Matthew 14:13-21 GOD’S WORD Translation
Jesus Feeds More Than Five Thousand
13 When Jesus heard about John, he left in a boat and went to a place where he could be alone. The crowds heard about this and followed him on foot from the cities. 14 When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw a large crowd. He felt sorry for them and cured their sick people.
15 In the evening the disciples came to him. They said, “No one lives around here, and it’s already late. Send the crowds to the villages to buy food for themselves.”
16 Jesus said to them, “They don’t need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
17 They told him, “All we have here are five loaves of bread and two fish.”
18 Jesus said, “Bring them to me.”
19 Then he ordered the people to sit down on the grass. After he took the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed the food. He broke the loaves apart, gave them to the disciples, and they gave them to the people. 20 All of them ate as much as they wanted. When they picked up the leftover pieces, they filled twelve baskets.
21 About five thousand men had eaten. (This number does not include the women and children who had eaten.)
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
While walking near a reservoir one day, our family discovered a camouflaged nest of eggs that a killdeer, a small shorebird, had laid in the ground.
It was breathtakingly beautiful, but it was also unprotected and exposed, out in the open, among the rocks where a hungry predator might soon happen upon it.
Among many Hebrew Testament guidelines for holy living, some instructions within Deuteronomy told God’s people what to do if they found such a nest.
Deuteronomy 22:6-7 GOD’S WORD Translation
6 Whenever you’re traveling and find a nest containing chicks or eggs, this is what you must do. If the mother bird is sitting on the nest, never take her with the chicks. 7 You may take the chicks, but make sure you let the mother go. Then things will go well for you, and you will live for a long time.
At that time it was considered okay to take the eggs or the young hatchlings, but it was never acceptable for them to ever harm the mother bird that laid them.
That was a simple principle of conservation: if the eggs are taken, the bird can lay more eggs, but if the mother bird is destroyed, she can’t produce any more.
In times of great hunger and famine, it might have been tempting to take both the mother bird and the eggs, but the prevailing wisdom cautioned all people to use great restraint, to protect future generations, even if they were desperate.
These biblical instructions are not only about conservation of nature, though.
We can care for the vulnerable living among us as we can trust that if God cares for the tiniest birds, He cares far more about us, whom He made in his image.
Jesus made this crystal clear when he said to his followers, “Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:31).
He was explaining God’s care for them when they were threatened by enemies.
Similarly, God cares for us, body and soul, when we feel exposed and in danger.
Jesus’ Great Compassion: Approaching the Vulnerable
Matthew 14:13-14 Revised Standard Version
Feeding the Five Thousand
13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a lonely place apart. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 As he went ashore he saw a great throng; and he had compassion on them, and healed their sick.
One of the most remarkable qualities of Jesus in his earthly ministry was his sense of compassion.
He could see, feel, and identify with the desperation of people in need, and then he acted on that compassion in a way that personally involved himself.
Not only do I admire his compassion, but I also desire to make it part of my life.
Unfortunately, I have to battle my selfishness on one hand and my indiscipline on the other to say “no” to my tendency to just ignore the needs around me.
In this powerful situation, Jesus is now grieving the sudden and brutal loss of his own cousin John the Baptist and is also fully aware that John’s execution signals that he, too, will soon face arrest, humiliation and a brutal execution.
Yet rather than running away, ignoring the needs of the crowd, he ministers unto them, to his disciples as well, as the remainder of the 14th chapter shows.
While we know from the Word of God that Jesus took time away from the crowd to be alone with his Father and that soon Jesus will spend much of the rest of his ministry away from the crowd teaching his disciples, he will approach, interface repeatedly with the gathering crowds to offer compassion and share God’s love.
Sometimes from under the heavy stresses of living, there is no greater comfort than to be used by God to minister to others — not for our good, but for theirs!
When Jesus heard what had happened, He withdrew.
Have we ever gotten really difficult news and just needed a minute alone?
Jesus was told by his closest friends his cousin John the Baptist had been killed.
This was a rough day in the life of Christ.
His family member, friend, his baptizer, and front runner had been beheaded in King Herod’s prison for speaking the Word of God to authority, for his ministry.
Although this did not come as a surprise to Jesus, He knew this day would come.
What we read and study here in Matthew’s narrative account reveals to us all a whole lot about Christ’s vulnerable heart and His perfect deity and humanity.
We see such authentic vulnerable humanity in Jesus mourning his cousin.
He took careful stock of the moment, he stopped what he was doing and began to go take his vulnerability to a place of solitude to grieve this sudden loss.
As he got onto a boat, he landed at the shoreline, only to find a large crowd.
What would the King of Heaven do? He just lost a loved one, but the people in front of Him needed Him greatly – and this is where we see His perfect deity.
He had compassion on them and healed their sick.
Right then, when Jesus saw the crowd, it says that He had compassion on them.
In this vulnerable moment of needing great compassion and comfort Himself, we see Jesus approach others more vulnerable to have compassion upon others.
This is not humanly normal, this is not a natural response.
He could have easily claimed exhaustion, turned his boat around in a different direction, or ignored them, take time to care for his own obvious needs, but no, we see a very vulnerable Jesus have compassion on all them and heal their sick.
“They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
The disciples came to Jesus in the evening and do the compassionate thing, they tried to get Him to get away from all the overwhelming needs of hungry people.
They told Him that it was getting late.
They told Him to send the crowds away so that they could buy food.
Perhaps they had genuine worry and concern for the needs of Jesus and wanted Him to have the time and the space he needed to go away and weep and grieve?
Maybe they themselves were wanting a break?
They could have also just been selfishly tired and wanting some alone time.
Whatever their reasoning, however sound and logical it was, it was not good enough for Christ to overlook the need of the five thousand plus people to eat.
Jesus responded that the people did not need to go away, that the disciples each needed to give them something to eat.
Jesus refines us in this way as well.
There are always times when it would be much easier to ignore the needs of others in front of us, but He calls upon us to act and to show His love to them.
Following this comment, Jesus asked His disciples what they had to offer.
There were five loaves of bread and two fish.
From his place of vulnerability, Jesus directed the people to where to sit, blessed the food and miraculously there was enough to feed everyone there including 12 baskets left over for each of the disciples to take into the surrounding villages. (Matthew 14:17-21)
Following Jesus is not always without risks, convenient, comfortable, or always easy, but there is always great reward and provision when we say, “yes” to Him.
Intersecting our Vulnerabilities with others’ Vulnerabilities in Faith and Life:
In this moment, considering our own vulnerabilities, how do we feel comforted knowing a vulnerable Jesus had such a vulnerable heart for John the Baptist?
What speaks to us personally about how a vulnerable Jesus had compassion on the hungry vulnerable crowd in the midst of His own mounting personal grief?
How do we see and grow and mature from witnessing Christ’s invulnerable perfect deity, in the way He pressed into the need of the 5000 over His own?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 84 The Message
84 1-2 What a beautiful home, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
I’ve always longed to live in a place like this,
Always dreamed of a room in your house,
where I could sing for joy to God-alive!
3-4 Birds find nooks and crannies in your house,
sparrows and swallows make nests there.
They lay their eggs and raise their young,
singing their songs in the place where we worship.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies! King! God!
How blessed they are to live and sing there!
5-7 And how blessed all those in whom you live,
whose lives become roads you travel;
They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks,
discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!
God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and
at the last turn—Zion! God in full view!
8-9 God-of-the-Angel-Armies, listen:
O God of Jacob, open your ears—I’m praying!
Look at our shields, glistening in the sun,
our faces, shining with your gracious anointing.
10-12 One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship,
beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches.
I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God
than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin.
All sunshine and sovereign is God,
generous in gifts and glory.
He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions.
It’s smooth sailing all the way with God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
God Almighty and sacrificial Father, teach me to not be so self-focused and self-absorbed. Thank you for Jesus’ example of active compassion as he not only feels the pain of others, but also acts to relieve it. Please use me to minister to those around me in pain and to do it in a way which brings glory to you and reflects the face of my Savior and your Son. In his name, Jesus my Lord, I pray. Thank you for protecting us when we are weak. Help us also to protect those that are vulnerable. Alleluia, Amen.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 