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"But the crowds heard where he was headed and followed on foot from many towns. Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick."
(Matthew 14:13b-14, NLT)
Context is so important to these two verses; if you missed yesterday's devotional, go ahead and read that one before you continue on. In Matthew 14, we see that after getting rejected by His hometown, learning of the death of a friend, and wanting to be alone, a massive crowd has found out where Jesus is and has made their presence known. At this point in the book of Matthew, Jesus has earned a reputation for healing diseases and casting out demons. Jesus is well-known, and well-known people typically draw crowds. This time was no exception.
So, in the midst of rejection, a friend's death, and trying to get alone, what does Jesus do with the big crowd? He sees them and has compassion for them. He has so much compassion for them that He then begins healing their sick. Jesus models a tremendously challenging way for us to live. Even amidst hard times when most of us would feel overwhelmed and, like Jesus, want to be alone, we should still see people and meet their needs.
I know that in my life, when my situation is stressful and challenging and I just want to be alone (to which you introverts surely relate), I can be filled with cynicism and not Christ-like compassion. I can begin to think that my issues are the most important and that I am the most important person in the room; however, Jesus models the healthy way to respond to hardships and challenging times in life. Jesus shows us that it's okay to want to be alone and process. Jesus did get a little alone time on the boat, and He wasn't annoyed with the people present when he landed; he saw the people and the opportunity before Him. The challenge for me in Matthew 14 is not to see my problems and challenging times in life as the only thing going on around me. If I were to look up and look out, I bet I could find someone to have compassion on and be able to serve them like Jesus served the crowd around Him in Matthew 14. Sure, I might not be able to heal the sick, but I can meet tangible needs by bringing others food. I can meet spiritual needs with encouragement and by proclaiming the most significant news ever: the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I don't know your situation or what season of life you are in, but what if Matthew 14 is intended to encourage you that even in the midst of hard and challenging times, God can still use you in the lives of people around you? It doesn't make the situation go away, but it does make us look more like Jesus when we serve, especially in the midst of hard times and stressful times. If you think of it on an even grander scale, Jesus' life here on Earth was hard from day one, because He had left Heaven on a rescue mission for humanity. He was never in a "good season" but always on a rescue mission in hostile territory. If Jesus, who we model our lives after as His followers, looked at the crowds and had compassion, we should do the same thing.
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