The first 21 verses of Matthew 14 tell the story of two very different banquets. In the first, King Herod is surrounded by a partying crowd. When his wife’s daughter danced, Herod was so taken aback that he promised to give her whatever she asked.
She asked her mother, who prompted her to say, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter” (Matthew 14:8).
The king exerted his power and put to death the one of whom Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11).
Banquet in the Wilderness
When Jesus learned about John’s brutal death, “He withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself” (Matthew 14:13a). Jesus was not a movie character who grieved one moment and moved to another scene and set of actions in the next. His grief was genuine and profound, but His love for others was stronger.
“But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion for them and cured their sick” (Matthew 14:13b-14).
Herod thought only of himself and his reputation before the guests at his party. Jesus put aside His grief and healed every person in a great crowd. Not only that, but He provided a banquet for the crowd in the wilderness.
The men close to Jesus wanted Him to call it a day and take a break from ministry. No doubt, they were tired and sorrowful over John’s death, too. However, Jesus took this moment to involve them in serving the purposes of God.
A. B. Bruce’s book, The Training of the Twelve, reveals how Jesus progressively trained His followers to become the foundation of the church He established. The dialogue between Jesus and His disciples here is a prime example of their training.
Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’ And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’
Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds” (Matthew 14:16-19).
If Jesus’ banquet was an all-you-can-eat event, it was a resounding success. Over 5,000 men, plus women and children, ate their fill—complete with to-go boxes.
Compassion on Display
We expect Jesus to be compassionate. We expect to see Him train the disciples by having them serve as waiters at a banquet for 5,000-plus people. After all, this is Jesus and an episode from His life in the Bible.
The question for us is whether the first 21 verses in Matthew 14 will add to our own training in discipleship.
Which dinner would we honestly prefer to attend? If we were invited to a dinner party by a famous personality, would we rather go there than have a picnic with a group of ordinary people?
Suppose Jesus asked us to put aside our legitimate grief and weariness to serve a crowd of people—how would we respond? What if the alternative was to attend a luxurious party and be served?
I recognize that my questions are a bit extreme and not completely realistic, but perhaps we can approximate a response for the way Jesus may want to train us in discipleship.
Let’s think about ways we can best appropriate Jesus’ attitudes and actions into our own lives.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed this passage on YouTube today.
Real Voices 