I invite you to turn this morning to John chapter 14. John, Matthew chapter 14, Matthew chapter 14. And last time we're working through this book and last time we looked at the very challenging and sad account of the death of John the Baptist. We're going to read verses 1 through 21 today. Our text is verses 13 through 21. My goal is to show you the connection between these two events in the event of John the baptist death and then what follows. So let's give our attention. Page 974, Matthew chapter 14, to the holy word of the Lord.
"At that time, Herod the tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus, and he said to his servants, this is John the Baptist. He's been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because John had been saying to him, it is not lawful for you to have her And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people because they held him to be a prophet. But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he commanded it to be given. He sent and had John beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus.
"Now our text: When Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, this is a desolate place, and the day is now over. Send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves But Jesus said, they need not go away. You give them something to eat They said to him, we have only five loaves here and two fish And he said, bring them here to me Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied, and they took up 12 baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who were who ate were about 5 000 men besides women and children."
There will end the reading of God's word.
The previous scene may have been one of the worst records of the death of a prophet uh recorded in the scriptures for us. It was a disturbing scene. Last time, if you remember, um a wicked tyrant a wicked king who was a king in israel sitting on his throne has a great feast with his nobles and his elites and the high-ranking officials. There was the entertainment, there was the exotic dancing, the food is served, and then, of course, comes the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
You can't miss the connection of that. That is really important to think about. It was an absolutely horrific scene. They cut the prophet's head off, and it was passed around on a platter like it was a meal. like it was a meal nothing easy about that Everything about It was disgusting everything about it was perverse everything about the scene was murderous it was meant to trouble us. I think i think that whole scene was meant to cause a great amount of sadness. In fact, one of you walked up to me after the service last week and said, "Sin is so ugly." That's exactly right.
Look at a disgusting king and his family who sat on the throne in Israel, and look what the king and his servants did to those whom God sent to them to preach the gospel, preach repentance. Now, all of that background is important for the way that Matthew orders, and even other gospels order this, to show the feeding of the 5,000 right after this. It comes as a sort of radical contrast, doesn't it? And it's kind of hard to do justice to this great passage today, but I want you to see this great contrast. A king unlike the world had ever seen is now set in contrast to this wicked tyrant, and Matthew's sort of thematic in the sense of showing us the true king of Israel set in contrast to that wicked scene that we had last time is now our Lord.
And it invites us in every way, Matthew does, to see the contrast, to see the difference, to see what kind of a king he, is to us. He is a king concerned, isn't he, for those to whom he is preaching the gospel. He is a king full of compassion upon sheep it's a beautiful scene that follows. And, um, so offset from what we looked at last time a radical contrast as what we have here today: is Jesus feeding people, feeding people. Ultimately training his disciples as a lot of this is is a training session for them to understand the ministry, to understand the purpose of the ministry and to show that Jesus is concerned well beyond feeding people's stomachs.
What we have before us then is an incident that Jesus is using to train the disciples to help them understand his compassion on the multitudes his compassion in ministry upon people that he cares for people and he does this as he trains them that they might have the same compassion and the same concern for the wandering sheep of Israel. In other words, Jesus is teaching his own disciples here to carry forward the same ministry and the same compassion that he demonstrated in his walk on this earth before he went to the cross.
So this is where we are today. As we look at the text and we jump into this great text, we read here that he departed from there. When Jesus heard it when he heard of the death of John, the great prophet john he departed from there by boat to a deserted place by himself. Um, it was a deeply moving thing that had just happened, a sad thing. A great prophet was martyred in Israel. The greatest, Jesus said, of the prophets. If Jesus wept over Lazarus, whom he loved, he needs time in his humanity over the death of John. He wanted to be alone to think about this, pray about this. It called for silence. It called for reflection, didn't it? A terrible thing had happened, and he knew his own hour was coming.
We saw how the death of John was a forecast of his own death, and it's in this vein it's in this vein i believe that what we have here, that in the midst of all the busyness of ministry, Jesus is halting the disciples, stopping the disciples for a moment, for a time that required rest. I think that's important. When there's a death, you need rest. You have to stop. You have to think. You have to pray. You have to mourn. That's right. Mark says Jesus said to his disciples, "Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest for a while. Rest for a while." So important.
But something else happens. Matthew says, "But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns." So the indication is kind of here that they had the intended rest a time of being alone but here come all the crowds, here come all the people, and they didn't seem to get the rest. They didn't seem to have the time for the rest. This must have been forever impressed upon the minds. For if you follow it, they didn't seem to get rest. This is remarkable. How would they be refreshed? How would Jesus help them?
Follow me for a minute. Look at how this is presented today. We read in first verse 13 that he sees the crowds that a great crowd followed him on foot from all the towns. So they are on a boat. They have recognized him. It has spread that Jesus was going to arrive on the shore, so these multitudes are now walking and coming to Jesus, mulling around on the shore as Jesus arrives.
If you look carefully, verse 14: "When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them and healed their sick."
What a reverse! The imagery is powerful. Everyone is, seems burdened here by the death of John. You have to read that in. It's a really sad moment in israel a death of a good man what is the loss when a good man among us a servant of the Lord like this dies? And not just dies, but has his head cut off? Jesus, humanly, needed in his human nature and time. But all of a sudden, all the people are in front of him. John was held in high esteem. They're hurting. They're confused. Jesus looks up and he sees them.
You can't quite capture it here with the translation, but he welled up with compassion. It's a word the Holy Spirit reserves for Jesus here. It meant, in contrast now think of the contrast here in contrast from the vicious impulses of Herod the king here's the king he heard of john herod didn't care about the message didn't care about the prophet in brutality he puts his head on a platter. Our Lord sees the multitudes and is burdened for them. It's really a shock.
Um, people always attribute and sort of attack the Lord at moments like this of being a tyrant over people's lives. They blame him for all the evil that happens in the world, and the irony the irony in Israel was they would have rather had a king like Herod: a ruthless, adulterous, murderous, incestuous king on the throne. But here was the king! I hope this scene is kind of impressed on your hearts after this of the character of our Lord that is shown here.
He had compassion. It means that in the inward heart, the lungs, the stomach, the deepest sense of emotion, overcame him when he gazed his eyes on the people. Get that. It wasn't wrath. He wasn't angry at them. Compassion overwhelmed overwhelmed him when he gazed his eyes on all of these people walking toward him.
Why? Because these people were like sheep without a shepherd. Don't miss that contrast. the here is herod the king with his noblemen, his religious elite. You couldn't criticize Herod. The wild revelist party, sexual immorality, killing a prophet. Here is Jesus the true king, lowly out not in the great places of Israel, not on his throne, not making his name great, no boasting making himself a servant, dishonored as a prophet, already having compassion on the people.
You remember Matthew 9? It's not the only time it said so. it the scriptures keep saying this about Jesus: "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like a sheep without a shepherd."
Now, you know, this fulfills prophecy. This fulfills exactly what the Lord said he would do. From Ezekiel, when he came on the earth to recover the lost sheep of the house of Israel: "As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep but the shepherds have fed themselves and have not fed my sheep..."
Hold that thought. "Therefore you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord." And then it said this: "For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, myself Who? The Lord who's the lord who's the lord God. Jesus. I myself will come and search for my sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he's among the sheep that have been scattered, so I will seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they've been scattered. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. They shall lie down in good grazing land, on the rich pasture. They shall be fed on the mountains of Israel. I myself, I will do this. I will be the shepherd of the sheep."
Jesus is God. He's come to fulfill it. Now, here's the connection. The disciples, in verse, you'll notice this here, come up to him. It's evening when the disciples came to him, and you'll notice what they say. "This is a desolate place." They are noticing all these people on foot. They're weary. They had no time to eat, it seems. The disciples actually show some care here for the people. They're hungry. They're concerned about them, and they say, "This is a desolate place. The day is over. Send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves."
So how do you shepherd sheep that have no shepherd? What compassion did Jesus show, and what did he do about it? Mark says something interesting right in the middle of this, which I don't want to miss because I think it's implied here: "And he began to teach them many things."
The gospels want us to connect the feeding with the teaching. You had just presented to you Jesus's great desire to help, in compassion, wandering sheep. He taught them. He preached to them. He fed them.
Now, if you're beginning to put this together, the disciples needed refreshment. They're weary. These people need refreshment. They're weary. And the same situation is now presented. You have weary people. You have weary disciples. You have Jesus himself, now who teaches them well into the night. And here's where I think the text really comes together and shows us something very unique about the ministry of Jesus: The common experience of our physical need is used to indicate something about spiritual need, about ministry.
He gives them a kind of test at this point. Jesus was concerned here for the disciples. They come up to him. "The hour is late. Send them away that they may go. They don't have bread to eat. They don't have food to eat. Let them go eat, Jesus. You're teaching them so long. Let them go eat."
"You feed them."
I think you should let that set in for you. feed them." It's meant to kind of stop. "What do you mean? You feed them?" Imagine the confusion. They raise, "Where are we going to get this? Where are we going to get the money? We don't have enough money. And you definitely got to have a congregational meeting if you're going to approve that. You feed them. What do you mean? We don't have anything to feed them with. We have only a few fish and some loaves."
"Yep, you feed them."
"Well, we can't."
"You feed them. You have more food than you could ever imagine right here."
They're looking at the fish and the loaves. "What are you talking about? Jesus said, they don't need to go away. Give them something to eat. A few fish, a few loaves, bring them here." The crowds are all gathered around Christ. So he makes them sit down on green pasture. It's really important, the imagery here to fulfill Ezekiel. He makes them sit down on the grass. And he takes the loaves and he blesses them. He gives to the disciples and then from Jesus' hand to the disciples' hand, they distribute it. It's kind of like the way the bread and the wine are passed around. They're distributing it to the people.
You wonder what they're thinking at about the fifth row when they realize, "You know, this is really weird. The bread just keeps coming. How is this happening?" And they get down to 5,000 people from these few loaves and fish. And they look over, and purposely ironic, 12 full baskets are taken up. the number of the disciples.
Well, Jesus had just given them a visual of how he was to be given to the multitudes. The food is ultimately not the food in their hands, is it? The unlimited food he's speaking of here, I think this is so crucial to this text, is that there would never be a lack in the ministry of a supply of him.
"You feed them."
You understand this? He didn't solve the problem for them and for the people by mere food. He welled up with compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. The contrast again is strong. The king of the Jews, Herod, just served up a meal. He just served up on a platter the head of a prophet, and in a death that was violent, it signified the death of the prophet that was passed around for all to mock at and to laugh at.
Christ now signifies the giving up of a meal, a giving of a meal to them, signifying his own death a body, his body and his blood, that would be life to the people. Jesus did the single great thing he could do for people. He taught them and gave them himself. That was the greatest need for people. But it was also the greatest need for the disciples.
So in the word, he had given rest, and he was concerned to help the people to understand this. So when the disciples come to him worried about the food for the people, Jesus could have asked this question: "What do you think I've been doing? Do you think I've been neglectful in feeding the people? You've been filled, haven't you?"
"You have the word," said Peter, "of eternal life. Where else could we go?"
"Why would we leave this?"
See, beloved, here's the great application today. All of you have many needs. All of you have many needs. I think we live in a day when we've got something very wrong about ministry. We live in a day when the expectation is put upon pastors and elders to solve all the problems and all the needs of the people. I want you to hear me on this: That is impossible for us. Do you understand that? I don't think we're saying this clearly. That is impossible for us. The expectations on ministry today are so great and often unmanageable. That's why the burnout rates are off the charts.
I thought about bringing my phone up and saying, "Here's the big curse right now. Everyone can text just at will. Who can handle that? And if you don't respond within a few minutes, they get mad."
See, what's often not realized is where the help comes from. We're too prone in Christian ministry today to depend on the people too much. I get it. You're weary. There's a lot of stuff. You're weary about life, the sufferings and the hardships and the difficulties. The first thing that starts to happen at times when people's lives are derailed like this, or they're going through something very difficult... In my experiences, the first thing that goes is church attendance. And there's little appreciation of what the Holy Supper is or understanding there is a direct connection to how you give yourself to come to Jesus, listen to me carefully, and receive the ministry of the word and the holy sacrament, to how stable you're going to be in this life.
There is a direct connection to how you give yourself to be and receive the ministry of the word and the sacrament to how stable and together you're going to make it in the hardships. Jesus said this: "Come to me, my body and my blood is true drink and food for your souls."
Notice the chain here. The people came to Christ, and from him the food came, and kept coming and kept coming and kept coming through the hands of the disciples who distributed it. That's a beautiful picture for you of the ministry of the word. You cannot and I cannot, this applies to the disciples just as much, be sustained in this life apart from the means of grace.
If you think you can do Christianity on your own, you will be depressed. If you think you can do without the ministry of the word, or giving yourself to this and think you will be a rock in times of hardship, you will be deceived. You need Christ, and you have to feed on him, not anyone else, nobody else.
Now, now, you i think you can appreciate what he meant when he said, "The bread of God, Jesus, is he who comes down and gives life to the world. Whoever eats the bread that I give will never go hungry. Whoever eats my flesh, now listen, and drinks my blood, from the mouth of Jesus, has eternal life." That so offended this crowd at one point. It drove away 5,000. "What do you mean? Did he just say we have to eat him?"
Yes. He said you have to eat him.
Rest, refreshment, came through the ministry of the Word and is intended through the ministry of the Word and sacrament. If you're finding yourself weary and empty and wanting more from ministry and this and that, I ask the question: "How present are you on the Sabbath, not just in person but in heart, to receive it?"
He wants to feed your souls. He wants to help you. He loves you. And think of what was impressed upon the minds when he made them lie down in green pastures that day. This is the imagery. And watch this miracle happen of bread that kept coming and kept coming and kept coming.
I want to make sure I say this, Eve, especially to our young people: And you go off to college and you have to come to the source. You have to feed on the source. God set this up to be the source.
It's Psalm 23 fulfilled. Who is our shepherd? "The Lord is our shepherd. I shall not want. As R.C. Sproul said, you know, that would be enough to say. There's nothing else that could be said. The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You do what? Prepare a table. Prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
He's your shepherd. He came to rescue you. And you know, we may not be able to handle sometimes the massive things that come at us on a text or whatever do you know you have prayer? And every single cry that goes up to the Lord in prayer to him, he can handle.
See, the disciples really wouldn't grasp this until the resurrection. But then Jesus would come and say to Peter, "Do you love me, Peter?"
"Feed my sheep."
"Do you love me?"
"Tend my flock."
"Do you love me?"
"Feed my sheep."
He wasn't talking about just baskets of bread or them trying to solve every problem under the sun. He was saying, "I'm sending you to feed my sheep with me." And you see, that's why the ministry and preaching has to be Christ-centered. "Keep on ministering me to the people. Let them know that I love them. Let them understand that I care for them. Make sure they know that there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus who believe, repent, and believe the gospel. Make sure they know my wrath is turned from. Make sure they understand I care for them. Make sure they understand they can come to me."
It was the Pharisees who constantly i've said this whenever you have somebody who's making the gospel clear and who is, um, making it clear that there's no condemnation for those in Christ and that God's wrath is turned from them and they're being fed with Christ in that sort of place, there will be those in ministry who contend with that message loudly, because it threatens their control over their sheep, lest those sheep should come to the good shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Jesus was training them as he fed them. He gave them rest. So he said, "So you give them my rest to the sheep, that they would feed from the sores." It was preaching Christ himself that refreshed the sheep. For without him, they could not uphold others. We need it just as much.
It's almost as if he's saying, "Remember why you're doing this. You're going to be running here and there. The needs are just endless. You need to be fed from the head. And so do they. Especially if you're going to be servants in my kingdom. What I have done for you, you do for them. Show compassion to them. Give your lives to teach the sheep, to feed the sheep."
In light of all your needs today, what do you think your greatest need is? Your greatest need in this life, beloved, is to be fed with God's word. It's your greatest need. And where that word is proclaimed, where that word is given to you, do you know one of the greatest special blessings of scripture that's communicated to us is right there? God is there dwelling among his sheep and feeding them. This is the way he keeps you. This is the way he upholds you. This is the way he nourishes your soul.
He even created a Sabbath day, which we kick him about and fight him on. But he even created a whole day of the week for this, for you, that you could stop and you could rest. You need rest. A day of refreshment for your souls, a day of anticipating the new creation in all of its fullness, that you might sit in green pastures and feed on the Word.
He sat you down today in the green pastures. That's what he did. There's a reason so many Christians are starving today. If we are here devoting ourselves to the Word, if that ever lost priority in life, you will find yourself quickly malnourished.
Our king is so wonderful here. He's so full of compassion. Look at the difference from Herod. This is why we always say, "Don't put your trust in princes. They are ruthless. They're not like this." Unlike that awful scene we studied last week, this king wells up with compassion for you. He knows your frame. He remembers your dust. He continues to send you teachers and preachers. Don't take that for granted in your life.
I hope these words become a favorite for you: "Come aside by yourselves, this is from Mark, to a deserted place and rest for a while. Rest for a while." To which I follow up with, "Come then, eat, eat what is good. Delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear. Here it is. And come to me. Hear. Hear me." That's what the Father said. "This is my beloved Son. Hear him. Hear me," says Jesus. "That your souls may live."
What a king. What a compassionate king. You lack nothing. Come to him.
Amen.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of your Son. Thank you for such a scene like this that shows us his great care. Let us value the Word and the sacrament. Let us treasure the gifts you've given to us to feed us on the life of your Son. And let us praise you all our days, O Lord, for being such a good and gracious king to us. We are weary. We are burdened by many things. We are discouraged often. And we wonder whether you love us. Thank you for giving us a place of rest, lying us down in green pastures to receive the powerful word by the powerful Holy Spirit that is able to sustain our lives through this wilderness journey. Bless us, O Lord. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.