NOTES for Mat 15:29-39

Why does the Lord, who so often repeats during miracles, 'Go and tell no one,' perform such an obvious miracle, one that will certainly become known to everyone, and do it again? To reveal the authority of the Son of God over creation, it would have been enough to feed five thousand with five loaves...

The question as posed is incorrect, and that matters. It is not at all evident that the Lord consciously planned this situation. The Greek verb in verse 29, unlike the Russian 'sat down,' conveys an unfinished action: 'having gone up the mountain, He was sitting there.' And crowds came to Him... One thing the Lord certainly could not do was refuse them healing and the word of life, so evening came unnoticed. He did not create the situation for a miracle on purpose, but since it had arisen, the miracle itself becomes the natural continuation of the abundant mercy of Christ.

It is also important for us that the evangelist repeats the story of the second feeding of a multitude. This gives us a chance to see essential similarities in the way the miracle is performed. Unlike the first time, the disciples no longer say skeptically that even two hundred conventional Roman monetary units would not buy enough bread for such a crowd; they ask the Teacher: where are we to get so much bread? And Christ takes what is there and gives thanks. This is the key word in the whole account of this miracle: thanksgiving to God. It is precisely this action that brings the miracle into the world and erases the boundary between earth and heaven.