“God wants you to be blessed. So, just name the blessing you need, and claim it from God!” That kind of message is increasingly common today from “prosperity gospel” preachers. And at first glance, today’s passage would seem to provide fuel for their fire. For didn’t Jesus heal the sick people in the crowd because of His compassion for them (14:14)? Didn’t He feed 5000 families with just five dinner rolls and a couple of sardines? So, why shouldn’t we just demand what we want from Jesus?

Because following Jesus has never been about the worldly blessings we can get out of the deal. For why does the beginning of this passage say that Jesus and His disciples tried to withdraw to a lonely place, away from the demands of the crowd? Because they had heard what had happened to John the Baptist, who had been murdered by Herod just because he dared to speak the truth about Herod’s immoral marriage (14:3-11). No, if the “prosperity gospel” was true, why did John die in prison? Why couldn’t John “claim the blessing” he undoubtedly deserved?

And think about how Jesus provided for the disciples. Yes, they received much more than anyone else in the crowd: for while those 5000 families only got one good meal, each disciple got a whole basket of leftovers to carry with them (14:20). But Jesus didn’t provide these blessings just because the disciples “claimed” them.

No, in order to receive such abundance, the disciples first had to face their own helplessness to solve the impossible problem of feeding such a multitude with such meager resources. Moreover, they had to put others’ needs ahead of their own, only sitting down to dinner after everyone else in the crowd was satisfied. In short, the disciples’ blessing came through humble faith in Christ alone and through humble service of others, not because they confidently “claimed a blessing.”

And isn’t that really the same way that Jesus lived? For during His earthly ministry, He never received any worldly wealth or power. He died alone, and He was so poor that His body had to be laid in a borrowed tomb. And yet He submitted Himself to the will of the Father so that all who would trust in Him might be saved.

So, will we learn the lesson Jesus tried to teach His disciples? Will we consider the glory of God and the good of other people to be more important than our desires? Or will we follow Jesus only for the blessings we expect to get out of Him?

Matthew 14:13-21 (NASB)

13 Now when Jesus heard it, He withdrew from there in a boat, to a lonely place by Himself; and when the multitudes heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities.
14 And when He went ashore, He saw a great multitude, and felt compassion for them, and healed their sick.
15 And when it was evening, the disciples came to Him, saying, “The place is desolate, and the time is already past; so send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”
16 But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!”
17 And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.”
18 And He said, “Bring them here to Me.”
19 And ordering the multitudes to recline on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave to the multitudes,
20 and they all ate, and were satisfied. And they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets.
21 And there were about five thousand men who ate, aside from women and children.