You give them something to eat: A Meditation on Matthew 14

And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, 

and was moved with compassion toward them, 

and he healed their sick.

And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, 

This is a desert place, and the time is now past; 

send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, 

and buy themselves victuals.

But Jesus said unto them, 

They need not depart; give ye them to eat.

The story of Jesus feeding the multitude in Matthew 14 reveals a number of things that might go unnoticed in too quick a read of a familiar passage.  It could first be noted that Jesus retreated to the wilderness to be alone after hearing that His cousin, John the Baptist, had been unjustly beheaded in prison by the wicked King Herod.  Being fully human like all of us, except without sin, Jesus was impacted by the murderous death of his kinsman, and perhaps like many of us, desired time to be alone in His mourning.  Regardless of his grief, thousands of people followed Him into the wilderness to receive from Him wisdom and healing.  Like mobs in our own day, they tend to be somewhat careless in pursuing what they desire, inconsiderate of the sufferings or struggles of others around them, or perhaps even of the sorrows they inflict upon those from whom they demand their interests.  Such was the mob— 5000 men, plus women and children— who flocked to Jesus in His grief over the loss of His cousin, begging of Him the healing of their bodies and souls.

Despite His own pain, Jesus looked on the crowd with compassion, and healed their sick.  He embraced them, taught them, cared for them, and made them whole.  When the day was far spent, and Jesus’ disciples realized how remote they all were (and perhaps how tired they themselves had become,) the disciples urged Jesus to send the multitude away, ostensibly so the people could buy themselves food.  Surrounded by thousands of demanding, insensitive, selfish, and needful people, far from the comforts and resources of a local village, likely exhausted both physically and emotionally, Jesus took the opportunity to teach His disciples something about the way they would be called to serve both God and their neighbor.

To get their attention, Jesus told His disciples that they need not send the people away for want of food, but rather that they should give the people food.  In shocked disbelief, the disciples responded that they could identifying no more than a little bread and fish which wouldn’t even begin to address the people’s needs, and He directed them to bring the food to Him.  While the people’s resources were woefully insufficient for the task of feeding thousands of hungry people, Jesus took the small offering, multiplied it exponentially, and distributed the gifts back to the people through His disciples.  What the people had to offer could not save or nourish them, and the disciples were powerless in themselves to redistribute their resources in a way that could save or nourish the people.  However, when it was Jesus giving His gifts, the resources were boundless for every soul’s need, with abundance and excess filling baskets of reserve.  Learning a point that Jesus would later make clear to His disciples before His Passion, apart from Him, the disciples could do nothing— they could not save, nourish, teach, feed, cloth, heal, or otherwise care for the people apart from Him.  The offerings and works of people are laughably insufficient for the needs of even an individual soul, let alone the souls of the whole world; but the gifts of God’s mercy, forgiveness, grace, and life are of super-abundance beyond the imaginations of every mortal mind.  Those who would seek to save or serve themselves are destined to ruin, but those who receive the good gifts of God by His hand are nourished and preserved, no matter where they may be.

It is also important to note that Jesus provides all these riches of grace and mercy through His own appointed means, and according to His own divine terms.  He doesn’t tell the crowd to create a communal body politic and establish utopia through a secular government.  He doesn’t direct the people to wander around in the wilderness and try to find God behind the beauty and severity of nature.  He doesn’t tell the people to work harder at their own salvation, and bring better gifts to the table.  He doesn’t tell people to become self-feeding entities who solve their hunger before approaching Him.  He doesn’t tell the people to clean themselves up and make themselves presentable or worthy for the feast.  Rather, Jesus directs the people to hear Him, to obey Him, and the receive by faith and repentance the good gifts He pours out through the hands and mouths of His servants.  What the people needed was not in their power to earn or manipulate out of God, but rather it was the free gift of grace which could only be received by faith.  What they disciples had to offer was nothing more than what Jesus would give to them to distribute in His Name, according to His own design and institution.

And so Jesus comes to His people today.  He has established His Word as the foundation of the world, and the fundamental Means of His grace.  To every soul He offers the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation by repentance and faith in Him, carried out into all the world through the servants He raises up to declare His Law and Gospel, and administer His Sacraments as He established and ordained them.  While Jesus comes to give His gifts to all mankind, He does not leave such gifts to human imagination or machination.  Instead, He works through people according to His Word and Sacraments, to give the super-abundance of grace, mercy, and life which everyone of every time and place so desperately needs.  Thus we learn, with the disciples who labored with Him in the wilderness and disciples of every age, that we ought not waste our lives looking for Jesus apart from where He has declared Himself always to be, and we ought never doubt that He is always at work for our salvation in His Word and Sacraments which He ordained and established for us in His divine love and compassion.

Hear the Word of the Lord come to you this day, that you might turn from the empty pursuits of human works to save your weary soul, and rather rest before the crucified and risen Jesus, who pours out to you freely by His grace the salve which you so desperately need, which is the very medicine of immortality and the bread of eternal life.  Amen.