Category: Matthew Chapter 14

The history contained in these verses is one of singular interest. The miracle here recorded brings out in strong light the character both of Christ and His people. The power and mercy of the Lord Jesus, and the mixture of faith and unbelief in His best disciples, are beautifully illustrated.

We learn, in the first place, from this miracle, what absolute dominion our Saviour has over all created things. We see Him “walking on the sea,” as if it was dry land. Those angry waves, which tossed the ship of His disciples to and fro, obey the Son of God and become a solid floor under His feet. That liquid surface, which was agitated by the least breath of wind, bears up the feet of our Redeemer, like a rock. To our poor, weak minds, the whole event is utterly incomprehensible. The picture of two feet walking on the sea, is said by Doddridge to have been the Egyptian emblem of an impossible thing; the man of science will tell us that for material flesh and blood to walk on water is a physical impossibility. Even for us to know that it was done. Enough for us to remember that to Him who created the seas at the beginning, it must have been perfectly easy to walk over their waves when He pleased.

These verses contain one of our Lord Jesus Christ’s greatest miracles: the feeding of “five thousand men, besides women and children” with five loaves and two fishes. Of all the miracles worked by our Lord, not one is so often mentioned in the New Testament as this. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all dwell upon it. It is plain that this event in Lord’s history is intended to receive special attention. Let us give it that attention, and see what we may learn.

In the first place, this miracle is an unanswerable proof of our Lord’s divine power.

We have in this passage a page out of God’s book of martyrs: the history of the death of John the Baptist.

The wickedness of King Herod, the bold reproof which John gave him, the consequent imprisonment of the faithful reprover, and the disgraceful circumstances of his death are all written for our learning. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Ps. 116:15)

The story of John the Baptist’s death is told more fully by St. Mark than by St. Matthew. For the present it seems sufficient to draw two general lessons from St. Matthew’s narrative, and to fasten our attention exclusively upon them.