“And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over.” – Matthew 15:37
Jesus miraculously feeding a crowd is such a familiar story that most people forget Jesus did it twice. Why feed a second crowd? The answer can be found a few verses earlier, when Jesus healed many people and the crowd praised, “the God of Israel”. That isn’t how the people of Israel refer to God. That’s how Gentiles (non-Jews) refer to God.
In this section of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus went into a Gentile region and performed all the same Kingdom activities He’d done in Israel. He healed, taught, preached, and cast out demons. He also miraculously fed a crowd in the middle of nowhere. The significance of this repetition is profound. By His actions, Jesus makes clear that His Kingdom and its life, hope, and healing is open to all peoples. Jesus isn’t just a Messiah for Jewish people, He’s the world’s Messiah!
When Moses led a group of Israelites into the desert and God miraculously provided bread, that was an experience just for them. However, when Jesus led crowds into the desert and miraculously provided bread that was for all the nations of the world. We’re included in God’s glorious, eternal plan of salvation. By grace, through faith in Jesus, there’s a place in God’s family for people from every tribe, language, and ethnic group. Praise God for this!!!
We get one final hint of this in the story’s conclusion. When Jesus fed the Jewish crowd, there were 12 baskets of bread left over, symbolic of the 12 tribes of Israel. When Jesus fed Gentiles, there were 7 “large baskets” of leftovers. In the Bible, 7 is the number of completion. The number of baskets of leftovers emphasizes the universality and completeness of God’s kingdom. Everyone’s invited and welcomed. If you’re reading this, hopefully, you’ve already accepted God’s gracious invitation into His Kingdom by believing in Jesus Christ. If you haven’t, what holds you back from believing and being welcomed into the Kingdom of God? If you have, who do you know and love that needs to be invited in? Who needs to hear about Jesus and invited to #FollowJesus?