Matthew 14:13-21 Commentary

The ominous words that open our story immediately make us curious: what happened? Jesus hears something and feels the need to withdraw to a deserted place by himself. The emphasis on his desire to be alone is clear, even as we come to realize from verse 15 that the disciples have come with them (that’s their job, after all, to go wherever the rabbi goes).

Jesus wants to be alone for a while because the news of John the Baptist’s death has reached him. His family by blood and by spiritual call has been executed on the whims of a jealous and vindictive family who think they have the right to all the power.

I’ve felt the way grief wants to be alone. Even in a room full of people, a grieving person can pull into themselves and look as though they are empty as they stare off into the distance, still and stone-like. But Jesus’s attempt to be alone does not succeed, for the crowd has gone ahead of him along the shore, planning to catch him at the other end of his boat ride.

Jesus’s view of the world has changed, but other people’s view of him as has not. They continue to need him and want to be near him. In the midst of his grief and mourning, Jesus shows compassion and hospitality. Doing what he does, he cures the sick and spends time among them and perhaps finds some comfort for himself in continuing to do what he is meant to do—what John promised he would do. Jesus is John’s legacy, John’s God-given calling fulfilled, so perhaps serving the people of God feels like an act of remembrance and honour to his deceased friend—a “donation made in the name of” John.

John did not send people away when they came to be baptised—though he did chide them and tell them what’s what—he challenged people to commit themselves to a new way of life by offering them a baptism of repentance. And in another prototype of a sacrament, we see Jesus here enact the pattern of the Lord’s Supper as he takes the bread, looks up to heaven, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to the people to eat.

And like John involved those who came to receive his spiritual initiation, Jesus involves those who have come with him, having the disciples be the one to pass the food around to the crowds seated in the grass. They wanted to send the people home because they knew they did not have the resources to provide, but Jesus orders them to do the thing they know that they cannot do and gives them the means with which to do it. This too is the pattern of our God. (Wouldn’t it be nice if the provision to meet the task was always as instantaneous as the loaves and fish!)

“All ate and were filled” with plenty of leftovers; 12 baskets full of bread to echo the show bread in the Tabernacle perhaps? 12 baskets full of bread to remember that God is with them? 12 baskets full of bread as a comforting sign from the Father to Jesus his Son that even as he grieves, he can know that his Heavenly Father is with him too. In Matthew 16.5-12, it is clear that meaning is meant to be made about the baskets of bread left over; it is a sign of who Jesus is and whom the disciples should trust and follow as teacher of the true way.

Jesus’s way results in everyone eating and having their fill. What a contrast to the where the story began. The backstory of Herod’s family acting out of their own heart and treating other people’s lives as their pawns is contrasted with the way Jesus acts in his grief. Instead of lashing out, he leans deeply into compassion and provision for others. Where others kill, he gives the gift of life and sustenance, and he teaches his followers to do the same.

Textual Point

This is the only miracle that is recorded in all four gospels. The motivation to go away to a deserted place is different in each account, however—even as John’s death immediately proceeds the account in Mark 6 and is at least mentioned in Luke 9.

Illustration Idea

I have witnessed the combination of grief and compassion as a minister, and interestingly, it’s one of those things that TV shows and movies often get right when depicting the complexity of life after a loved one’s gone. While not a universal phenomenon, I’ve watched widowed spouses comfort others in the receiving line after a funeral, remember details about someone else’s situation and bring it up in conversation, be concerned about the amount of food at the reception, and even start planning on how to share or give away some of their belongings. Some might see these things as signs that they are not staying present to their own mourning but what if, like Jesus, both grief and compassion are present? What if some people really do understand that our lives are a complex matrix of experiences and that healthy grief does not come in one predetermined package?