More Than Enough

Matthew 14:13–21 CSB

13 When Jesus heard about it, he withdrew from there by boat to a remote place to be alone. When the crowds heard this, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd, had compassion on them, and healed their sick. 15 When evening came, the disciples approached him and said, “This place is deserted, and it is already late. Send the crowds away so that they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16 “They don’t need to go away,” Jesus told them. “You give them something to eat.” 17 “But we only have five loaves and two fish here,” they said to him. 18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 Then he commanded the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 Everyone ate and was satisfied. They picked up twelve baskets full of leftover pieces. 21 Now those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Feeding 5000

This is a well know miracle of Jesus.

It is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels, which points to its significance.

And just like the other miracle Matthew has recorded, the purpose of this miracle isn’t to show off Jesus’s cool, super natural abilities like a magic show.

It is recorded to reveal who Jesus is and what His presence means for our world.

Jesus was showing His followers that He was the one they had been waiting on for hundreds of years.

The promised Messiah, the savior that was going to make the broken things right again.

And He was showing the crowds that He was someone special, someone worth following, someone worth listening to, and someone worth giving their lives to.

This is a pretty incredible miracle, more incredible than you might realize at first look.

Matthew says there are 5000 men, besides women and children.

So likely there are between 10-20k people in the crowd.

And only 1 young boy, with a super attentive mom packed a dinner.

And Jesus uses this meager offering to feed the multitudes.

But before we get to the miracle, there are some other details that reveal the nature and character of Jesus that we shouldn’t miss in this passage.

Jesus's HUMANITY is EVIDENT.

He seeks to get away from the crowd to mourn and to pray over the death of John the Baptist

He feels pain and needs solitude

Mark says that Jesus invites His disciples to rest as well, realizing how tired and sad they likely felt.

Though this might seem like a throwaway verse, but Jesus is showing us something important.

It is incredibly humbling and comforting seeing these glimpses of Jesus' humanity

Knowing that He understands what it feels like to be physical and emotionally tired.

Knowing that he understands our limitations and our need for rest.

It is comforting to see Jesus hurt like we hurt, to understand that Jesus knows how it feels to mourn and grieve over the evil of this world.

We can often raise Jesus up to a point that we struggle to see how He could ever relate with what we are dealing with, and come to the conclusion that He probably doesn’t care.

But that is FAR from the truth!

Isaiah 53:3 ESV

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Jesus's humanity makes him even more aware of the needs around him, AND it drives him to deeper compassion.

Look at the next verse (14)

Jesus's COMPASSION is LIMITLESS.

If there was any time in the ministry of Jesus to have a valid reason to turn the crowds away, this was the time.

Jesus had been ministering to the crowds preaching teaching and now had lost his cousin, friend, closest follower.

He needed time to mourn, to process, and to pray.

But, seeing the crowds, he was overcome with compassion.

We see in Jesus his heart for people and his purpose to bring comfort and care to them.

The word for compassion means to be “deeply moved in His being.

He is moved to mercy, a mercy that he could not ignore.

Jesus is feeling the weight of the darkness and brokenness of this world, but he sees a crowd that is suffering in this world and His grief motivates his compassion.

That is so counter me.

When life is difficult and I am feeling the weight or tiredness of serving, I have the tendency to get really self-focuses and self-serving. I

It reveals my propensity toward entitlement, feeling like I have earned the right to think only of myself.

I am not Jesus, but I pray He will help me grow to be a bit more like him.

AND this is who He IS not just who He WAS.

We believe Jesus was bodily raised from the grave, meaning He is the same one that walked on this earth and that who He was in this book, is the SAME one He is today.

He cares for you and me in this same way.

Never too busy, never too overwhelmed, never too underwhelmed by what we bring to Him.

His compassion is limitless, unfettered, and abundant.

Matthew has already shown us Jesus’s compassion in chapter 9 and chapter 11. He is painting a detailed picture for us that we cannot miss.

Jesus cares for us, He loves us, and He desires to bring comfort, healing, and rest to those who come to Him.

And He has the power to provide!

Jesus's compassion gives opportunity for his power to shine.

Jesus's POWER is UNMATCHED.

Jesus's power to provide for the needs of the crowd is a lesson to the disciples that they are insufficient in themselves to do the work that he's called them to do.

Jesus tells them to feed the multitude knowing that they in and of themselves didn't have the resources or the ability to accomplish the thing he told them to do.

So he tells them to bring him what they have and then he uses what they have to accomplish the thing he had called them to do.

"They see the size of the need and the smallness of the human resources available. They must learn to see as Jesus sees, who “recognizes the size of the need and the greatness of God’s resources available.”

The disciples had bad eyesight. Jesus had healed people, calmed storms, raised the dead...but they didn't have enough bread to feed all these people.

He needed them to see their own weakness, limitations, there need in order that they would bring what they had to him.

That bread and fish looked like a mustard seed, but Jesus was going to show them how big of a plant it could be.

They just needed to see Jesus for who He is...

"If Jesus is only a friend to us, perhaps we do not understand that he is also the powerful Lord of the universe, who can supply us with the power necessary to accomplish whatever God calls us to in life."

Imagine the crowd though, hungry men, women, and children, far from the closest place to buy food.

Yet this man, Jesus, provides for them more than anyone can eat.

That's the gospel friends, an offer of something you are in desperate need of, yet don’t deserve, yet are given more than you could ever fully understand.

Jesus' power to provide bread and fish for the crowd gets them all talking that night.

John continues the account in His Gospel until the next day.

The crowd wakes up hungry for another meal, and so they begin what must have been a complicated process to get 10-20k people from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other.

And once they get to the other side and find Jesus, He reveals the reason they worked so hard to get to Him. John 6:26

John 6:26 CSB

26 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

They chased after Him just like they had chased after the last thing that temporarily filled up their bellies.

And then Jesus tells them this about Himself: John 6:35

John 6:35 CSB

35 “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.

The point of this miracle was to show that Jesus is the only one who can satisfy the hunger of our souls. Only He has the power to provide what your heart longs for.

So if you're a part of the crowd this morning, I pray you hear and come to know this about Jesus.

He knows your needs and sympathizes with your weakness

He cares for you and offers himself freely to those who would receive him here.

And He is enough for you.

For us disciples, Jesus knows we're weak and he knows what it feels like to feel overwhelmed by the crowd.

But he is compassionate, toward us and toward those that are needy around us, and he calls us, in his power, to serve, to love, and to minister.

He calls us to bring what little we have to Him so that He can multiply it.