Matthew 14: The Great Miracles

Introduction

At this point in the Lord’s ministry, He is being pushed out of his “home base” of Galilee and the pressure around him is starting to pick up. We saw this last week with his rejection at his hometown, followed by Jesus catching the attention of Herod (with the side story of John the Baptist’s demise).

Either because of mourning, or because of the building pressure, Jesus decided to withdraw. Or at least he tried to. Today we will see two of the most famous miracles Jesus performed. The first is the feeding of the 5,000. This is the only miracle outside of the resurrection to be recorded by all four Gospels. Clearly it was a big deal!

The second miracle is that of Jesus walking on water. Three of the four Gospels tell us about this event, and that it took place right after the feeding of the 5,000. More than anything, I think these two miracles demonstrate the Lord’s mighty power.

13-21: Feeding the 5,000

Matthew tells us that Jesus and the disciples had tried to go off by themselves to a “desolate place”. Luke tells us that it was in or near the town of Bethsaida, which is on the northern part of the Sea of Galilee.

John doesn’t tell us what town they went to, however he does note that Jesus asked Philip where they could get food for everyone. That makes sense, because Philip, Andrew, and Peter were all from Bethsaida (John 1:44 “Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.” )

They evidently weren’t being very secretive of this. And that’s kind of important. The Lord wasn’t running away in fear. This wasn’t a middle of the night “we have to escape” type of trip. The Lord Jesus isn’t afraid of anybody.

Mark makes it clear that Jesus was actually trying to give the disciples some rest. Mark 6:30–31 “The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.”

The crowds heard where he was going, and saw the direction the boat was floating, and decided to just meet him there. Assuming that they left from near Capernaum, it would have been about a 6 mile walk to Bethsaida. It’s pretty reasonable that they were able to beat Jesus and the disciples there.

When Jesus landed, he had compassion on them. This is a very strong word. It’s a word for caring that goes down deep into someone’s soul or bones. The Greek word is “Splanchnizomai”, and it just sounds like it comes from your stomach!

God has this much compassion when seeing people hurting! He has this much compassion on you and me! We shouldn’t ever dispute how much Jesus cares about us. It literally makes his stomach churn when he sees us in need and hurting.

Mark adds that Jesus saw the crowds as if they were “sheep without a shepherd”. The leaders of these people had failed them. They were physically and spiritually destitute. They had found the Great Shepherd, and he cared for them.

Who do we rely on in our time of need? Is it Jesus? Or others? The leaders of this world will fail us. But the Lord Jesus never will.

I think this moment demonstrates both his deity and his humanity.

He also exemplifies how we as Christians should act to those around us. The world is in desperate need of the Healer. It is up to us, His Church, to be the hands and feet of Christ. When people are weary, sick, hurting....do they come to us for compassion? If they don’t, what are we doing wrong?

The other Gospels add that Jesus also preached and taught the people, specifically about the Kingdom of God. All of them agree that Jesus healed the sick though.

Everything is going great except there’s a bit of a problem. There’s no food!

These people had been so hungry for the Word, that in their rush to go find Him they forgot to bring food with them! Imagine being that excited to see and hear Jesus! Have you ever been that hungry for Christ?

The disciples make a pretty accurate assessment: it’s getting late, folks are hungry, let’s send them on their way, and maybe go grab a bite themselves.

Not. So. Fast. Interestingly, Jesus tells the disciples “you give them something to eat.” This seems like a test. Jesus has granted them great power and authority - he wants them to figure it out. Sometimes the Lord does the same with us.

I wonder what the disciples did? They definitely seemed a little bit panicked and confused. Finally they get their hands on 5 loaves of bread and a couple of fish (provided by a young boy, John tells us).

Well, Jesus created the entire universe with less than that, so feeding more than 5,000 was not going to be a problem! And that’s exactly what He did.

The sheer number of people here is truly mind blowing. And that’s what makes this one of the Lord’s most incredible and memorable miracles, and really demonstrated his power.

Look at the people’s response in John 6:14–15 “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.”

To truly grasp what this meant to the people, I think we need a frame of reference. The people were constantly comparing Jesus to the prophecies of the OT and the works performed by the prophets of old.

One miracle Jesus did, that nobody had ever performed, was healing the blind.

But there actually is a miracle of someone multiplying food recorded in the OT. It was performed by the prophet Elisha.

2 Kings 4:42–44 “A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, “Give to the men, that they may eat.” But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’ ” So he set it before them. And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.”

Notice the difference here: Jesus fed 50x more people, with 4x less bread than Elisha did! Here’s the thing: Elijah was considered the greatest prophet of the OT, but Elisha performed even greater miracles than him. And now Jesus has just blown that out of the water!

Is it any surprise that the people thought that Jesus was “The Prophet” promised by Moses? And is it any surprise that they wanted to make Him king? I would hope that we would be right there with them!

Be in awe of the mighty power of Jesus!

When all was said and done, not only had over 5000 people been fed (the Gospels only record the number of men), but they actually had leftovers - 12 basketfuls actually.

I think the Lord Jesus did that on purpose, as a symbol. Twelve is a very biblical number (12 tribes of Israel, 12 disciples, ect.).

I have to wonder if these twelve baskets of bread were a sign to the disciples (of whom there were 12). Perhaps Jesus was trying to illustrate to them, “I am going to fill you with myself (He is the Bread of Life), I will be in you, you in me, as I am in the Father. I will sustain you if you let me.”

This same message rings true for us as well. Are we willing to be baskets of bread? Do people come to us for the Bread of Life, just as the people that day did? When Jesus says, “You feed them.” Are you prepared to do that? The world is starving, physically and spiritually, are we prepared to feed them?

22-32: Jesus walks on water

As if feeding 5,000 people out of basically nothing wasn’t incredible enough, Jesus is about to follow it up with something even more incredible: walking on water.

To me, this is one of the most important stories in identifying Christ’s identity.

Jesus sent the disciples away in a boat - he did this, because as John notes, the people were getting very excited and were going to try and make Jesus king by force. Jesus was not going to let this happen, and he wasn’t about to let the disciples get dragged into this “king making” business.

The next thing Jesus did was to go up on a mountain by himself and pray.

It had been a long day. Lots of healing. Lots of teaching. A huge miracle. Trying to calm and dismiss a huge crowd that was getting a little rowdy. Plus, if all this had happened right after Jesus learned about John, that just adds to the emotional toll.

So Jesus does what all of should do: he goes off to pray by himself. The Lord shows us that after our longest days, we should find ourselves in conversation with the Father. He alone can rejuvenate us.

The disciples had gone out quite a ways into the sea, and it seems like a storm had started to roll in. Unlike last time, Jesus wasn’t with them to calm it. But Jesus was still watching them from afar. He is always keeping an eye on us, too.

This event took place during “the fourth watch” which would have been between 3-6 AM. It had been a long day for Jesus, and now it had been a long night for the disciples.

Now, if you saw someone walking across water at 4 in the morning, during a storm, would say anything different than what they did? Ghosts can float. Humans? Not so much.

This was no ghost floating across the water. This was the Creator of Water bending it to His will. Even though this wasn’t a ghost, I do think they were on to something similar.

How does the Bible start? Genesis 1:2 “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

Remember, the people (and disciples) were constantly trying to compare Jesus to the Scriptures. Do you see the similarities?

The earth covered in water - here the disciples are literally in the middle of water

The waters were chaotic (that is what ‘without form and void’ means) - there was a storm/strong waves/strong wind all around the disciples

Darkness was over the face of the deep - it was the darkest part of the night

The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters - Jesus was walking on the face of the waters

Jesus is reenacting this scene to demonstrate to them who He is (God!)

In a similar vein, Mark tells us that Jesus “intended to pass them by” - which I think could also be an allusion to God “passing by” Moses in Exodus 33:22 “and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.”

Not only does Jesus demonstrate his identity through action, but he also does it by word. When he calms them down he says, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

A more literal translation would be “Take heart; I am.”

I AM is the name of God from the Scriptures. Jesus is telling the disciples (and us), “Remember when God floated upon the waters? I was there. Because it’s me. I am Him. You are getting to see what it was like.”

I want to jump ahead to verse 32 first before tackling Peter’s own attempt at water walking. What are the disciple’s response to this? Worship!

Remember, Matthew (a Jew) is writing this to other Jews. At the time, the Jews were probably the most monotheistic people group in the world. They worshipped one God, and knew that anything else was idolatry. They would rather die than bow the knee to any other god, and certainly not to a man.

Which is what makes a boat full of Jewish men worshipping another man AND saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” an incredibly powerful testimony.

Speaking of testimony, this story really has it all. If you are ever looking for one story as evidence to the identity of Jesus Christ as God, use this one.

Jesus has power over nature (walking on water/calming the storm after)

Walking on water is only something God does (Genesis 1:2)

Jesus claims to be God with His I AM statement

The disciples declare their belief in Christ’s deity by worshipping him and calling him the Son of God.

Interestingly, Matthew is the only one that tells us about Peter’s part in this story.

Peter actually challenges Jesus after Jesus told them to not be afraid. “Lord, if it is you...” In hindsight, I bet everyone thought that was pretty bold!

But I think it also tells us that Jesus doesn’t mind us asking questions. Especially when it comes to trusting Him. For Peter’s part he asks Jesus to “command me”. How often are we willing to say that?

Jesus does just that, and Peter does in fact walk on water…briefly. What happened? Matthew says, “When he saw the wind” (kind of a funny phrase) “he was afraid”.

Simply put, Peter took his eyes off Jesus. A theme in the Sermon on the Mount was keeping a singular focus on Christ and His Kingdom. If we focus on other things, that’s when things start to go south. Peter was living this out quite literally.

Jesus said in Matthew 6:22–23 ““The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” Where are your eyes? Are they looking to the Light of the World?

I have to wonder if James had this story in mind when he’s describing a person who prays without having that singular focus in James 1:5–8 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

Peter found himself losing focus on Jesus, and consequently he was being “driven and tossed by the wind”. Is it any surprise that Jesus says, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

And yet, despite this, Jesus did not let Peter drown. When Peter called out for salvation, Jesus “immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him”.

Even in our times of doubt, when we’ve taken our eyes off Jesus and begin to be overwhelmed by the world around us, Jesus is still there, ready to save us if we will just cry out to Him.

But I don’t think He wants us to stay there. He would much rather us just keep trusting Him in the first place, keeping our eyes firmly on Him, because Jesus doesn’t want to keep saving us from drowning. He wants us to walk on the water with Him.

Conclusion

To be fair, Jesus walking on water was an “isolated” event, and it is possible that all twelve men lied about the encounter. But John points out that the next morning, the people back in Bethsaida realized that there had only been one boat, and Jesus didn’t get on it. Once they themselves had crossed over, they were surprised to find Jesus was already there. They ask a very logical question, “....how did you do that?”

The disciples of course knew the answer. God had taken a late night stroll. They had gotten to watch it happen. And now He was calling everyone to join Him.

This week I pray that, unlike Peter, we keep our eyes planted firmly on Jesus. Don’t be distracted, don’t be afraid of “the wind”, don’t find ourselves being tossed like the waves of the sea, or being sunk by the chaos of the world. Stay focused on Jesus.