<p>14:20&nbsp;<em>And they all ate</em>- See the special section about the openness of Jesus.</p>
<p><em>And were filled-&nbsp;</em>Perhaps alluding to Dt. 8:10, &ldquo;you shall eat and be full&rdquo;.</p>
<p><em>And they collected what was left over- </em>Eph. 1:8 talks of how God has lavished or&nbsp;abounded&nbsp;His grace upon us. The same word is used about the Lord not only made miraculous loaves and fishes, but there was so much that&nbsp;abounded (&ldquo;what was left&rdquo;) that it filled twelve baskets. Why did the Lord do that, and why make the disciples pick up all those crumbs? Surely to give them an object lesson in how God delights in abounding to us. He didn&rsquo;t just give the people food; He abounded to them. The record of each of the feeding miracles, in each of the Gospels, uses this word translated &ldquo;remained&rdquo; in commenting about the fragments that were left over- although the real meaning is &lsquo;to abound&rsquo;. Each of the Gospel writers was therefore deeply impressed by the fact that the Lord not only provided food- but such an abundance. All this sets the background for Paul&rsquo;s use of the very same word to describe how God&rsquo;s grace has &ldquo;abounded&rdquo; to us in Christ (Rom. 3:7; 5:15; Eph. 1:8).</p>
<p><em>Of the broken pieces- </em>Why this feature in both the feeding miracles? In Mt. 16:9,10, the Lord asks the disciples to recall how many baskets they took up after each miracle- in order to help them to show faith in another time of need. The details of the Lord&rsquo;s past actions with us need to be remembered- because they are designed to fortify us in future tests of faith. We sense that all along, the Lord was working with the disciples (just as He does with us) according to a specific program, tailor made for them, designed to lead them from one spiritual level to another whilst re-enforcing the points learnt.</p>
<p><em>Twelve baskets</em>- A different word to that used in the feeding of the 4000 in Mt. 15:37. This here in 14:20 is the smaller basket, used for carrying ritually clean food when in Gentile areas.</p>