29 Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then hewent up on a mountainside and sat down. 30 Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. 31 The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.32 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”33 His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?” 34 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.” 35 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. 36 Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. 37 They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 38 The number of those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children. 39 After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.REFLECTIONSWritten by Rodney ClarkeJesus does many miraculous things in this passage. He gives people sight, heals the lame and the sick, and performs what was at the time the world's second-biggest BBQ (see Matthew 14:13-21). There was a huge crowd of people there. Did Jesus feed them so he could try to beat his world record? Or were there other things going on?In our modern mythology we have superheroes. “Superman” immediately springs to mind. He's faster than a speeding bullet! He can leap tall buildings in a single bound! And he does "miraculous” things. But can Superman solve the problem of sin and death?The most significant thing that I picked up was that Jesus had compassion for the people. Although he was tired and needed rest, he saw to their immediate need, which was to feed them.But Jesus was also doing something far greater for them. He was showing them the love of God. Jesus was now in the latter part of His earthly ministry. His purpose was to begin God’s plan of rescue, as the “bread of life” who gives eternal life to all who come to him (John 6:35-40). He uses his disciples to distribute the food showing them the mission they would later take on, of loving those Jesus came to save and bringing them the message of life.There would have been many Gentiles (non-Jews) there as well – Jesus is still on his way back to Israel from the region of Tyre and Sidon (v. 21). That’s why Matthew says that they praised “the God of Israel” in v. 31. Jesus fed these Gentiles because he loved them. Even though Jesus’ earthly ministry was mostly focused on the people of Israel, here he was proclaiming that this plan of rescue would be open to all. The miracle that Jesus did was not “fast food”, but to ultimately sacrifice himself so that he could redeem people from every tribe and nation in the whole world, and see people of every kind reconciled to God.Yes, Superman can save a life. But Jesus did something truly Super in overcoming sin and death.ABOUT THE AUTHORRodney is a member of our of our Fairfield Morning congregation.