Jesus Is Our Great Provider

Matthew 14:13-21 All of us know the words of Jesus, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?”  This warning of Jesus is also familiar, “Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” 

We understand the point that Jesus is making:  that our earthly lives and the material goods necessary to maintain those lives ought not be our first priority-- but that our life of faith and our relationship with God ought to come first.  We understand that and of course it’s true!

And yet, this bodily, earthly life is the only one we know and the truth of the matter is that this life is a gift of the Creator—this life had been redeemed by the blood of Jesus—this life has been sanctified by the Holy Spirit in the waters of Holy Baptism.  In other words, this earthly, bodily life that we are living right now matters to God and he cares for it.

To those who were fussing and fretting about their lives, Jesus said that God clothes the flowers of the field and he feeds the birds of the air and he is more than willing and more than able to feed and clothe and provide for his children. 

That’s what we are going to see in God’s Word today:  the compassion that Jesus has for us when we lack the material gifts of life-- and the power he has to meet those needs.  The Bible says that:

When Jesus heard about the death of John, 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. 

            We know that many of those who followed Jesus never really understood the fullness of his mission—that what he had come to do was so much more than to merely heal the sick and raise the dead and defeat the Romans and establish a messianic kingdom. 

We know that many of those who followed him would have been more than happy for his work to end there, with health and wealth.  Jesus tried to correct that mistaken view again and again.

But for everything that they got wrong when it came to Jesus’ mission, the people who followed him at least understood and believed that Jesus had the power to help them meet their physical needs and that he wanted to do that very thing.

They had seen Jesus give sight to the blind and voice to the mute.  They had seen him cleanse a leper and drive out demons.  They knew and believed that Jesus was the Great Provider who could meet their needs and so they came to him with those needs, trusting that he cared about them and would help them.

We need that reminder.  Often times we go through life believing that our life depends upon us.  We focus on our efforts and our wisdom and our decisions and then we fuss and fret when we suffer a need because we know how frail all that really is and we never think to come to Jesus for help. 

In his epistle, James says that “we have not because we ask not”.  In other words, we are so focused on meeting our own needs on our own that we never think to ask God for help.  But we can do that with confidence because Jesus sees our need and wants to provide for us.  The Bible says that:

When Jesus went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on themand healed their sick.  

            What a comfort there is for us in this scene!  Jesus is not blind to our needs.  He is not disinterested.  He is not focused on doing something more important.  He sees our needs and has compassion on us.  That word compassion means that he is moved with mercy and pity in his inmost being when he sees that we are in need. 

And not only does his heart go out to us—his hands go out to us as well to meet our needs.  His care and concern moves him to help us just like it did that day as he the sick.

For people in that day and time, their medical options were few.  Maybe some herbs or ointments and that was about it.  All of the medicines and treatments and procedures that we take for granted—they had none of them.  They were completely dependent upon Jesus to provide for their medical needs and he met those needs and healed them.

We need to re-learn this lesson that all healing is God’s healing.  He may accomplish that through science and medicine—and he does.  He may accomplish that directly like Jesus did that day—and he can.  But all healing is God’s healing and we can be confident that Jesus’ heart is still moved with pity by our physical ailments and still powerful enough to grant us relief.  The Bible says that:

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.”

            We can understand the reaction of the disciples.  We know that there are desperate, desolate places in the world where multitudes of people do not even know where their next meal is coming from.  All of us know and understand the human feeling of helplessness in the face of that great need. 

It wasn’t that the disciples were unsympathetic or uncaring—they knew that the people needed to eat—but they also knew that their resources were insufficient to meet that need. 

What they had forgotten about was the one who was with them.  They were not alone in the face of a great need that they could not meet.  Jesus was with them and his presence and his power would make all the difference.

You see dear friends in Christ, what the disciples really lacked, was not the food to feed so many or the money to buy what was needed.  What they lacked was the faith to look to Jesus in their need and to trust that he had the power to help.

We struggle with the same thing!  We forget that Jesus is with us.  We don’t look to him in our need.  All we can see is a dwindling checking account or a retirement fund that shrinks with inflation.  What has a hold on our heart-- is what we can hold in our hand. 

But Jesus wants us to lift up our eyes of faith to him!  Jesus wants us to open our hearts and trust him in our need.  Jesus is with us no less than he was with the disciples and the crowd that day.  He looks upon us in our need with the same eyes of compassion as gazed upon that crowd.  He has the same power to provide right now as he did then.  The Bible says that

Jesus 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.

            Please picture this scene in your mind’s eye—how it must have been.  The incredulous, disbelieving look on the disciples faces as Jesus took a bit of bread and a few fish—as if that could ever feed a crowd this size.  I can see them shaking their heads:  no!  The unspoken thoughts and words in their minds, wondering to themselves if Jesus had lost his mind. 

The initial unwillingness to take just a twelfth of the little they had handed them—not even enough to fill their hands-- with the command to give it to the crowd. 

And then, and then—the amazement and the wonder and the smiles and the joy as that little bit that Jesus had entrusted into their hands began to multiply again and again, thousands of times over so that everyone there that day had their fill and were satisfied.

            It’s not an accident that Jesus fed the multitudes the way he did—by giving the food into the hands of his disciples so that they could feed them.  You see, he cared for the crowd.  He had compassion for their situation.  He wanted to provide for their needs. 

But he wanted to give his disciples something more—something better than bread, more important than a meal—he wanted to give them faith that he was the Great Provider who would always care for his people.  The Bible says that the disciples

…took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.  And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

            Jesus took five barley loaves and two fish and divided it into twelve portions—one for each disciple.  After thousands and thousands had eaten their fill and lay groaning with satisfaction on the grassy shore, the leftovers were gathered up. 

Twelve baskets full—one for each disciple to hold in the same hands that had held the scraps--so that they could know and believe that Jesus was indeed the Great Provider who could be trusted to abundantly care for his people.  

Dear friends in Christ let’s take a moment right now to, as it were, look at what fills our hands.  We came into this world naked but where are we now?  We are fed and clothed and sheltered.  We have money in our pocket.  We have luxuries that were unimaginable even a few years ago.  Look at the abundance of God’s provision to us! 

Our lives at this moment are a testimony—just like the twelve baskets full of leftovers—that Jesus is our Great Provider who can be trusted to meet our needs. 

But Jesus does not want to leave us there—with our hands full but our hearts empty—he wants these words of our text and the lessons of our own life to inspire in us a life of faith that trusts in him no matter how big the challenge. 

He wants us to have the confidence and the courage to entrust our material means into his hands first and believe that he will give them back in a more wonderful and satisfying way than what we started with. 

And he wants us to have the same eyes of compassion and willing hands to reach out to others in their need, knowing that the Great Provider is more than able to meet their needs too!  Amen.