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Upon learning about John the Baptist's death, Jesus goes off to "a solitary place," according to Matthew 14:13-36. He probably wants some alone time because wow, a really messed-up thing happened and it's not okay, and he needs to grieve/pray/question the goodness of God (maybe?).
But a huge crowd of people found out where Jesus was. And "when Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick." Did he feel like, "oh geez, I have to deal with this right now? Well I'm Jesus so I have to stop and help them... ah man..." or did he actually want to help the sick people? Because, you know, we all feel like that sometimes, right? Someone really needs help, and oh man it's just not a good time at all but you know it's the right thing and you have to...
I'm not sure how I feel about Jesus thinking helping people is such a drag...
So then we get to the part about the feeding of the "5000." I have no idea why Jesus first told his disciples (who had only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish) to feed them all. Please discuss in the comments section.
So Jesus takes the loaves and fish and somehow there's magically more, enough for everyone, with leftovers. Let's talk about that. Did that food just materialize out of nothing? What DNA did the fish have? Isn't it kind of creepy that Jesus created a fish that had never even been alive? Were the new loaves and fish just copies of the original ones?
Did the new fish and loaves bear evidence of things that never happened? Like a flat spot on the side of the loaf that had rested on the pan during cooking- except there never was a cooking. Or food in the stomach of the fish and oxygen in its blood.
Were these new fish and loaves really just like real ones, or would there be some test that would expose them as having just popped into existence? Why would God go to all the trouble of making a 100% lifelike fake fish if it was just going to be eaten 2 minutes later?
Also I'll just leave this here: Last Thursdayism. Okay now we can go on to the next part of the passage.
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Matthew writes, "The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children." And wouldn't it be great if he had written that in a different, non-sexist way. But oh well.
So in the next part, Jesus finally gets some alone time, and he goes up on a mountain to pray. Ah man I want to do that.
And when he's done, it's the middle of the night, and the disciples are all in a boat in the middle of the lake. Because Jesus told them to go. So wait, he planned it this way. He wanted to walk on water.
That's a little odd. You'd think Jesus would have a good reason for doing every miracle he did. This one just seems like he did it because THAT'S SO FREAKIN' COOL! I mean if you could walk on water, you would do it just for fun too, right?
Was it to show his power over nature and impress the disciples? Maybe? Was it because this was the most convenient way for him to get his alone time?
And at first the disciples are terrified. Because, obvious reasons. And then Peter asks Jesus to ask him to also walk on water, and there must be some sort of cultural thing I'm missing there, because "if it's you, tell me to come to you on the water" doesn't make much sense to me, at least as a way to find out if it really is Jesus.
But it's pretty cool that Peter got to do that.
And when he panicked, Jesus called him "you of little faith," but he had more faith/guts/impulsiveness than the other people who stayed in the boat.
And when the boat landed, another massive crowd came with their sick people, and Jesus healed them too. Again, I wonder if it was like a chore or he actually wanted to.
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Okay those are my thoughts as I read Matthew 14:13-36. Now to try and pull out some "take-home message"...
I've heard Christians say isn't it great how Jesus, even though he was kind of emotionally exhausted, still took time to heal those sick people. And we should do that too.
But Jesus also took time for himself. When he went up on the mountain to pray, was it because there were no more sick people in the world? Isn't it a little selfish to take time for himself when there are people in need out there?
In this passage, Jesus spends quality time with crowds of strangers, with his disciples, and alone. All of these are important.
But... are they really all important? Wouldn't it be better for him to just run around healing all the sick people he could get his hands on?
And wouldn't it be better for me to never ever buy anything nice so I could donate all my money to help people who don't have clean water?
Jesus took time for himself. Of course he spent tons of time helping people, but he also took time just for himself. Where is the balance? And where is the balance for other things like how much money I should give away? Maybe the answer is different for each person.
Maybe it's something to think about and pray about, and there's no "right answer."
Discussion questions:
Any ideas on how that whole materializing-food-from-nowhere worked?
Why did Jesus walk on water?
How do we find a balance between taking care of our own needs and helping others?
Any other cool observations about this passage? I'm sure I missed a lot of stuff.
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This post is part of a series on the gospel of Matthew.
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