Matthew 15:35 — Community Reflections

MATTHEW 15:35 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.”

And directing the crowd to sit down on the ground. Jesus commands the crowd to sit on the ground — the same sitting on the ground as the five-thousand feeding (though that crowd sat on the grass). The command communicates the order and intentionality of the feeding: this is not an unstructured distribution but an organized meal.

Church Fathers on Matthew 15:35

Christ first took away the infirmities of the sick, and afterwards supplied food to them that had been healed. Also He calls His disciples to tell them what He is about to do; 'Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude.' This He does that He may give an example to masters of sharing their counsels with the young, and their disciples; or, that by this dialogue they might come to understand the greatness of the miracle.
Jerome · 4th century

For the multitude when they came to be healed, had not dared to ask for food, but He that loveth man, and hath care of all creatures, gives it to them unasked; whence He says, 'I have compassion upon the multitude.'
Chrysostom · 4th century · Hom., iii

In this Gospel lection we must consider in Christ the work of His humanity, and of His divinity. In that He has compassion on the multitudes, He shews that He has feeling of human frailty; in the multiplication of the loaves, and the feeding the multitudes, is shewn the working of His divinity. So here is overthrown the error of Eutyches [margin note: vid. sup. p. 16], who said, that in Christ was one nature only.
Remigius · 9th century

Read all 15 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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