Give Them What They Need

Matthew 14:13 – 21

Sometimes we all need to get away from the challenges and troubles in our lives. We need to find a refuge, a sanctuary from the busyness of our lives, to spend time with ourselves and with our God. To find peace and comfort. We just need some “Me” time without the interruptions of others needing and demanding our attention.

The human Jesus was the same as us in that regard. He had trouble escaping the crowds that were drawn to him. In the scripture just before our lesson today Jesus received the news of the beheading of his cousin, John the Baptist, by King Herod during a glutenous feast after he was beguiled by the sensuous dancing of his stepdaughter.

John’s head was put on a platter and given ultimately to Herod’s wife Herodias who despised the Baptist because he had called her out for her immorality. John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went out and found Jesus teaching to large crowds near the Sea of Galilee and told him about what had happened to John.

Apparently distraught by the news Jesus asked some friends to take him by boat away from the crowds, over to the east side of the Galilean Sea where he could be alone and collect his thoughts. He needed some “Me” time and needed some prayer time. We certainly see why Jesus would need that. We can only imagine what was running through the mind of Jesus at this time.

Perhaps John’s death was a reminder of the coming end to His own life. John, the Voice in the Wilderness, had preceded him in ministry and now had preceded him in Martyrdom. Maybe it was a stark reminder of what He was to face, Jesus knew that he was ultimately headed to Jerusalem and death at the hands of Herod.

Maybe He wasn’t concerned for his own safety but rather was thinking of how much teaching and healing remained to be done in His limited time among them. Anyhow this news clearly moved Him deeply because He was seeking a solitary place for reflection and prayer. But there would be no solitude for Jesus now for there was work to be done!

The crowds to whom He had been teaching to saw him get into the boat. They could see where Jesus was going. They hurriedly followed along watching from the shore where he was going, because they needed more of what Jesus had to give them. In fact they were waiting for him when Jesus arrived at the destination.

As he arrives, despite the heartache and the pain that Jesus felt over the death of his cousin, Jesus blocks out his internal pain, the pain of a human and he turns that emotion outward into compassion for those that needed and wanted to be near him.

He turns that human pain into Holy Compassion to Give Them What They Need. To give them His presence, and for them to feel His healing energy! He pushed aside his own pain to give them compassion!

This is not the first time recently that we have come across Matthew telling us that Jesus was filled and moved with compassion recently. Remember when Jesus and the Disciples came over a hilltop and saw all the people in need ahead? Matthew told us he was full of compassion for them and told the Disciples that the harvest was ripe but the workers were few. Go he said into the fields and bring in the harvest Jesus told us.

Compassion is that internal yearning of sympathy, empathy and concern for people with great needs. It is such a deep emotion that it cannot be easily shut down. As disciples of Christ we cannot and should not easily walk away from people in great pain, or poverty, or desperate needs. Here Jesus had compassion for the people, and so He began to Give Them What They Need despite not yet finding the solace that He had needed.

Jesus spent hours tending to the needs of the people, to Give Them What They Need; healing, grace, mercy, forgiveness, compassion and spiritual fulfilment. As the day drug on the Disciples thinking maybe of the people, maybe thinking more of themselves, tell Jesus that it is getting late and that there is no food for the people here. They say dismiss the people so that they can go and find food, the sustenance that they need somewhere else

But there is something poignant in the disciples telling Jesus to send needy people away when Jesus had been moved by such compassion to help them. You see the disciples needed more of the compassion of Jesus. Rather than asking Jesus to send them away, to meet their need for food elsewhere, they should have found a way to meet the need, to Give Them What They Need rather than tell Jesus to send people away, to ignore their need.

Jesus says to them I will show you how to Give Them What They Need. Jesus didn’t send these people away when He arrived looking for a quiet place to pray and reflect because there was a great need. Jesus is telling the disciples, the concern for their needs was fine, but now do something about it. You see Jesus was trying to foster a Spirit led desire to show concern and compassion for other people within the Disciples.

They were right to see a need a hunger in the people; but they would have to be the ones who would feed the people both physically as well as spiritually to Give Them What They Need!

We see in the story that after Christ turns a few loaves and fish into enough to feed the multitude He doesn’t give it to the people but rather he gives it to the Disciples and they to give to the needy. Jesus is equipping His disciples with the understanding that He provides first to us so that we can provide for others!

The lesson then is for Christians to have the same compassion that Jesus does for those in need. If we see the poor, the needy, and the hungry, then we should lead with compassion: Give Them What They Need. As we become more like Christ we will be moved by compassion, and we will meet people’s needs which means we will trust the Lord to supply us with our needs first.

Hear the Good News my Friends……………

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience bear with one another. Colossians 3:12

We have received the word from the Lord, and so we must give it to others. Our responsibility is to take the spiritual food that Christ gives us and give it to the spiritually needy people of the world. We can Give Them What They Need because we have received first.

In the moment it may be difficult to perceive the spiritual and emotional needs of other people. While we may be full of grace and mercy, but they are still in need of our compassion, the compassion we find in Christ to understand their particular needs and pain in order that we can Give Them What They Need.

Alternatively maybe we feel that we are unworthy or unable to come to the emotional and spiritual aid of another lost and burdened soul. Maybe we feel as though we barely have enough for ourselves and if we give ours away then we won’t have enough for ourselves. We might believe that we have only a few loaves and fishes.

The lesson that needed to be learned by the disciples then, and to us here today, is that God always meets our needs in whatever situation we find ourselves. The Disciples were focused on the practical, on limitations and not on the divine and the limitless. Friends we must come to depend and expect to receive the divine and limitless to provide for our mission of faithfulness.

The miracle of feeding 5000 men plus women and children, it is not only about the multiplying of the loaves and fishes into enough food for the crowd but rather it is about having more than enough to feed everyone and while still having more left over than what we began with in the first place!

Friends, we can feed the multitude with the Spiritual food that they need and still have more than enough for ourselves. We can be a spiritual blessing to others and have more blessings for ourselves than what we started with. As we Give Them What They Need we find that we have more than what we had to start with. Christ has broken the living bread and handed to us, first for us to partake in its sanctifying power and then for us to give to others through our own works of selfless compassion just like Christ. Amen.