Five thousand hungry people followed Jesus to a remote place when all He wanted was some “me time” to process the news of His cousin’s murder. With great compassion, He put aside His own needs and healed the sick among them and fed them with a truly meaty miracle (Matt 14:13-21).
Then again in the next chapter, He is healing people on a mountainside when He tells His disciples to feed the crowds because they have been following Him for three days and have nothing to eat. They scrounge together a few loaves and fish and Jesus again feeds them all.
For once, I put myself in the shoes of the crowd. I was amazed that Jesus didn’t rebuke me for being annoying or irresponsible, for not being better prepared for the journey (or a better steward of my resources), for not going home when I'd already been healed.
He knew that it was a deep hunger that drove me to follow Him at a moment’s notice to a remote place. It was hunger for Him, for His touch and His words, that sustained me for three days, camping out with a crowd of sick people, ignoring the hunger pains, the smells and the discomfort. It was hunger for Him that caused me to linger there when I should have headed for home.
He rewarded my spiritual hunger with food that could satisfy my soul and brought healing to my body (as well as dinner!). No rebuke. Only great compassion, healing and provision.
All this He has for me if I follow Him singularly, hungrily, daily…
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