful miraculous provision.
IV. By this command Christ willingly subjected Himself to a new test of His Divine power and sympathy. There was no necessity for His doing this save the irresistible promptings of His great love. The multitudes might have been dismissed, and yet He would have preserved His character apart from this further manifestation of His divinity. No one expected it; even His own disciples did not. It was not, therefore, done in an emergency; but this command going forth subjected Him willingly and voluntarily to a new test. That is what Christ ever does. Almost every command He gives to men subjects Him to new tests. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,” that is the command; “and thou shalt be saved” is the promise. He stakes His honour, and stands or falls by every command that He gives us which has a latent promise in its folds.
V. By this command Christ subjected the disciples to a new test. They had to exercise sufficient confidence in Him to go and tell the multitude to sit down and wait for their meal. They had just been arguing with Christ. Two hundred pennyworth of bread would not suffice, according to their calculation. There was a boy present, it was true, who had brought his five loaves and two fishes; but what were they among so many? Now that is just what is taking place every day. Every faithful messenger of Jesus Christ, who goes forth to meet the wants of men and women, knows that, apart from the power of the Christ behind him, his task is one of forlorn hope and sad humiliation. But every mission has its test, and every man of God who has gone forth at the Master’s bidding has gone forth with the full assurance that he cannot be disappointed or humiliated.
VI. This command, moreover, came as a test for the multitude. Every one in that great multitude had to obey in anticipation of the feast. Now that was pre-eminently an act of faith. They had confidence that Jesus Christ would not have sent the message to them unless He meant to feed them. And still that is all that is required—that men should just do as He tells them, namely, look for the blessing and wait for it. How many there are unprepared to do that, and yet are surprised if they are not fed! There was not a man among the five thousand foolish enough to act in that fashion. “Make them sit down by fifties in a company. And they did so.”—Davies.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luke 9:10-17
Luke 9:10. “A desert place.”—The two miracles of feeding the multitudes were performed in desert places: this circumstance
(1) brought out most impressively the greatness of Christ’s power, who could, apart from ordinary means, feed so large a number of people; and
(2) reminded those present of the miraculous way in which God had for forty years sustained their nation in the wilderness.
The Christian Uses of Leisure.
I. Communion with outward nature.
II. Intercourse with fellow-believers.
III. A closer converse with Christ Himself.—Ker.
Luke 9:11. “The people … followed Him.”—The unexpected arrival of the people defeats the plan Jesus had formed. But the Lord is deeply touched by the love towards Him manifested by this multitude, which were like sheep without a shepherd (Mark 6:34): He “receives” them with tender loving-kindness; and while crowds arrive one after another in the course of the morning (John 6:5), a thought springs up in His heart. What it was St. John tells us (ibid. 4). The Passover season was drawing near. Jesus had not been able to go up to Jerusalem with His disciples, so violent was the rage of His enemies. So then in this unexpected gathering, like that of the people in Jerusalem, He discerns a signal from heaven, and He resolves to hold a feast in the wilderness to take the place of the Passover for those who surround Him.—Godet.
Luke 9:12. “Go into the towns.”—This miracle was not urgently called for by the physical necessities of the multitude, as in the other instance of miraculous feeding (Mark 8:2-3). The disciples themselves were of the opinion that in the neighbouring villages and country the people might get food. “It was a symbolic, didactic, critical miracle. It was meant to teach, and also to test: to supply a text for the subsequent sermon (recorded by St. John), and a touchstone to try the character of those who had followed Jesus with such enthusiasm. It was meant to say, ‘I Jesus am the bread of life. What this bread is to your bodies, I Myself am to your souls’ ” (Bruce).
Luke 9:13-16. “Took … blessed … gave.”—The significant points in the action of that day were
(1) the provision accepted from the disciples,
(2) the blessing of it by Jesus, and
(3) the distribution of it among the people.—Laidlaw.
Luke 9:13. “Give ye.”—The words are emphatic, for the disciples had been counselling the people to get food for themselves.
“Give ye them to eat.”—Christ wishes His disciples to realise their own utter inability, in order that they might by-and-by realise more intensely the fulness of His ability.
“We have no more.”—Here we may learn, at least, not to be too confident in our reckonings, so long as they are made for plus or minus. How many great counting-houses have forgotten in their books the column for the blessing or—the curse of God!—Stier.
Luke 9:14. “By fifties.”—In which subordinate circumstance we behold His wisdom who is the Lord and Lover of order. Thus all confusion was avoided. There was no danger that the weaker, the women and children, should be passed over, while the stronger and ruder unduly put themselves forward. The apostles were thus able to pass easily up and down among the multitude, and to minister in orderly succession to the needs of every part.—Burgon.
“Made them all sit down.”—The apostles caused the people to sit down before they knew what Christ was about to do. They obeyed His command. They were weak and inexperienced, but still they were childlike, and allowed themselves to be led by His hand. “This is the true kind of obedience,” says Bernhard which does not look at what is commanded, but is content to know that it is commanded by God.”
Luke 9:16. “Blessed them.”—To be thankful for little is the way to obtain more. The action of the Saviour, if we compare the various narratives of this miracle, consisted
(1) of thanksgiving—acknowledgment of all the goodness of God, and an anticipation of the coming display of His power and love; and
(2) of blessing the food for the use of the people. “To bless means to speak well of. Our Saviour on the present occasion would doubtless speak well of His Father; and, coincidently, He would speak well of the provision, His Father’s gift, which He was about to distribute and increase. He might speak well, too, in reference to the people petitioning for their weal. He would thus coincidently bless the Father, bless the food, and invoke blessing on the people” (Morison).
A Like Miracle ever being wrought.—He conceals the miracle, and no one sees how the bread multiplies in His hands, any more than one sees the grass growing. “The same Divine Person, in a manner less striking, because more gradual and regular, but certainly not less wonderful, ripens all the seeds in all the gardens and orchards and in all the vineyards and meadows of this world, in successive seasons, ever since man dwelt in Paradise, to minister food to His creatures” (Wordsworth).
Inexhaustible Provision.—The Bible is little in bulk, like the five barley loaves and the two fishes. What thousands upon thousands has it fed, and will it feed, in every age, in every land of Christendom, to the world’s end!
Luke 9:17. The Teaching of the Miracle.—The miracle teaches us—
I. That it is our duty to do what we can to supply the bodily wants of others.
II. That those who follow Christ may trust to Him for the necessaries of life.
III. That it is becoming to thank God for His goodness before partaking of food.
IV. That nothing should be lost or wasted.
“Fragments.”—The food Christ gave differed from the manna; for
(1) the manna was only sufficient for him who gathered it, and
(2) could not be kept. The fragments are more in bulk than the original stock: in their being gathered at the command of Christ we have a beautiful picture of God’s bounty in nature, which is at once lavish and careful.
“That remained.”—A sign that there had been abundance. Twelve baskets, because at Christ’s command the twelve apostles gathered up the fragments. “We have thus a visible symbol of that love which exhausts not itself by loving, but after the most prodigal outgoings upon others abides itself far richer than it would else have done; of the multiplying which there ever is in a true dispensing; of the increasing which may go along with a scattering (Proverbs 11:24: cf. 2 Kings 4:1-7)” (Trench).