Why Did Jesus Give Thanks?

Simply, and without fanfare, Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish. The Lord did not create a vast amount of food all at once, but continually “broke the loaves and . . . kept giving them to the disciples to set before them; and . . . divided up the two fish among them all”(Mark 6:41).The astonished crowd seated on the grassy hillside that evening witnessed the Creator God at work.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke record that the Lord distributed the food to the crowd through the disciples. Jesus, of course, did not need to use them; He could just as easily have distributed the food to the crowd by supernatural means. God, however, often works through weak, fallible humans. He used Moses, who was “very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth” (Num. 12:3), to deliver His people from bondage in Egypt; He used Gideon, the youngest child in the least important family in Manasseh (Judg. 6:15),to deliver Israel from the Midianites; and He used David, an unknown shepherd boy, to kill the mighty warrior Goliath and deliver Israel from the Philistines.“God,” Paul reminded the proud, arrogant Corinthians, “has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong”(1 Cor. 1:27).

The Lord does nothing by half measures. Instead of the little taste of which Philip dubiously spoke (v. 7), everyone ate as much as they wanted, so that they were filled. . . .

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