Day 3 – The bread

“They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers. About 5,000 men were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children!” Matthew 14:20-21 NLT

Feeding the multitude of 5000 (plus the women and children) is a devotional all on its own. I get frazzled when I invite four extra guests to join our dinner table, let alone 5000! But I want to draw your attention to the bread.

Jesus looked to Heaven (our Father) and blessed the meal. He started to break the bread and in Jewish culture, breaking bread with someone is symbolic of showing you like and trust that person, allowing them into your inner circle. The blessed bread symbolises the Word (our daily bread) and through Jesus’s hospitality from a cultural perspective, shows that He invites everyone to sit at His table. The apostles gathered the abundance of this meal in 12 baskets: one for each apostle.

I often find myself pondering the little things, and recently, I’ve been wondering about what happened to the leftover bread after Jesus performed the miracle of feeding the multitude. Considering that Jesus wouldn’t waste anything, and they were far from any charitable sources, I think it’s logical to assume that each apostle took a basket of leftovers with them on the boat. This speaks to the idea that on our spiritual journeys, we will not be sent out empty-handed. Instead, we will be equipped with our own basket of abundant bread, representing an abundance of God’s Word, already blessed with an invitation to come and sit at Jesus’ table.

Prayer: Father, I thank You for my basket and I thank You for the daily bread You equip me with to go to where You send me. Thank You Jesus that the invitation to come to You is for every person and the bread is already blessed to share with who we meet. Please give us the courage to share it boldly for Your Kingdom. Amen.