Over the last few weeks Matthew has led us through Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom – how are we to understand this extraordinary relationship that God has formed with his people. Now Matthew takes us a different direction (Matthew 14:13-21).
The event that marks this switch is the death of John the Baptist. It may be easy to overlook how significant this must have been for Jesus. John was his cousin. Their mothers lived close by, so we can assume they frequently spent time together as children. John took the role of announcing Jesus’ arrival as the one foretold, and Jesus marked the start of his ministry by being baptized by John.
So their lives were closely bound together. When John was killed Jesus must have recognized that the same forces that destroyed John would eventually come for him. No wonder when he got this news he felt a need to go off by himself for some alone time.
But he didn’t get it – people followed him into the deserted place where he went to be alone with his grief. And his reaction to the “vast crowd” that pursued him: “Go away, stop bothering me, I need to be alone for a while”
No – quite the opposite. He was sorry for the people who mobbed him and and he cured them, and then he fed them. In this he played out the prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 55:1-3) that all we need to do is come to him – God doesn’t require us to do anything – he just wants us to be there, to be open to him – then he’ll give us what we need. His love is boundless and always available. Paul expresses this so clearly to the church in Rome, in a way that is deeply theological and deeply personal (Romans 8:35, 37-39). Nothing, no external force, can come between us and the love of God, always there, always available to us.