Two farmers were chatting in front of the bank. "I hear you made $100,000 In alfalfa."

"Well, that isn't quite right. It wasn't me, it was my brother. It wasn't alfalfa, but oats; not $100,000 but $10,000; and he didn't make it, he lost it."

Sometimes we misunderstand things we hear or give a wrong interpretation of it. I think that we sometimes misinterpret the meaning of Jesus' miracles. We often see miracles as a sign of Jesus' great power. We often see miracles as a sign that Jesus is divine. However, a number of Biblical scholars tend to see the miracles of Jesus as a teaching tool. They are like parables in action. They see the miracles of Jesus as a way of teaching the crowds and teaching us something about God's for us, something about Jesus' mission to save us.

Today, we are looking at the feeding of the 5,000. It is the only miracle of Jesus recorded in all four Gospels. So it had a great impact on the disciples of Jesus who passed on the story of the miracle to us. Today we also look at Matthew's account of this great miracle and let us see what Jesus is trying to teach us through this miracle.

As our text begins, Jesus has just heard that John the Baptist has been killed by Herod, the ruler of Galilee and the east bank of the Jordan. According to Luke, John the Baptist is Jesus' cousin. A close relative of Jesus has been killed. Whenever, Jesus is troubled and upset he likes to go off by himself. So Jesus heads to a deserted place to mourn the death of his cousin Jesus needed to be by himself so he could grieve the loss of John the Baptist, so he could then begin the process of healing, so he could once more serve those he has come to minister to.

However, the crowds hear that Jesus has gone off to a deserted place and they walk there. Even though Jesus so desperately needs to be by himself, he looks at the great crowd and sees that they have needs that also need to be ministered to. So we see the great compassion of Jesus. He puts the needs of others, our own needs before his own. We can see how much Jesus loves us. We are told that he had compassion on the crowds and he cured the sick.

Pastor Loren Olson writes about a male nurse: A nurse arrived home at midnight after working a busy double shift in an inner-city emergency room. It felt so good to crawl under the covers and scrunch into the king-sized pillow. But just as he drifted off, he heard his six-year-old daughter crying, "Daddy." She had awakened with a high fever, and as much as she loved her mother, she always wanted Daddy when she was sick. So her exhausted father spent several hours sitting with her until she felt better and drifted off to sleep. Did it frustrate him to lose sleep when he was bone-weary already? "No," he responded, "when you child's sick, a little love is more important than a little sleep."

God cares so deeply about what happens to us. We can see that love and concern in Jesus' love for the crowds. He just had to help them. Now, it was getting late and they were in the middle of nowhere. The disciples say to Jesus, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves."

Jesus surprises them by saying, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." What! How can they possibly feed such a large crowd? "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish." "Bring them here to me." Jesus orders the crowd to sit on the grass. Actually, the Greek means to recline on the grass. One sat down to an ordinary meal, but reclined at banquets such as wedding banquets. So the people are to be part of a banquet. Then he takes the food. He looks up to heaven and blesses and breaks the loaves and gives them to the disciples. The wording is very important here. Matthew uses the same words to describe Jesus blessing and breaking the loaves here as he does to describe Jesus blessing and breaking the loaves at the last supper as he institutes Holy Communion. The first readers of Matthew's Gospel would automatically make the connection. The disciples give the food to the crowd and when they do something amazing happens. Everyone eats until they are filled or satisfied.

The word used to describe the crowd being filled is the same word used in the beatitudes when Jesus said: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled." To make certain that nothing is wasted, the leftovers are gathered up. There is enough to fill 12 baskets. We are told that 5,000 men were there plus women and children.

The miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 is a fulfillment of a promised made in Isaiah 55:1 "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price." The feeding of the 5,000 is an announcement that in Jesus God's promise of salvation has come.

The miracle is a demonstration that God has not forgotten the people of Israel nor the people of world. God is concerned about the needs and wants of the ordinary person, about our needs and wants. God loves each one of us and wants what is best for us. Jesus has come to give us what we need most-love, wholeness, acceptance, forgiveness and life, life that death cannot destroy.

It will cost Jesus his very life to give us the bread that will give us life forever more. At the last supper, Jesus will again bless the bread and break. He will say: "Take, eat; this is my body." So the bread of life will offer his body on the cross for us. It is his body that he will give for the sins of the world. It is his body that he will give so we can life. It is a sign of his great love for us, a sign of God's great love for us. Jesus put the needs of the crowds and our needs before his own needs.

Dale Galloway, in his book, DREAM A NEW DREAM, tells the story of a young man who teaches us all a lesson in the art of selfless giving and serving, who shows us the way that Jesus treats us. Little Chad was a shy, quiet boy. Day after day, his mother agonized when she watched the children coming home from school. While they laughed and talked to each other and hung onto each other, Chad always lagged behind-alone. One day, Chad came home and told his mother that he's like to make a valentine for everyone in his class. Her heart sank. She thought, "I wish he wouldn't do that! They never include him in anything." Nevertheless, she decided she would go along with her son. So she purchased the paper and glue and crayons, and for three weeks, night after night, Chad painstakingly made thirty-five valentines.

Valentine's Day, dawned, and Chad was beside himself with excitement as he started out for school. That afternoon Chad's mother placed cookies and milk on the table. Then she looked out the window and saw the children coming home from school. There they came, laughing and having the best time. And, as always, there was Chad in the rear, alone, but walking a little faster than usual. His arms were empty. Obviously he had not received any Valentines, and she fully expected him to break into tears when he goes inside. She choked back her own tears, saying as he came in, "Mommy has some cookies and milk for you." But he hardly heard her words. He just marched right on by, his face AGLOW, and all he could say was: "Not a one. Not a one." Her heart SANK. And then he added, "I DIDN'T FORGET ONE, NOT A SINGLE ONE!"

Jesus has put our needs before his own. And what gives him great joy is our happiness. The miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 also points to the great banquet that is waiting for us. At the time of Jesus, heaven was often portrayed as a huge wedding banquet that will last for all eternity. It is a banquet in which the people could eat and drink as much as they want without being full and without being drunk. So when Jesus told the crowd to recline, he was reminding them of the great banquet that waits for them and waits for us. The banquet will come about because of Jesus' death on the cross for us. The feeding of the 5,000 teaches us a lot about Jesus' love for us. Today, we only looked at a very small part of the meaning of this miracle. How are we to respond to this miracle? I think we are to show the same kind of love to others that Jesus has shown us.

Pastor Sara Owen-Gemoets writes: The five loaves and two fish, clearly not enough to feed 5,000 people, became enough when the power of Christ entered. That same message is true for us today, especially when we are faced with a task that seems overwhelming at the time it occurs. We say, 'I can't do that-I don't have enough of whatever is needed (usually faith or trust or love)." Yet, be including Christ's power we discover we Do have enough.

A very interesting experiment was done on some rabbits. They were kept in a special cage, fed food high in fat content, surrounded by fluorescent lighting, bombarded with emissions from microwave ovens, and they breathed smoke and other kinds of bad air that was pumped in. Several of the rabbits sickened very quickly and were close to death. But amazingly one little rabbit with a deformed hind leg survived. He remained fat and healthy in spite of the dreadful environment. The scientists conducting the experiment became very suspicious. They had hired college students to feed the rabbits, and they strongly suspected that these students were somehow protecting the little rabbit with the deformed leg. So they set up a video camera to record the students who were coming in to feed the rabbits. Much to their amazement, they discovered that one of the students had a bad leg and wore a brace. Every time she came in to feed the rabbits, she would reach down into the cage, pick up the little rabbit with the bad leg, stroke it, love it, and talk endearingly to it. Who would ever dream that a little love would be enough to make a rabbit thrive in spite of its deadly surroundings? Who would ever dream that the little love we find within ourselves to give could have an amazing impact on our surroundings and our lives?

The miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 shows the great love of Jesus for those in need, shows the great love that Jesus has for us. In Jesus our greatest needs are already met. We have love, we have acceptance, we have joy, we have forgiveness, and we have life. We can be assured that when we share with others we grow in faith and stature. Let us share that love with those we meet. Who knows what may happen when we do so? Amen.