Murder of John the Baptist
The first portion of the chapter [Matthew 14:1-12] recounts the death of John the Baptist. As noted earlier in the book, Herod had John imprisoned due to John's objection of him marrying Herodias. Here, at a birthday party, Selene the daughter of Herodias danced for Herod and when Herod told her he would give her anything in response to her fine performance, she asked at the urging of her mother to have John beheaded. Herod had been afraid to kill John because of his followers, but had to have the task performed then. When his severed head was brought in, Selene brought it to her mother, Herodias. The disciples came and buried John's body and told Jesus.
There isn't much that can be said that is uplifting about this passage. Beware of tyrants... if you're a tyrant, be careful what you promise... watch out for angry women... be careful who you marry... persecution of the church can take on many forms... the list goes on.
The only real point of confusion in Herod's story was that he thought that Jesus might have come back from the dead to discomfit him. Although there were resurrections in the Bible, John the Baptist wasn't one of them. Herod clearly wasn't reliably informed or was being informed by agents of Satan to think such things.
Feeding Many with Five Loaves and Two Fish
In Matthew 14:13-21, after the body was buried, Jesus headed off by ship to a desert location. When the people living nearby heard He was there, the went by foot from the cities to meet with Him. When Jesus saw this great multitude of people, He had compassion on them and healed those who were sick.
There have been many evangelists in the modern era which would be able to draw many people from the surrounding area, although if they had to walk, their crowds might have been smaller. Clearly, Jesus was God incarnate, so He was special. If He wasn't, my shift H wouldn't be worn down.
But the thing you need to realize is that although He had a special purpose, being born sin free of a virgin, and living a sinless life so that He could be sacrificed on the cross to save us from sin, He lived as a 100% man during all that time. Everything that He was able to do through the power of the Spirit, we are able to do if God directs us to do it.
Jesus was successful because He saw what the Father was wanting Him to do and He acted or spoke or went as necessary to complete those missions. He declared that because He was going to the Father after death, we would be able to do all He did and greater things due to the baptism in the Holy Spirit He was going to provide - the same baptism that empowered His works.
If you are in a position of authority in your church or denomination and aren't working in the fullness of the Spirit with all the gifts active, do some introspection. I firmly believe that when James said for those who were sick to go to the elders of the church to be prayed over, that was because the expectation was that the elders would be Spirit filled and operating in the gifts of the Spirit.
At any rate, when it was late and everyone was hungry, the disciples came to Jesus and told Him to tell the people to leave so they could go and buy food. Jesus replied that they didn't need to leave and the disciples could provide food for them. After the panic, they replied that they only had five loaves and two fish among them. Jesus sigh isn't recorded, but may well have been present before He said to bring them to Him.
He told the multitude to set down, blessed what He had been given and gave them to the disciples to hand out to the multitude. When they were done, twelve baskets of fragments were taken up that were left over, after feeding 5,000 men, along with women and children. I'm not sure how old the children were, but if you have teenage boys, you know they eat more than the grownups.
Our church runs a food pantry, and we have for many years. A few years back, there was a special holiday that we decided to give small hams away to families. Knowing how many families were likely to come, we purchased enough to cover the expected number and a little buffer room. But on that occasion, the number of families who showed up surpassed the expected number, and the buffer, but the people working that day just kept going back to the freezers for another tray of hams.
When it was done, there were still hams left in the freezer and the number of hams given out exceeded the number purchased. God is still in the food providing business. Just because you're in modern times, don't doubt the veracity of the Bible accounts of miracles. God's still in the miracle business.
There have also been testimonies of people in another church I attended who had run out of money for food and didn't know what they were going to do for food for the next meal, but who discovered that someone had left a bag of groceries outside there door to help meet the need. Now God probably didn't miraculously create the bag of groceries, but He did let someone know that family needed help and they brought the groceries at the right time. That's not only a tribute to God, but a tribute to some Christian willing to get out and do something for their fellow man.
The Lake Walk of Jesus and Peter
Matthew 14:22-33 describes what happened after everyone had their fill of food. Jesus told the disciples to take a ship and go to the other side of the lake while He dismissed the people. After the multitudes dispersed He went up to a mountain to pray, and prayed until evening alone. The prayer life of Jesus doesn't get as much attention as it should. He frequently got in touch with God to seek direction at a minimum and just to provide, I suspect, some sane conversation in His day.
At any rate, He found Himself alone and the ship He had sent the disciples away in was out in the middle of the lake trying to weather a storm that had come up on the lake. The wind was against them to make any substantial progress toward the shore they were destined to reach.
Somewhere between 3 and 6 in the morning (the Jewish fourth watch of the night), Jesus went out to them walking on the sea. The disciples were immediately afraid, as anyone probably would be, and especially those who were fishermen. They cried out in fear, but Jesus spoke to them, His voice carrying over the storm, and told them to not be afraid because it was really Him.
You gotta love Peter. He replied if it is you, tell me to come out on the water to join you. Jesus said Come and Peter got out of the boat and walked toward Jesus. But eventually Peter's fears overcame the miracle he was doing by walking on the water himself, and he started to sink. Immediately, Jesus was with him and asks him why he doubted - he was doing so well.
They both made it back to the ship and immediately the wind ceased. The rest of the sailors, having seen both Jesus walking toward them, Him telling Peter to come, Peter walking on the water for a while, and then Jesus rescuing Peter and joining them in the ship recognized that Jesus was truly the Son of God.
Don't give Peter a hard time. He had enough faith to get out of the boat and start on his walk. If he would have kept his eyes focused on Jesus and not looked around to the storming waves, he might have made it all the way to Jesus, but just the fact that he tried is more than most of us Christians would do today. Let us all examine our hearts and minds to see where our faith is really at today. Jesus wondered if He would find faith when He returned [Luke 18:8]. And if there is faith, what is its quality?
I'm not a champion of testing God with random acts to see if He will save us, but that isn't what Peter did. He asked, and Jesus said come. Listening to God is what it is all about. God won't tell you to do something that goes against the Bible. He needs more of us to ask the right questions and follow through.
More are Healed
After the lake crossing, they passed into Gennesaret [Matthew 14:34-36]. There, when the men realized Jesus was present, they sent word into all the surrounding countryside letting people know He was present, and many who were diseased were brought to Jesus. They, like the woman with the issue of blood, desired to just touch His garment to be made whole and all who did touch the hem of His garment were healed. Compare and contrast that to the people of Jesus hometown when He returned there and few came to be healed. It paid, then, to take the initiative with God and have faith. I believe such is still true today