Matthew 14:13-21

Preaching on this passage and looking for a focus:

13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”
16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.
18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

A number of focuses spring to mind reading this passage:

1) Miracles born of compassion. These miracles of healing and of creating food out of a limited supply are born of compassion. These miracles are not given as authenticating signs but rather just because he cares.

2) Jesus hosts a party, where he heals his guests of all ailments, feeds them with the standard peasant meal of the day, and unifies them into a new community of believers with an experience and memory of an event that none of them will ever forget. There are parallels here with the Manna in the Desert fed to Israel and to the Eucharist that Jesus introduces later. The miracle here is mentioned in all 4 gospels

3) Focus on Jesus as Messiah - Jesus has been rejected by the ruling classes - by the priestly hierarchies, by the Herodians who just executed John the Baptist his cousin and even by people in his own home town. Jesus could have call down legions of angels to massacre the wicked, he could have fried them with fire from heaven. This was clearly the kind of Messiah they wanted to see. But instead he wanted to go to a solitary place and pray with his disciples who are presumably also in the boat. The crowd that followed him to this remote place near Bethsaida on the Northern shore of Lake galilee may have had typical Zealot readings of what a Messiah should be - a liberator from the Romans. But what they find in the desert is someone who heals their sick, who feeds them when they are hungry and who shows them compassion even when rejected and hurting from the loss of those he loves. This is a very different Messiah from those the Gailieans unsuccessfully supported in their revolt of 6AD against the Romans.

4) Jesus and the poor - Galilee was hardly the centre of the world let alone even Jewish world. The rich elites of Israel lived elsewhere. Jesus here is reaching out to the poor in compassion whereas the rulers of his day ignore them and only have contempt for their predicament. These are people who lived pay check to pay check as hired labourers, who were tenant farmers dependent on the weather for their harvests, or low paid carpenters and fishermen. It is these people Jesus has compassion on rather than the rich and the powerful

Any ideas or responses to this passage?

Tolworth John said:

Why did they follow him? Curiosity, because of a need either spiritual or physical, following the crowd?
Why do people seek Jesus, do they even know they are searching?

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That is a good question. In context this probably took place outside Herod the Tetrarchs territory near Bethsaida - given that he had just executed John the Baptist maybe the crowd felt that Jesus represented an anti Herod focus and even a liberator King Messiah. But as you say maybe some were just curious having heard of miracles and some of his teachings. In a strange way maybe the execution of John the Baptist put Jesus in focus as an opponent to the Herodian Roman lackeys or alternatively as a superstar whose days were numbered. Either way he was at the heart of things and the poor of Judea desperately needed a genuine Saviour

The challenge is are they ready to respond to what they find?

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Again good question. They appear to have brought their sick with some expectation of healing. I am sure they were happy to get healings. But they clearly did not have adequate provisions for a long stay but did not want to leave with all the fantastic healings going on,it must have been quite exciting. But then he fed them to the point where they were collecting leftovers. Maybe they wanted him to destroy the Romans and rage against the system a vit more but here he waswith an entirely positive healing feeding focus.

Jesus uses us and our resources in his cause. The disciples told him the problem, what resources they had and obeyed in faith.
With five loaves and two fish in Jesus's hands they settled the people in groups. That took faith.

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Jesus involved the disciples in this miracle , affirming and growing their faith. It was a communal focus that put the apostles at the heart of the party and people.

Tolworth John said:

Glad you like them.
I suggest you develop the question about why people seek Jesus and the faith of the disciples, they knew how much food they had, yet organised the people.
How would you react you're five burgers plus fries and several thousand people to feed. Would you calmly organise them in groups, just because your leader said so?
How would you react after five burgers have been handed out and you are still collecting them from Jesus, where would your jaw be?

An aside is why don't people respond to Jesus?
Run through the minimum facts of the resurrection accept by atheist historians ( check out Dr Greg Habermas )
Evidence for God and what are people's excuses for not coming to Jesus.
Base your sermon on facts and leave the emotions out.

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This passage is an encounter with the Messiah Jesus who cares for and feeds his people. That has to be the focus of the sermon. That Jesus involved his disciples in this communal experience is significant but not central to the point of this passage.

Habermas uses a minimal facts method that assumes scepticism and unbelief should be given a degree of credence and chooses that as the battleground for faith. So he finds out facts that people all agree on. In the case of Jesus performing miracles we have a recognition by Jewish opponents of Jesus recorded in the Talmud that he was a "magic worker" indicating that the miracle stories may have had some validity and could not be explained in merely natural terms. It is highly debatable that many people actually ever make decisions for Christ on the basis of such arguments. Most are convinced by the character of Christ and by their own feelings about Him.

Habermas's method only takes you so far to give you a minimalist encounter of Christ. It is a major question as to whether we need to filter Jesus to this provable stub of facts about him which even sceptics can agree on for evangelistic reasons or if we can just present Jesus in all his fullness as revealed in the scriptures themselves. I prefer to present Jesus in all his fullness as literally revealed in scripture than to filter him out in an effort to make him more credible. Basically I do not believe people are sceptics because they have followed the naturalistic method to the letter. They are sceptics because they are sinners and they use the naturalistic method to justify and rationalise their unbelief. The best way to confront people with their sins is not to name and shame them but rather just to introduce them to Christ. In the presence of Christ people repent because they see themselves through his eyes. Gods words do not return to him empty but will accomplish the purposes for which he sends them.