Matthew 14:13-14

Matthew 14:13-14

And after Jesus heard, He withdrew from there in a boat into a place of wilderness by Himself.  And after the crowds heard, they followed Him on foot from the towns.  And after getting out He saw the great crowds and He was being compassionate upon them and healed their sick.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Jesus hears the bad news and withdraws.  Being God, He must have known it would happen.  However, that does not mean He does not feel for the event.  In feeling for John, Jesus needs to withdraw.  Jesus needs to abide.  Jesus needs time with the Father in order to process the news about John the Baptizer.  Jesus needs time to mourn the depravity of human beings.  We are no different.

Are you aware of when you need to abide?  Are you aware of the times in your life where the world around you has delivered enough bad news that you need to recuperate?  Are you obedient to the need to retreat to the Father in order to deal with life?

Second Thought:

Life – in all of its sadness and disappointments – doesn’t get Jesus down, however.  There is more work to do.  There are always people in need of God’s love, mercy, and compassion.  Jesus has His time away and then goes back to work.  He sees the crowds and has compassion.  He sees the crowds and heals their sick.  He sees a world in desperate need of Him and He gets to it.  He does abide, but He moves on when the Father calls Him into a a new season of bearing fruit.

Do you ever feel tempted to abide for too long?  What is the human draw towards abiding too long?  What is the danger in abiding too long?

Third Thought:

Finally, let’s look at the crowds.  Jesus leaves them and they come find Him.  They have sick among them who want to be healed.  Just because we need to abide doesn’t mean that the world will respect that need.  If we truly are capable of putting God’s power on display, people will come to us – whether their motives are genuine or self-serving.

Have you ever experienced people needing more from you than you are prepared to give?  How do you deal with this?  Have you ever been in a position to be like the crowd and draw from someone more than they are prepared to give?  Why would you be in such a position?

Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 14:15-18