The Feeding of the 4000 or the 5000 Which is it?

(Matthew 15:32-39)

I.    Have You Ever Forgotten Something Important.

How many of you have ever forgotten something important? Just this week I forgot I had a meeting with my accountant. It seems like nearly every day I forget where I last put my car keys. Any of you ever posted a letter and forgot to put a stamp on it? I know someone men who had an appointment at the memory clinic and forgot to go.  If heard stories of people who left their child at the shopping centre, they got to the car in the car park and realised you’ve forgotten one. Some of you may remember about 10 years ago David Cameron the then Prime Minister of GB went for a Sunday lunch to his local pub and left one of his children behind. The pub rang him at home and said come back for you child.

We’ve all forgotten things that were important, but we also do that spiritually we have a tendency to forget vital spiritual truths that we should remember and not remembering can be detrimental to our spiritual lives. What surprises me about myself as well as others it’s not just that we forget it’s how soon we forget even something important.

What would it take for us to remember stuff we’re supposed to remember. I sometimes wonder if Jesus were just here and if he did a dramatic enough miracle would we even forget that. I am afraid to say human nature says we actually might. Let me tell you a story in the Bible that illustrates this point and lets see what we can learn about not only what the miracle means, but also what the Bibles tells us about how soon we forget.

II.    Feeding the Four Thousand

32 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.”33 Then His disciples said to Him, “Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?” 34 Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven, and a few little fish.” 35 So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. 36 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. 37 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left. 38 Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. 39 And He sent away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala.

(Matthew 15: 32-39)

We’ve been going through the Gospel of Matthew and we’ve come upon a story that just underscores our forgetfulness to our detriment concerning things spiritual. This is the story of the feeding of the 4000a common mistake that’s made concerning this passage is because everybody remembers the feeding of the 5000, but who remembers the feeding of the 4000, and how did that get in here anyway. 

Why was it included? As a matter of fact that question has baffled some to the point that they are willing to say there were not two miracles that was only one and they got mixed up. Let me just say up front that that is not the case, that there are two clearly distinct miracles, one was feeding 5000 the other was feeding 4000 and if you look at the details between the two you will quickly see that one happened in Galilee and the other happened in the Decapolis region. One was feeding the Jews and there were five loaves and two fish and in this other case there was seven loaves and a few fish used and it involved feeding gentiles.

Another big issue is that in the feeding of the 5000 they had leftovers of 12 baskets full and in the feeding of the 4000 it says they had also had 12 large basket leftover but there are two different Greek words used for baskets. But the clincher is this ,later in the Gospel of Matthew Jesus clearly says himself that there were two different events. Interesting to me is that we remember the bigger one and forget the not quite so big one. So, they’re two and some through church history have actually nick named this miracle, the forgotten miracle. It’s the poor little forgotten miracle well then how did it get in here, why did Matthew put them both in. One commentator says and I thought this was an insightful little statement, “It is extremely unlikely that Matthew and Mark, as the same story also appears in that gospel twice would take up valuable space in a papyrus role to record two versions of the same events.

So why is this story in here and what is it trying to teach us? Well let's look at the story again and see if we can determine that.

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.

(Matthew 15: 32)

III.     The Compassion of Jesus.

As I have explained as we’ve been going through Matthew chapter 15 Jesus came to this gentile area of the Decapolis and he started healing people. Butt having been on the hillside with Jesus for maybe up to 2 or 3 days now the food begins to run out. Jesus says to his disciples I have compassion on because what he’s been doing has been doing for 3 days now. Healing those who were sick but now the people are tired and hungry, so he says I’ve had compassion on the crowd because they stayed with him for 3 days now. He does not want to send them away hungry because they might have not have enough strength to make it home. Let me pause here and make a couple of observations.

 Firstly, Jesus had compassion and we should do the same. Someone has said and I quote, “many people think they are compassionate and they really are , some have feelings of sympathy, some tell themselves that the poor and afflicted are largely to blame for their conditions, others get teary eyed when confronted with the needy and the distress but all they do is piously promised to pray about it. The Lord Jesus gave us the perfect example of genuine compassion, he felt deeply for the outcast and the afflicted, but he took action to help them. History tells us of some of the most courageous Christians did nothing else than dare to follow his example.

Some people when challenged by anti-social behaviour in their neighbourhood instead of complaining start a youth club. William Wilberforce, yes he took pity on the slaves but took political action and was instrumental in having the slave trade abolished. Florence Nightingale who was moved by the suffering of wounded soldiers and went to the battlefield to care for them. Jesus was compassionate and so should we be, like him. So firstly, Jesus was compassionate.

IV.    Jesus Test His Disciples.

But the second observation I want to make is this Jesus was testing them. Does this story sound familiar, I mean didn’t we just go through this a little while before  A few chapters ago Jesus fed 5000, do you remember the story. As a matter of fact that story says that Jesus taught late into the evening late afternoon early evening and the disciples came to him and said they were out in a remote area we have to dismiss the crowd because there’s no food. In that story Jesus said you feed them, and they said how are we going to do that. Let me ask a question do you remember why he did that.  

I suggested the point was this when the Lord tells you to do something that’s beyond your ability you are to trust in him for the ability and he will give you the grace to do it and anything else he tells you to do. That is a cardinal teaching of the word of God. But now we come a little while later to a crowd of 4000 and Jesus says to them I have compassion for these people who have been here for three days they don’t have anything to eat I don’t want to send them away because some of them have got to walk a great distance to go 

Jesus isn’t giving them some lesson on compassion he was compassionate that’s here but what’s really going on is this is a test to see if they have learned from the last time something like this happened. Jesus is saying I taught you when we fed the 5000. You have also seen me do amazing things like calming the storm immediately after that. Now I’m saying to you this crowd is hungry, did you get the message? Let’s see how they respond, look at the next verse, verse 33.

“Then His disciples said to Him, “Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?”

(Matthew 15: 33)

Did they pass the test? Absolutely not, they forgot,  they forgot already.  The first thing they think about is themselves and their resources and they say, how are we going to do that, this is the wilderness, and that particular word means this place is deserted it’s a desert. 

Previously in the feeding of the 5000 it told us the crowd were sitting on the grass, in this passage they are sat on the ground indicating it was the hot summer and the grass had been burned or they were at a higher altitude where there was less vegetation. There’s no place the disciples can go. Let me just tell you how serious this situation was. Thee people who calculate these things tell me that the beginning of the 5000 must have been in the spring and the events are connected with the Passover and it was grass. This miracle happened in the summer because as I just mentioned they sat on the ground, one commentator estimates that the distance between the two events was probably nearly six months. Now think about this for just a second. Six months prior to this they had had this phenomenal supernatural miracle of feeding 5000 people and six months later they are confronted with exactly the same situation, and they have forgotten what Jesus had done.

Let me ask you a question, did you ever do that sort of thing, I’m going to confess I’ve done that you know, when I been in a real tight spot  and I’ve prayed like crazy and the Lord answered my prayer and I forget about it and move on. Then a few months later that identical situation comes up and you panic or at least worried or at least get uptight and worry again. Now between the two situations did God cease to exist, did God die.

That’s what is going on here. This is incredible they not only forgot they forgot so soon.  That is what’s going on in this passage.  Jesus has given them a test and all they can do is think about their own resources. Let’s continue the story what happens next. Jesus feeds the 4000 so let’s just look at it very briefly and see what the difference is this time.

V.    The Difference Between the Two Miracles.

34 Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?”And they said, “Seven, and a few little fish.” 35 So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. 36 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. 37 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left. 38 Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. 

You remember the feeding of the 5000 there were there were twelve basketfuls leftover and almost everybody concludes that was because there were twelve apostles and he wanted to give them a little souvenir each. Here’s a a little doggy bag to take home with you. This this will feed you for the next day or two as a reminder of what I did this day, so you won’t forget it in the future. But I want to really impress this upon your mind that the Greek word that you use in the feeding of the 5000 describes a little bag something like a lunch pack. But in the feeding of the 4000 the word used described a much larger basket. One authority I read said this basket was more  like a hamper.

What going on here what is the difference, what is the message Jesus is trying to send. Well, we will look at that next time.