Matthew 15:21-31 Jesus and the Canaanite Woman

New Living Translation Chapter 14

Jesus Feeds Five Thousand

13 As soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone. But the crowds heard where he was headed and followed on foot from many towns. 14 Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

15 That evening 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 food for themselves.”

16 But Jesus said, “That isn’t necessary—you feed them.”

17 “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish!” they answered.

18 “Bring them here,” he said. 19 Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples, who distributed it to the people. 20 They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers. 21 About 5,000 men were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children!

Jesus sought time to be alone after hearing disturbing news. Are we seeking time to be alone after hearing disturbing news?

Question:

How many times do we rely on logic instead of the Lord?

How many times do we allow our heart/the soil of our hearts to get thorny because we are not seeing God move in our lives like He moves in others?

Do we believe that there will be leftover for us and then some?

I think that this is a message for today. A time that is unprecedent in our history. We must rely on what we see as truths in this scripture:

God moves in the illogical. Does that mean be stupid? no.

Bible Verse - Notes

Verse 13-14

This is the first of two related feeding miracles. We see this great contrast between Herod’s lavish meal and Jesus’ meal. We have this contrast of gathering to solitude. From conceit to compassion. There is a direct contrast of Herod and Jesus.

By this time Jesus’ ministry more people were hearing and curious about who He was and what He was doing. Herod was curious and afraid because he recently murdered John the Baptist for condemning his marriage to his brother’s wife. The verses that Martha taught on last week from Matthew 14:1-13 showed me that Herod wasn’t planning on killing John the Baptist. It was really Herodias’ plan and she used her own daughter to do the deed. Herod wasn’t planning on murdering someone and definitely was not planning on losing face. He wanted his word to Herodias’ daughter that was made in front of all this guest to be his word. So he killed John the Baptist because John said things that they did not like.

We should be prepared for it. Jesus experienced it and it was from His words and hands that miracles came forth. People still didn’t believe Him! So why are we getting so offended and upset when people don’t believe us?

Wake up! We are in a post-Christian world. Our words about saying we are people of faith doesn’t mean much. It has to match our action or we’re just hypocrites.

Jesus had a plan to be alone but he had compassion for the people.

It would make sense why He would want to be alone:

He’s human and needed rest.

Jesus heard about what happened to John and did not want to stir up more unnecessary attention

Most importantly, he knew that He had to meet with God before he met with people. Jesus continually shows us healthy patterns of ministry and rest.

There will be a place and a time where things do not go according to plan. Heck! We’re in it right now! But it should be the compassion for people that makes interruptions worthwhile. Nothing in our life has gone as planned yet it should be the compassion of seeing the sick and seeing the needs that calls believers to action.

Matthew recounts Jesus healing people. Mark recounts Jesus teaching people and Luke says both. Repetition in Biblical narrative means that it is very important. This story of the miraculous feeding of thousands was in multiple gospels which means it is very important for us to learn. A little later I will teach on the how this is important outside of what we have learned about how this is important.

The most important actions during this time are prayer, praise and practical needs! Be the helper!

Verse 15-17

It made sense for the disciples to tell Jesus to send the people home. In fact in seemed caring. It’s getting dark outside so its maybe time to leave. But Jesus takes their logical and turns it into an illogical situation where they have to depend on Him.

Jesus deliberately invites the disciples to participate in the experience.

How could He ask them to do that? How could they possibly feed the crowd?

When something is in our hands, it is ordinary.

When something is in Jesus’ hands, it’s extraordinary.

And by His grace He invites us to participate in the extraordinary.

The disciples had the leftovers and I think that is a promise that we will also get to partake in what God is doing for others. How do we partake? Our faith grows when we see people do things in other’s lives if we believes that He loves us just as much as He loves them. Jesus didn’t just feed the people. He fed His disciples too.

It is time for believers to participate in the extraordinary that Jesus invites us to when we love, serve and pray in ways that do not make sense.

It would have made sense for the disciples send everyone to go get their own food and provisions because we all know Jesus and the gang were not wealthy! They did not have the practical resources to provide yet Jesus was going to show them supernatural provision.

Verse 18-21

Something about “bring them here” reminded me of Jesus’ invitation earlier in the book of Matthew.

Matthew 11:28

The invitation to come to him and the command to bring them to him makes me stop in my reading tracks. I want to marinate on that. I want to marinate on the fact that Jesus invites people to come to Him and He commands His followers to bring people to Him. Not to us. Not to our building. Not to our programs but to Jesus, Himself.

Miracles don’t happen when we bring people to ourselves. Miracles happen when we bring people to Jesus.

The order in which we see Jesus “took, blessed/gave thanks, broke and gave” is a foretaste of a central act of worship of the emergent Christian community.

The act to take, bless, break and give foreshadows communion. But we should stop here to acknowledge that this wasn’t just some picnic in the field. There is deeper meaning here.

Anakliomai is the command to sit down which literally means recline.

Bread and fish were basic Galilean rations but this was no ordinary meal. The command to sit down aka recline alludes to a banquet more than a picnic. Jesus taking the bread and blessing it before people eating it is a normal part before a meal AND usually done by the head of a Jewish family.

Take

Bless

Break

Give

This also alludes to the life that we are called to live.

Blessed and broken for the sake of Kingdom.

These four verbs of “take, bless, break and give” occur with minor variations in all six accounts of the two miraculous feedings but also in the accounts of the Last Supper.

So why 5000?

I have always wondered this because it seems like a pretty solid estimate. It is likely that Matthew just traditional OT convention which was counting men rather than the whole population. Remember that Matthew’s audience was Jewish people. His goal was to convince them why Christ would be considered the Messiah. It would make sense for him to use conventions that they would understand.

This is about the provision of God.

Two OT passages come to mind: the miraculous provision of bread in a lonely place in Exodus 16 and the details of the story echo Elisha’s miracle feeding of a 100 men with 20 loaves in 2 Kings 4:42-44.

This is about the power of God.

This is about the path that Jesus leads us on.

Jesus will continually and consistently invites us to walk on the paths were our faith has to be stretched. Where we see the logical and He asks us to trust Him for the illogical. The disciples being with Jesus didn’t mean they were popular but it was becoming a little dangerous. Last week Martha talked about the persecution that all believers when we choose lean into Kingdom work.

This story doesn’t make sense with faith and trust. Two key elements of what it means to walk with Jesus.

Faith and trust especially in a time of unknown.

Faith Challenges?

Usually we do a takeaway when we we are going to start doing faith challenges:`

How can you grow in your faith and trust in Jesus this week?

How can you help someone else in our church grow in their faith and trust in Jesus this week?

How can you help someone else in your neighborhood grow in their faith and trust in Jesus this week?