The crowd was amazed! Those who hadn’t been able to speak were talking, the crippled were made well, the lame were walking, and the blind could see again! And they praised the God of Israel.
Observation
Jesus returns to the sea of Galilee. a huge crowd brings all kinds of sick people, and he heals them all. The crowd is amazed, and everyone praise is the God of Israel.
Then Jesus calls his disciples and tells them they need to feed the crowd. The disciples seem to have forgotten the feeding of the 5000, and they wonder where they would get the food from.
This time, Jesus feeds 4000 men, plus women and children. And then he gets into a boat and crosses the lake.
Application
Jesus is still in an area largely populated with Gentiles. The point of the healings and the feeding of the 4000 is to show that Jesus’s ministry is available to all people and not just the Jews.
This was a point that the disciples found hard to accept. When we read the book of Acts, it seems that the Lord had to work hard at getting them to preach to Gentiles and beyond the comfortable surroundings of Israel.
In this passage, many people were healed of many illnesses, and the crowds “praised the God of Israel!”
We praise the God of Israel because He has saved us through Jesus’ death on the cross. We praise the God of Israel because physical and emotional healing is available.
We praise the God of Israel because He shown that He is the God of the whole world.
Prayer
Lord God, I praise you for saving a sinner like me. Amen.
Terrence stared at his smarphone in dismay. “The traffic is serious today.” He looked across the room at James for some sign of panic.
James however, seemed relaxed. “Trust me,” he said in his typical calm, low voice, “the Lambo gonna get us there in time.”
Terrence could never really tell if James was joking or serious, and so his determined finger continued swiping and tapping at his smartphone. Then with his best straight face and chin held high, he pointed the phone screen at James. He wanted to display the bad news in his face so it could not be ignored “One hour and 46 minutes bro. Traffic. Gonna be tight to make the game. Even in the Lambo.”
“Nah. Ain’t none of that matter to me,” responded James.
“Why not?”
“Get out into the garage with me. You’ll see.” James motioned across the foyer, to the side door. Behind this side door was a corridor leading to the largest room in the mansion. It was bigger than all of the homes’ eight bedrooms put together. The room held James’ vehicle collection. Three Ferraris. Three Mercedes. A Porsche. A Bentley. A Rolls-Royce, and his newest acquisition, a Lamborghini Aventador Roadster.
Terrence looked at the cars, shook his head, and pointed at his phone. “Brother. One hour and 46 minutes. None of these goin’ anywhere in traffic.” With his back turned to James, Terrence continued shaking his head as he sulked, walking in defeat towards the Lamborghini.
He was half way across the giant room when James yelled.
“Yo, Terrence!”
Terrence stopped. He snapped his head around, searching for James among the dark, motionless cars. He yelled into the shadows, “Hey! Where you at, man?” but got no reply. Pocketing his phone, James poked his head around the Rolls-Royce. He circled around the car, then continued down between the Bentley and the Porsche. As he paced down the line of Ferarris, he wondered if James was playing games with him. Maybe he had snuck out of the garage to arrange some other form of transporation. Seems right. James probably knew the Lambo wasn’t going to work out today. He is always figuring out how to do stuff that no one thinks about. There was probably a monster truck waiting for them on the lawn, or maybe a tank. Or maybe something that would attract less attention, like a helicopter. Or…
“Terrence! Man! Where you at?” James shouted again.
Whipping his head around, Terrence spotted James at the left-most garage door. This was the smallest of the 10 doors. So small that no car could fit through it. “Huh?” Terrence wrinkled his forehead at the scene.
James was holding two helmets in one hand, and his smartphone in the other. Beside him were two bicycles. “47 minutes, Terrence.” James said casually, as he held up his smartphone.
Terrence looked at the phone, and then eyed the two triangular frames with wheels on them. “On bicycles?”
James widened his eyes as he pressed the garage door opener. “On bicycles. That’s how you keep your body going.” The garage door chain cranked and clinked as it pulled the tiny door up slowly. The shadow in the garage receded and was replaced by that vivid Los Angeles sun. As the floor and bicycles were illuminated, James smiled his biggest smile. “Faster than traffic, and it feels nice, too.”
Some of you might get the idea that this story was inspired by a person named LeBron James. Certanily, there are some similarities.
LeBron began riding his bicycle to Miami Heat games one day, when the traffic was particularly bad. On that day, the bicycle was simply faster. After this experience however, he kept doing it, even on days when there was no traffic. At first LeBron said it was for conditioning, that the rides gave him the energy to play through a game without becoming tired. That is probably true. But later, he opened up to reveal that the bicycle rides had a deeper meaning beyond clearing his head or staying in shape.
During his childhood, the bicycle was a symbol of freedom that enabled LeBron to venture into new neighborhoods, to make relationships with new kids from different schools, to widen his views on life and open his eyes to what was possible. Plus, it just felt good to be on this simple, human-powered two-wheel invention. That is part of why, for more than a decade, LeBron has made a habit of regularly donating hundreds of bicycles to at-risk kids in his hometown through his family foundation.
To the young LeBron, the bicycle meant freedom, possibility, and discovery. As an adult, the bicycle still means all of these things to LeBron. Any of us who ride will understand that.
After moving from Miami to Los Angeles, LeBron still bicycles. He does not however, bicycle to the games. This is thanks largely to L.A. having one of the most inadequate cycling infrastructures of any big city in the world.
But alas, this series is about The Possible City, and so here LeBron can happily bicycle to a game in Los Angeles … at least in the form of a drawing.
I write these stories because I love it, but of course, a guy also needs to eat. So thanks to all of you paying subscribers for filling my stomach, and thus making this project possible 😉
Fasting is an act of our will. It is a choice to suppress the flesh and exercise faith to receive an outcome beyond our ability. We choose to fast when we decide we are hungrier for God and His action than for anything else. Tammy Hotsenpiller
“Dear woman,” Jesus said to her,“your faith is great. Your request is granted.” And her daughter was instantly healed.
Observation
A gentile woman comes to Jesus, begging him to heal her demon possessed daughter. Jesus gives her no reply, and the disciples urge Jesus to send her away.
Jesus tells her that He was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel and that it’s not right to take the children’s food to feed the dogs.
The woman replies that even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table.
Jesus is impressed by her faith and declares that her daughter is healed.
Application
Jesus has a way of drawing faith from people. Here, He seems to be ignoring the woman and then, when He does speak to her, it seems that He is pushing her away.
But what He is really doing is causing her to press in more and to express that seed of faith more determinedly.
In the end, Jesus heals the girl, but tell her that her faith is great.
Unlike the disciples who have little faith, or faith as small as a mustard seed, this gentile woman has great faith.
While it is impossible for us to measure faith, God obviously can. We can have a little faith, a measure of faith, great faith.
The issue is this: how much can I trust God for? Am I willing to yield my family, my job, my house, my possessions over to God and trust Him for the result?
Prayer
Lord, I believe you. I trust you. Please help me to grow to great faith. Amen
As I write this, the world is captivated by the fate of five people in a submersible craft that seems to have gone missing in near the wreck of the Titanic. It seems there has been some kind of mechanical failure. Even if they are on the surface, the passengers are locked inside an air tight container with limited oxygen.
To make matters worse, they are in a very remote part of the ocean, with no communications and could be up to 4 kilometres beneath the surface.
The situation is similar to the underground mining disasters that occur from time to time, where a collapse prevents people from returning to the surface unless the blockage can be removed.
It must be a terrifying situation to be aware that unless somebody intervenes, you will die in a matter of days.
Of course all of us are in a similar position, whether we realise it or not. When you are young, it feels like you will live for ever. As you grow older, you become aware that you are mortal, but t is still a theoretical knowledge.
For everyone of us there is a date set when we leave this life. It might be a few hours away or another 50 years. You will die.
For christians there is a wonderful assurance that our last breath here will be our first breath in eternity. Heaven will be a place of great joy and unmarked by any of the things that make life bitter here.
The Bible tells us that God has launched a rescue plan and everyone who wants to can be redeemed. One of the most famous sentences in the Bible is John 3:16. “ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
New Life Narrabri 