Week 32 ———  Another Miraculous Feeding
Matthew 15:32-38      Mark 8:1-9

Jesus feeds the 5000(+), and the following day, they want him to feed them again.  But he challenges them to think deeper and tells them he is the Bread of Life.  They are disappointed in Jesus and unable to understand his teaching about eternal life because they are only concerned about earthly things.  Many of his disciples quit following Jesus.  Then, on the Day of Trumpets, Jesus has a confrontation with the authorities from Jerusalem about purity.  Then Jesus goes north to Gentile territory and at first refuses to heal a Gentile woman’s child.  She challenges Jesus that Gentiles should at least get the scraps from the Messiah’s table, and Jesus commends her for her faith. We often underestimate the importance of this encounter.  Jesus traveled 16 miles north, talked to this woman, and healed her child; then, the next day, they traveled 20 miles south to put the discussion with this woman into action on a larger scale.  (If you haven’t read #53, stop now and read that one first.)

Jesus doesn’t return to Capernaum but travels further east to the east side of the Sea of Galilee, to the Decapolis, which is Gentile territory.

Jesus and the disciples have been here before.  It was where they landed in the boat after the stormy night when Jesus calmed the seas.  They encountered the demoniac, and Jesus sent the demons into the pigs that hurled themselves into the sea.  After losing about 2000 pigs, the people did not favor Jesus staying around.  So they insisted he leave.  The former demoniac asked to go with Jesus, but Jesus said:

Mark 5:19-20   “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”  And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

Now, I like the ESV translation, but they missed it here.  “Go home to your friends…”  This man didn’t have any friends.  He was the scary, strong man who lived in the graveyard and busted out of chains when they tried to restrain him.   That Greek says, “Go home to yours.”    The NIV gets it right: “Go home to your people.”

Jesus is saying: “Don’t come with me; I’m going back to the Jewish side of the lake; you go witness to your people, the Gentiles.”

The last time he was in the Decapolis, just a little over a month ago, Jesus was there only a few hours and was kicked out of the country.   Wait until you see what happens this time…

Matthew 15:29-31   Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there.  And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.¹

This time, he is welcomed by huge crowds who stay with him for three days of teaching.  The Gentile crowds come to Jesus for healing, and Jesus starts healing them without hesitation.  This is possible because of what happened before.  God had a plan.  God led Jesus to this area to cast the demons from this man who would be his witness.  God led Jesus to Syria and then brought this desperate mother to him.  God’s plan worked because that man who was formally demon-possessed was willing to be a witness and because this woman would not consider letting Jesus go without healing her daughter and because she insisted that Jesus was the Messiah of this Gentile also.  She spoke for more than her daughter; she spoke for all the non-Jewish people in the world.   God used these two individuals to bring about his centuries-old plan.  All these people are being healed because two people were obedient to the task God gave them.  They are the unsung heroes of this story.

So here they are, healing and teaching a huge crowd of Gentiles.  And look what happens next:

Matthew 15:32-34   Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”   And the disciples said to him, “Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?”   And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.”  

This story should sound familiar.  It was just a week ago he fed the 5000.  But this is different.  These are Gentiles 

This is the big difference:  In the last miracle of feeding the 5000, the disciples had compassion for the crowd. This time, both Matthew and Mark make a point of saying it was Jesus who had compassion on the crowd after three days.  Why the difference?  Could the disciples not have the same level of compassion because these people were Gentiles?  Remember that these Jewish disciples had been taught by their religious leaders that eating with Gentiles was forbidden.  It brought on all kinds of uncleanness. It was much like the lunch counters in Birmingham in 1960, when African Americans were not allowed.  There were just some things you didn’t do.

Just two days ago, Jesus confronted the Pharisees about their traditions.  “You don’t wash your hands the right way, Jesus;  everyone knows that.”  You don’t eat with Gentiles, Jesus.  They are unclean.  There are just some things you don’t do.”

If these disciples are going to fulfill Jesus’ command at the end of Matthew’s gospel to “Go into all the world,” then they are going to have to drop their racist viewpoints. Are they there yet? Unfortunately, not.  

Peter still holds on to the false traditions he learned as a child.  It takes a miraculous vision of a sheet in the 10th chapter of Acts and a devout Roman Soldier to convince Peter that Gentiles can accept Jesus as their lord.   People were still preaching that you had to become Jewish to be saved.  So, a church council is convened to answer the question in Acts 15: can Gentiles be saved without becoming Jews?  Gentiles are finally completely welcomed in.  

Don’t miss how these stories fit together.   The events in Jesus’ ministry are not random.   Four weeks ago, we discussed how Jesus cast the demons out of this man.  It is a great story but only the prequel to the greater story.  This was the scary, crazy, strong man who lived in the graveyard and broke chains.   Jesus heals him, and he wants to go with Jesus, but Jesus says, no, tell people what God has done for you— he spent four weeks telling what Jesus did for him, and thousands of people came to Jesus.  This story of the persistent mother seems so odd at first glance — God used her as the catalyst to drive the plan to take his kingdom to all the nations in the world.   

God had a plan to reach the whole world.  But God wants to partner with us to accomplish it.  Isn’t this how prayer works?   There are things Jesus won’t do until his disciples come in bold and persistent faith- asking him to be who they know he is.  This woman knew Jesus loved all people; she knew the time was coming for the Gentiles to share in the kingdom.  She merely asked Jesus to be who she knew he was.  Jesus, you are compassionate.  Have compassion for my daughter.

God doesn’t need people to do any work, but God chooses to use people to do his work.   He chooses to partner with us to bring about his kingdom.  And some healings don’t occur because we don’t come before his throne like this woman came to Jesus. She would not give up!  Is this how you pray?   There are people who suffer pain, hunger, depression, and many other things because we refuse to partner with God to take care of them.  We pray the Lord’s Prayer and ask God to do his will on earth, just like it is always perfectly done in heaven.   But some of God’s will is not done on earth as it is in heaven because we are not bold and courageous in approaching God with our requests like this Syrian woman and because we are not willing to follow his will like this Gentile man who had been possessed.    

We Christians have a problem.  We read the Bible, and we say: 
One day, there will be no more sickness or pain.
One day, children will not go hungry
One day, there will be no depression or loneliness.
One day, there will be no homelessness.
One day, there will be no more broken marriages or broken relationships,
One day, God will fix all that

And while we are so focused on that one day, I think God is shouting, “Why not today?”  Why can’t this happen now in your community? Why can’t God’s will be done today?  That is the message of the Syrian mother.  Yes, one day, Jesus will tell his disciples to go to the Gentiles, but why not today?  Why can you not be the Messiah for me and my daughter today?   And I think Jesus was waiting for that one person to ask for his ministry to reach out past the Jews.  So he left the next morning, walked 20 miles, and started healing thousands of Gentiles.

Do you think God wants children to be abused or to go hungry?  Do you think God wants that person who lives near you to be depressed or lonely?  Does God want people to sleep in the cold?  No!  Look at the lessons we have seen in the stories of the past few weeks:

From the disciples at the feeding:   Look at the people around you.  Be compassionate.  Oh, the disciples notice they are hungry.  Then Jesus says, “You feed them.  I will enable you to do it, but you need to do it.” From the mother in Syria:  Be bold and courageous in your requests to Jesus. Ask Jesus to be who you know he is.  From the former demoniac:  It is not enough to sit in the boat (or church) with Jesus.  We need to go back to our people and tell them what Jesus has done for us.  And from all three together, no one in any country or situation is beyond the grace of God.  The Kingdom of God is for all people.

But I can’t let this end without bringing this story home today.  The story of the Syrian woman happened in the area ruled by Tyre and Sidon, what is now the country of Lebanon.  Lebanon is a primarily Muslim country that is home to Hezbollah, an Iran-funded terrorist group.  Hezbollah has been shelling northern Israel for almost a year since the Oct 6 attack from Gaza, forcing over 50,000 from their homes.  Israel has been retaliating with some directed missile attacks.  In the past few weeks, Israel began an intense campaign to stop these terrorists.  There were the exploding pagers and devices and now intense missile attacks.  Hezbollah, like most terrorist groups, hides among the innocent civilians in the country.  Their headquarters was in the basement of a residential building.  So Israel’s attempt to stop the terrorists has resulted in much harm to civilians, in the very area Jesus was in our story and up to Tyre and beyond.

My friend, Chris Todd, lives in Tyre.  Chris was a chicken farmer in Marshall County, Alabama, but he is now a missionary there.  He works with several Christian churches in this primarily Muslim country and serves the Syrian refugees that flooded into Lebanon in Syria’s recent war.  The bombing was initially south of Tyre, and four families were sheltering in his apartment there.  Some in these families converted from the Muslim faith and are now workers in his trauma center and the church there. In the past week, there has been heavy bombardment in Tyre and his neighborhood and at the ministry center.  Since this area is no longer safe, they are seeking shelter further north.   

Jesus went to this area, and one mother begged for his help.  Jesus used her plea to teach his disciples that his kingdom was not just for the Jews but for the whole world.   My friend, Chris, is fulfilling Jesus’ call in the very place where this story happened.  But they are in crisis, and he needs help.  I want to ask you to prayerfully consider donating to help provide shelter to these Christian brothers and sisters who are fleeing the bombing.²

God is waiting for us to join him in working miracles in our community. 

1. Matthew lets you know this is a Gentile territory by saying, “They glorified the God of Israel.”  Had it been a Jewish crowd, he would have said, “They glorified God.”
2. Donations can be given through Chris’s Ministry, Words of Isa. Words of Isa, PO Box 1398, Albertville, AL 35950. (Checks payable to “Words of Isa”.) Venmo: @wordsofisa You can also donate easily online through Paypal: http://paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/1879050