Matthew 14:13-36--The Return of the Signs

​Matthew 14:13-36 English Standard Version (ESV)
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. 15 Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16 But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” 17 They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” 18 And he said, “Bring them here to me.” 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Jesus Walks on the Water
22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. 25 And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Jesus Heals the Sick in Gennesaret
34 And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent around to all that region and brought to him all who were sick 36 and implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.

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Jesus has just heard the news that his relative John the Baptist was dead.  He is trying to get away somewhere to grieve because although He is God and knows that these people that He's friends and family with will die, it still hurts when it happens.  Jesus knows what it like to lose family (He's already lit seems His earthly father, Joseph, has already died), non-immediate family member (John the Baptist was one of Jesus' cousins on his mom's side), and also close friends (like Lazarus).  However, the people were selfish and put their own desires above the needs to Jesus at that moment and followed Him even when He was just trying to have a moment of peace and quiet--those of you who are parents might be able to relate to this, as I hear it's nearly impossible to get even a moment of peace and quiet until nap time or bed time and even then it's a challenge.

Jesus had compassion on them and set aside His need to grieve for the moment and healed their sick--something we haven't been seeing a whole lot of recently.  There were thousands of people that had followed Jesus to this desolate place where He had gone for solace, and the disciples were rightfully concerned for the people and asked Jesus to tell them to go back to the cities before it got too dark so that they could get themselves something to eat and find safe shelter for the evening.  Jesus' reply would probably have shocked them even more than it shocks me--"You give them something to eat."

The disciples start looking around and realize that there's not nearly enough money to buy food for all the people and there's certainly not enough food around for everyone to share.  In fact, it seems that no one even though to bring food with them other than a boy with a small lunch (small boys are always hungry and its surprising that he hadn't eaten his lunch by dinner time) so they bring the boy and his lunch to Jesus and the boy offers what little he has to Jesus.  This was an incredible act of faith on the part of this boy, though this is not a story about sharing like so many Sunday school teachers have told it.  It's a story about how Jesus can do the impossible.  He made them take inventory to realize that they had nothing to offer the people and it forced them to come back to Jesus and say "We've taken inventory and what we have to offer actually isn't even ours and it's insufficient at that."  But Jesus' reply was "Bring them to me" because it was more than enough in the hands of God.  The God who created everything out of nothing was surely able to take the little they had and multiply it to meet their needs.  And He did!  So much so that not only over 5,000 men (excluding women and children who probably made the number somewhere between 7,000 to 10,000) fed but there were 12 large baskets full of scraps left over just so that each disciple could see that Jesus could do "far more abundantly than all that we could ask or think". (Eph. 3:20a).

Jesus decides that the only way He's going to get the time alone that He desperately needs is to send the crowds and the disciples away.  So the disciples head back across the lake by boat without Jesus and Jesus spends some time alone in prayer--we see that this is often how Jesus rejuvenates when He is physically tired or worn out from ministry or needs comfort or strength from God.  The disciples come upon a storm that is too big for them to handle and cry out to God for help and Jesus sees them (even though they are far away on the lake) and He gets up and immediately goes to them walking on the water--nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  God will break the laws of time and space to get to us because He made them and they must obey His will and His command.  When He gets to them they assume it is a ghost (that Jesus has died) but Peter having more faith than sense sometimes says "Lord, if it's you, command me to come out on the water with you."  And Jesus invites Peter to come walk out on the water with Him.  Everything is great until Peter takes His eyes off of Jesus and starts to look at the storm around him and when Peter puts his faith in what he sees by way of fear instead of making Jesus the object of his faith, he immediately begins to sink and cries out to Jesus to save him.  Then Jesus corrects Peter for his lack of faith (but this must have been biting to the other disciples who didn't even have enough faith to come out on the water to start off with) and asked him why he doubted.  "Do not fear, only believe" is a refrain we'll hear from Jesus over and over again.  When Jesus got back in the boat with Him the storm stopped and everyone in the boat realized this was God in the flesh because even the wind and waves obey Him, and they worshiped Him.

As soon as Jesus' boat landed and the people recognized him they were again coming out in masses seeking for their sick to be healed, and Jesus once again had compassion on the people and healed their sick and diseased, but now with a faith that had not been seen my most because they knew that if they even touched the fringe of his garment they would be healed.  However, they still associated His power with His physical presence.  Only a couple of people so far have realized that Jesus only needs to speak the word and His command would be obeyed over great distances because He is Lord of all things in all places at all times.  What kind of faith do you have?  These are some of the greatest signs that Jesus ever did to prove His deity.  Is this enough for you to believe that He is who He says He is and like His disciples fall down in worship before Him?