People Everywhere (Jesus and the Five Thousand)

Matthew 14:13‑21

People Everywhere

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.

herever Jesus was, people surrounded Him.  The press of the people crowding about Him distressed both His family and His disciples.  His family was convinced that because of the pressure arising from the people surrounding Him He was out of His mind.  His disciples were unable to cope with either the moral or ethical demands imposed by the needs resident among such large numbers of people.  Jesus came to reach people, and His presence was a powerful attraction to the multitudes, even as He yet draws multitudes to Himself to this day.

This is not to say that Jesus deliberately sought out crowds – He did not.  Throughout the Word we see the Master constantly seeking to be alone with the Father.  Some of the instances of Jesus seeking out a solitary place with the Father are recorded in Matthew 15:29-39; Mark 1:35-37; 8:1-4; Luke 4:42-44 and Luke 9:10-17.  John, also, wrote of this incident, noting that the place where the people crowded about Jesus was grassy [John 6:10], an observation which Matthew makes obliquely in our text.  Unlike many, perhaps even most, of the undershepherds who claim to speak in His Name, the Lord Jesus endeavoured to find respite in the quiet presence of the Father.  Though willing to minister to the multitudes, He longed for time alone with the Father.  Nevertheless, when the people crowded about Him, He was compassionate, caring for their needs and willing to be inconvenienced for their sakes.  Join me in an examination of this particular text, applying the events to our own congregation, and perhaps to your home church.

The Crowd’s Cry – Not a person spoke of his need, but a cry nevertheless arose before the Lord of Glory.  Our Lord was always alert to the anguished cry of humanity, especially when it was unheard by human ears.  In a recent message I spoke of standing on Burnaby Mountain, overlooking the cities of Burnaby and Vancouver.  Standing with me was a preacher visiting from the States.  Watching the lights twinkle below us, he spoke of the beauty of that great city, mentioning especially the way in which the lights shone like jewels below us.  I commented to that preacher that each light represented a broken heart … a shattered family, a loved one lost, a family stressed beyond hope of recovery.

Too many of us are able to look upon the beauty about us without hearing the cries of hopelessness coming from those living in that beauty.  When we were preparing to come to Jasper/Valemount, a member of one of the churches cautioned us that we were stepping into the devil’s minefield.  While I am not yet ready to concede that, I am perfectly willing to say that living in this area is a bit like living on the edge of a beautiful cesspool.  Because so many have left family and faith behind when they moved here, the hurt and injury to hearts is magnified throughout this region.

What is interesting is that those hurting the most will insist that they are doing all right.  Everything is fine, except for the silent cry emanating from each broken heart.  Isn’t it interesting that the greater our freedom, the greater the mess we create.  The more we take control, the more we complicate matters.  I haven’t time to provide complete documentation for such an assertion, but I note just a few instances.

We were told that abortion on demand would alleviate the threat resulting from rampant population growth and that it would save women from back alley butchers who were supposedly preying on such naïve individuals.  No one told us about the increased incident of cervical cancer, infertility and emotional trauma resulting from legalised slaughter of the unborn.  Those who were so crass twenty-five years ago to warn that such a move would make murder of the elderly or the gravely ill were guffawed into silence.  Jack Kervorkian, the Oregon assisted suicide bill and the Dutch experience indicates that lowering the barriers which kept us from murder of the innocent was not as wise an idea as we first thought, and as the boomers age they near that time when they are obligated to take their own lives.

We were told that birth control was empowering for women, yet in every year since introduction of the pill, the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancies have increased.  Having produced a generation of survivors of the human abattoirs, we who are nearing retirement are eyed with increasing suspicion and warned that we are obligated to move aside.  We were told that socialised medicine would insure that everyone had access to health care.  We were not told that the system would be as expensive as it has proved to be, nor that some routine procedures would be unavailable or that on occasion we would have to content ourselves with less vigorous intervention than we had expected.  We were told that welfare was the mark of a compassionate nation, but we could not have realised that a growing number of fellow citizens would so avail themselves of that social safety net that they would see it as a right and eventually make resort to that system a way of life.  The more we have tampered with the divine system of provision, the greater has been the messes we have encountered.

We were told that our children needed money in order to buy the things we couldn’t otherwise afford.  As mothers began to work, children began to suffer with the loss of parental supervision.  Governments castigated parents for not doing their job, and then because government is addicted to the increased tax revenue parents who did choose to stay home were penalised.  Again government stepped in to provide child welfare agencies who would direct parents how to raise their children.  More children are abused – physically, emotionally, sexually – in these systems now then were ever injured or hurt before.  Educators assured us that our children needed self-esteem more than the ability to read or count, and today we have the spectre of children shooting children because they feel “dissed.”  We witness young people who though feeling good about themselves are unable to read and now applying for jobs for which they are unqualified.

Compounding the problems created by liberal doses of human compassion divorced from divine restraints is the heartache attending every downward step away from self-sufficiency and self-respect.  The greater our demand for self-esteem, the less we esteem ourselves.  The less we esteem ourselves, the greater our sense of sorrow.  The greater human sorrow, the louder the cry ascending to the Lord of Glory.  In the midst of such human heartache and sorrow is situated the church … the people of God … the disciples of the Lord Christ.  If we fail to hear the cry and fail to see the sorrow, it is only because we have ceased looking with the eyes of Christ and ceased hearing with His ears.

The crowd spoke not a word as it pursued Jesus even into this remote place in His search for a respite, but the presence of their sick and hurting touched His heart.  The text tells us that He had compassion on them and healed their sick.  The Gospels carefully note that He taught them many things about the Kingdom of God [Mark 6:34; Luke 9:11].  The ministry of compassion continued throughout the day and into the evening.  The people, in their eagerness to be near the Master, were now hungry and weakened.

I wonder if we who name the Name of Christ hear the cry of the crowd about us.  Do we hear the cry of the young woman whose body is used for the gratification of the lust of some man?  Do we hear her silent sob as she realises the emphasis upon self-respect will never be fulfilled through giving away her purity?  Do we hear the quiet cry of the young man who longs to make something of his life, but who has been shunted onto a dead-end street because he was told that self-esteem was of greater importance than is the ability to read and write?  The youth who have bought into the lie that only through drunkenness and immorality can they find fun instead of seeking fulfilment through sobriety and godliness are all about us.  Can we hear their cry?

The elderly who live in fear as the loneliness of old age approaches are with us, can we hear their cry?  An elderly woman told me this week of having to hire a housekeeper at ten dollars an hour because the province will not provide such care.  The reason such care is not available is because she can cut her own toenails, even though she cannot walk without oxygen and even though she hasn’t the strength to push a vacuum.  Do we care?  Christ does.

The Disciples’ Dilemma – The disciples were discerning.  They saw the same needs Jesus saw, but they were unable to suggest a proper response.  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.  They were not unaware of the need of the people who were waiting before the Master.  Their assessment was that the people were responsible to provide relief for their need.  The disciples were evidently convinced by that passage in the Book of Hesitations, The Lord helps those who help themselves.

The Master responded to His disciples’ recommendation, which incidentally displayed more discernment than zeal for the things of God.  They do not need to go away.  You give them something to eat.  There was an emphasis placed upon you … You yourselves, give the hungering people something to eat.  The response of these men reveals their pathetic inability to address the cry of the people surrounding the Master.  We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish.  Nor were these victuals produced spontaneously; they were discovered when the Master pushed them to seek out how much food there might be among the people [Mark 6:38].  That which they found was not theirs, but had been held in the lunch of a boy among the thronging crowd [John 6:8,9].

The food which they found was humble fare – five small barley loaves and two small fish [John 6:9].  John is careful to denote that each item was small, emphasising the inadequacy of the provision they discovered.  There was neither plenty nor variety.  In the hands of the disciples, this food seemed pitifully small compared to the need confronting them.  Perhaps if the disciples carefully rationed themselves this food would sustain the twelve for a day; but in no way would such food feed a crowd of five thousand men and perhaps an equal number of women and children.  The people had been feasting upon spiritual manna, and the disciples were concerned that God would provide a table in the wilderness.

The disciples’ dilemma, simply stated, was whether to care for the physical need of the crowd or address their spiritual need.  As I read the several accounts of this incident, I conclude that the disciples had become increasingly restive, perhaps coming before the Master with increasing frequency as the day wore on.  They saw the physical need and concluded that though this was the immediate and pressing need, they were unable to care for the people.  They further failed to realise that the greater need of the crowd was already being addressed.  Listen carefully to the Word of God.

The first and greatest need is to discover the will of God and then to do that will.  Seek first [God’s] kingdom and His righteousness [Matthew 6:33].  We recite the verse, but we are hard pressed to put it into practise.  We become so occupied with the moment that we have time neither to seek Christ’s kingdom nor His righteousness as we try to suggest ways for the crowd to care for its needs.  You will no doubt recall that Mary chose to sit before the Master and she was commended as having chosen what is better [Luke 10:42].  To pursue the will of God with our whole heart is the better choice.  To seek out the will of God, to follow hard after His righteousness, this is the wiser choice.

We become enmeshed in the tangles of human emotion and forget that love is far greater than what we think we feel.  Our eyes become clouded by the momentary hurt witnessed in an individual’s life and we set aside the works of eternal compassion.  All the while we congratulate ourselves that we have done the will of God.  That which fails to confront men and women in their sin, calling them to righteousness is no compassion at all.  That which is content to ignore the greatest need is no compassion at all.

Our actions in the world will reveal our priorities.  If our priority is to make people feel good about themselves, we will make every effort to keep the peace and to avoid making anyone wince as we endeavour to minister to them.  If our priority is to honour God, we will speak the truth in love, even though that speaking prove to be painful.  Whether we love God supremely or not will be revealed in our response to human hurt and suffering.  Those in pain are seldom capable of telling us what is needed.  They only want the pain to stop, and the very pain they are experiencing may well be the greatest good in their life.

The disciples created a dilemma in their own minds by pitting one need against another.  Whenever we create such a dilemma, the physical will always seen to be the greater need in our eyes.  Sustaining life and meeting the needs of this life, these are the greatest need in our minds.  We have perhaps each one said, “We must first care for the stomach and then we can minister to the heart.”  Some have decided that we cannot fill empty hearts when the people are suffering with empty stomachs.  The challenge yet before us is that which the disciples had heard, but now ignored.  Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes [Matthew 6:25]?

Have you ever heard the term, the tyranny of the urgent?  Though we have an appointment with an individual, the warble of the telephone always demands an immediate answer.  Though sitting before a spiritual advisor, the jangling telephone will always be answered.  No matter that we have an appointment and expect the full attention of the one to whom we speak.  It is nothing less than the demand that the planned day must be adjusted to accommodate the immediate request.

Something like that happens to us as disciples of the Lord.  We determine that the spiritual is really the most important element of life, but the immediate hurt of an individual redirects our focus.  Instead of evangelism, we do relief.  Instead of providing sound biblical counsel, we address the immediate expression of pain.  We cover and hide the hurt instead of dealing with it that it may heal.  Nothing much has changed in the two millennia since our Lord walked among men.

The Master’s Method – Our Lord met both, the physical need and the spiritual need.  In saying this, I do not mean to leave the impression that Jesus was unaware of human suffering.  In our text we note that He had compassion on the people and thus healed their sick [Matthew 14:14].  Mark’s Gospel states that He had compassion on the crowd because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  Thus He began teaching them many things [Mark 6:34].  Doctor Luke says that Jesus welcomed the crowds and spoke to them about the Kingdom of God even as He healed those in need of healing [Luke 9:11].

I suggest that Jesus saw that those to whom He would minister were human, requiring those aspects common to all human life.  They did need food, and He was prepared to provide them with such.  However, His compassion for their physical need did not override His divine compassion, which saw them as sheep without a shepherd and in need of spiritual food.

Jesus had asked Philip how they would provide for such a crowd [John 6:5].  The question seems to have been asked in a teasing manner since the disciples were beginning to stir about and perhaps suggest that it had been a full day.  Now it was time to send the people home.  After all, they were no doubt hungry, having been standing before the Master all day long.  Andrew, aware of the question that Jesus had asked Philip blurted out that he had found a lad with the five loaves and two fish.  He added the commentary, But how far will they go among so many [John 6:9]?

Before we explore the Master’s precise method, I call your attention to the broader issue that Jesus answered both the physical and spiritual needs of the people.  Nevertheless, the spiritual was always of greater importance in the mind of our Lord.  The church does more to relieve human suffering incidentally than do all the governmental plans and schemes of this fallen world.  The church provides this relief of human misery in the course of fulfilling her first mandate, which is to disciple all peoples and to glorify God.  But where the church emphasises first relief of human suffering, neglecting spiritual food, the work of God shortly dies down to a weekly rummage sale.

The Lord first received that which was to be distributed.  Bring them to me.  If we will honour the Master, that which we think to employ in His service must be brought to Him.  The five loaves and two fish were but mere food, simple fare liable to be consumed by one individual at one time so long as it remained in the hands of the disciples.  If the crowd was to be blessed, and if provision for their physical need was to be made, that which was to be distributed would need to pass to the hands of the Master.

There lies within this simple command a parable for the church.  We plan and scheme, and when we execute our plans and implement our schemes, nothing much seems to happen.  Can it be that we have failed to deliver our plans and our resources to the hands of the Master in the first place?  It is a source of some discomfort for me to observe that too often our church meetings fail to deliver our plans to the Master’s hand.  We pray that He be present as unseen chairman of the board, and then we conduct business as though He were not present.  When we do pray earnestly that He direct our thoughts and plans, even though we discover the unity of the Spirit, afterward we begin to think individually of how we should implement that which was first submitted to Him.

If we will meet the needs of those about us, we must first bring every resource to our Lord.  The principle to be applied is that we must determine what we have to offer, and then offer that to Him.  As a community of faith, let us take an inventory of our resources.  Whom has the Spirit placed among us?  What gifts are represented within the assembly of the saints?  How has the Master prepared us for service?  Discovering answers to these questions, let us determine that as a congregation we will present each to the Master that He might begin to prepare us for effective service.

At yet another level, the act of bringing what we intend for service within the human community must first be brought to Jesus if it will be useful.  I know that within this church we are generous before our God.  The giving here meets the needs of the congregation and no doubt many support various agencies and ministries beyond the church.  Here is a question for you, though.  Is your giving automatic?  Or do you prayerfully weigh what should be given in each instance?  In instructing the Corinthians in the act of giving, the Apostle stated: Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion [2 Corinthians 9:7].  The wording of the apostolic instruction would lead to the conclusion that our support is to be thoughtful.  This implies that even our gifts must be brought before the Lord, passing through His hands, if the maximum blessing is to be realised.

The Master ordered the recipients of His divine provision to be prepared.  He directed the people to sit down on the grass.  He ordered them to be seated, arranged so that none would be overlooked.  There was planning in the Master’s response to the need of the crowd.  Throughout the day the people had stood – an act of reverence in the present of the teaching of God.  Now they were to be fed and it was necessary that they be prepared for this ministry also.  Jesus directed that the people be seated in groups [Mark 6:39,40].

The principle stated speaks of planning.  While it is possible to plan the Holy Spirit right out of the church, we must nevertheless remember that God is not a God of disorder [1 Corinthians 14:33].  There is such meticulous order in nature, and a church must likewise be orderly in the conduct of its service.  There must be proper accounting of that which is administered in the Name of Christ.  There must be appropriate knowledge of the resources of the congregation so that service to the Body will not be hindered.  This requires the church to move beyond the thought that they simply plan for a worship service or two, and that they begin to think and work as a body – which they are!

Of the early church it was said that though many, they were one in heart and mind [Acts 4:32].  Perhaps that accounts for the power demonstrated among those first saints.  The leadership of the church led, giving themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word, and the members ministered with their gifts and Christ was glorified in Jerusalem, in Samaria and to the farthest reaches of the earth.

I do not see how a church can initiate a ministry, much less sustain that ministry, without planning.  Together, seeking the mind of God for the most effective employment of the resources given to the church, a congregation can effect a great change within a given community and even within the world.  I do not see how church leadership can lead effectively with occasion meetings on an ad hoc basis.  If the members are not informed and invited to participate with the wisdom God gives, how can the church act as one?

The Saviour blessed and distributed that which the disciples provided.  Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke the loaves.  The disciples inventoried their resources, brought them to the Master and then at His instruction they prepared the people for the ministry they were about to perform.  With that, our Lord blessed and distributed that which the disciples had brought.

Everything else being equal, we shall have about as much success in Christian service as we have of the Lord’s blessing.  Native talent is wonderful, but in Christian service it can be positively devastating.  So very often, you will hear someone speak of a noted individual that if only that person were a Christian he or she would do such a great work for Christ.  God does not need great names; God needs people small enough that He can display His greatness in them.  All that you are or all that you ever hope to be is insufficient to accomplish anything of a lasting nature for the cause of Christ.  It is only as we present ourselves to Him for His blessing that we can be useful in service.

The loaves and fish were just loaves and fish without the Master’s blessing.  The throng of people would remain unfed without the Master’s blessing.  The disciples were but a curiosity to the fickle crowd until blessed by God and empowered to serve as they were at Pentecost.  Just so, our resources, the people and the gifts entrusted to us as a congregation, are of no lasting value until blessed by God.  It is in the waiting upon God that we are most likely to experience impatience.  This waiting is not inaction, but rest at the ready anticipating His momentary command.

The disciples received that which was blessed and they then distributed it to the crowd.  He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.  In this action the Lord honoured His disciples.  Because of Christ gracious invitation to them to join in His work, they would henceforth be recognised as God’s fellow workers [1 Corinthians 3:9].  The disciple of Christ who serves Him delivers all that, and only that, which they have received from the Lord.  Servants can never fill people’s hearts unless Christ first fills their hands.  The preaching of the message demands time alone with God as the servant studies and seeks the mind of the Spirit.  The teaching within the context of Sunday School or a Bible study requires that the leader of that study first receive instruction from the Lord.  The ministry of compassion will be no ministry at all unless the one directing that service first be filled with the compassion of the Master.

It is an axiom of the Faith that we are responsible to administer with wisdom all that is entrusted to us.  In the parable of the talents, which Jesus told, the principle of responsibility is stressed.  We are to be wise administrators of all that the Lord has given us.  As individuals, we are responsible to employ our gifts that we received from the Spirit of God.  Again, we are to distribute those funds that God has enabled us to acquire.  Our lives and our possessions are to be offered to Him, and being blessed by Him, we enter into His work with Him.  Just so, a congregation is responsible to exercise wisdom in the administration and employment of the gifts presented by the membership, just as they are responsible to distribute the funds brought to the Lord through them each week.

Those receiving the divine largess received enough to satisfy.  They all ate and were satisfied.  The fare was simple, but sufficient; and though variety was lacking, the people were satisfied.  Barley loaves were considered food for the poorer class of people.  Fish was not a meal for nobles, but it was adequate for the need.  The blessing of God insures that a little can go a long way.  Twelve basketfuls of broken pieces would be more than sufficient to feed the disciples for several days to come.  What God blesses is enough.  What God blasts can never produce enough to satisfy.

Let me speak to you as members of a church.  Is there a rich blessing of the gifts of the members where you fellowship?  Have you prepared for ministry by inventorying the gifts which the Spirit of God has placed within the assembly?  Have you planned for success in the Christian life?  Has the Master pronounced a blessing on those gifts so that now His servants can begin to employ them to His glory?  Is the evidence such that you witness the sated of spiritual hunger among the crowded streets of the town or city wherein you live?

I wonder if here in our own congregation we have begun this process.  Where would you say we are on the divine scale as laid out in this text?  Do we know who is among us?  Are we confident in their ministry with us?  Is there sustained prayer as we bring our abilities to the Lord that He might bless them?  These questions must be answered before we dare hope to witness a gracious answer.  Individually, as you bringing all that you possess to the Saviour, asking that He use your possessions to His eternal glory?

The message is a call to examine our lives, both individually and collectively.  Examining our lives, I trust that we will be encouraged to attempt great things for God and expect great things from God.  Little is much when God is in it.  Amen.