“Feed the Need”

Introduction: Turn on the television, tune in on the radio or open up the newspaper, food advertisers are constantly telling us what we need and where we can find satisfaction. For instance, “how do you handle a hungry man”, you feed him a frozen dinner. Looking for satisfaction – “only Snickers satisfies you”. Do you have a hungry teenager in need of food, “feed the need” with Chef Boyardee ravioli. One time after another we are told what we need to be satisfied and where we can get it.

Physical hunger and thirst are often used in the Bible to describe spiritual needs. For example, King David writes in psalm 63, “My soul thirsts for You, my body longs for you” and again in psalm 42, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants after You, O God”. Matthew writes, “ Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled”. Our focus today is on Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, who supplies all our needs.

Background: Jesus miracle of feeding the five thousand is recorded in all four gospels. It takes place about a year before our Lord would go to Jerusalem and die. Jesus had just learned that King Herod had killed John the Baptist by cutting off his head. The voice of the prophet crying in the wilderness had been silenced. T he way of the Lord had been prepared. Jesus, upon hearing the news of his cousin John’s death, decided to take some private time in the desolate area near Bethsaida located on the eastern shore of the Jordan River and north of the Sea of Galilee. From this time on Jesus would spend more time alone with His disciples as He prepared them for the culmination of His mission, His death on the cross and the redemption of sinful humanity. Jesus went away to be alone, however the crowds followed him. They came from the surrounding towns, walking as much as eight miles. They followed Christ into the deserted land. They came with their sick. They came in their suffering and in their need. They came hungering for peace of mind and spirit. Jesus satisfied their every need.

I. Feeding the Need – Disciple Style.

The disciples just don’t seem to get it though. They had been with Jesus for two years and they still didn’t understand who Jesus was. His extraordinary presence among them had become ordinary. “As evening approached, the disciples came to Him and said, “ This is a deserted place and the hour is already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” Even though they were in the presence of the Lord Jesus, from whom all needs are met the disciples wanted to send the crowds away. It was as if the disciples thought it understandable for the people to bring their sick to Jesus for healing; but for something as mundane as food they should take care of themselves. Let the people go back to their villages. Let them go and buy food with their own money. When Jesus told them that they should give the people something to eat the disciples were indignant. They replied, “We only have five loaves of bread and two fish”. How could so little feed so many? How could the disciples say this? Weren’t they there when Jesus made wine from water at the wedding of Canaan? Had they so soon forgot all the other miracles? The disciple’s lack of faith was remarkable. They just didn’t understand who Jesus was. The extraordinary had become ordinary.

II. Feeding the Need – Jesus Style.

When Jesus saw the crowds He was moved with compassion. Another rendering of the Greek is that “He was filled with tenderness” or “His heart went out to them”. He tells the disciples that the crowds do not have to go away. The people had come to Him to hear Him teach about the Kingdom of God. They had come to Him with their sick and suffering. In Him they found hope and healing. Jesus had met their spiritual needs healed their sick. Jesus now would provide their daily bread.

A. Isaiah wrote, Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. He prophosized about what Jesus Christ would do. The Lord Jesus freely and generously provided a lavish desert feast of bread and fish. It was a fore taste of God’s coming kingdom.

B. As the incarnate Son of God, who provides for every need, the Lord Himself stood before them. This is what the disciples didn’t understand. Standing before them, clothed in the flesh of humility and weakness, was the God man Jesus Christ – the extraordinary Lord made ordinary man. Here was God that had made them and all creatures, the one who gives body and soul, eyes and ears. Here was the one that provides clothing and shoes, meat and drink, house and home, wife, children, fields, cattle and all man’s goods. Here was the Lord that richly and daily provides with all that is needed to support body and life. He does all this purely out of His divine goodness, mercy and compassion. The Lord was teaching them to rely on Him for all things, to ask, seek and knock…and receive.

III. Disciples Did, Disciples Do.

Like the disciples we may be come forgetful and unappreciative of who Jesus really was and who He is now in our lives. Like the disciples many of us have walked with Jesus a good long time. He has been at our side from our baptisms until now. By God’s grace we have believed in Him as our Savior from sin. We trust that He will give us eternal life. We know that He has blessed us. Ya! Ya! Ya! We know all this… and the temptation is for the extraordinary to become ordinary among us. How do we now? How often do we get so excited about what the Lord has done that we tell our neighbors – ones we don’t know. When the Lord tells us to feed our neighbors with His life giving Word do we, like the disciples, wish that our neighbors would provide for themselves…and find their own spiritual way in life? We may be pretty good at spreading the bread of God’s Word in the world though mission societies. When it comes to our surrounding communities the job gets a little messier. We’ve got to get our hands dirty and invite people to church at the risk of what other people might say. When we don’t do these things what are we saying? In a way we are saying that the extraordinary Word of God that is spoken and sung here has become ordinary. We are saying that the extraordinary presence of the Lord has become ordinary as He feeds us Himself, coming to us as bread and wine, body and blood. Surely we don’t mean it but our actions say it.

IV. Supplying Our Needs Forever.

The Lord didn’t chastise His disciples and He doesn’t chastise us. He continued to teach them and He continues to teach us about His extraordinary presence in our lives.

The Lord spoke to the disciples about the crowds. He said, “They do not need to go away”. The Lord would not separate Himself from the people. He will not separate Himself from you. The apostle Paul wrote, “ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? The answer is No One. Tribulation, distress, and persecution can’t separate you. Neither can death nor life, nor angels or demons, nor things present or things to come, height nor depth, or any other created thing, shall be able to separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You will never be separated from God because Christ allowed Himself to be separated from the Father, bearing your sin on the cross. On the cross His life was poured out in an extraordinary way for ordinary sinners as He died for all humanity.

Conclusion: As our providing and protecting Savior, Jesus Christ extends His rule into our daily lives. His rule exhibits itself in various ways, often incomplete and broken through out our earthly life. We follow Christ as we journey through life. We come to the Lord here in church like the people that came to Jesus on that deserted mountainside. We come with our sick asking the Lord to heal them in our prayers. We come in our suffering and in our need. We come hungering for peace of mind and spirit. Jesus satisfies our every need. He assures us of His presence and His power in our lives. He is our only satisfaction. The Lord feeds our every need in life. The Lord satisfies our hunger as he nourishes our souls with Himself, the true bread of life.

Matthew 14 13-21 2002

“Feed the Need”