Reflections on the God-Man of Mathew 14-
In the time immediately following his learning of John the Baptist's death, Jesus teaches us with two pictures of His dual nature. He teaches us that He is the Son of Man and to rely on the Father as He did. He also teaches us that He is the Son of God and that we can call upon Him in our trials and when we fear our circumstances. We also see the reaction of worship from His children (His sheep) contrasted to the reaction of the masses who do not recognize His identity and who do not honor God or thank God for their blessings.
Read Matthew 14:13-33 and look for the pattern of His dependence on the Father followed by His display of deity.
Dependence- He is sorrowful and goes off alone after hearing of John's death. verse 13
Deity- He returns and heals the sick as he has compassion for the crowd. verse 14
Dependence- He prays to the Father for blessing on the meager provisions, depending on the Father to provide for their needs. verse 19
Deity- The food multiplies and all are satisfied by the miraculous provision. verse 20
Dependence- Jesus goes up alone to pray after the crowd eats and he sends the disciples off onto the water. verse 23
Deity- He walks on the water and brings Peter also out onto the water with Him. verses 25-29
Looking again at the same passage (and comparing with the parallel account of the miracles in John chapter 6) look for the response from the crowd versus the response from His disciples.
Crowd- They receive the miraculous gift of provision and yet do not give thanks or recognize His identity and they follow him merely for getting more food (see John 6:26-27)
Disciples- They worship Jesus and ascribe to Him the identity of the Son of God after seeing Jesus walk on water and call Peter do the impossible while trusting Jesus. They also see Jesus rescue Peter when he feared the circumstances and began to sink. verse 32
Many will go through life receiving mercy and common grace from God without ever honoring Him or giving Him thanks. Paul writes of these people in Romans 1:21-32 and says the result of this is that they think entirely wrong about the world and about God and their hearts are darkened to the point that they trust their own wisdom and they refuse to acknowledge God. The result is not good! Let us be people who value the giver over the gift and who give thanks and honor to our gracious king.
What other lessons for application do you see in these passages regarding the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus walking on water? Post your thoughts as comments…
Soli Deo Gloria!
