Healing the sick. Abundant provision. Waking on water. Just an ordinary day.

Matthew 14:13-36

Five Thousand Fed

¹³ Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself; and when the people heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities. ¹⁴ When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.

¹⁵ When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” ¹⁶ But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!” ¹⁷ They *said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” ¹⁸ And He said, “Bring them here to Me.” ¹⁹ Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, ²⁰ and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. ²¹ There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children.

Jesus Walks on the Water

²² Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away. ²³ After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone. ²⁴ But the boat was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves; for the wind was contrary. ²⁵ And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea. ²⁶ When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. ²⁷ But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

²⁸ Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” ²⁹ And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ³⁰ But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” ³¹ Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and *said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” ³² When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. ³³ And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!”

³⁴ When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. ³⁵ And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent word into all that surrounding district and brought to Him all who were sick; ³⁶ and they implored Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were cured.

Today's text, these 23 verses from Matthew 14 are so rich and jam packed with truths we can apply in our lives that it will be difficult to do it justice in this brief format. One plus is that through the other gospel accounts, Mark, Luke and John some of these things will be revisited so we can go deeper as the Lord leads.

As we begin with the feeding of the five thousand let's first take note of the contrast we see here compared to yesterday when Jesus was in His home town of Nazareth. There the people questioned Jesus authority because they were familiar with His background. They knew Jesus as a man so they did not have faith in His deity. Here the crowds are responding to what they have seen and heard about Jesus. The miracles, the evidence of Jesus authority draw the people and because they believe it says "He  felt compassion for them and healed their sick." 

The other thing I want to look at in this account is the miracle beyond the miracle. Jesus  takes these 5 loaves and 2 fish and blesses them and feeds possibly over 10000 people. There were 5000 men plus the women and children. The miracle beyond the miracle though is that with God's provision there was no rationing of the food. There was not just a small morsel given to each person. The abundance of the provision of God was such that when all were satisfied thet picked up 12 baskets full of broken pieces. That's how God's provision is. Ephesians 3:20-21 speaks of the immeasurable abundance of God's ability and provision.

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Do you see that additional part?  "according to his power that is at work within us," God's provision and abundance should flow through us according to His power(the Holy Spirit) that is within us.

Jesus then, takes this opportunity, after displaying the immeasurable abundance of God's provision, Jesus teaches a lesson in good stewardship of the blessings of God. He has the disciples pick up what is left over so that none would be wasted. We too need to value and treasure all of God's blessings and provision. We need to not take lightly the blood that Jesus shed for the sin of all people. The broken pieces had value in Jesus eyes and so should every broken person have value in ours.

As we look in closing at the account of Jesus walking on the water it is again the miracle beyond the miracle that I value so deeply in this text. For me while the headline says "Jesus walks on the water", that's not the real miracle here. I believe Jesus being God had complete authority over all the natural laws, so His walking on water was evidence of who He was more than something unexpected. The real miracle is that Peter walked on water!  

²⁸ Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” ²⁹ And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ³⁰ But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” ³¹ Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and *said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” ³² When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. ³³ And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!”

This account of Peter walking on water is such a vital and foundational picture of our faith, we need to truly get hold of the depth of it for our own lives. Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. Can you picture him walking toward Jesus intently gazing into Jesus eyes? That's where his faith was rooted. Jesus was the object of the faith that allowed Peter to walk on water. Then the circumstances cause Peter to look away from Jesus face. Instead of seeing Jesus, Peter sees the storm that surrounds him. 

 2 Corinthians 5:7 says  we walk by faith, not by sight . This is the truth we see in Peter's walking on water. As long as he/we kept/keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and not the circumstances we see, we can walk through the storm. Hebrews 12:2 says  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, 

Two final things we see in this account. First there is the power of prayer and, Jesus response when we cry out in need. We sometimes get caught up in our own routines and rituals regarding our prayers. We have certain steps we think we need to complete before we can ask God for help. We praise, we repent, give thanks all of which are important parts of our relationship with God . But those things should be part of our life not just part of our prayer time, so that when we like Peter find ourselves sinking, all we need to do is cry out  “Lord, save me!” That's a powerful prayer. Jesus response is Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him. Jesus response is immediate. If Peter had taken the time to work his way to the place where he could speak to God, he would have been on the bottom of the lake. We need to live and walk in God's presence in such a way that we can cry out to Him in our time of need.

It seems almost unfair then of Jesus to say to Peter  “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”. After all peter was the only one who got out of the boat in the first place. But here again we see that it really isn't the size or the amount of faith that we have. A little faith is enough as long as that faith is fixed squarely on Jesus.

Jesus says in Matthew 17:20 ... truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

Mustard seed faith will move mountains. If we will keep our eyes fixed on Jesus the object of our faith, then the size of our faith matters very little. When we recognize that it is God the father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit who do all things we don't need big faith because He is a big God.   I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.(Philippians 4:13) Mustard seed faith can move mountains. Faith fixed on Jesus can allow us to walk above the storms of this life.  We can do all things, nothing will be impossible to us, with our faith fixed firmly in Jesus.

Thank You Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit. You are the author and perfecter, the object of my faith.  Amen