No Collapsing

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

NO COLLAPSING

Matt 15:29-39

29 Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. 30 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. 31 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. 32 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."  33 His disciples answered, "Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?" 34 "How many loaves do you have?" Jesus asked. "Seven," they replied, "and a few small fish." 35 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. 36 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. 37 They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 38 The number of those who ate was four thousand, besides women and children. 39 After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.

NIV

This seems a repeat of what has happened before when he feed five thousand men plus the women and children, except that was with five loaves and two fish. At that time his disciples did not consider that to be enough and thought Jesus should send the people away to get food. We are at the same kind of circumstance however Jesus circumvents their thinking the people should leave to get food. He tells his disciples from the start he does not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way. Rather than dealing with the same kind of miraculous provisions we did back in chapter 14, let us focus on those words of Jesus. We know he provides for our material needs, as we already have been not only made aware of, but have received so much from his hand. Yet those words spoke out to us, maybe for the first time although we had read them many times. It is certain that we find this to be true all throughout the scriptures. Many times we can read a passage skimming over portions as we have read them before and are aware of the historic event or circumstance. Then we read them again and suddenly a truth pops right out at us. The same words, the same situation, but a different time in our lives. Jesus had compassion on them. Jesus did not want to send them away hungry. He did not want them to collapse on the way. Jesus has compassion on us. He would never send us away hungry. He never wants us to collapse. Although in this setting he fed them loaves and fish and again with enough for leftovers, his desire for us not to go away hungry has great spiritual significance. Without the word of God, without being able to ingest it, digest it, assimilate it into our life, we would collapse, we would fall prey to spiritual hunger. The compassion of Jesus is what caused him to return to the Father. He told his disciples that he must go so that he could send the comforter, the Holy Spirit who would lead them and us into all truth. This way we would never go hungry again. Jesus, because he was fully God and fully man was not able to be omnipresent as the Spirit. The Spirit is only fully God and therefor can inhabit every believer leading them, feeding them the truth of the Word. Although Jesus had died in the cross out of both obedience to the Father and compassion for the people, he rose in a glorified state and was able to walk through closed doors, yet he was not able to be everywhere at the same time. Yet we cannot help also think that he loved his disciples deeply having spent those years so closely with them. We cannot help thinking he might have wanted to stay with them and continue their learning and growing to become the great men of God they were. But in his even greater compassion he knew the Holy Spirit would be the one who could do all that in their lives and could do that in the lives of many people throughout the ages until the Father sends Jesus back to gather them all to himself. Everything God does, whether the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit is out of compassion for us. We can be fed and not grow weary, not collapse in this journey of life. Jesus has told us he is the bread of life, the spring of living water, the vine upon which we are connected as branches. Apart from him we can do nothing. But as we remain in him, being led by the Spirit we will be not only sustained physically, but spiritually fed so that we produce all the fruit of the Spirit and thus never collapse on the way.