Several weeks ago, we started a summer series called Adventures in the Gospels. What we have been doing is looking at some of Jesus’ miracles and Jesus’ teachings from the Gospel of Matthew. In my devotional reading a few weeks ago, I came across a very familiar story – one that I heard over and over again as a child – one that I have read over many times, and yet this time I saw it differently – there was some new light shed on the subject. For the next few moments, let’s look at Matthew 14:13-21. It is one of the accounts of Jesus feeding five thousand people.
13 As soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone. But the crowds heard where he was headed and followed on foot from many towns. 14 Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
15 That evening the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.”
16 But Jesus said, “That isn’t necessary—you feed them.”
17 “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish!” they answered.
18 “Bring them here,” he said. 19 Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples, who distributed it to the people. 20 They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers. 21 About 5,000 men were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children!
Verse 13 tells us that after Jesus heard the news…What news? The verses preceding the Feeding of the Five Thousand tell how John the Baptist met his death. Jesus and John the Baptist were cousins and so I’m sure that the news that John had been beheaded by Herod brought Jesus great sorrow. I don’t know about you, but when I am grieving, I want to be alone. It appears by now that Jesus has quite a following. The crowds seem to find Him wherever He goes. Jesus gets into a boat to be alone to grieve for his cousin and probably to pray. Somehow the crowds that have been following Jesus get word of where his is going and by the time Jesus reaches his destination the crowd is already gathered. Jesus steps off the boat (probably still overwhelmed with grief) looks at the crowd, and probably wonders what to do. Jesus has compassion on the crowd and begins to take care of their needs.
This speaks volumes about Jesus. Here Jesus is, His heart breaking from the news he received, yet instead of complaining – instead of saying woe is me – instead of making excuses – He feels compassion for the hurting and the lost and begins to heal them and to meet their needs. How often does this happen to us? We are so focused on ourselves that we completely ignore the hurting and lost around us? I ask that question not only of you, but of myself. Jesus is our great example and as Christians we need to follow His example.
How is that like us? It’s interesting to see that in this passage at least, that Jesus is taking care of needs and not preaching to the people. I’m sure He ministered to the people as he took care of their needs, but there is no mention of preaching. He had compassion on the crowds and healed them — that’s all we’re told. Maybe that’s what we need to do more often — to minister to people by having compassion on them and meeting their needs. It’s just a thought!
Here we have a grieving Jesus and how long does He minister to the crowds? He ministers to them all day, never stopping. In fact toward the end of the day, Jesus disciples come to Jesus and tell him to disperse the crowd so they can get something to eat. From what we can gather from this passage, they were in the middle of nowhere – there were no villages around – there were no country markets like we have – there were no convenience stores. Jesus tells his disciples, “It isn’t necessary to send the crowds away. You feed them.”
I can imagine the disciples’ reaction. “We have to feed them? Does Jesus know that there are over five thousand people here? Where are we going to get food for five thousand people? Apparently they scramble around and finally find five loaves and two fish. The boy is not mentioned in this account. The disciples go back to Jesus and tell them what resources they have. They were saying, “We don’t have enough resources.”
Jesus replies to them “Bring what you have to me.”
What happens next is amazing. Jesus blesses the resources that the disciples have and after all the people are fed (probably somewhere around 15,000 or more) there is a basket left for each of the disciples, twelve to be exact.
How often are we like that? We have the resources to meet people’s needs and we say, “All I have is five loaves and two fish.” We don’t want to give up what we have, because we don’t think it is sufficient to meet the needs. And yet as the disciples learned, God has already given us all the resources we need to take care and minister to those who are in need.
Over the last few weeks, I have discovered how rich we truly are. Working with The Salvation Army has been an eye opening experience. It is amazing to me that many people who are giving things are probably giving out of their abundance. It is amazing to me that our drop boxes can be filled up in just a couple of days and that happens week after week after week. We in America are a blessed people – we have abundant resources and we can give out of our abundance. We can meet the needs of people around us. Not only can we meet their physical needs, but we can meet their spiritual needs. I’m sure Jesus did that as he ministered to the crowd. Many times we don’t even realize that we have all the resources we need to take care of those who are needy. The disciples didn’t — and many times we don’t. It’s in those times that we need to be obedient in bringing the resources we do have to Jesus. That’s exactly what the disciples did. Jesus said, “Bring what you have to me.” The disciples did and a great miracle occurred. The disciples were obedient in bringing their resources to Jesus — are we just as obedient? What happens when we bring our meager resources that we don’t think amount to much to Jesus? Think about what happened here:
- The disciples came to Jesus to get him to send the crowds away so that they could get some food.
- Jesus tells the disciples, “No, don’t send them away. You feed them.”
- The disciples say, “We don’t have enough resources.”
- Jesus response, “Bring the resources you have to me.”
- The disciples are obedient to Jesus’ request and bring the five loaves and two fish to Jesus
- Jesus blessed the food that is given to him.
- The food that was given (which was all they had) was multiplied by God and 5,000 men were fed – this did not include women and children. Think how many were really fed. This was an incredible miracle.
- Not only was every man, woman, and child fed, but there was enough left that twelve baskets were left – so God multiplied the food so that instead of feeding one disciple, it fed the whole crowd and each disciple had enough for themselves.
The more I look at this story, the more challenging it is to me – and I pray that it is challenging to you as well. So how do we apply this to our lives?
Here is my challenge from all this is:
- Look around to the needy around you. Ask God to give you a heart of compassion for them and minister to them.
- You resources might not look like you could do anything to help them. Take them to Jesus — let Him take care of increasing the resources. I believe that if our heart is where God wants it, he will help us with our needs to minister to others needs.
- Pick up what is left — you will find that there is more than enough left for you.
