The Miracle of Giving
Matthew 14:13-21
As we come to our Scripture today, Jesus has just received the worst news of his life: his John the Baptist has been beheaded. John the Baptist was a prophet who challenged the people of Israel to prepare for the coming of the Messiah by turning away from sin and being baptized as a sign of repentance. His death was especially significant for Jesus. Not only did John the Baptist baptize Jesus which started Jesus’ ministry but he was also Jesus’ cousin. When Jesus heard this news, all he wanted to do was get away from everybody and everything that was going on. So Jesus “withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.” So in our Scripture today, Jesus must have been grieving and having an extremely difficult time with the news he had heard and the loss he had experienced. One of the things we learn from this Scripture today is that it’s often in the most difficult times that God does the greatest miracles. And that’s often the way it is in our lives as well. When we’re down, when things are going against us, when we’ve lost someone, when we’re grieving, when we feel like we’ve got the cards stacked against us, it’s then that God does his greatest miracle.
Jesus tries to pull away from the crowds by going to a secluded place but the crowds just follow him. Jesus left by boat to go to another place on the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee. The crowds are now so drawn to Jesus by his teaching and his miracles that they follow the only way they could and that’s by walking along the shoreline to where Jesus’ boat had landed. It doesn’t matter what obstacles lie in their way, the crowd overcomes them to draw near to Jesus. Any time Jesus is around, it should draw a crowd. Any time we gather for worship, it should draw a crowd because we enter the presence of Jesus, we sing His praises, we hear his voice and we are empowered to do the work of the kingdom. We come here that we might have the passion and purpose ignited within us to Illuminate the world we live in. That’s why this church exists. Anywhere, there is the power of Jesus, it should draw crowds.
The first thing we learn from Jesus is that he put the mission of God first. Our Scripture says, “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.” Jesus is in the midst of grieving and pulling away to be alone can’t because the crowds have followed him. One would think that his response might be anger or frustration because he can’t even get some time alone to grieve. But notice what Matthew says, “he had compassion on them.” That’s the heart of a disciple, one who sees the spiritual condition of the world, has compassion on the world and places their needs ahead of his own. We live in a world filled with darkness and people who are disconnected from God. People are living in spiritual darkness right in our midst every single day. They’re our neighbors, our friends, our relatives, and our co-workers and they are living in the darkness and pursuing things which have no eternal meaning or purpose. Do you know what that means? They are dying living in spiritual darkness every day. Do you care? Are you moved to action? Do you want to do something about it? Are you willing to sacrifice to resolve it? Jesus had compassion. The Jewish people believed that life is meant to be lived in relationship with the one who created you. But if you are not connected to God, not living for Him and not worshipping Him then you are not living. Life apart from God is death because we were created to be in relationship with God. Through Jesus’ death on the cross, we also learn that there’s something else at stake: eternal life. There’s an eternity on the line! We are called to Illuminate the darkness with the Light of Christ. If you don’t first have compassion on those living in the darkness and facing an eternity separated from God then you will never put aside your agenda for God’s.
Now the disciples find themselves in a remote place with Jesus and 1000’s of people. Dinner time is approaching and so they say, “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.” Send the crowds away. Could anything be worse than sending a crowd away who is spiritually lost and living in the darkness? And yet churches and Christians make decisions and act all the time in ways which “send people away.” We “send people away” when we don’t share our faith with them preventing them from hearing the Good News. We “send people away” when we expect them to come to us rather than us go to them. We “send people away” when we expect them to think, act, dress and believe like us rather than accepting people as they are and where they are. We “send people away” when we worship in a music style that doesn’t connect them to God or speak their hearts. We “send people away” when we don’t talk church talk rather than taking the time to speak their language.
Do you hear the absurdity of the disciple’s statement? They’re following the one who came to save the lost sheep of Israel, who came to announce the Good News that the Kingdom of God is at hand and who came to give people life so that they might have life abundantly. And these disciples who have left jobs, family, friends and home to follow Jesus and become like Him, the one who wants to draw all people to him, now turn to Jesus and say, “Send them away.” It seems the very compassion and heart that Jesus had for the people and their spiritual condition, a compassion and heart which moved him to set aside his own grief and need to be alone and heal, the disciples do not have. Illuminate is more than about blessing others by doing good deeds or even raising the single biggest day offering in this church’s history, it’s about your heart. It’s about developing within you compassion for those separated from God because we know people are living in the darkness and there’s an eternity on the line. Whether you like it or not, you’re responsible for that and for them. And our natural response is like Cain, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Well, yes you are. While you are not responsible for the decision they make, you are responsible for sharing the Gospel and Illuminating the darkness in the life so that they might see the Light of the World. So how’s your heart and compassion for those who are far from God?
Second, Jesus calls us to action. “Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” Jesus tells the disciples, “Don’t send them away, you feed them!” Jesus initiates his own bless back project reminding us that not only are we to feed people spiritually but we are also to feed them physically as well. As the Light of the world, that’s our responsibility. God has blessed each of us with a measure of resources and though our measure is different for each of us, we are to go out into the community with our resources to illuminate the darkness and share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Bless people with what I have given you, Jesus says. And blessed them you have. You have blessed people by participating in the “Become a Blessing Project.” You took the $10 you received and did some incredible and creative things to be a blessing to someone. Then you went out and served in the community through one of our Servant Evangelism events. And today, you have the opportunity to make a gift over and above what you have pledged or what you give to the church on a weekly or monthly basis. We’ve challenged you to give not what you think you can but to give all you can. Because when you do, that’s when God does what only He can do. But it takes us first stepping out in faith. Then God moves into action. Finally, you can move into action next week by bringing people with you to worship on our Invite a Friend Sunday. We’re asking you to invite and bring all of your oikos, the 8-15 people that God has strategically placed in your life for you to minister to, to be light to and to influence for Christ. But it doesn’t have to stop there! You can invite your hairdresser or barber, your dry cleaner, the check out girl at the grocery store, the waiter or waitress who served you. You can invite anyone and everyone you cross paths with to come to worship next Sunday!
Third, avoid deficit thinking. The disciples respond to Jesus, “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish.” Facing such a mounting challenge of feeding 5000 people, they immediately focus on what they don’t have rather than what God can do. That’s so easy to do, isn’t it when we’re faced with a huge challenge. Deficit thinking says, “I can’t afford to give that much.” Deficit thinking focuses on how little we have when we should be thinking about how much we have. We focus on how little we have when in comparison to the world we’re rich and we forget how big our God really is. It’s doesn’t matter how little you have or how much you have, we need to just bring it to God. Jesus says to the disciples, “Bring them here to me.” I have entrusted you with it. Get it in my hands and I will work a miracle.
Fourth, Jesus works through what we give. Notice what Jesus did. I had always had in my mind that when Jesus takes the loaves and fishes, he multiplies them and the disciples turn and carry armfuls of bread and smoked fish to the people. But listen carefully to the text: “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.” The miracle in this story isn’t that Jesus multiplied the 5 loaves 1000 fold and the 2 fish became 10,000 to feed the people. No the miracle was that the loaves and fish he gave back to the disciples continued to feed the crowd until every person was fed and more importantly, were satisfied.
Fifth, Jesus calls us to step out in faith. The disciples stepped out in faith when they gave the loaves and fish to Jesus and then they had to step out in faith again when they began feeding the people. They had to trust Jesus to be able to feed 5000 men and their families. Today, we have the opportunity like the disciples to give Him what we have and see what He can do with it. God wants you to step out in faith because he wants to grow your faith. Just as the disciple gave Jesus the small amount of food, he wants you to give what you have over to him. One thing you need to understand, the disciples didn’t give a part of what they had to Jesus, they gave everything they had to Jesus. God asks for nothing less. If we bring our very best, God will do what only God can do. It’s not about the amount, it’s about the sacrifice and the heart with which you give it. When we all bring our everything, God will do His thing and the world around will be illuminated. When we give all that we have to God, not what we think we can afford, and step out in faith and our motivation is purely to see lives changed and the world illuminated and we understand how urgent this message is, Jesus will do what only He can do. He will take it, He will multiply it, He will use it and it will overflow into the streets of the city and lives will be touched and transformed. And eternity’s will be changed.
If Jesus could feed 5000 men and their families with some loaves and fish, what could he do through what we bring to him? Could Jesus have fed the 5000 by bringing manna down from heaven as he did for the Hebrew people in the wilderness? Of course. He’s God. But instead he decides to work through us and it’s not until you have brought your very best offering to the table that Jesus will work his miracle through you. Are you ready to give God your very best? It wasn’t one disciple who gave his lunch, it was all the disciples together who sacrificed all their food. And likewise, it’s not about you or me giving our very best, it’s about all of us giving our very best for God to be able to do His best through us.
Some of us have come today and decided to give something but not our everything. God doesn’t want a token gift, he wants your total faith. He wants your best because only then can he raise your faith. Out of all the people gathered there that day, don’t you think there were some people who had some food? Of course there were. But they didn’t give their food, the disciples did. God can only work with what we give to him. There’s always the temptation to hold back from God. The disciples could have kept some for themselves, you know, just in case. But no! Instead they gave their all and because of that, God was able to do a great miracle. The choice is yours. Illuminate is about everything God created you to be. It’s about every relationship you have and every possession you hold. It’s about bringing our very best to Him. Amen.
