Luke 9:10--17 "Five Fish Tacos"
Today we’ll be looking at one of Jesus’ most famous miracles, right up there with walking on water and coming back from the dead. Today He’s going to feed everyone who came to Jesuspolooza with only five fish tacos.
Prayer: Father in heaven, as we turn to Your Word this morning, show us all the things, all the treasures, all the promises and challenges it has for us. Break us so we can hear You. AMEN.
On their return the apostles told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing. Luke 9:10-11
This is following the mission trip where Jesus sent them out two by two with no provisions to go town to town preaching and praying for people without Him. I’m sure they had a lot to talk about—swapping stories of the people they met, the places they stayed, healing people, casting out demons, getting run out of town by all the local “Karens” and their no soliciting signs.
(I would imagine women named “Karen” don’t enjoy being lumped in with the worst of the nagging, complaining, “I want to speak to the manager” types. Sorry. Kind of. I mean, my name is “Frank Hart” so how many “If I can be frank, Frank” jokes do you think I’ve heard? Or “just speak from the heart.” So I get it, Karen. Ha.)
They traveled toward Bethsaida, Luke didn't mention it but there was a boat involved—they went to an isolated place outside of town. They wanted some alone time but the crowd interrupted their debrief session. I would have been annoyed but Jesus had compassion on them and welcomed them. He went into preaching/teaching/telling stories mode. Delighting everyone. Healing people. He was going to be at it all day.
We have to jump to the Gospel of John to get the full story.
In John chapter six it says as the crowd was starting to swarm on them out in the wilderness,
Jesus looked at the disciple named Philip and asked, “So how are we going to feed all these people?” It says Jesus knew what He was going to do and only asked the question to test him.
John 6:5-6
Philip was like, “We could spend all the money we have and it still wouldn’t be enough to go around.” Which seems like was a pretty good chunk of change—200 denarii, which is more than $10,000 in modern money. Jesus had some bank.
Andrew thought he’d be helpful, “I found a kid who brought a lunchbox. He has a couple fish sandwiches.”
“Good to know, Andrew—I’m sure a Lunchable is really going to help. Not.”
Jesus just kept going until it was getting dark. The idea of how to feed everyone would have been bugging the disciples all day. This is where Luke picks the story back up:
Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, “Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.” But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men. Luke 9:12-14
They’re like, “Jesus, we know You’re really in the zone but everyone’s getting hungry. We need to call it a night so everyone, including us, can find something to eat and somewhere to stay tonight. I’m sure they were bringing the full insight and wisdom of their recent mission trip to the table. “If we’re going to trust God to rely on the kindness of strangers, we better get going.” This is how they had learned to trust God while going town to town.
They did not expect Him to turn it back on them. “Why don’t you give them something to eat?”
I’m sure they looked at each other like Jesus be losing it. “Um, it’s like we said before, unless you want us to take out a second mortgage to buy bread from some imaginary shop that doesn’t exist—that wouldn’t have enough bread on hand if it did—we only have some little kid’s lunch. Remember when you gave us direct orders to not bring any food with us?”
They didn’t for a moment think beyond their own resources.
Even though it says they had five “loaves” you shouldn’t think of those as big ol’ modern loaves of honey nut Wonder bread. These were just little flat pita bread things—like slices of bread. It doesn’t say what kind of fish, other than they were small, probably caught in freshwater and either smoked or salted so they wouldn’t go bad. It was a kid’s lunch.
There were five thousand men. There was also the boy so some of them must have had their families with them. This was probably more than 15,000 hungry people.
Verse 14:
And he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” And they did so, and had them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of broken pieces. Luke 9:14-17
This is the first time Jesus did this particular miracle but it wouldn’t be the last. He has them get into groups of about fifty people—this reminds us of the way Moses organized everyone under his leadership. It’s also about the size a typical house church was going to be.
When it says he had them “sit,” it’s actually the word for “reclining” as though they were getting ready for a feast. They weren’t just sitting down, they were sitting down to eat.
The disciples were probably thinking it was going to be like a little girl’s imaginary tea party with invisible tea and cookies. Should have reminded them of that one time they went to a wedding—but that time at least they had plenty of water to work with.
Jesus takes the five pieces of bread and two fish, looks up to heaven, gives the standard mealtime blessing. Something like the Jewish prayer that’s printed on the silverware sleeve at Chuy’s—you ever noticed it? “Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who bringest forth bread from the earth.” If He would have said anything more interesting than a typical blessing someone would have written it down.
“After He had given thanks, He took the bread and broke it, gave it to the disciples.” There’s a lot of Holy Communion language going on here.
It’s a powerful picture of what’s happening when we feast in the Lord’s Supper. In this story the people are physically fed and satisfied. In Holy Communion, we are also physically fed and then more than satisfied spiritually. We receive grace, forgiveness, life, hope—all by faith, all by eating and drinking. Just like Jesus multiplied the pieces of bread and the flesh of the fish, He also multiplies His body and blood to give us their real benefits across time and space whenever we eat and drink in the sacramental mystery of the Lord’s Supper.
The early church connected all these things. There’s early Christian art that shows bread, wine, and fish in a basket as a symbol of worship and Communion. The word for “fish” in this story is “Ichthys,” which is the same as the “Ichthys Fish” the early Christians used as a symbol to identify other believers. What we call the “Jesus Fish”—that chrome fish Karen has on her SUV. In times of persecution, when a Christian met a stranger on the road, they would draw a curved line in the sand—if the person was a believer, they would draw the other half of the Ichthys symbol.
It says He “broke the loaves.” This is Jesus, Creator God. It reminds us of how God created the world. He separates. Splits. Breaks.
He split the light and the dark, day and night. Water and land. Sky and sea. He broke man and made woman.
It seems to me when God blesses something for His use, the first thing He always does is break it. When you take your plans to Him and ask Him to bless them—get ready. The first thing He’s going to do is break them. And that will be a good thing.
When you stand before God and ask Him to bless you—same thing. Get ready to be broken. When God holds you in His hands and breaks you, He is making you into the person you need to be. He’s making sure you’ll be able to do what He needs you to accomplish.
Jesus, the Bread of Life, was also broken for you on the cross. His body, which was broken for you, His blood that was shed for all your sin. His death gives you life. He rose again from the dead to show you the hope you have. These are great mysteries. There’s a lot going on here.
But they only had five loaves and two small fish. How could that be enough? But it was—if they gave it to Jesus and let Him bless it. Let Him break it. If they did what He told them.
I can’t really get a clear picture of how it happened. Jesus is breaking the bread and tearing up the fish—filling basket after basket after basket. There were always more pieces to break off, the bread and fish kept multiplying in His hands. The disciples keep coming back to Him over and over, and He’s always ready with more food. Had to take a while to feed that many people.
The young boy’s amazed that his lunch was going so far. The disciples are astonished that somehow it never ran out. The people were probably just laughing and having a good time. Didn’t really know where it came from. Free all-you-can-eat fish tacos at the Jesus food truck.
You know “Chuy’s” is a nickname for someone named “Jesus,” right? Like how we call someone named “Robert” “Bob.” I wonder if He miraculously multiplied some of that creamy jalapeno sauce, too?
After everyone had eaten their fill, they gathered up twelve baskets of to-go boxes. Imagine that—twelve hungry disciples and twelve heaping baskets of leftovers. That worked out pretty good, huh?
When I read these stories about Jesus, I try to step inside them, look at them from all the different perspectives. Look around inside the story. Try to be a little like Sherlock Holmes. What does it look like from Philip’s point of view? Andrew? The young boy? The crowd. How would they be feeling?
There’s one person in the group who seems like He’s going to go hungry. Jesus had been working all day, then He made lunch for about 15,000 people. He made sure His helpers were fed. But the only way Jesus was going to eat is if the disciples shared their food with Him. If each of them give about ten percent—looky there, Jesus has enough, too. Imagine that—a hidden lesson on tithing right there in the story.
A lot has been said about this very famous miracle. People have come up with all kinds of goofy ways to explain it away. I’ve heard people say the miracle wasn’t that Jesus magically multiplied the bread and fish, He just broke it into really tiny pieces and the only miracle was that everyone was satisfied with what they got. They try to make it a lesson in being content with what you have. Haha. 15,000 people get a crumb and some fish grease—oh, I’m stuffed, couldn’t take another bite! Explain the twelve baskets of leftovers then. No.
Of course, some people think it’s just a made-up story—a fable. We absolutely reject this kind of thinking. We believe God came to earth, the earth He created. That He did all sorts of miraculous things while He was here. That He continued to give His people power to do miraculous things after He went back to heaven.
“Then why don’t I see miracles?” “It’s impossible to spontaneously generate bread and fish to feed people.”
Yes. It is. That’s why it’s called a miracle. These are the kinds of things that don’t happen every day. Most people will never see something like this. Again—miracle! Karen!
This isn’t the only time Jesus did this. People started showing up for the food. Between the new Jesus & Disciples Healing Company healthcare plan and the free meal program, people did what people always do. They wanted more.
It was a sure-fire way to get popular with the masses—grow a big following. But it wasn’t the kind of following Jesus was ultimately looking for. We have to turn to the Gospel of John again to see how Jesus handled the freeloaders.
In John Chapter 6, verse 26, Jesus says, “You’re looking for me because you want me to give you more Wonder bread.” Or something like that. They defended themselves saying, Hey, Moses fed the children of Israel in the wilderness with manna. Be like Moses!” Jesus corrected them and said it was God who gave the manna, not Moses. And then He got real mysterious and said,
“For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” John 6:33
They were like, “Yessir! That’s what we want. More of that heavenly bread like you gave us yesterday!”
Jesus got deadly serious.
“I am the bread of life. The bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. So, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you will not have life in you. John 6:35
The people were like, “Say what?”
Jesus drops the mic, “How do you like me now?”
The disciples standing there scratching their heads. Trying to figure out how to do damage control. “Jesus, you’re driving people away. Those are pretty harsh words.”
Jesus explains to them, “Look, no one can come to me unless the Father draws them. Are you offended by what I said? Do you want to leave, too? Are you just here for a meal ticket?”
Peter’s the one who speaks up, “Lord, where would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We know that you’re the Holy One of God.”
Definitely thinned the herd that day. A lot of the crowd packed up and went home. You might say He took the crowd and broke it.
It’s not our job to do damage control for God. We’re not Jesus’ P.R. team. We get into a lot of different kinds of theological trouble when we start thinking we’re nicer than God—that He needs our help or else people might think He looks bad—might not believe. That’s not how it works. God is mysterious and beyond our comprehension. We’re not ever supposed to water Him down and try to make Him more presentable—we’re supposed to do the opposite—think about how awesome He is until we are sufficiently humbled and afraid. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But it’s only the beginning. True wisdom is then understanding that the raw, terrifying God who created the universe also stepped into it and became a man named Jesus. And then finding out Jesus offers His life so you don’t have to be afraid of God anymore.
He looks at you with compassion. He welcomes you. He’s not too busy for you. He knows how hungry you are so He gives you the bread of life. His body which is broken for you. Take. Eat. Share. There will always be enough.
I have 10 very practical takeaways from this week’s lesson.
If you want God to use you—to bless your plans—hold them in such a way that you’re prepared for Him to break them. To break you. Not to damage you but so you’ll go further than you ever dreamed was possible.
Whatever you have, if you place it in His hands, will be enough. Five loaves and two fish fed a bunch of people when it was put in the hands of Jesus. We’re a small church but we want a place of our own. We want to make a big impact. If we bring what we have to Jesus and ask Him to bless it, it’s going to be enough—even if it doesn’t seem like it.
When He blesses you, He does it so you can bless others. The disciples took the food and distributed it to the multitude. They shared what was given specifically to them with Jesus. I know we say it every week but we can never forget. You’ve been blessed to be a blessing.
Leaders who are following Jesus are servants. If you want to be first, you have to be last.
Servant leaders eat after everyone else. They get what’s left over after they take care of everyone else and give God His part. You will always have enough if you are generous.
There are mysteries in the kingdom of God—things we can’t explain. Multiplying bread and fish. Body and blood, bread and wine. You don’t have to understand it you just have to believe it.
Sometimes the truth will thin the herd. Don’t ever water down God’s Word to make it easy to swallow. Don’t beat them over the head with it either. They’ll come back when they get hungry again. Trust that God knows what He’s doing.
Just because you’re young or don’t have very much doesn’t mean you don’t have exactly what God requires to make something amazing happen.
Chuy is a nickname for Jesus.
After church today, I wanted us all to go to Jesus’ Mexican Restaurant on I-10, Chuy’s, and order the fish tacos—see if we could make them run out. Unfortunately, the Katy location doesn’t have fish tacos. So let’s go to Jimmy Changa’s instead. I’m serious. We don’t have to all sit together but let’s all go. If they ask why everyone’s ordering the same thing, tell them at church the message was about how Jesus fed more than 5,000 people with five fish tacos. Also, leave a really big tip. If you can’t leave a big tip, tell them you’re from that church down the street.
Break us so we can be the people You want us to be. We give You everything we have—little as it is—bless it so it can go further than we ever imagined. Our lives and our church are in Your hands. AMEN