Text: Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
When a rich young man approached Jesus and asked him, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life,” Jesus told him to obey the commandments. He named the following: “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love you neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 19:19).
This sounded very good to the rich young man because he had kept all of these. He went one step further and asked Jesus, “What do I still lack?” (v. 20) Jesus told the young man to “…sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (v. 21).
This part is what really made the young man think. This is the part he could not follow because he had many possessions and he was not willing to sell them and give to the poor. He was so attached to his worldly possessions that he was willing to give up his chances of spending eternity in the eternal kingdom of Almighty God.
Many people today are willing to hold on to worldly possessions and live worldly instead of giving God the praise and glory and start thinking about their destiny and start living heavenly. As Jesus’ disciples witnessed this event, Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:23, 24).
When the disciples asked, “Who can be saved?” Jesus said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (v. 25, 26). When I read this, it is telling me that nothing is impossible if God is involved. Nothing is impossible when God is consulted. We can’t do many things on our own, but when we talk to God and we are sincere and it is His will, nothing is impossible. So in essence, all things are possible with Almighty God.
Prior to our Scripture reading, John the Baptist had been beheaded by King Herod. Jesus’ disciples were the ones who buried the body of John. After that chore was complete, they went to Jesus and told him about what had taken place.
The disciples were sad about what happened to John, but they felt it was necessary to tell Jesus. The disciples needed comfort just as we need comfort when a loved one is called home or we receive bad news concerning our health. This is the time we need to seek Jesus and tell Him what is on our mind and how we are hurting. We need to acquaint Jesus with what is hurting us or what is on our mind.
When we consult Jesus or call upon Him, we feel better because He now knows how we feel and He can give us the comfort we need. He is our Shepherd and we are His sheep. When something frightens the sheep and tends to scatter them, they need not be afraid because the shepherd will protect them.
We all like comfort. We are at ease when we have a right relationship with Jesus. Our comfort level is high when Jesus is a part of our everyday life. Our comfort is taken away from us when we take our eyes off Him and begin to live worldly instead of heavenly.
There were tears in the eyes of the disciples as they relayed the sad news of John’s death to Jesus.
“When Jesus heard what had happened, He withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place” (v. 13).
Whenever we are faced with death of a loved one, our heart is heavy. We feel as though a part of us has been lost. I believe this is the way Jesus felt, so to help matters, He wanted to get away from the multitude and spend time alone with His disciples. Although Jesus was saddened by the death of John, He did not dwell on His grief, but instead, He went on with His ministry.
When we face the loss of a loved-one, we tend to dwell on our loss. We actually feel sorry for ourselves. We know that our loved-one has gone on into the presence of the Lord.
Jesus wanted to withdraw for a while because of what Herod might do to Him. Upon hearing reports of the miraculous things Jesus was doing, he said, “This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him” (Matthew 14:1, 2).
John had revealed the sins of Herod when he said, “It is not lawful for you to have her (his brother Philip’s wife)” (Matthew 14:4). This is why Herod had John arrested and ultimately beheaded.
Herod thought his troubles would be over if he removed John from the scene, but when he heard about the miraculous things Jesus was doing, Herod became alarmed and made the assumption that Jesus was John who had risen from the dead.
Herod’s sin began to haunt him. He became very fearful of Jesus because his conscience was working hard reminding him of his guilt. I believe we all know the feeling. When we do something we should not have done that little voice within our heart keeps reminding of our wrongdoing.
Have any of you never had a guilty conscience? In all honesty, we have probably all experienced a guilt feeling. We have the opportunity to repent of our sin and ask for forgiveness. When we repent and ask for forgiveness, we feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off our shoulders because our conscience is now clear.
We are very aware that forgiveness is possible because of our faith in our Lord and Savior. We also know that we cannot forgive ourselves, but all things, including forgiveness, are possible through Jesus.
When we are forgiven for our sins, our mind is at ease. Herod’s mind was not at ease upon his sin of killing John. He was not sorry for his actions. The devil was in control of his inner being and as we know, the devil does not want us to repent or be remorseful for our sinful actions. He wants to keep our mind in turmoil.
Jesus withdrew to a solitary place when He heard what happened to John the Baptist. He wanted to get away from Herod and the best way was to move out of his jurisdiction. When we are having issues or something is bothering us, we feel in our heart that we, too, want to be by ourselves.
God, the Father, made a way for Jesus to get away and be alone with His disciples. This is what God does for us when we are in need of escape. When someone has done us wrong, God steps in and provides an escape door for us. When we lose a loved-one, we feel sad, discouraged and lonely, so our Father makes available some means of escape so we can step back and regroup.
In Jesus’ case, God provided a boat for Him to get away from the multitude. This was a means of escape. Although Jesus wanted to get away, God had something else in mind. Scripture tells us; “…the crowds followed him on foot from the towns” (v. 13).
I believe the crowds followed Him because they knew that with Him all things were possible. He taught with great enthusiasm. He preached as no other had ever preached. He said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 4:17).
When a crowd approached Him, He did not run away, but instead He taught them. “Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down” (Matthew 5:1). His words were encouraging. For example, He told the crowd who they were. He said, “You are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13, 14).
He taught the people about the Law, anger, lust, divorce, loving their enemies, giving to the needy, how to pray, about fasting, the pitfall of money, worry, criticizing others, Heaven and how to get there and many other attributes of life. Those who believed knew in their heart that nothing was impossible in life.
Many people knew of the miracles He performed. They could see how positive Jesus was in all that He did. For example, when a centurion came asking Jesus to heal his servant, Jesus immediately said, “I will go and heal him” (Matthew 8:7).
The centurion was not too proud to ask Jesus for this favor. He knew it was possible for healing to take place just by Jesus speaking the word. His faith was far superior to most people. Jesus recognized the centurion’s faith and that hour the servant was healed. Jesus said, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would” (Matthew 8:13).
Jesus did many other miracles like; calming the storm, healing a paralyzed man, curing the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years, restoring a little girl to life and healing the blind and the mute. All things were possible for Jesus and all things are possible for us if we only believe or have faith.
Jesus had compassion for the crowd that had followed Him to the other side of the lake. He knew some of these people had issues and were hurting and this is what led them to follow Jesus. The crowd knew Jesus had the answer to their problems because of what they had already seen or heard.
As Jesus taught the crowd, time passed. Soon it was late and they needed to have something to eat. The disciples were the ones concerned about the hunger of the people. The disciples said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food” (Matthew 14:15).
If you and I had been one of the disciples, we would probably have said the same thing. I don’t believe there is any question as to whether the people were physically hungry. They had been there all day without eating. Jesus said, “They do not need to go away” (Matthew 14:1 6).
What do you suppose the disciples thought when Jesus made that statement? Maybe they thought Jesus was so tired that He didn’t care about the hunger of the people. I really don’t know, but Jesus immediately followed with this statement: “You give them something to eat” (v. 16).
Again, had we been one of the disciples we would have thought it impossible to feed 5000 plus people with five loaves and two fish. If we were asked to feed 50 people today with five loaves and two fish, we would say that it cannot be done. This is basically what the disciples thought. This is impossible.
What do you think would have happened if Jesus had sent the people off instead of feeding them? There is a very good chance that Jesus would have lost His following. The confidence the people had would have been lost.
This would have been bad news and you know how fast bad news spreads. However, Jesus said to the disciples, “Bring them here to me” (v. 18). Jesus knew where there is a will there is a way. When there is faith all things are possible. Jesus was not one to give up.
It is a little different with us. When we are faced with a situation that seems impossible, we usually look for something easier. If a loved-one is sick or dies, we might believe it is impossible for us to continue to live. If faced with bad news from the doctor concerning our health, we might think there is no hope and our earthly life is coming to an end.
Many people today have lost their means of support and find it easier to give up and let the Devil have his way. The Devil likes to see us at a low point in our life because this is the time he can step in and take control without much resistance.
The disciples thought worldly when they thought 5000 plus people could not be fed with 5 loaves and 2 small fish. I don’t understand why they felt this way, because they had seen Jesus in action on previous occasions.
Jesus took the 5 loaves and 2 small fish and instructed the disciples to have the people sit down on the grass. Let me read that first part again. He instructed the disciples to do something. He told them what He wanted them to do. The disciples listened and did as instructed.
When we are faced with a situation that seems impossible, what do we do? We worry because we do not know what to do. What should we do? We should speak to the Lord and ask Him for direction.
Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7).
What did Jesus do? He asked His Father through prayer. When He asked, Jesus received. He received multiples of what He held in His hands. The fish were multiplied as were the loaves.
Many times, we do not ask the Lord for help or guidance. We tend to take care of the issue on our own. We do things the way the world does things instead of doing things according to God’s Word. When we are unable to fix the problem and we suffer or worry considerable, then that little voice in our heart tells us to call upon the Lord.
When we follow the instructions of the still small voice, we find out the situation or the issue was not as bad as we thought and everything works out in a satisfactory manner. Most of the time we receive more and greater things then we asked for.
Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear” (Matthew 6:25).
Worry is not good for us because it affects our health. Worry confuses our mind and we can’t think straight. Worry disrupts our everyday activity. Worry interferes with our relationship with other people. Worry gives Almighty God the impression or idea that we do not trust Him.
When we listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, there will be no need to worry about anything. Notice that when Jesus instructed the disciples to have all the people sit down, they followed His dictate. They did not argue with Him. Perhaps they did not know what was about to take place, but I am sure that after the fact, their attitudes changed.
Conclusion:
We will all face mountains daily that seem impossible to get over, around or through. We will come to the edge of troubled waters throughout our lifetime and become discouraged because we think there is no way to cross to the other side.
We may become discouraged, despondent or depressed at some time in life, but this is the time to ask. We may want to go into seclusion and forget the world, but no matter where we go, God is there.
Nothing in life is impossible if we call upon the Lord. It is true that with man some things are impossible, but when we call upon God, all things are possible.
Listen to this story:
Story: “You Are My Sunshine”
Like any good mother, when Karen found out that another baby was on the way, she did what she could to help her 3-year-old son, Michael, prepare for his sister. Day after day and night after night, Michael sang to his sister in Mommy’s tummy.
He was building a bond of love with his little sister even before he met her. The pregnancy progressed normally until the time of delivery. A C-section was required after a long period of labor.
When Michael’s sister was born she was in very serious condition. She was transferred to St. Mary’s Hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee.
As days passed, the little baby became worse and doctors seemed to think there was little hope. They told the parents to be prepared for the worst so Karen and her husband made arrangement with the local funeral director.
Michael kept begging Karen to let him sing to his sister who was in the Intensive Care Unit. Children are not allowed in this unit, but Karen was determined to let Michael see and sing to his sister.
Karen dressed Michael in an oversized scrub suit and marched him into the ICU. The head nurse recognized him as a child and bellowed, “Get that kid out of here now. No children are allowed in this unit.”
The mother instinct in Karen became very strong and she said to the nurse, “He is not leaving until he sings to his sister.”
Karen led Michael to his sister’s bedside. Michael gazed at the tiny infant losing the battle to live. After a moment, he began to sing: “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine; you make me happy when skies are gray.”
Instantly the baby girl seemed to respond. The pulse rate began to calm down and become steady. With tears in her eyes, Karen told Michael to keep singing. “You never know, dear, how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away.”
As Michael sang to his sister, the babies’ strained breathing became as smooth as a kitten’s purr. Karen told Michael to keep singing. “The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamed I held you in my arms.”
Michael’s little sister began to relax as rest, healing rest, seemed to sweep over her. Karen told Michael to keep on singing. By this time, tears had conquered the face of the bossy head nurse.
Michael kept singing, “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, Please don’t take my sunshine away.”
The next day…the very next day…the little girl was well enough to go home.
Women’s Day Magazine called it, “The Miracle of a Brother’s Song.” The medical staff just called it a miracle. Karen called it a miracle of God’s love.
(This story was sent to me in an email.)
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
Amen.
