Hungering to be with Jesus

When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.  When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

As evening approached, 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 themselves some food." Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." "We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish," they answered.

"Bring them here to me," he said.  And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.  They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.  The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children (Matthew 14:13-21).

In this Gospel lesson, we see again one of Jesus’ most famous miracles—the feeding of the five thousand from five loaves of bread and two fish.  During the hours covered in these verses, a lot of important things went on, things that we don’t usually notice because the miraculous dinner overshadows everything else.  So today I’d like to point your attention to eight things that we can learn from these few hours in Jesus’ life.

Our text begins with the words, When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.  The news He had received was terrible.  John the baptist, Jesus’ older cousin, had recently died.  He had been arrested for criticizing the morals of the royal family, and they had him put to death.  To add insult to injury, John’s head was put on a serving tray and shown to the king’s party guests like a trophy.  When Jesus got word of this tragedy, he got on a boat with His disciples and went away to grieve in private.

What can we learn from this?  It reminds us that Jesus feels the same way about death that we do—it is a sad thing that should not happen.  We cry at funerals.  Jesus has the power to raise the dead, yet He cries over death as well.  Death separates loved ones.  Death ends a life that should have gone on indefinitely.  God intended that Adam and Eve should live forever, along with all of their descendants.  But when our first parents ignored God to do what they wanted, sin entered the world and brought with it the curse of death.  Death is the penalty for sin; death is the only thing that stops a person from sinning once and for all.  Sin makes death necessary, but it still grieves the Lord of Life.  And even though we trust in the promise of resurrection, it is still appropriate for us to grieve the death of loved ones.  Grief reminds us how terrible sin really is.

But although Jesus went to a remote location, word got out, and over five thousand people set out on foot to go spend time with Him.  Think about that—they walked where He sailed by boat.  Obviously, these people were short on cash—no one rented a boat or a mule or a wagon.  Yet time with Jesus was so important that they were willing to several miles to be close to Him.

Most of us are not walkers.  We don’t even use bicycles very much.  We go everywhere by car or truck.  We grumble about detours caused by road construction.  We grumble about icy roads in winter.  And now we grumble about the high cost of gas and diesel.  It’s tempting to skip church and save on fuel.  But we can learn from the five thousand who followed Jesus on foot—they prized time with Him over their own comfort or convenience.

It was not an east trip for some of the crowd—many of them were suffering from poor health.  Matthew says that Jesus had compassion on them and healed their sick.  When we get sick, it’s easy to become negative.  You might ask, “why is God letting me suffer like this?”  You wonder what you did to make God angry at you.  If you really get desperate you might even bargain with God, promising Him any number of things in exchange for getting well.

When you are sick or in pain, it’s important to remember this—God is not punishing you for your sins.  If you got what you deserved, you would have been reduced to a little pile of ashes a long time ago.  But God does not punish you or me for our sins—He punished Jesus for our sins on the cross.  Not just some of our sins, but all of them.  Peter writes, Christ died for sins once for all (1 Peter 3:18).  Paul says, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).  If you believe in Jesus as your Savior, then you have nothing to fear from God.

Sometimes God does lean on us, but it is always for our good.  Hebrews chapter 12 says, Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?…Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.  It’s easy to ignore God when things are going well; sometimes it takes hardship to make us remember how much we need the Lord in our lives.  Then we start thinking like those sick people who came to Jesus; they traveled a long way on foot because they had hope that He would heal them.  And Jesus showed compassion for those who trusted in His love; He cured them of their ailments.

After a long journey on foot and a day spent listening to Jesus, supper time came and there was nothing to eat.  The people had come too far to return home for a meal, so the disciples suggested sending them to nearby villages where they could buy some food.  But Jesus nixed that idea; He told the disciples to organize a meal. 

Jesus was pleased with the crowd’s devotion—they were like Mary, who listened at Jesus’ feet while Martha fussed with dinner (Luke chapter ten).  When Martha complained that Mary should be helping in the kitchen, Jesus praised Mary for having her priorities in the right order.  I’m sure that you remember these words of Christ: do not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `What shall we wear?'  For the unbelievers chase after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:31-33).  Jesus proved the truth of this statement by feeding the crowd that had devoted their day to Him.

Jesus had everyone sit down on the grass.  Then before the food was distributed, He looked up to heaven and gave thanks.  This was Jesus’ habit—He gave God thanks before eating a meal.  This should be our habit as well.  Without food and drink, we’d be dead in short order.  And food doesn’t come from a grocery store.  Food isn’t made by farmers or ranchers or fishermen.  God makes seeds sprout and grow.  God enables birds, animals and fish to give birth and raise young.  All food comes from the Lord; it is appropriate that we thank Him at every meal for keeping us alive through His generous bounty. 

The disciples had seen Jesus perform a lot of miracles, but they were still blinded by limited thinking.  When Jesus said, “they do not need to go away. You give them something to eat”, the disciples panicked. “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish”, they answered.  Yet by God’s power, that small amount of ordinary fare was able to feed well over five thousand people, and every stomach was filled. 

So often in life, we look at what we have and are dissatisfied.  Our car is too old, our clothes are out of style, we can’t afford a bigger apartment.  We don’t make the kind of money that we’d like to, and we get tired of eating cheap food at home while our friends are always dining out.  But you know what?  God keeps you alive.  He feeds and clothes you.  Fish and bread are nothing fancy—they were common food for common people doing common work—agriculture and fishing.  But the crowd didn’t mind—after hours of teaching and healing, Jesus capped off the day with a miracle—He filled their bellies with enough to eat.  It wasn’t fancy food, but it was nutritious.  They went home satisfied, both spiritually and physically.

The apostle John also records the events of this day (chapter six), but in his Gospel He preserves a few words of Jesus that Matthew did not.  John writes, When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted."  So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. 

I could never work in a restaurant.  The amount of food thrown away each day would haunt me all night.  Jesus tells us to not waste food, yet we make more than we can eat and throw leftovers away instead of finishing them later.  Because of government regulation, restaurants cannot even donate surplus food to the needy.  We whine about the rising cost of food, but how much would we save if we heeded Jesus’ command, let nothing be wasted? 

There’s one final point that I’d like to make.  Why did both Matthew and John make note that there were twelve basketfuls of leftovers?  They wouldn’t mention this detail if it weren’t significant.  Well, how many disciples were there, who served the food that Jesus provided?  There were twelve—the Lord made sure that after the people ate, there was enough left over to feed all twelve disciples as well.

It’s subtle, but Jesus was making a point.  When ministers work for Him, they feed the children of God with His word.  Remember that Scripture says, man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD (Deuteronomy 8:3).  Jesus said, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty (John 6:35).  When we celebrate Communion, the pastor serves you Jesus’ body and blood as food and drink for the soul.

God gives all that we need to stay alive so that we can serve Him.  But He gives you more than the minimum necessary; He gives you enough so there are leftovers.  These leftovers are not to be wasted; they are to be gathered for the support of God’s pastors and missionaries.  Paul writes, don’t you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar?  In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:13-14).  The Lord gives you enough to support the church financially--that’s provided that you aren’t wasteful with His gifts.

Life and death, sin and salvation—Jesus changes our lives now so that we can have a future worth living for.  That message drew a huge crowd, people who wanted to be close to Jesus, not for just an hour in the morning but for an entire day.  Travel was an inconvenience, but it was a sacrifice they were willing to make.  Their devotion to Christ resulted in blessings—relief from suffering, joy for the soul, and nourishment for the body, so they could go home and serve the Lord with gladness.  May you value time with Jesus as much as those five thousand people did.