Don’t Go Away

When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.” But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” (Matthew 14:15-16)

The multitudes followed Jesus to a deserted place (Matthew 14:13) outside the larger towns of Galilee. This crowd was a mixture of sincere seekers and the casually curious.

As the day wore on, Jesus saw the crowd was getting hungry, and He said to the disciples: You give them something to eat. This challenged both the compassion and the faith of the disciples. Having already seen Jesus perform a miracle of provision at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11), the disciples had a reason to believe that Jesus could meet the need of thousands of hungry stomachs.

Both Jesus and the disciples were aware of the great multitude and their needs. Yet it was the compassion of Jesus (mentioned in Matthew 14:14) and His awareness of the power of God that led Him to go about feeding the multitude.

The world is hungry, and whether they know it or not, they are hungry for Jesus.

– The people are hungry, and the empty religionist offers them some ceremony or empty words that can never satisfy.
– The people are hungry, and the atheists and skeptics try to convince them that they aren’t hungry at all.
– The people are hungry, and the religious showman gives them video and drama and light effects and cutting-edge music.
– The people are hungry, and the entertainer gives them loud, fast action, so loud and fast that they don’t have a moment to think.
– The people are hungry – who will give them the bread of life?

With Jesus among them, the people did not need to go away to have their hunger, their need, satisfied. If these were mostly casual, not-very-committed followers of Jesus and there was no reason for them to go away to receive what they needed, then there is even less reason for committed disciples of Jesus to go away for true life satisfaction.

Nevertheless, there are several reasons – or maybe excuses – why people look outside of Jesus for the satisfaction of the deepest needs of in their life. When we feel the pull to set Jesus to the side and meet such needs in other ways, we need to challenge ourselves and think about it.

– Circumstances don’t need to make you go away. You won’t have things so hard or so easy that you don’t need Jesus.
– There is nothing in Jesus that would make you want to go away.
– There is nothing in the future that will make you need to go away.

Our needs are satisfied in Jesus, through Jesus, and by Jesus. He may use many instruments, but we thank Him for it all. Don’t go away – go to Jesus.

Click here for David’s commentary on Matthew 14