During close fellowship with Jesus, one can never say with certainty where events are unfolding: in the world not yet transfigured, or in the Kingdom. So it is in the account of feeding the multitude who listen to Him with five loaves and two fish. The laws of the untransfigured world do not, of course, allow such a thing. But on the other hand...
During close fellowship with Jesus, one can never say with certainty where events are unfolding: in the world not yet transfigured, or in the Kingdom. So it is in the account of feeding the multitude who listen to Him with five loaves and two fish. The laws of the untransfigured world do not, of course, allow such a thing. But on the other hand, those before us are still ordinary people who, for now, are only listening to Jesus, and it is not yet known which of them will be ready to follow Him.
How, then, did they find themselves in the Kingdom? The only answer to this question is probably the mention of the breaking of bread performed by the Savior. The breaking of bread is an ancient Jewish rite whose roots go back at least to the age of the captivity, and perhaps to still earlier times. This rite was evidently always domestic, originally a family rite and later, after the emergence of religious brotherhoods, both a family and a fraternal rite. At all times it was regarded as a continuation of the Temple sacrifice, as its domestic dimension complementing the communal dimension. The original meaning of every sacrifice, even a pagan one, let alone a Yahwistic sacrifice, came down to communion with God: everyone always regarded the sacrifice as a shared meal of God—or, among pagans, of the gods—and human beings. The faithful prepared the meal and invited God to the table so that He Himself might sanctify it and bless those assembled. So it was at gatherings in the Temple, and so it was at gatherings in the home. Now the One who brought the fullness of the Kingdom into the world performs the breaking of bread.
It is not surprising that everyone who takes part becomes, at least for the duration of the gathering, an inhabitant of the Kingdom. With Christ, God's presence is revealed in all possible fullness, and the Kingdom becomes the most certain reality. Such participation is of course only the first step, only the beginning of the journey. Yet this experience is very important, because it enables everyone who has lived through it to understand what the Kingdom is not in words but in reality, and to make a decision based not on other people's stories but on personal experience.
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13:25 His course - His work was quickly finished, and might therefore well be termed a course or race. Luk 3:16.
13:27 For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers - He here anticipates a strong objection, "Why did not they at Jerusalem, and especially their rulers, believe?" They know not him, because they understood not those very prophets whom they read or heard continually. Their very condemning him, innocent as he was, proves that they understood not the prophecies concerning him.
13:29 They fulfilled all things that were written of him - So far could they go, but no farther.
13:31 He was seen many days by them who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem - This last journey both presupposes all the rest, and was the most important of all.