The Eucharist

In “The Feeding of the Five Thousands” we find Jesus followed by a large crowd (about five thousand) and wanting to feed them in what seems to be an ordinary meal. His disciples advise him to send the crowd off, but he insists on feeding them and is able to do so with five loaves and two fish.  Luke 9:16 says: “Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. In this cases, the elements were bread and fish and the actions taken in relation to this elements is that he “raise them” to heave, broke them and gave thanks. A theological purpose for this might have been to prelude Jesus words in the Last Supper (Mark 14:22-25; Matthew 26:26-29; Luke 22:14-20) and how whenever Jesus followed this kind of format, great things usually happened: in this case he multiplied the bread and fish and great quantities but in the Last Supper, he left his presence among humanity until the end of times.

 Now, the Last Supper was indeed a festive meal in comparison to the Feeding of the Five Thousand. It was the Passover meal, an important festivity for the Jews. For the three accounts of the Last Supper and for The Feeding of the Five Thousand we find the common typical structure of Jesus. He takes the elements, in this case the cup [of wine] and the bread and gave thanks. But we see in the Last Supper that he gives a greater emphasis on the his sacrifice, the need to repeat whatever he is doing in his memory, and his coming to the kingdom of God. Furthermore, in terms of the Appearance on the Road to Emmaus, we find that the two disciples invite the man whom they encountered in the road to dine and stay with them.  In this supper, a regular supper, this man took the bread and said the blessing and broke it and at that moment with, that similar structure of blessing we have seen throughout the three accounts and with the bread as the common element among them, the eye of the disciples were open and they were finally able to recognize him as Jesus.