Hey, y'all!

So I was reading Matthew 15 the other night and one section really stood out to be. That story is where Jesus fed the 4,000+ people (located in Matthew 15: 32-39). They had been following Jesus around for 3 days seeking healing from all sorts of issues and didn't have anything to eat.

'But wait. Didn't Jesus feed 5,000?'

He sure did! But this story is a different one. In this story, Jesus had just finished physically healing the crowd up on a mountain. These people followed Jesus around because they craved something that went beyond the surface-level healings from their issues, whether or not they realized it. Three days went by and Jesus called His disciples over and told Him something I found profound. He said: "I have compassion on the crowd..."

I looked up the word compassion to see what it meant in this case. In the other instance where Jesus fed the 5000, I don't recall Him telling His disciples how He felt. When I looked up the meaning, I was surprised to find Jesus felt something so deep for these people. It was almost as if He physically ached for these hungry people and had tender mercy for them. To read that Jesus was physically affected actually moved me. Imagine, someone so perfect and divine really felt something so deep and almost unexplainable for people so imperfect and far from divine.

Continuing on, Jesus asks His disciples how much food they had and it was seven loaves and two fish. Even before saying this, the disciples had no idea how Jesus was going to feed so many people in such a "desolate" place (verse 33). It might have seemed like a helpless situations. But really? Didn't they just see Jesus feed 5,000+ people AND have 12 baskets of leftovers from that miracle?

Despite their unbelief, Jesus took the little they had and, blessed it, and multiplied it. The Word says that "all ate and were satisfied." And to no surprise, they had seven baskets of food leftover.

Now, the phrase in verse 37 saying how everyone ate and was satisfied blew my mind. Not that I doubted Jesus had that power, but because of the deeper meaning behind this. When we come to Jesus, He does not want us to come to Him for healing and leave still feeling hungry. He wants us to leave so full and satisfied with leftovers!

Jesus wants us not only to be physically full and satisfied, but to also experience that spiritually. He was so moved with compassion for us that He came for die in our place so that we could enter into relationship with the Father again. We no longer have to turn to physical things to quench our spiritual thirst and fill our empty spiritual bellies. In that reunion with God, we can be full and satisfied no matter how hopeless our lives may seem. Jesus is the Bread of Life and Living Water. So I urge you to go to Him to find what your soul longs for.

He won't stop until you're full and satisfied.