A Day in the Life

Matthew 14:10-21: He [Herod] sent and had John beheaded in the prison,  and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.  And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus. Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”  But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”  They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.”  Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.  And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.  And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

What was it like to hear of the gruesome death of your cousin and not be able to mourn him? John was the herald of your coming, a man who boldly and unashamedly proclaimed the word he heard from your Father. He lived a life unlike other men, dedicated to the calling on his life. He proclaimed truth in spite of the threat of the authorities and suffered imprisonment and a horrible, cruel death as a result. 

When you heard the news of his execution, it must have been an in-your-face reminder of what was to come in your own life. John was your cousin. We don't know how much family time you had with each other but your heart mourned the loss of the man who was your kin. Your heart also surely mourned the sin-sickness that led to such a death. You knew more than we could ever imagine about the hearts of man and you must have mourned that spiritual deadness as well. 

It was only natural that you would want to go to a quiet place to be alone with your thoughts and your Father but that was not to be. Because you chose always to be about your Father's business, you responded to the needs of the people that had come in search of you. Thousands and thousands of people. How did you manage? I can't imagine the demands, the exhaustion, the spiritual impact as well as the physical impact of ministering to so many. 

You knew their hunger. They were spiritually hungry as well as physically hungry and you continued to pour out your living water and bread of life on their thirsty and hungry souls. Fully God and fully man, your body had to feel the extreme demands placed upon it and yet you continued to give of yourself. The grief was put aside in order to do what you came to do. Your love was poured out on that day just like so many other days and just like it was poured out on that cross. 

In your grief over a world that led to the loss of a man such as John, you poured out love and more love - healing, freeing, delivering and setting free thousands of souls. At the end of that very long day, you gathered them all together and fed them again. One mirace after another and yet I wonder if they realized the greatest miracle - the gift of love that never ends. Selfless, healing, powerful, transforming love.