Matthew 14:13-21, Don’t MISunderestimate Christ (3)

The remainder of Matt. 14 contains two miracles that involve His disciples in significant ways.  He uses them in the feeding of the 5000; and the miracle of walking on water is done just for the disciples.  It is clear, given the context of the rejection, that Jesus is seeking to build up the Twelve for their future ministry.  The feeding of the 5000 is designed much more for the disciples than for the crowd.

The Apostle Paul said, Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God (2 Cor. 3:5).  We believe that is what this story is about.  It is not about the need to establish a meal program for the needy.  There is no evidence that Jesus regularly fed the crowds that were with Him after the dinner hour.  The disciples were right in assuming it was okay to send the crowd off to get their own dinner.  Jesus doesn’t go into a detailed explanation of His plan.  Rather He simply says to the disciples, You give them something to eat.

The problem with the disciples giving them something to eat is that they don’t have sufficient food to give out.  Thus you might think that Jesus is a bit unfair or harsh telling them to do something they can’t do.  But actually, Jesus put the disciples in a position to learn to related and powerful truths.

·        The ministry we are called to is the ministry of Christ.  It is fundamentally His work through us and not a work that is ours.  We have noted that it was not normal for Jesus to feed the crowds.  But Jesus had compassion on them.  He healed their sick.  Now He wanted to feed them.  The disciples needed to learn that Jesus is the One who directs them in ministry; if He is leading them then they need to look to Him for the sufficiency to do as He desires.  We are not called to establish our own ministry.  Today, Jesus is building His Church.  He has called all who follow Him to join Him in this. 

·        Our ability to minister in the power of Christ is dependent on our view of Christ.  If we “misunderestimate” Him, then we ourselves have less power for ministry.  When Jesus told the disciples to feed the crowd their first response was to look at themselves and their meagre resources.  But we are not the source of our own sufficiency; Christ is!  We no longer live, but Christ lives in us.  We are to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might (Eph. 6:10).  Again, we are to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 2:1).  If we have a diminished view of Christ then our service for Christ will be diminished. 

In John’s account of this story (this miracle is recorded in all four Gospels) he tells us that Jesus was testing His disciples (Jn. 6:6).  He was providing an opportunity for them to learn Christ.  To learn Christ is to know that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13).  To learn Christ is to know that without Me (Christ) you can do nothing (John 15:5).