Conversation Points for Matthew 14:13-21

Study Format:
1. Read passage aloud. What did you notice in the reading? What words or phrase caught your attention?
2. Read passage aloud a second time. What questions would you ask the text?
3. Read passage aloud a third time. What do you hear God calling you to do or be in response to this text?

Interesting Ideas to Consider:
• Chapter fourteen begins with the beheading of John the Baptist at a banquet given by King Herod. The feeding of the five thousand contrasts Herod’s meal with the meal provided by King Jesus. The story opens with Jesus “withdrawing” to across the lake, marking Jesus as in a place out of the control of Herod. This is notable in demonstrating how Jesus responds to conflict; the nature of Jesus’ kingship is withdrawal. It also demonstrates Matthew’s lack of concern for chronological details. The last place Jesus was mentioned as being was landlocked Nazareth, so his departure “on a boat” doesn’t really make sense.
• The story of Jesus feeding a large crowd (which appears six times throughout the New Testament, once in each of the Gospels and twice in Mark and Matthew) draws on several scriptural images:
o It takes place in the “wilderness” drawing on the movement of the people of Israel from slavery to freedom – the word “wilderness” occurs 92 times in Exodus-Deuteronomy. Matthew called it a “deserted place” (v. 13).
o Disciples, like the Israelites, doubt that food can be provided (Exodus 16:2-3; Matt 14:17)
o Elisha giving food to one-hundred men from only one bushel (2 Kings 4:42-44)
o Jesus giving of his own body at the Last Supper (Matt 26:20-29)
o The messianic banquet at the end of the age, where there is not just bread and wine, but also fish.
• With the move across the lake in v. 13, the story is now set on the east shore of the sea, Gentile territory. But the crowd is from the Western, Jewish side. Jesus’ movement causes the audience to see a meal served to Jews eaten among Gentiles, a challenging of established purity codes.
• The abundance of leftovers stresses the expansive nature of the meal, a reference to the banquet feast at the end of the age. It also sets this meal apart for the manna in the exodus story that could not be saved. The extravagance is also in Matthew’s reference of “five thousand men, besides women and children” (v. 20). The specification isn’t to exclude women and children, but to leave the number of people open-ended.

Works Sourced:
Boring, M. Eugene. “The Gospel of Matthew.” The New Interpreter’s Bible Volume VIII. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.