Jesus has been in Gentile territory—where he even healed a Canaanite girl. Now, he’s come back to the area around the Sea of Galilee. Since both Jewish and Gentile settlements ringed the lake, we don’t know whose territory he’s in at this point. But, either way, he goes right on with the ministry of healing that Matthew has been emphasizing over and over again (e.g., 14:34-36).
So this could be a mixed crowd?
Very likely, given his growing fame and the mixed population of the area. And I notice how they praise not just “God”—the term Jews would use—but “the God of Israel.” It reminds me of the way the Canaanite woman of the preceding story laid claim to Jesus’ attention by calling him by the title “Son of David” despite her being not just a run-of-the-mill Gentile, but a Canaanite.
And Jesus feeds this crowd, too. This seems a bit repetitious—right down to the helplessness of the disciples, who don’t seem to have learned anything from the previous feeding in 14:13-21.
Yes, it seems odd to me, too, particularly when you think how little enthusiasm Matthew—as compared with Mark and Luke—has for story-telling. Luke, always attentive to keeping his narrative flowing, omits the second feeding miracle. Mark, however, keeps it and uses it, much like Matthew, as having a teaching purpose that goes beyond simply telling miracle stories.
I notice that this time Jesus waits three whole days before deciding the feed the crowd (vs. 32). Apparently people did bring food along with them when they went out into the countryside to see Jesus.
Yes, I don’t doubt that all those unnumbered women were the practical ones who deserve the credit.
But the disciples are as perplexed as they were before.
Right. They actually have slightly more food with them than they did in chapter 14, but it’s still hopelessly inadequate to the need. The disciples, like the rest of us, have ongoing trouble in maintaining trust and hope. Impressed as they are with Jesus and devoted as they are to following him and learning from him, they still think of him—even after the episode of walking on water—as just another teacher. Nothing fundamental has changed in their picture of the world yet; they just expect to learn from him a better interpretation of what they already know.
Is that why the results, this time around, are a little disappointing?
I think maybe so. It’s very unusual that we’re given such precise statistics, isn’t it? We don’t get that in other miracle stories—only with the feedings.
And the statistics aren’t particularly good.
Exactly. There was more bread, but fewer people got fed. And the leftovers, though still abundant, filled fewer baskets. Mark seems to see a kind of decline in Jesus’ miracle working here, but I don’t find that in Matthew—at least not in any clear way.
In any case, Jesus once again moves to a different part of the area. We don’t know where “Magadan” was. But it’s probably Jewish territory, since he encounters a group of Pharisees and Sadducees there.
Right back to controversy, isn’t it? But these Sadducees are new, aren’t they?
Not entirely. Back in 3:7, they came to check up on John the Baptist, and he gave them a tongue-lashing. At this point in Matthew, their arrival represents yet another level of escalation in official reaction to Jesus. At first, the conflict was primarily left up to the local Galilean scribes and Pharisees. In 14:1, the Galilean prince, Herod Antipas, took hostile notice of Jesus. In 15:1, we met a delegation of Pharisees from Jerusalem. And now we have some Pharisees back along with a group of Sadducees.
These Sadducees have probably come from Jerusalem, too. Like the Pharisees, they were prominent interpreters of Jewish faith in their time. But the Pharisees were widespread throughout the Jewish populace, while the Sadducees had a close association with the Temple in Jerusalem. They were drawn, in fact, mostly from the priestly families. After the Temple’s destruction in A.D. 69, they disappear from the historical record; but they were very powerful in Jesus’ time.
So the Pharisees and Sadducees are ganging up on Jesus?
Yes. They were often antagonistic to one another, but they both had a basic investment in the status quo and were suspicious about free-lance preachers who might be preaching doctrines or practices they rejected. Some of these free-lance religious teachers might even be preaching insurrection against the Romans, which risked the destruction of the whole community. In 3:7, Matthew told us that Pharisees and Sadducees came to John the Baptist to be baptized by him—but John’s caustic response to them suggests that he saw them as coming rather to investigate him.
Like an earlier delegation of local scribes and Pharisees (12:38), this new set of visitors ask Jesus to show them a sign. Since his teachings go beyond the familiar boundaries of interpreting Torah, they figure he had better have some very impressive credentials before they will take them seriously—credentials they doubt he can provide. Matthew says that their purpose was to “test” him. Jesus’ response is that they can’t even interpret the “signs of the times”—what he’s been doing in plain sight of everyone all along. He certainly isn’t going to offer them anything more. Instead, he sends them off as rudely as he did the previous questioners: “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign.”
Then back into the boat again, perhaps headed for Gentile territory, since the next location to be named, Caesarea Philippi, was Gentile.
And then this very perplexing passage about yeast. I can understand why the disciples are confused.
Yes, after two miracles with bread, they’ve at least learned to pay closer attention to their supplies. Maybe they think Jesus is telling them not to buy from Pharisee or Sadducee bakers. Sometimes the different Jewish groups didn’t trust each other’s handling of food. But there’s no reason to think that either group did much retail. And Jesus isn’t particularly worried about bread anyway. What he’s offering them is a parable.
Bread was the principal food of the ancient Mediterranean—rather like rice in south China. Everything else was, essentially, just the things you ate with bread. So bread was the staff of life. And leavened bread was the preferred form except during Passover. And yeast is what gives a loaf of leavened bread much of its consistency and flavor.
The delegation of Pharisees and Sadducees has come to see whether Jesus can convince them that what he was doing was of God. He refused even to try. Their “yeast,” Jesus is saying, wasn’t a way of giving life to bread—and the people who would eat it—but a way of killing all growth and change.
The “yeast” of the Pharisees and Sadducees isn’t Judaism as such. Jesus is as Jewish as they are. It is rather their desire to impose their own fixed interpretations of the religion—and, at the same time, to protect their social standing as trusted guides by preventing other interpreters from challenging them. This kind of “yeast” can show up in the context of any religion and has certainly appeared over and over again in Christianity. Jesus knows the disciples will be in grave danger of “buying into it,” of adopting this yeast as their own. And he is warning them in advance about the danger.
Next up: PETER GETS IT RIGHT—AND WRONG (16:13-28)