Matthew 15:32-34

Matthew 15:32-34

And after Jesus called His disciples He said, “I have compassion upon the crowd, because they have already remained by me three days and they have nothing that they should eat.  And I do not desire to dismiss them hungry, lest they should become weary in the road.”  And the disciples say to Him, “From where in this wilderness is there so much bread for us so as to satisfy such a great crowd?”  And Jesus says to them, “How much bread do you have?”  And they said, “Seven.  And a small amount of fish.”

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Jesus has compassion.  But notice that He has compassion upon the crowd in a very temporal manner.  Jesus is concerned about their hunger.  It is okay to be concerned about a person’s physical needs – especially because it is often through the meeting of a person’s physical needs that we gain an opportunity to meet spiritual needs, too.  That’s what Jesus is up to here.  By being concerned about their physical needs, Jesus can demonstrate that there are other things about which the people should care, too.

What needs are there around you that you can use to show people that you care?  How can you go about meaningfully meeting those needs?

Second Thought:

I can only imagine the reaction of the disciples.  They cannot imagine feeding such a huge crowd.  In exasperation they ask how in the world they would get enough food.  And then Jesus asks the question.  “How much bread do you have?”  And I can only imagine the eye rolls of the disciples as they think, “Here we go again!”  But there is a great lesson to learn.  It is so easy for us to look back upon this story and wonder how the disciples could not see this coming so soon after the feeding of the 5,000.  But aren’t things always clearer in hindsight?  Staring at a huge crowd and knowing I’m human, I can’t say that I wouldn’t have reached the same conclusion as Jesus’ disciples.  It’s easy to see God’s hand in hindsight.  It is often difficult to see God’s hand at work as we look into the situation as it actually happens.

Why do we miss what God is doing so readily?  Why should we be alert but also realize that this is just a part of being human?

Third Thought:

Seven loaves of bread.  A small amount of fish.  Out of this Jesus meets the needs of people as we’ll see tomorrow.  But once more God reinforces a very deep theological point.  It is not our greatness that is important.  It is not the magnitude of our gifts that are important.  What is important is that God is great and He can do anything with whatever we have to offer.

What do you have to offer God?  What is He able to do with what you have?

Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 15:35-39