Matthew 14:13-23

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. 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. [i]

Jesus is a human being. That can be a difficult thing to get our heads around. I have a hard time understanding how he ascended bodily into heaven and that this person to whom I pray, whom I have never seen, heard, or touched, is human. There is a man in heaven!

He grew in his mother’s womb for nine months. He was born a messy baby just like any other little boy. Can you imagine Jesus being like your own child, or your brother, full of little boy energy and precociousness? Can you imagine Jesus jumping or falling, scraping his knee? He was a human boy who grew physically and mentally. And he grew in some incomprehensible way spiritually. He learned to walk, talk, read, write, and pray.

Of course, he did not remain a boy. He grew up to be a man. But as a man we don’t know if he was tall or short. We have no idea what color his eyes were. We don’t know if he liked music or even had a good singing voice. We don’t know if he had a sweet tooth or bad teeth. There is quite a bit we don’t know about his humanity. But from the gospels we do know that he walked, sat, sailed, and got hungry (Mark 11:12) and thirsty (John 19:28). We know he felt tired (John 4:6), and so he slept (Mark 4:38). We know that he spoke, sang, and prayed, grieved, and wept (John 11:33-35), and he did the most fallen human activity – he died (27:50).

Jesus is human. That is a difficult fact and one easily lost in our text this morning. This text is so much about Christ’s divine power (what a supernatural miracle this feeding of the crowd is) it is easy to forget that the passage begins and ends with a very human Jesus. Fully divine, yet fully human.

We could title Matthew 14–16 “The Withdrawal of the King.” The change has been coming ever since Jesus spoke his warning to the cities of Galilee in chapter 11, denouncing them for their failure to repent and turn to him; he warned that it would be more bearable for the notoriously wicked cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom on the day of judgment than for them (vv. 20–24). Chapter 12 is almost entirely about the Pharisees and teachers of the law, with similarly strong words. Jesus called them a “brood of vipers” (v. 34), the chief representatives of that “wicked and adulterous generation” that asks for a sign but will not come to faith (v. 39). After this, Jesus began to teach in parables, saying that “the secrets of the kingdom of heaven” must be kept from those whose hearts are calloused (Matt. 13:11–15). At the end of that chapter he is rejected by the people of his own home city of Nazareth (vv. 54–57). At the start of chapter 14 we read of Herod’s murder of John the Baptist and that John’s disciples reported John’s death to Jesus. It is at this point that we are told, “When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately.”[ii]

CHRIST’S HUMANITY (13-14, 22-23)

The text draws us first into Christ’s humanity by beginning with an inclusio in verses 13, 14 and 22, 23. We find Christ desiring to get away from the crowd and his disciples in order to spend time alone in prayer. Starting in verse 12 we read, “12 And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus. 13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself.” Jesus was likely told everything we read about in verses 1 through 11 last week, all the horrid details of John’s death.

We are not told where Jesus went, likely someplace on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. We know, however, what happens once he gets there. The crowd is waiting for him. “But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd” (vv. 13b-14a). Jesus planned to spend time in prayer with his Father because he was exhausted and troubled. But his plans were interrupted. As a human being he needed rest and contemplation. But as the Prophet, Priest, and King he had more work to do.

What follows are miracles of healing and feeding, which we will take up shortly. For now, look at verse 22, “Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.” His first idea was to get in the boat and get away. That did not work out. So he put his disciples in the boat and sent them off instead. How was Jesus supposed to rejoin them? They had no clue.

After curing the sick and feeding the hungry (vv. 14, 19, 20), he dismissed the crowd (v.23a). Then finally, in 23b, we read, “…he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When the evening came, he was there alone….” Jesus hears of John’s death and wants some solitude. But he must first exhaust himself with more ministry. Once the coast was literally clear, up the mountain he goes for some alone time, time to pray and contemplate.

We could never know exactly what Jesus was thinking. We can only speculate, but we can speculate with the aid of scripture. The most logical assumption is that he was thinking about John’s death. Not only did he grieve over that death, but he likely thought about John’s death and of his own cross work to come. As we noted last week, John’s passion in verses 1-11 foreshadows Jesus’ passion. Like John, innocent Jesus would suffer and die for the truth at the hands of the political powers of the day.

Jesus knew that. He also knew that with John gone, he was soon to fall as well. That was God’s will for him. It was his will for himself as a part of the Godhead’s great plan to reunite heaven and earth. Jesus thought about what all human beings think about when they lose a loved one. It’s also reasonable to believe he thought about his own upcoming passion: the 39 lashes, the crown of thorns, the falling on the road to Golgotha, the nails, the thirst, the laughter and jeering from the foot of the cross, the rejection, and the loneliness. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (27:46).

He thought about the loneliness of the atonement, of becoming sin so that we might become the righteousness of God through faith in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). On this mountain he thought of that mountain. On a hill far away he thought of that hill, which was no longer so far away from him, the hill that was closing in on him.

CHRIST’S COMPASSION

If we have truly understood something of what Jesus was thinking, that makes what happens between this inclusio so remarkable, but also so predictable. The one who wants to contemplate his crucifixion – the ultimate act of selfless love – here in the middle of our text has compassion on the last, the lost, the least, the little, and the dead. He cares for those longing to be free and longing to be fed.

Notice verse 14 again. Jesus got on the boat to get away, but when he steps off the boat, a sea of people crashes against him. The crowd (oxlos), mentioned four times in our text, presses in on the savior. So much for solitude. So much for prayer and contemplation. Imagine your workday. You are working on a project and coming close to the end, but then you get an electronic message or a phone call or a knock at the door because someone needs something from you. I’m willing to bet that like me your gut reaction is not compassion but consternation. You do not see the irritating interruption as a ministry opportunity. And, unlike Jesus, our desire is rarely to seek rest and refreshment in a time of prayer. Our interests are predominantly self-gratification.

But look at the beauty we find in verse 14b. It tells us so much about the heart of our Great Shepherd. Here God’s heart is laid open before us when exhausted Jesus “saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick,” and then fed their growling bellies. He had compassion. “His heart went out to them” (14:14; 9:36; 15:32; 20:34). That’s a wonderful way to describe God’s compassion.

His heart went out to them, and his hands healed and fed them. Jesus demonstrates not just an attitude of compassion but acts of compassion. What Moses heard from God about God on Mount Sinai is what we see here in Jesus: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6b). God’s one-way love is never exhausted!

That compassion has radiated throughout the history of the church, an attitude of compassion accompanied by actions of compassion. Jesus didn’t hand out gospel tracts on how to get in touch with God. He fed. He healed. And he did it based solely on the needs of those lost and desperate people like sheep without a shepherd and upon his limitless compassion as the God-Man. To this very day, Jesus followers, ministering in the name of Christ, go out into the world to care for the sick, hungry, and hurting. Whatever your vocation you can minister to others with the refreshing and uplifting compassion of Christ.

So the compassion of Christ is to be the compassion of his church. We love in attitude and action because God in Christ first loved us. But you don’t have to sell everything you own and travel across the world to extend the love of Christ. Perhaps some Sunday, inspired by the one-way love of God in Christ Jesus, you might just walk across this very room and introduce yourself to someone you don’t know and get to know their needs and offer them your mercy and compassion.

As we look back at our text, we should ask ourselves if this miracle is recorded only to serve as motivation for Christian charity. No. There is a much greater reason. The feeding of 5000 men is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels. Why? Why is this miracle so important? Is the point merely that Jesus is nice? That he loves people? That he puts people first? That he shares his food? Therefor we should do all of the above.

No. The point is power, compassionate power that points to his personhood. It points to who Jesus is. His authority over creation points to the Creator’s identity. After Jesus puts on 1/2-day messianic medical clinic for hundreds of people, we read:

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.”

What happens next? “Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass” (14:19). They are seated by the still waters of the lake, and he has laid them down in green pastures, “and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing…. Likely, Jesus invoked the traditional Jewish blessing: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the world, who brings forth bread from the earth.” “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.”

With most men having wives and 2.5 children (as statisticians like to say), that’s almost 24,000 people. That’s a lot of bread. That is a large number of fish. That is a great deal of supernatural spontaneous regeneration. It is one giant load of holy mackerel. The beginning and the end of this text point to Jesus’ humanity. But here in the middle of the text we see his divinity. Don’t miss it! Here we are to see the one whom Isaiah calls Immanuel – God with us.

Liberal scholars assert such an event could not have happened in history because we have never experienced something like this – five loaves turning into thousands of loaves. One fish, two fish, new fish, true fish! How can we believe in something we haven’t seen? It goes against verifiable experience in the same way that Christ’s resurrection does. To them, this is simply a nice little story to open us up to the idea that if there is a God he might possibly have the power to do amazing things if we work hard enough to impress him and earn a “miracle.”

While unfortunate, that type of attitude cuts to the heart of the issue. Our first reaction to this miracle should be that it is absolutely unbelievable. It goes against verifiable experience. Many of you have heard this story since you were a toddler in Sunday school. You know it like the back of your hand. You know it so well did you no longer read it and say, “Wow!” Jesus even made enough to send home doggie bags for everyone. Matthew wants us to see this miracle and realize without a doubt that this is the hand of God. This must be the Son of God! Christ’s power reveals his identity.

Think about the uniqueness of this miracle. Not even a first-rate faith healer could do this, and no world-class magician could duplicate this. The greatest tricks famous magicians perform are simply illusions. Someone might make it look as if the Statue of Liberty has disappeared, but it has not. The art of illusion is scientific, not magical.

Consider the charismatic faith healer. Have you ever seen one of them do the miracles Jesus performed? Has one of them ever cured leprosy, given sight to the blind, walked on water, stopped the wind, or raised the dead? You will never see such things from the carnival barking faith healers, for their so-called miracles are all things that can’t be verified. He might claim to heal a bad back, a sore leg, ringing in the ears, a sinus infection.

But here Jesus takes seven pieces of food and performs a perfectly unduplicatable miracle. A faith healer couldn’t fool anyone. He would rather sink in the water as he attempts to walk on it than gather 24,000 hungry people in a superdome and have them all leave with their bellies empty and their $100 bills still in their back pockets.

One person in the crowd could be fooled by someone somehow turning one fish into two. After all, maybe he had a second fish up his sleeve. But 24,000 people could not be fooled by someone who turned two fish turn into 10,000. This is a visible, tangible, verifiable, edible testimony of Jesus’ identity. He is no cheat, no impostor, no false prophet. This miracle screams out, “This is God in the flesh!” The power shows the person. His authority over the things of this world reveals his identity.

If you missed that in this miracle, you miss its meaning. Jesus is certainly compassionate, so he feeds the hungry and heals the sick. You should be compassionate too. But that is not the point of this miracle. The point is that Jesus is the sovereign Lord of creation. By the power of his word he speaks things into existence. He spun the stars into existence, and in mere seconds changed the immaterial into material, the nonexistent into the existing. With the passing of a loaf, one turns into two, two into three, and so on. This is the bread of God from the hand of God. That’s what we are to see here.

Think back to divine food provision in the Old Testament. Can you think of two key stories? The most obvious one is the provision of manna (and quail) during Israel’s wilderness wanderings (Exodus 16; Numbers 11). Jesus feeds this crowd bread and meat in the wilderness just like Israel was fed in the wilderness. Jesus is God, YHWH Jirah, the God who provides.

Another Old Testament divine provision of food can be found in 2nd Kings 4:42-44. It’s the story of the prophet Elisha feeding 100 men with 20 loaves. In that story there is a hungry crowd, and someone brings the prophet an insufficient amount of food to feed the crowd. Elisha basically says that is all the food they need and orders it to be distributed. The bread-bringer protests that there are only 20 loaves. Elisha orders the food to be distributed. The men ate and had food leftover (4:44).

The point of the parallels with Moses and Elijah is to show us Jesus is greater than Moses and Elijah! The words said of Jesus at his baptism and at the transfiguration could be scammed here at this miracle: “This is God’s beloved Son.” We are to see God with us in this miracle. Do you see that? Do you believe that? This was written so you could see and believe that Jesus is both God and man.

COUNT ON MORE

In this story so far, we have seen Christ’s desire for solitude and contemplation. We have seen his compassion in both attitude and action. But we also learn about his provision. Disciples should always learn to count to 8. In our text there are seemingly only seven things available to provide for the people (five loaves and two fish), but we should always learn to count to 8. We should always count on Jesus, the one factor we can count on to provide our daily bread. That is why Jesus initially tells his disciples to solve the food problem for themselves. He wanted them to understand there was no human way possible to feed this crowd and that he was the only provision for life, the universe, and everything.

The main message is that Jesus is God with us, God’s beloved Son or, if you prefer “the bread of life (John 6: 35), “the bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:58a), and “whoever feeds on this bread will live forever” (John 6:58b). That is the point of this passage. We are to contemplate the unlimited power of Christ. We are to contemplate his compassion. We are to contemplate his humility. We are to contemplate his divinity. We are to contemplate the powerful compassion of the God-Man and how we find everlasting sustenance and satisfaction in him alone.

 

[i] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 14:13–23.

[ii] James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001), 263–264.