Broken pieces - walking on water - miracles - Just another day

Matthew 14:13-36 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

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 contain enough revelation of the character and identity of Christ and our identity in Him that we could spend days or even weeks mining this text for nuggets for our own lives. The text begins with Jesus having heard that John, His cousin and fellow minister of the gospel of the kingdom, had been killed by the government authority. Jesus withdrew, to a secluded place to be alone. But when Jesus withdrew it was not solitude He sought, rather Jesus withdrew from the demands of His ministry to focus on and fellowship with His Father. We too should learn to withdraw and retreat not to solitude which can leave us feeling alone and hopeless, like Elijah when he hid from Jezebel in 1 Kings 19:3-4

 And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. ⁴ But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.”  

God though, pursued Elijah and fed him and encouraged him to continue. If we will go to God, run to His presence in our most difficult times we too will find the comfort and encouragement we need. God’s exhortation and promise is:  ^“Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”(Deuteronomy 31:6)  

Still the people came to seek Jesus. It seems that there was no rest for Him. In John 4:34, Jesus reveals a truth we can apply. He had been ministering and His disciples returned with food and encouraged Him to eat.    Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”     Often when we are weary from the trials and difficulties of our own lives the best thing we can do is not to indulge ourselves, not to focus on our own circumstance, but rather to do God’s work. Jesus says: Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:29) There is both a rest and a revitalization that comes when we join with Christ to do the Father’s will.

When we look at the feeding of the 5000 men plus the women and children with 5 loaves and 2 fish we see more than just a miracle of God’s provision. Indeed we are told not to worry about the things we need. Jesus says: “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?  for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”Matthew 6:31-33) We see though in this account that Jesus took what was there and He blessed it and broke it. After all were satisfied there was more than when they started. That’s how God works in our lives. Romans 8:28-29 says:  And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son,   God takes what we are, all the good and all the bad, and He breaks us and blesses us, in the end there is much more than when we began. We are conformed to the image of Jesus, restored to the image of God as we were created. Through the breaking and the blessing we too can feed thousands in God’s hands.

Next we move to another powerful demonstration of who Jesus is and who we are in Him. The text says:     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.    Again we see Jesus going alone to the presence of His Father and we see the disciples alone overwhelmed by the tribulation of the world. Jesus comes to them, as He always will come to us when we are in distress.    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.”   Now we see the true miracle in this account, not that Jesus walked all that distance to them on the water but rather:       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.    Peter walked on water!  Jesus is God, while He had a body of flesh, He was God in flesh. Peter was an ordinary man. No different than you and I. Yet by faith in Christ he walked on water.  Then comes the but.     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?”      Jesus says you of little faith, but really it is not the size of our faith that is in question. After all Jesus says: “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.” So it was not the size of Peter’s faith but rather it was the object of his faith that caused him to sink. When Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and began to see the wind and the waves he believed more in them than he did in Jesus.   Hebrews 12:2 offers us the key to our faith, it says:   fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.    

Our faith must be in Christ alone. He endured the cross that we might be saved, redeemed, reconciled to God and restored to His image.  Jesus says:     Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. ¹³ Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. (John 14:12-14)

If we will keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we will see not Just the Jesus who walked as a man, but rather we will see the risen Jesus, the King of kings and we will see the Father, with our eyes and our faith fixed there in the kingdom of heaven, nothing on earth will be impossible. We will be both the prayer and the answer to the prayer which says: Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.    Amen.