So last week we finished chapter 13 and started into chapter 14. We got to see some hard moments in Jesus’ life as He was rejected by His own town’s people, by His family, and then His cousin John the Baptist was killed in a horrible way. We also took the opportunity to consider these things in light of a lot of the “Christian” messaging that is out there. A lot of this messaging that is out there never deals with the hard parts of things, that life might be hard, that we will go through trials, that Jesus and His followers actually went through these things as well. A lot of people just paint this picture that Jesus will just make it all sunny days and rainbows, that He will make you rich, that He will take care of all of your problems if you just believe hard enough.
But the reality is, that that is not what the Bible has to say about things. And what happens when people teach these wrong things is that people end up building their lives on the wrong foundations. They build their lives on misunderstandings or flat out lies. Many people are teaching these other messages simply because its what people want to hear, it’s an easier message to teach, it’s ultimately a message that more people might follow, and more people, might end up making these false teachers more money at the end of the day. That’s the logical progression of these things, and that’s why the Bible warns us that these exact things would be happening. We looked at that last week.
But as we talked about, that doesn’t mean that life with Jesus isn’t amazing, but we need to have our expectations rooted in the truth. If you know the truth, if you know what to expect, then when trouble gets here, we can be prepared to abide, to stay, to stand, with Jesus, knowing that He can carry us through. whatever the storm, or the difficult time in life might be. If we lie and say that everything is supposed to be easy and work out just fine, then when the storm, or the difficult time gets here, we’ll be caught off guard, we won’t be prepared, and we’re much more likely to stumble, to fall, or to be destroyed by the storm.
The storms and trials of life happen to everyone. Even to Jesus. And as we get into our passage this morning, we’re picking up right as the next storm front, which is some really bad news, makes it to Jesus. Let’s take a look at this.
Read Matthew 14:13-21
You know I have never taught through the book of Matthew before. I’ve heard it taught through several times, I’ve read these passages many times, but it wasn’t until I was going through this passage, this week, that I began to see this passage in a different light than I ever have before. This is one of those Bible stories that I remember clearly, even with my terrible memory, all the way back to Sunday School as a kid. Like I said, I’ve have run into this passage many, many times, but even with being so familiar with it, I don’t know if I have ever really seen the full context of the situation here.
I think we generally run into these verses, and we lock right into the miracle that happens here, and for good reason, it’s amazing and we’ll talk about it, but what is the context of this passage?
And context means, like what is the situation here or what’s going on around what’s happening here?
And so, when we think about the context of the situation, we realize that this is now happening immediately in the wake of everything that we talked about last week. Jesus was just rejected by family and by the people of His hometown and then we heard about Jesus’ cousin John being killed last week, but it’s not until the start of this passage today that the news of John’s death actually makes it to Jesus. Let me read the beginning of verse 13 again.
Read Matthew 14:13a
When Jesus heard it. When Jesus heard about John’s murder. This is the John who even in the womb recognized Jesus’ presence and jumped for joy. This is the John who was prophesied to prepare the way for Jesus. This is the John who had the incredible opportunity to baptize Jesus right as He began His ministry. John was family, He was friend, He was ministry partner, and now John had been murdered horribly.
Jesus was just in the storm of rejection as the storm of John’s murder comes. And so, what happens now? What does Jesus do as these storms are raging or as these hard times come?
It says that Jesus left where He had been, which He had just been in His hometown of Nazareth, and it says that He took off by boat and went out to a deserted place by Himself. Jesus though He is fully God, is also fully man. That’s hard to wrap our minds around, but Jesus definitely experienced pain, and hurt, and emotions, and all of the things that we feel. And when I read this and when we understand that reality, and when we understand the context of what just happened, and when we see this morning that Jesus just found out. Then what I believe that we are seeing here, is that Jesus just needed a minute, He needed some time alone, in His humanity He still had to deal with the loss of His friend John. Jesus had just been going through it with all of the stuff in Nazareth and then He’s hit with this news.
And so, He takes off to go be alone for a little a bit. I’m sure we’ve all been there when something really difficult happens, and it’s like, I just need to be alone for a little bit to deal with some of this. And it’s weird, because I have never heard anyone talk about this particular moment, but it seems so clear in the whole context.
You know when we started this book, when we started into Matthew, we talked about the purpose being to learn from Jesus’ teaching, from how He walked, how He talked, how He carried Himself, how He lived. And I think that this is a really interesting learning moment for us.
I think so often in church culture that there is this mindset of like, “oh, I’m a Christian, so I can’t ever show weakness, or I can’t ever be hurting, or I can’t ever be struggling, and so people put on a fake face, and when we’re asked how we’re doing, it’s like, “oh, I’m fine”. Even if we’re really not. But then we see Jesus in this moment, taking some time to be alone for a minute, maybe some time to process, maybe to deal with things, maybe to deal with the hurt.
If Jesus dealt with things too, then why do we feel like we have to cover it all up? Why do we feel like we can’t be real with ourselves and with others? Sometimes things get hard, that’s what we we’re talking about last week. We need to understand the truth of that, we need to be anchored to Jesus and to the Joy of His salvation, but we also need to know that we can deal with the things of life and not feel like we need to cover it up from people. Because there is strength in numbers, there’s strength in this family, and God brought us together so we can help care for one another. But maybe there is also that moment, when it gets hard, where we have to just stop, and take a little time alone. I wouldn’t say alone in the sense of just marinating in the problem, but alone in prayer, under the care, of an awesome and mighty God. Let’s consider some of these verses:
1 Peter 5:6-7
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Isaiah 41:10
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:13
For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.”
There is so much scripture that talks about God’s specific care for His people. And so, as we started this passage, I think through Jesus’ example we can see that it’s ok to take some time, it’s ok to breathe for a moment, it’s ok to take some alone time, though hopefully with the Lord, because He cares for us. But then we see the next part of Jesus’ healthy example as the passage continues. Let me read verse 13 again.
Read Matthew 14:13
He went out by Himself for a bit. We don’t know how long He was out there alone. But then the crowds, the multitudes, they heard where Jesus had gone and decided to follow Him out there. Jesus took a boat from where He was at to get to this deserted place, but it says that these people all walked on foot from different cities to get out there. So, there was likely some time lapse that He was out there by Himself before the people started showing up. But eventually a lot of people showed up and that leads us to verse 14.
Read Matthew 14:14
Jesus came out from wherever He was, He saw all the people gathered there, and it says that He was moved with compassion for them and then started healing those that needed it.
I think there is still something to be said here in Jesus’ example for our having to deal with things. Jesus didn’t stay in isolation. He took some time, but there was still more to be done and His compassionate view of others was a healthy distraction away from the difficulty.
As we talked about last week, things will get hard in life, and maybe we need to take some time alone with the Lord to deal with some of it, but we can’t stay isolated because that would be really unhealthy too. Even though Jesus was probably still hurting, all of these people showed up and His heart was moved, He was filled with compassion, and He went right back to serving these people and doing the Kingdom work. He was healing people, He was ministering to people, but after Jesus had been ministering to these people all day, His disciples came over to Him. Let’s read verse 15.
Read Matthew 14:15
The disciples were basically like, it’s late, we need to send these people away so that they can go and get themselves something to eat. A lot of times this moment for the disciples is given kind of a negative light, like they’re just trying to get the people out of there. In reality, I think it may just be a really practical reaction to the current situation. They’re in this deserted place, they don’t have the means on hand to feed these people, it seems like people are getting hungry, and they are like Jesus it’s probably best for you to have the people go and get some food in them and find a place to sleep.
It was probably just a very practical response to the situation. But my wife and I were talking about this part this week and she brought up a really interesting possibility that I think is worth considering. You know, obviously, the guys close to Jesus knew that He had left to be alone for a bit. But then all the people showed up, and then Jesus lovingly engaged with them, but maybe there’s a possibility here that because His close friends, care for Him, that the disciples also desired for Jesus to have a little more time alone if He wanted it. Maybe they were trying to move the people along to try to help in that way. It’s an interesting perspective to consider here.
But regardless of what their reason was, Jesus had a different idea.
Read Matthew 14:16-17
They don’t need to go anywhere. You feed them. I’m sure the disciples were like “……what?” And so, we know from the Gospel of John that at this point, the disciples find a boy that essentially has a little sack lunch with him, and he’s got 5 pieces of bread and two fish and that’s what they report back to Jesus in verse 17.
I can’t imagine this boy’s perspective on this situation. John’s Gospel says that the disciple Andrew found him and brought him over, and Andrew told Jesus about the food. But Andrews immediate comment about the food to Jesus, in John 6:8, is that “it’s just five loaves and two small fish, what is this food with so many people here?” But Jesus tells them to bring Him the loaves and the fish, and we can see what happens here. Let’s read verses 18 through 21.
Read Matthew 14:18-21
The kid is probably like, what’s Jesus going to do with my food? But Jesus told all of these people to sit down and if you notice in verse 21, it says five thousand men and then also women and children. A lot of people believe that the full count might have been closer to about twenty thousand people, which makes this even crazier.
But everybody sat down, all twenty thousand or so, and Jesus grabbed the five little loaves and two little fish, He looked up to heaven, and He blessed the food.
And then He broke it … and the disciples started passing it out … and then by no way other than the miraculous power of God … twenty thousand people ate … and were filled … and then they still managed to fill up twelve baskets full of leftovers.
Jesus could have made the food from nothing, Jesus could have just made money and sent people to buy food, but I love that He included that little boy’s meal in the process and then so obviously displayed His power to all of these people. That kid sure had a story to tell after this. As did everybody else that was there that day. It’s interesting that this the only miracle besides the resurrection that is recorded in all four of the Gospels. But we can’t miss the fact that this huge miracle came right in the wake of Jesus’ struggle and time spent alone.
These history moments of the miraculous power of God should build up our faith and our conviction that Jesus is exactly Who He says He is. But it’s incredible to still see the reality of His humanity and how we can learn from that as well.
Jesus struggled, He even went isolation mode for a short time, probably to spend some time with His Father, but then He came out, and He began to move forward again in life and in ministry. He very well might have still been hurting from the rejection and the loss, but it’s such a healthy thing to be back in the middle of God’s work. If anything is going to help heal our hurts, it’s going to be seeing God’s power in action as the Kingdom work continues.
And the beautiful thing is, as we have probably talked about each week for a while now, is that we’re all in it together.
I want to read a passage in Romans 12 together as we close.
Read Romans 12:3-18
This passage basically says, BE HUMBLE, there’s many people in the body of the church, we need to use the gifts that God gave us to serve each other, we need to love, serve, rejoice, hope, have patience, pray, give, be hospitable, bless, live peaceably, and notice specifically verse 15.
REJOICE WITH THOSE WHO REJOICE, AND WEEP WITH THOSE WHO WEEP.
We’re supposed to be here for it all together. Through the good, through the hard. We don’t need to put a fake face on and pretend that everything is alright. Jesus had to deal with it all too. So, what we can do, is come together, and walk together, and pray together, and go to the Lord together, for everything that comes our way. And then together, like Jesus, we can still move forward and be part of God’s work in this world.