Feeding the special people
This week is on Matthew 15:29-39:
These verses are cool, not just because of the miracle of faith, but because they show Jesus' compassion. His disciples had no idea how such a thing would be possible, but it happened anyway. But the important thing isn't just what he did, but who he did it for.
Picture four thousand men, plus the women and children who are with them. That's a lot of people. Are each of them strategic contacts? Is every one of those people someone you would personally invest it? Are there four thousand missing gospels written somewhere, describing Jesus' miracle?
Jesus invested in feeding these people who had done nothing for him but follow him out into the middle of the woods, and who wouldn't be recorded as having done anything for him afterwards. This wasn't just one or two people who happened to show up around dinner time with the disciples, who it might have been rude not to feed along with them. This was thousands of strangers and their families.
Jesus had compassion on these people who followed him. They hadn't done anything to earn a meal. There was no social convention that said Jesus must feed them. He didn't promise them free dinner if they listened to him talk for three days. He saw their need, saw where they would end up if it wasn't met, and felt compassion to act.
Jesus bent the rules of the universe to feed these people. I don't know of any recipe books or catering manuals that would tell you that seven loaves of bread and a few fish fillets is enough to feed a party of thousands (though maybe that explains "European portions"). Something supernatural was summoned in order to make that suffice. Jesus created abundance where none had been before, for a reason few people could understand.
He wasn't getting paid, and these weren't "his" people. He wasn't related to them. He wasn't their pastor. He wasn't the mayor of their town. It was only his mercy that got the horde of followers fed.
That means a couple things for us. First, as Christians, we don't need to be the biggest Christian superstar on the planet in order to have our needs met by him. He fed thousands just based on compassion alone. In a given sample of several thousand people, statistically, are you likely to be the worst of the bunch by a noticeable margin? If he blessed many thousands at once, just for showing up, can it really be possible to be "too ordinary for Jesus?" If he sees you show up, you're in.
The second thing is that, as representatives of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God, our compassion should be working the same way. If we see someone in need, our first thought should be to help them get it taken care of, even if we can't see how that could possibly happen. Maybe God will bend the rules and expense the whole thing, like Jesus did. Or maybe the problem will just go away, like when they healed all of those people beforehand. If there's an action we can take, we have to at least consider taking it. The disciples had a pitiful seven loaves of bread, but it still worked out.
Depending on how you look at it, you could say everyone is special to Jesus.
Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.
Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”
His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”
“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.
“Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”
He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children. After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.
These verses are cool, not just because of the miracle of faith, but because they show Jesus' compassion. His disciples had no idea how such a thing would be possible, but it happened anyway. But the important thing isn't just what he did, but who he did it for.
Picture four thousand men, plus the women and children who are with them. That's a lot of people. Are each of them strategic contacts? Is every one of those people someone you would personally invest it? Are there four thousand missing gospels written somewhere, describing Jesus' miracle?
Jesus invested in feeding these people who had done nothing for him but follow him out into the middle of the woods, and who wouldn't be recorded as having done anything for him afterwards. This wasn't just one or two people who happened to show up around dinner time with the disciples, who it might have been rude not to feed along with them. This was thousands of strangers and their families.
Jesus had compassion on these people who followed him. They hadn't done anything to earn a meal. There was no social convention that said Jesus must feed them. He didn't promise them free dinner if they listened to him talk for three days. He saw their need, saw where they would end up if it wasn't met, and felt compassion to act.
Jesus bent the rules of the universe to feed these people. I don't know of any recipe books or catering manuals that would tell you that seven loaves of bread and a few fish fillets is enough to feed a party of thousands (though maybe that explains "European portions"). Something supernatural was summoned in order to make that suffice. Jesus created abundance where none had been before, for a reason few people could understand.
He wasn't getting paid, and these weren't "his" people. He wasn't related to them. He wasn't their pastor. He wasn't the mayor of their town. It was only his mercy that got the horde of followers fed.
That means a couple things for us. First, as Christians, we don't need to be the biggest Christian superstar on the planet in order to have our needs met by him. He fed thousands just based on compassion alone. In a given sample of several thousand people, statistically, are you likely to be the worst of the bunch by a noticeable margin? If he blessed many thousands at once, just for showing up, can it really be possible to be "too ordinary for Jesus?" If he sees you show up, you're in.
The second thing is that, as representatives of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God, our compassion should be working the same way. If we see someone in need, our first thought should be to help them get it taken care of, even if we can't see how that could possibly happen. Maybe God will bend the rules and expense the whole thing, like Jesus did. Or maybe the problem will just go away, like when they healed all of those people beforehand. If there's an action we can take, we have to at least consider taking it. The disciples had a pitiful seven loaves of bread, but it still worked out.
Depending on how you look at it, you could say everyone is special to Jesus.
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