Matthew 14:13-18 Complete Jewish Bible
13 On hearing about this, Yeshua left in a boat to be by himself in the wilderness. But the people learned of it and followed him from the towns by land. 14 So when he came ashore, he saw a huge crowd; and, filled with compassion for them, he healed those of them who were sick.
15 As evening approached, the talmidim came to him and said, “This is a remote place and it’s getting late. Send the crowds away, so that they can go and buy food for themselves in the villages.” 16 But Yeshua replied, “They don’t need to go away. Give them something to eat, yourselves!” 17 “All we have with us,” they said, “is five loaves of bread and two fish.” 18 He said, “Bring them here to me.”
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.
This story about Jesus feeding more than 5,000 people is usually told from the viewpoint of the disciples.
I see Jesus – this whole story revolves around his actions.
I see the twelve disciples.
I see the enormous expanse of curious people coming from all directions.
I sit here in my dining room writing this devotion, from a viewpoint focused squarely on what I know what Jesus is about to do – his healing of the sick and the disabled, his challenging his disciples to come up with a plan that will feed all those who have come right there in that moment – not sending them home.
I look at the wonderment coming from the confused minds of his 12 disciples at the enormous task that their Rabbi just handed over to them with that obvious expectation they will arrive at a workable doable solution and feed everyone.
I can see them scratching their collective heads, waving their collective arms all over the place, pushing, chattering and shouting and screaming at each other.
I can see Peter struggling to use some semblance of authority trying to gain some sense of control and give order – but the huge scope of the mission is not allowing for any fruitful results – and the longer that it goes on, the greater the chaos to fulfill their Rabbi’s command. From my 2024 eyes – I am bewildered.
I wonder what it was like to be those panicked disciples, a person in the crowd?
I would have loved to been that fly buzzing around from shoulder to shoulder trying to listen to their confused and chaotic efforts, a fly on Rabbi Jesus hands.
I can imagine walking around, or observe myself flying around surrounded by those thousands of people—men, women, children of all shapes, sizes, ages.
Everyone is trying to find their places to sit and keep their families together.
You would probably see oblivious young children rollicking, running around in play as their parents are desperately trying to corral them along the shoreline.
And seniors slowly shuffling to find a place close enough to Jesus so they could hear him speak.
It was probably an example of what people have called “organized chaos.” Even Jesus’ disciples didn’t know what to do with the hungry followers (vv. 15-17).
What was it like to observe the calm and measured face of Jesus in the midst of such a hectic scene? How did Jesus know he could actually feed all those hungry, exuberant newly healed people with just “five loaves of bread and two fish”?
Jesus always knew he could and would feed the healed, starving crowd because he was and is the compassionate Son of God, who not only provided the bread and fish but too created the earth, established everything in it, from the waters where the fish lived to the land which provided the grain used to bake bread.
Knowing the power of the Creator gave Jesus the opportunity to invite others to know him too. But in this moment, what was it that the twelve disciples knew of their Rabbi, could wrap their finite intellect around and the crowd of thousands, how much did they know, even care aside from the healings which stirred their “what is next” curiosity, did they come to expect a miracle or just full bellies?
What will happen to us if we are generous? We never run out of things to give be it money, goods, intellect or anything that we are generous of giving. Everything flows back in return a hundredfold. Why is this so? The reason behind is, the moment we give; we don’t only give to the person who needs it we also give to Jesus. And Jesus whom we can never outdo in generosity gives back to us many times over what we give Him.
The crowd in the gospel who were following Jesus had nothing more left in them, they were hungry. And Jesus saw this that’s why He graciously did the miracle of loaves and fish. With five loaves and two fish He feed the nearly five thousand people not including women and children. After all of them had eaten from this miraculous abundance, they had an excess of twelve wicker baskets.
The simple message of the gospel for us from this text is we must be generous and thankful at all times. This is for the reason that God will never run out of anything to give and the more that he give the more that we would give also. God has no limits or boundaries on what He will provide, responding to us all.
As we witness Jesus being compassionate, merciful and generous to the utmost especially to the poor so we must be also make our own sacrifice of self. Let us not worry if our pockets will hurt from our being merciful and generous. For Jesus will always see to it we’ll be filled, motivated with anything that we need, observe with compassionate eyes, act with healing hands, not minding chaos.
Having observed the twelve, the crowds, what are our 224 collective responses?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 23 King James Version
23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
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). 