Matthew 14 has always been a favorite passage of mine because you can see so deeply into the humanity of Jesus. We often focus on the feeding of the 5000, which in itself is an amazing story, but this miracle is bracketed by Jesus’ own personal struggles and heartache. At the beginning of the chapter, He receives word about the death of John the Baptist (his cousin) and it says, “When Jesus heard about it, he withdrew from there by boat to a remote place to be alone” 14:13a. Yet, the crowd who was concerned about their own needs followed Him and, amazingly, the Savior pulls Himself from His own need for solitude and prayer to heal them, minister to them and eventually feed them. Then after the feeding of the 5000, He dismisses the crowds and sends the disciples on ahead in the boat so He can be alone and pray. Yet, from His vantage point on the mountain, He sees the disciples (once again) struggling and battered, so He goes to them walking on the water.
Meditate on this picture of Jesus; a Jesus who is fully God but also fully man, who needs to recharge and refresh, but who is also torn by the needs of His disciples and the lost around Him. Now, contrast that with the picture of the disciples in the feeding of the 5000. Like Christians throughout history, they were able to come up with all the reasons why they should NOT help people. Their reasoning for not feeding the crowds in vs. 15-17 are the same reasons that I continually hear the church making today for why she cannot fulfill the commission God has given her. This place (where we are located) is a bad place… It’s already too late (this is not a good time)… and we don’t have enough money (we only have 5 loaves and 2 fishes). Not very original is it? It seems like we are always blaming the people/place, the time or our lack of resources for why we can’t do the thing that God has told us to do. Jesus had said to them, “They don’t need to go away, you give them something to eat.” 14:16.
If we put as much energy into accomplishing the task as we do into making excuses the job might already be finished. The big mistake the disciples made is the same one that we are still making. They looked at the creator of the place and said “This is a bad place”; they looked at the God who is outside of time and said, “This is not a good time”; they looked at the one who owns everything and said, “We don’t have enough.” The answer was right there before them, but instead, they looked at THEIR circumstances and THEIR resources. Whatever God has tasked you to do, and especially as it relates to the Great Commission, stop making excuses and start leaning into Him; He is the answer. As you look at the needs all around you and tend to feel overwhelmed and want to run away, consider the Savior who also faced those same burdens (and greater) and yet ran to the problems and needs, not away from them.
