Crossway Christian Church Doug Wallaker

It is probably fair to say that we have all experienced déjà vu at some point in our lives. That odd feeling that whatever we are experiencing we have already experienced before. Today, perhaps, we might feel that way. Just a month ago, and less than a chapter ago, Matthew recorded for us the feeding of the 5,000. Now, in a passage eerily similar, he records the same feat, this time for 4,000. Why do this? What can we learn from this passage that we haven’t learned before?

“Never take no for an answer!” It’s one of the most popular cliches used in our culture. Be persistent to get what you want, keep working and selling and eventually it will happen. Yet, it is also clear that sometimes such thinking is taken too far, and tragedy results. There is one person with whom persistence is of the upmost importance: Jesus. He loves persistent faith! Today, we have a story of such persistence, even amidst great suffering and much silence.

Traditions are fine things. We have a few of them in our house, which we love and follow. But we know that these traditions will one day end or need to be amended. All tradition ends this way. But Scripture, as we all confess, stands above this. God’s word to us is timeless, perfect, and undimmed by time. We do well to confess that it is unerring and good for us in all it says; but we must do more than that! Today, Jesus must deal with the Pharisees and their love of tradition, but it is not just their traditions that Jesus desires to lead us away from, but their way of handling Scripture as well.

Frank Abagnale was a con artist. He was known to forge checks to gain money, pretend to be a doctor, airline pilot, and social worker. When caught by the FBI, they began to uncover how most of the frauds went down, save one: how did he pass the Louisiana bar exam? Easy, he said: I studied! Frank had always shown himself bright and capable. It is one thing to believe what someone tells you – but you ought always believe what they show you. Jesus’ past two miracles show us precisely who he is, the very Son of God.

There are a number of ways that an event can be seen as major in the Bible. Sometimes much that comes after depends on them; sometimes it is the amount of text given over to the event. But there are some events that are shown to be important because they are repeated multiple times. The feeding of the 5,000 is a wondrous miracle, but doesn’t take a lot of text, and nothing explicitly flows from it. But all the Gospels tell us of it, and do so differently, helping us to see that much good can come from studying the nature of Jesus’ provision for his people here.

Nuance can create confusion for people. A distinction is typically, and rightly, drawn between faith and faithfulness; the first being a constant trust and reliance on Jesus, the second walking rightly before him. Matthew, however, wants to make sure that we don’t drive too large a gap between them. To have true faith is to be faithful to the call that Jesus makes on your life. This is why he writes to us about the life of Jesus, that we might walk as he walked. Today, however, he gives us the anti-picture of Jesus: Herod, the unfaithful king. How should we walk faithfully before Jesus?