Starting At the Beginning
Some bible scholars begin their reflection of Jesus feeding the four thousand by observing, comparing, and contrasting a prior event where Jesus fed 5000. There is merit to such a comparison but, if so limited, it misses a great human story.
I would suggest that this second feeding story begins three chapters earlier where Mark documents the healing of the Gerasene demoniac.
There, a man possessed by a ‘legion’ of demons could not be physically restrained even by a chain. A legion at the time of Julius Caesar was composed of 3,600 heavy infantry, supported by cavalry and light infantry consisting of a total of 5000 to 6000 men.
The demons thereby confess both the strength of its possession of the poor man, as well as the futility of anyone seeking to defeat such a legion, to set the possessed man free.
Yet, Jesus having crossed the Sea of Galilee to the pagan side, impressively casts out a Legion of Demons into a large herd of swine that then go off a nearby cliff and drown in the Sea. To this day, the place is still marked and remembered as Kursi. I have pondered this gospel event many times at that site.
Jesus Turns Away a Request to Follow Him
Mark documents that the man delivered from this demonic Legion then pleaded with Jesus to be permitted to follow Him. Instead, Jesus directed the man to “go home” and proclaim to the people what the Lord has done and “… the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis, what Jesus had done for him, and all were amazed.” The man had been sent by Jesus to evangelize others in his own community. (Mk 5:17-20).
The delivered man, full of faith, so proclaims the miracle of Jesus that when Jesus returns a year later, the man delivers four thousand to greet his Messiah.
Jesus, accordingly, feeds the 4000 – in testimony that He is also the Lord and Messiah of those pagans who would come to believe in His name. The Eucharistic banquet that is pre-figured by this event would feed all of the peoples, Jewish and Gentile alike.
Parenthetically, so significant and enduring was the conversion in that region that three hundred years later, it is understood that a bishop from the same Hellenistic area attended the Council of Nicaea and subscribed his name to the Creed.
The Sacramental Sign of the Feeding
A sacrament is a sense perceptible sign, that effects what it signifies.
Jesus himself explains the effect of the sign and the significance of feeding the multitudes the two separate times. (See Mk 8:18-21).
The feeding of the five thousand, with 12 baskets left over, clearly points to the restoration of the 12 tribes of Israel and that the Messiah’s provisions are in the order of a superabundance for all who come to be fed by Him.
Likewise, the feeding of the four thousand with seven baskets left over, equally points to the seven pagan peoples who were dispossessed from the Promised Land, when God delivered the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt. (Joshua 3:10).
Jesus, the Bread of Life, still feeds us today and all continue to be welcome at His table.
