Matthew 14:20

And they, all ate, and were filled: and they took up that which remained over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.

How Jesus did this wonderful thing is not revealed. Certainly, the modernist view must be rejected, which holds that Christ took the example of the little lad who had the loaves and fishes and shamed everybody into sharing his lunch with others, thus providing a banquet out of what they already had! Such a view denies the record. Christ in this wonder manifested his creative power as he did at the miracle of Cana in Galilee, where he changed the water into wine. It was another link in the evidence that made Jesus "that Prophet" like unto Moses who fed the people with bread from heaven. Indeed, this was precisely the deduction which that audience drew from those remarkable events (John 6:14).

Saving the fragments and gathering them into baskets suggests a number of things. The superabundance of Jesus' power is noted in the fact that they had twelve times as much left over as they had at the start. Also, since there was a popular superstition to the effect that demons lurked in crumbs, Christ flaunted it by saving the crumbs. Another thing concerns the ownership of the twelve baskets of fragments. Trench and other commentators pointed out that there was one basketful for each of the Twelve; however, by any fair reckoning, their was a prior claimant on at least one of those baskets, and that was the lad who had provided the original! It seems only fair to conclude that he was the only legitimate owner of all that was left, baskets and all. This is a parable to the effect that no man ever gave anything to Christ but that he got it back, compounded and multiplied.