There are some times when we just want to be alone, away from the clamoring world, sometimes even from our good friends and family. Maybe it is the stress of our work that draws us to seek solitude. Perhaps it is a deep sorrow, like the death of someone we loved. We want to be alone, perhaps to pray, to meditate, and be alone with our thoughts. If we get interrupted, if someone invades our privacy and that desire to be alone, we might not be too happy. We actually might be quite irritated. When we want to be alone, we want to be alone! In our Gospel reading for this week, we see a time when Jesus also wanted to be alone. Let’s see what happened.
Just prior to our portion of Scripture for today, there was the account of the death of John the Baptist, the cousin of the Lord Jesus. King Herod had the prophet executed, and when Jesus heard about it, He wished to be by Himself for a while to grieve and pray (vs. 13). However, the crowds and multitudes of people that He had been ministering to, the many people who had heard about the healings that Jesus had performed, wanted to see or receive more miracles for themselves. They found where the Lord had retreated, and followed Him there, demanding more of His time and attention.
What did Jesus do? Did He send the crowds away, saying He wanted to be alone at this time? Did He complain that they were really being selfish and insensitive to Him at this time of sorrow? Many of us might have felt that way, and actually felt we would have been justified in such a response. That was not the Lord’s response, though. As we read, Jesus had compassion on the crowds (vs. 14). Instead of chastising them for being inconsiderate, and for their selfishness, He healed their sick. As Matthew described them earlier, they were like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36).
We read that, rather than only thinking of Himself and the needs He had at the time, Jesus had compassion on the people. Compassion is God’s natural response to human suffering. When these crowds searched Him out and followed Him, Jesus ministered to them, refusing to ignore the needy.
After Jesus spent the whole day caring for the people and the sick who came to Him, the disciples came to the Lord in the early evening, saying that it was time to send the crowds home (vs. 15). The people had gone all day without food. If they were going to find any at the markets, they would need to leave before dark. Jesus’ compassion wasn’t just limited to healing the sick and teaching about God and His Word. It extended to feeding physical hunger, too.
As we read on, Jesus instructed the disciples to give them some food. That was an astonishing surprise. How would the disciples find enough food to adequately feed the huge crowd? They only had food for a small meal for one person, just a fish sandwich (vs. 17). Jesus took that small meal, and performed a miracle, by multiplying the food so that it was enough for the crowds. Everyone had enough! So much so that there were twelve baskets of leftovers after the people ate their fill (vs. 20). Matthew records here that there were about 5,000 men in the crowds. That number didn’t even include the women and children. There easily could have been over 15,000 there, when you count wives and children. The Lord Jesus had compassion on each and every one of them, so much so that He made sure that they each had enough to eat, rather than going home hungry!
Are you facing a situation where you do not have enough? Perhaps your pantry and refrigerator are empty, and there are hungry mouths to feed. Perhaps your wallet is empty, and your bank account just doesn’t have enough to get by for the month, the week, or even the day. Jesus’ compassion wasn’t just limited to the people that followed Him around. He sees that you are hungry. He sees that you have bills to pay and not enough funds to get by on, and He has compassion on you!
The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle that is recorded in all four Gospel accounts. (Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; and John 6:1-13). What Jesus was originally given, the five loaves (probably not much bigger than a dinner roll), and two small fish, seemed insufficient, but in His hands, it became more than enough. Our contributions to Jesus may seem meager, but Jesus can use and multiply whatever we give Him. When we give what we have to Jesus, He can multiply it. We may think that what we have to offer God is small, but we should bring it to Him anyway. Little is much if God is in it!
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