Today Jesus continues engaging those outside his own ethnicity. He is with Gentiles; thousands of them!
Mark makes this clear in his recounting of the event. Jesus is in the Decapolis, an area of ten Gentile cities (Mark 8:1-9). Matthew has his own way of making the point. He cites that the people were not merely glorifying God, but the “God of Israel”. Both reinforce that Jesus is with Gentiles.
They are flocking to him. They are seeking healing and teaching. He gives them more. He feeds them.
The scene does look similar to the feeding of the 5,000 just one chapter earlier. In that scene Jesus is with Jewish people. They have the same needs. We should not be surprised. All people have the same broad needs. For health, for food, for teaching on how to live, and for connection to God. Jesus provides all of this and more.
I will return to the point about Jesus with Gentiles in the next post. Today, I am wondering if you are numb to Jesus and his miracles.
Chapter after chapter we encounter Jesus, often performing miracles. Matthew even simply writes, “30 Great multitudes came to him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others, and they put them down at his feet. He healed them,”
I doubt Matthew is numb. I expect for each and every healing there was leaping and dancing. At a personal level, each miracle is its own story. Collectively they lead to praise of God.
Yet many today doubt these events. I will spare you their arguments. Rather than poke at them, I want to poke at me. Have I lost my wonder of Jesus and his wonder-working power? Do I expect him to perform miracles today? When he does not answer my prayer, does it dilute my zeal for him?
Consider the disciples, there with him, watching him perform miracle upon miracle, and the issue of food for the people comes up. A close reading of the text reveals Jesus simply gives voice to his concern for the people, and the disciples (even without Jesus asking them to feed the people) express doubt.
32 Jesus summoned his disciples and said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have continued with me now three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away fasting, or they might faint on the way.”
33 The disciples said to him, “Where could we get so many loaves in a deserted place as to satisfy so great a multitude?”
I wonder how often that is my response. I ask this question to prick myself. To wonder aloud if I have somehow lost my expectation of him.
Yesterday I wondered if I might be silent about Jesus because I don’t want to offend. Today I am wondering if my silence is because I have grown numb of him?