Big Idea: The message of the feeding miracle is simple: God will provide. This is the primary miracle in which Jesus involved his disciples, and the question is whether they will put their trust in the God who provides for them in every situation.

Understanding the Text

Many think of this passage as another round of miracles by the lake. It is far more than that. Here Jesus’s authority is seen in its effect on discipleship. The primary group involved is not the crowds or the leaders but the disciples. This is part of a larger section in 6:31–8:21 contrasting failure with faith. The central core is the two healing miracles, the five thousand (6:31–44) and the four thousand (8:1–10), followed by the inadequacies of both the leaders and Jesus’s own disciples. The theological development for…