The word “miracle” comes from the old Latin word miraculum, which means "something wonderful". A miracle is a extraordinary interposition of Divine intervention by God in the universe by which the ordinary course and operation of nature is overruled, suspended, or modified.
Have you ever felt like you needed a miracle? A real one? Not just a change in circumstances because things were a bit uncomfortable, but a very real, God-in-the-midst-of-trial intervention because you or someone you knew was in desperate straights and there was no hope otherwise?
Our passage today takes us once again to a scene where Jesus is surrounded by people who are in that very place. Jesus has returned from the region of Tyre and Sidon and is now back close to His old neighborhood, the region of Galilee. Yet He is still in Gentile territory, with no mention of Him having stopped in Capernaum, Bethsaida or any of the other cities of the Jews in the region of Galilee.
We get this information from the parallel account in Mark 7:31-37. Mark tells us in 7:31: “Again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis.”
Decapolis is a Greek word that means “ten cities”. The region of Decapolis was rather long and broad, extending from the south end of the Sea of Galilee toward the Dead Sea, almost top Jericho. Decapolis contained nine cities on the east side of the Jordan and only one on the west side. During Christ’s time, these cities were predominantly Gentile. That is why when Jesus was in the area before (Matthew 8:28-34), we saw that there were swine keepers in Gergesa, one of the ten cities of Decapolis.
Now, the only thing we know for sure that Jesus did in Tyre and Sidon was have that conversation with the Canaanite woman and deliver her daughter of a demon. Now, we can assume He spoke to others. Did He teach? Did He perform a miracle or two or hundreds more than this one? We just don’t know.
Why do you think that is, do you suppose? Why wouldn’t Matthew or Mark, the two gospel writers who record that event, not say anything more about their extended trip into Gentile territory with Jesus? It was a trip that would have taken several weeks on foot, which we know is how they traveled.
Wouldn’t it have been wonderful to have been a part of those conversations that they must have had along the way? When I think about that, and in light of what our study entails today, it really causes me to wonder about these disciples of Jesus. How could they be so dense, so hard to get through to?
What Jesus has been doing among the Jews, He now does among the Gentiles. Look at their response to Him – “large crowds came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them (Matthew 15:30).”
Again, we see that there is something about Jesus that draws people to Him, especially people in need. People who are desperate, people who are at the end of their options, the end of their hope for relief or help or release – people who need a miracle because that is all that is left.
This, I think, is a reminder to us that God is not going to perform a miracle for us when we don’t really need one. Sure, His heart goes out to us; sure, He feels a deep compassion for us; sure, He has wonderful desires for us and our lives. But – and this is an important “but” – Jesus will not intervene when it isn’t necessary.
I opened our time together today by asking you if you’ve ever felt that you needed a very real miracle, a “God-in-the-midst-of-trial intervention because there was no hope otherwise.” That’s when Jesus intervenes and performs miracles – that’s when Jesus intervenes in our troubles and changes the outcome.
There is another condition that goes along with that one. We see it in the amazing response of these Gentiles that Jesus was healing and the folks that brought them to Him – “they glorified the God of Israel (verse 31).”
These were Gentiles! These were pagans, people who had multiple gods and who worshiped idols. These were unwashed, unclean, uncircumcised heathens who knew nothing of Yahweh. Yet, when they encountered Jesus, heard His teachings, received His miraculous intervention, “they glorified the God of Israel.” Not the God of pharisaic Israel, but the God of Israel as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.
Receiving the miraculous intervention of God takes it being something that is an absolute necessity and it takes a heart prepared to offer God the glory – even if the person doesn’t know Him by name. If those two things are missing, no miracle.
Some may want to argue with this, but I will stand firm on it. I have so often seen the quick tears brought to someone’s eyes by an act of unexpected but much-needed kindness. I have watched the person stare at the “miracle” before them with wide-eyed wonder. I have stood there and watched them sigh with sense of relief so great that they cannot put it into words.
I have heard them say – some profusely, some quietly – “Thank you,” then seen their eyes go heavenward; knowing by the look that they know in their hearts that their pleas for help they had been crying out had been heard, even when no other human being was around and they are deeply grateful to God, even if they don’t know His name.
That is the sense that I get from the first three verses of our study today. Jesus among the Gentiles is the same Jesus that walks among His own people – loving, holy, gracious, merciful, compassionate; hearing and answering prayers because He knows the need, can meet the need, and He knows the heart of those whom He satisfies.
Now, the next section flows naturally from this one, and we see that Jesus and His disciples are in a situation similar to the one they were in back in Matthew 14:14-21, the Feeding of the Five Thousand. The circumstances here are a bit different in that, again, they are in Gentile territory, surrounded by Gentiles. But little else is different.
In my mind, it should have seemed almost like a déjà vécu, a “having lived it before”, to the disciples – Jesus sitting on a hill, teaching and healing, surrounded by thousands who are so caught up in being in His presence and experiencing what He is saying and doing that they do not want to leave and they have forgotten their own need of nourishment. How long has it been since you have been in His presence like that? Perhaps that is something to pursue, no?
Look at the similarity of the accounts recorded in Matthew 15:32-36, and Matthew 14:14-18. See how similar they are? This is what I meant when I wondered how the disciples could be so dense and so hard to get through to. They had already seen that Jesus was not excluding the Gentiles from His compassion and miraculous intervention. So, what gives? Oh, how soon we forget.
I don’t know the answer to that other than they just forgot – forgot what should have been obvious and unforgettable. Perhaps it is because these are Gentiles, not Jews, and their traditions and their way of life gave them a completely different mind-set, attitude and heart toward these people.
The point is that Jesus is going to do what He is going to do, whether or not we can anticipate it or understand it. In this miraculous Feeding of the Four Thousand, there are a few significant differences that are worth noting.
First, of course, is the number of people involved; four thousand, plus women and children, instead of five thousand plus women and children. This, on its face, would immediately argue against the skeptics that call this a parallelism and a variant repeating of the first miraculous feeding of thousands.
The second significant difference is that, this time, it is Jesus who shows concern for the crowds, not the disciples. This, I believe, is where their prejudice shows through. It was they who were concerned for the crowds when Jesus fed the five thousand plus women and children. They don’t seem to be concerned in the least this time.
The third is the number of loaves and fish. In the first feeding, there were “five loaves and two fish.” In this account, there are “Seven loaves, and a few small fish.” This, to me, when we look at how the Bible records things, is a significant differentiation.
The fourth significant difference is the phrase in verse 36 (in the Greek), “and started giving them to the disciples, and the disciples in turn to the multitudes.” Matthew uses the imperfect tense in Greek, which means a continuous action in past time. It means that Jesus was continually passing the food to the disciples and they were continually passing it out to the people.
The fifth significant difference is the leftovers. How many baskets were left over after the feeding of the Five Thousand in Jewish Galilee? Right. How many tribes are there of the Jewish people? Right again – same answer: twelve.
How many baskets are left over now? Seven, right. And that is the same number of Gentile people groups that surrounded the Israelites in Palestine. Some may think this is either coincidence or intentional manipulation of the facts. As for me, I see it as God’s common signature on His work.
If we were to look back in Numbers 21-22, we would see that when the king of Moab and the king of Midian came with the armies of the other nations in this area and were going to attempt to annihilate the Children of Israel, the prophet Balaam was supposed to speak for God, but he had try to sell out to Balak, king of Moab. God even told Balaam to have Balak build seven altars and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for sacrifice and God would speak to him through Balaam.
We know that seven represents completion and perfection. God was making it obvious that His purpose and plan for fulfilling His covenant with the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and, in particular, Jacob, was going to be perfectly completed – no matter what these mighty kings and their armies attempted.
Those seven altars not only represented the seven nations that were standing against God and His people in the days of Moses, those same seven surrounded Israel in the time of Jesus. It is also interesting to note that these seven nations are Arab nations in our times, and those seven Arab nations attacked Israel just days after she announced her independence in 1948. They again prepared to assault Israel in 1965, but the Israelis attacked and defeated them first. Those nations did again in 1973. Israel defeated them every time, in Numbers and in the 20th century.
God leaves these not-so-subtle marks on His work many, many times. We see forty days, forty years, being used for trial and testing. We see three representing divine completion, as in the Trinity; we see eight being the number representing new beginnings, as in eight people in the ark and circumcision being on the eight day.
Granted, we can take this number-thing to an extreme, but we need to be realistic about the fact that God does some things consistently with the same flavor so that we can know that is genuinely His work, like the easily identifiable signature of an artist on all of their paintings.
The lessons to be learned from this, I think, are easy to identify. Let’s give it a try.
• We need to know that Jesus will always have a heart of compassion for those who are in need;
• We need to always remember that Jesus is the One to whom we can turn when we are in need and that He will hear;
• We need to keep in mind that, just as Jesus used His disciples to disperse His blessings on the masses in need, Jesus still wants to use His disciples to accomplish the same thing today;
• Jesus had commissioned His disciples to minister to others just as He had ministered to them. We are to do likewise, if we are truly His disciples today;
• Even when it seems that Jesus would have every reason to turn His back on those in need, He never did – we dare not do so either;
• Christ’s reputation is in our hands today – what we do with it is vital to the spread of the Gospel and the saving of souls.
As we close, I want to share a story from Reader’s Digest, December 2002, which was taken from a story by Lee Hill Kavanaugh, of the Kansas City Star. It goes like this:
Perry Bice turned off the engine but remained behind the wheel. Parked in his driveway was a wheelchair-accessible van, a huge red and gold bow spanning the windshield. Bice began to sob.
"Why is Daddy crying?" asked nine-year-old Branson. Scrambling out, the boy ignored the van; he’d spied the trampoline and the basketball goal near the newly constructed wheelchair ramp. It was still early on Christmas Day, 2001. But already the Bice family had been blessed beyond its wildest dreams, thanks to a group of anonymous volunteers in the Kansas City area – the Elves of Christmas Present.
The Bice family has seen more than its share of sorrow. In just a few short years, Perry’s car engine went out, and a fire destroyed the house he shared with his wife, Kathrine, and their children. And then Perry lost his job.
But even deeper troubles were beginning. When Kathrine’s mother died suddenly, tests revealed a rare condition and helped unlock a family medical mystery. Doctors finally were able to diagnose what was wrong with the Bices’ youngest daughter, Rishonn: She had a related genetic disorder, mitochondrial disease, a condition that can lie dormant for years – or end a life in weeks.
Before long, the Bices learned their oldest daughter, Chambris, also had the disease. And then Mishayla tested positive. Two other children, Branson and Talaessa, were healthy. Kathrine, it turned out, was the carrier. For months, the couple lived in a daze of grief, denial and sleepless nights as the illness racked their children’s lives. Three-year-old Rishonn died soon after her diagnosis in 1999.
At times, Perry, a deeply religious man, railed at God. But neither he nor Kathrine was ever bitter. "We’ve found a God that cares for us tenderly," she explains. They were grateful when, two weeks before Christmas, a man identifying himself only as the chief elf called them at their Gardner, Kansas, apartment to ask if his group could bring their children some gifts. Perry and Kathrine agreed, knowing their kids would love the surprise.
What the Bices didn’t know was that as soon as the sun set on Christmas Eve, an elf crew was dispatched to the little house the couple recently had struggled to buy. Although they’d closed on the property two days earlier, they weren’t given a key (the Realtor was in cahoots with the elves).
Old carpet was pulled up and hauled off. New rugs and floors were installed. Twenty-six volunteers rolled on a coat of paint. Hours later, 26 more painters put on a second coat. Eight finishing carpenters nailed in moldings and baseboards. A building crew constructed a wheelchair ramp. Gifts were wrapped, and the trampoline was set up.
A Christmas tree was decorated with twinkling lights and ornaments. An elf who is also a car dealer donated a van. Another elf donated several months of mortgage payments. Others followed suit, bringing the total to more than $17,000. Each month’s payment was tied on a note that dangled from the tree’s branches. One last loving touch was nestled inside the tree – a tiny card, printed in script, courtesy of an elf who had kept his print shop open late.
By 6:30 a.m., as the etchings of Christmas morning streaked pink across the sky, the gifts were finally ready.
A rookie elf, a girl about 11 years old, presented the key to the Bices later that morning. "What’s this?" Perry asked. "A key? To what?"
Like a little phantom, the elf smiled, softly wished them a Merry Christmas, then ran off.
It dawned on Perry that perhaps the elves had left the gifts at their new home. He and Kathrine bundled up the kids and headed over. When the family opened the door, they couldn’t believe the sun-splashed walls, fresh Berber carpets and tiled floors. The lights of the tree drew them closer. Then they saw the mortgage payments and were overwhelmed.
After their tears were wiped away, Perry stood back and looked at the tree once more. That’s when he noticed the tiny envelope that was perched on a branch. Inside was the last gift, a gift of three precious words: “God loves you.”
Bice smiled, then nodded and placed it at the very top of the tree.
Oh how soon we forget. As we have said so often before – we are the Body of Christ here in this world now that His physical body is in heaven. Let us fulfill that role and our role as His disciples by seeking opportunities to bring miracles into the lives of others – even it if costs us a whole bunch, lest we seek to save our lives instead of lose them.
Do you know someone who needs a miracle? Might it even be someone you think God might turn up His nose to? Pray for them anyway – diligently, consistently, sacrificially, graciously and endlessly until God answers. And consider: perhaps you are the one God desires to use to bring an answer in His name, to bring the miracle in response to their need …
Let’s pray.
