Luke 9:13

But he said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they said unto him, We have no more than five loaves and two fishes; except we should go and buy food for all this people. For there were about five thousand men. And he said unto his disciples, Make them sit down in companies, about fifty each. And they did so, and made them all sit down. And he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake; and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude. And they ate, and were all filled; and there was taken up that which remained over to them of broken pieces, twelve baskets.

Attempts to rationalize this miracle are futile. Four sacred evangelists have provided the historical records of an astounding wonder, and one that is rich with spiritual overtones. The power and Godhead of Jesus are dramatically affirmed by this event. That it actually happened is proved by the response of the multitude who wanted to make Jesus king (John's account) in a purely secular sense, of course, and with the evident purpose of using the Lord to supply an army of insurrection against Rome. That the multitude believed Jesus could have done such a thing could have resulted only from what they had seen him do, as related here. The wealth of detail, such as the reclining of the throng in companies of fifty, the pitifully small source of five loaves and two little fishes, and the twelve baskets of crumbs gathered up after the feast, the Lord's giving thanks, and the hard-heartedness of the Twelve, whose sympathies were in tune with the wishes of the crowd, and the Lord's sending them on ahead, despite threatening weather - there is no way to explain all this, except on the basis that it all actually happened, exactly as recorded in the New Testament. With the great passover throng which made up the multitude, and with the miracle having been wrought outdoors, and far from any inhabited place, there was simply no way that a thing like this could have been faked. Five thousand men, besides the women and children, had eaten all they wished, all the bounty coming out of that little lad's basket, passing through the hands of Jesus, and from him to the apostles and the multitudes. Time can never diminish the impact of such a sign; and it is no wonder that the apostle John made it one of only seven signs that he recorded, nor that everyone of the Gospel writers included it.