Sending, Seeking, and Finding Food

Luke 9:1-17 

Sending Out the Twelve

1 Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. 2 He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 And He said to them, "Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece.

4 "Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. 5 And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them."

6 So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

Herod Seeks to See Jesus

7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Him; and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, 8 and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again. 9 Herod said, "John I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things?" So he sought to see Him.

Feeding the Five Thousand

10 And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done. Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. 11 But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing. 12 When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, "Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here."

13 But He said to them, "You give them something to eat."

And they said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people." 14 For there were about five thousand men.

Then He said to His disciples, "Make them sit down in groups of fifty." 15 And they did so, and made them all sit down.

16 Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. 17 So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.

Jesus sent the twelve disciples into the towns to heal body and soul through the preaching of the word of the gospel for the kingdom of God’s sake.  They took nothing with them that those who were willing to hear would feed and shelter them on their mission journey.  If some would not receive them in the name of the Lord and so reject Him, they were to shake off the dust of that town on the way out to show they had been sifted and found wanting.  As Luke 10:11 says, “The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.”  Nehemiah 5:13 uses similar language to visually demonstrate the rejection of the hearers and accountability to God’s word given them.  Just as the Pharisees did this when leaving an unclean Gentile area, so this was a solemn warning to those who rejected God’s message.  The twelve continued on spreading the gospel to those who had ears to hear and left this testimony against those refusing to listen and turn from their sin to Him.  While the disciples were sent, Herod was seeking to see Jesus after hearing of the wonderful things He had been doing.  Though the king did not grasp who Jesus was, imagining Him to be John the Baptist come back to life or Elijah who never died come back to earth or some other prophet, still he was drawn to meet and listen to Him.  He could not comprehend that the Son of God was walking among them as most others were unable to grasp either.  Those who did stop to listen were finding food from the words and acts of the divine Messiah whose identity they had not quite understood until after His death (Mark 15:39) and resurrection.  When the vast crowd of those seeking Him after hearing those sent with the gospel and by the reputation of His own words and works, they listened about the kingdom of God and heaven to find the spiritual nourishment while still needing needing to find food to eat for their bodies.  Jesus met that need as well in a miraculous manner which defies all rational explanations and expectations.  He blessed and broke five loaves of bread and two fish to feed five thousand people!  This was only possible because as the Creator of the world He could speak things into existence as in the beginning (Psalm 33:6, John 1:3, Colossians 1:16, Ephesians 3:9).  Just as He was able to take the dust of the earth from which man was made (Genesis 2:7) and use it to repair a blind man’s eyes (John 9:6) with His own saliva and divine power, so Jesus was able also to make the amount of bread and fish exponentially multiply until all five thousand found the food they were seeking from the Lord as they listened to His words of life (Philippians 2:16).  After all that, there was still enough left over for each of His twelve followers as well!  God always provides for the needy who listen and hear His voice (Jeremiah 15:16, Job 23:12).  This is Sending, Seeking, and Finding Food by those hungry for God’s words of life.