RICH IN DEEDS (MATT 15:32-39)
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In the age of Covid, do people give more or less to charities and neighbors? From India to America, people surprisingly have been giving more, not less to those in need. The average amount of individual donations to philanthropy in India increased by a whopping 43% during the pandemic, according to a report by Charities Aid Foundation. The India Giving Report found that 85% of the survey respondents had supported charities or their community in “direct response to the pandemic.” Two in three gave money or goods to a charity or community service, and three in1 0 gave money to their friends, family or neighbors.
In a normal year in America, giving went up by 2.8% in the economic expansion and stock gain year of 2019. In the next year of 2020, giving rose by 3.8% in the Covid year than the previous cash -in year, or a record US$471 billion. One report found that gifts under $250 grew more than large donations. Giving to arts, culture and humanities fell by 4.2% amid the pandemic. When physical distancing hit, locals buy takeout meals to support restaurants, paid their hairdressers without so much as getting a haircut and volunteered formally to organizations or informally to neighbors.
Rich or poor is not determined by what you have and not what you lack, how you share and not how you save, and what you do with what you have.
What makes a believer rich or poor? How are we rich in Christ? Why do people miss seeing their possession for their poverty?
Be Compassionate, Not Cold
32 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”
I’m an expert in dizziness. Every winter I would sneeze terribly, but one day on one of Hong Kong’s coldest day (Feb 21, 2022), I sneezed from morning to night although I was wearing bundles of clothes, and I would empty the tissue box quickly and the trash bag would need emptying. My big trash bag did not stand a chance.
Why did I choose to remember the day? A month before this, I sneezed a few days and then the fainting spell began. I did not k now what made me faint until I sneezed in the middle of the night.
Now that the coldest day was here, I started writing down how many days later would the fainting come. Voila, it came four days later and lasted two weeks. When it came, I could only look straight but not look down or sideways, neither could I bend my knees without fainting. The worse is the moment before I lay my head on the pillow. That’s when the dizzy spell is a make or break moment.
The God we know is a loving and compassionate God. He cares for our physical, spiritual and emotional needs. He put others’ needs above his own, felt their feelings and grief when He did not feel so energetic himself.
The verb “have compassion” is exclusive to Jesus. It occurs three times (Matt 18:27, Luke 10:33, 15:3) in parables told by Jesus and He exemplified it by His compassion on the multitudes (Matt 9:36, 14:14, Matt 15:32, Mark 8:2), two blind men (Matt 20:34), much people (Mark 6:34) and the widow whose son was dead (Luke 7:13). The verb means to yearn, to feel sympathy, to pity, to have inward affection, tender mercy. It is from the noun for “bowels,” spleen or intestines.
In the first feeding - the 5,000 - the multitude was with Jesus till evening (Matt 14:15), but now int hes second feeding – the 4,000 - it’s been three days (v 32). Most people can skip a breakfast, few people can skip breakfast and lunch, fewer can skip a day’s food, even rarer for a person to skip two days, but most extraordinary to miss food for three days. Jesus was most concerned, cautious and considerate for the pressing, passionate and persistent crowd.
Most leaders are familiar with the feeding of the five thousand, but I’ll highlight what makes the feeding of the four thousand different. First, Jesus saw “a great multitude” previously (Matt 14:14, KJV), but here those present were “great multitudes” in plural form (Matt 15:30, KJV). Jesus could not let them go defenseless, dehydrated or dizzy. Collapse (v 32) occurs for the first time in the Bible – only twice in the Gospels, both referring to his incident (Mark 8:3).
Be Constructive, Not Crusty
33 His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?” 34 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”
In Jewish French author Andre Schwarz-Bart’s book “The Last of the Just,” Mordecai trained his beloved and adoring grandson Ernie: “If a man suffers all alone, it is clear his suffering remains within him. Right?” Ernie replied, “Right.”
“But if another looks at him and says to him, ‘You’re in trouble, my Jewish brother,’ what happens then?” The grandson wisely said, “He takes the suffering of his friend and into his own eyes.”
The grandfather sighed, smiled and asked, “And if he is blind, do you think that he can take it in?” Ernie answered, “Of course through his ears.” Mordecai again asked, “And if he is deaf!” Ernie said seriously, “Then through his hands.” The questioning continued: “And if the other is far away, if he can neither hear him nor see him and not even touch him – do you believe then that he can take in his pain?” The answer came back: “Maybe he could guessed at it.”
The grandfather was so proud and happy: “You’ve said it, my love – that is exactly what the just man does! He senses all the evil rampant on earth, and he takes it into his heart.” A dismayed Ernie, however, said, “But what good does it do to sense it if nothing is changed?” Mordecai answered, “It changes for God, don’t you see?”
In the previous feeding of the five thousand, Jesus commanded the disciples with an imperative, “Give them something to eat” (Matt 14:16, Mark 6:37). The disciples, smartened from the early feeding, decided to take a different approach by asking questions instead: “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?” (v 33) The pronouns “enough” and “such” (v 32) are the same word in Greek, or translated as “so much” and “so great” in KJV, or “so long” (Heb 4:7) in other KJV passages. It wasn’t the right place to be, the right timing to think or the right size to feed. Seven loaves a few small fish (v 34) were barely or hardly enough for the twelve hungry fishermen.
Before, Jesus used personal pronouns of “I” twice for himself and four times either “they” or “them” for the crowd, but never “you” to the disciples: “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and (they) have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.” in short, Jesus did not ask the disciples so much as to lift a finger. It wasn’t about the disciples, but about Jesus and the crowd - His sight and sensitivity and the sheep and their suffering.
Jesus asked them what the right question was. Instead of asking “where,” they should ask “How”? The disciples asked, “Where could we get enough bread?” but Jesus asked “How many loaves do you have?” The disciples said “tosoutos” (so much, so great), but Jesus “posos” (how many). It’s about what you can do versus what you cannot do. It’s about what you are willing to do versus what you won’t do. The words “bread,” “desert” and “multitude” (KJV) together make the task impossible. It is overblown, overreach and overkill to use “so much” and “so great” (KJV) twice in a verse, the only time in the Bible repeated in a verse.
Be Calm, Not Chaotic
35 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. 36 Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. 37 They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 38 The number of those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children. 39 After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.
In William J Bennett’s book “The Book of Virtues” is a story “Little Sunshine.”
Once there was a girl named Elsa. She had a very old grandmother, with white hair, and wrinkles all over her face. Elsa’s father had a large house that stood on a hill. Each day the sun peeped in at the south windows. It made everything look bright and beautiful. The grandmother lived on the north side of the house. The sun never came to her room.
One day Elsa said to her father, “Why doesn’t the sun peep into Grandma’s room? i know she would like to have him.” “The sun cannot look in at the north windows,” said her father. “Then let us turn the house around, Papa.” “It is much too large for that,” said her father. “Will Grandma never have any sunshine in her room?” asked Elsa. “Of course not, my child, unless you can carry some to her.” After that Elsa tried and tried to think how she could carry the sunshine to her grandmother. When she played in the fields, she saw the grass and the flowers nodding their heads. The birds sang sweetly as they flew from tree to tree. Everything seemed to say, “We love the sun. We love the bright, warm sun.” “Grandma would love it, too,” thought the child. “I must take some to her.”
When she was in the garden one morning she felt the sun’s warm rays in her golden hair. Then she sat down and she saw them in her lap. “I will take them in my dress,” she thought, “And carry them to Grandma’s room.” so she jumped up and ran into the house. “Look, Grandma, look! I have some sunshine for you,” she cried. And she opened her dress, but there was not a ray to be seen. “It peeps out of your eyes, my child,” said her grandmother, “and it shines in your sunny, golden hair. I do not need the sun when I have you with me.” Elsa did not understand how the sun could peep out of her eyes. But she was glad to make her dear grandmother happy. Every morning she played in the garden. Then she ran to her grandmother’s room to carry the sunshine in her eyes and hair.”
It might surprise you to know that there is one main verb that is common to the first (Matt 14:19) and the second feeding. It is not “direct/command,” “take,” “look up” and “break” (Matt 14:19), or “give thanks” (v 36), which are all participles, but the verb “gave.” Most readers forget this is the climax of the passage. His purpose was to have the disciples experience God’s inexhaustible riches in Christ. It was as if He was telling the disciples the more they receive, the more they give, and the more they give, the more they have. Can you imagine the worried disciples looking for more food to serve that many people, doing the rounds on people too eager for seconds and eating like released prisoners? It was an all-you-can-eat dinner that completely amazed the apostles. In the end, the disciples picked up 7 baskets. A basket has more than one loaf of bread. So they had plenty of leftovers.
Furthermore, it is the best way for the disciples to know get to know the multitudes by serving them on a personal, positive and practical way. What did they receive? Why did they remain? How were they revived? The crowd, to their credit, was more patient, persistent and proven than any crowd. After all, the crowd listened to Jesus for three days without food, fuss and fatigue! It was probably the longest public ministry of Jesus with a crowd, longer than the two days he spent with the Samaritans (John 4:43) and the two days with Martha and Mary (John 11:6).
Finally, what’s the biggest theological, geographical and social difference between the previous chapter’s feeding of the 5,000 and Matthew 15’s feeding of the 4,000? Jesus had gone farther and farther into Gentile territory from Tyre and Sidon (Matt 15:21) to the coasts of Magdala (Matt 15:39) next. How did the Gentiles’ response? Previously, Jesus rebuked the Jews: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” (Matt 11:21).True to form, the Gentile crowd stayed longer – three days, not just all day, because they did not know when Jesus would return. They were startled that Jesus made His way to Gentile territory. They were shocked Jesus stayed with them overnight for two days. They were stunned Jesus felt the same compassion (v 31) He had for the Jews (Matt 14:14), and was willing to suffer the criticism of the Jews (John 7:35).
Conclusion: A person is rich when he or she is compassionate, resourceful and thankful. There is always enough to go around in Christ. In fact, there are never-ending resources, rations and riches in Christ. Our needs are so small in contrast to Jesus’ wealth and abundance. Not only does God care for His people, He supplies them abundantly, more than they need. Jesus said, “So do not worry, saying, ’What shall we eat?’ or ’What shall we drink?’ or ’What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matt 6:31-33)
Are you rich in the things of God? In service of God and in ministry to others? Are you the giving type or the receiving sort? Have you offered your time, talent and treasures to God for His use?
