Hello and welcome to this episode of The Burt (Not Ernie) Show podcast. Today we’ll be looking at a passage from the New Testament, in the book of Matthew chapter 14. Let’s jump right in.

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You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, playing now on the Edifi app and on iHeart radio. This is episode # 209. 

Matthew chapter 14 opens with the death of John the Baptist, which is a really messed up event. You read it and it is really disturbing, the way his death came about. It just is. It can’t be prettied up because it’s too raw and too ugly for that. It is what it is. And that’s how this chapter begins. 

In the NLT, verse 13 reads: As soon as Jesus heard the news, He left in a boat to a remote area to be alone. 

Jesus, the Son of Man, deity, being fully God and fully man, reacted this way upon hearing the news of John the Baptist’s death. He felt the pain and the grief of it, the weight of it. And He wanted to go somewhere remote in order to be alone. Does this comfort you in any way? This understanding that Jesus sat in His grief, as much as He was able to in a world that literally chased after Him continually. Do you need permission to sit in your grief right now? Have you felt almost guilty for wanting to step back, step away to a remote place (figuratively or literally), and be alone? Maybe you’ve been told that being alone in your grieving is not okay, that it’s unsafe or unwise or that your grieving and processing should happen in community. And maybe some of your journey through grief should be in some type of community… but as I read the text from Matthew 14, I am certain that Jesus sees you in this place and He is totally okay with you stepping back and retreating to some sort of remote-ness to be alone for a time. Look, we have no “remote” part of our lives if we post all the time, inviting anyone and everyone right into our lives in every season. And we can feel guilty about hitting pause. If you need to step away when you hear terrible news, you are in good company. 

And most likely, you will actually succeed at getting a bit of time alone. Jesus did not get time alone, because the crowds heard where He was headed and followed on foot from many towns. (That’s the rest of verse 13.) Verse 14 says: Jesus saw the huge crowd as He stepped from the boat and He had compassion on them and healed their sick. If Jesus, in His own grief, on His way to someplace remote in order to be alone, saw this huge crowd of people and had compassion on them, I want you to grab hold of the hope in this verse and know that He sees you and He has so much compassion for you. He is the same yesterday and today and forever, and you can depend fully on Him to have the compassion on you that you need at the exact moment you need it. These people traveled from their towns to where they figured out where He was going, and He did not take that and set it aside. You also won’t be set aside when you come to Him. 

Now He was in a remote place, because that’s where He was headed earlier in the day. Late that evening the disciples came to Him and said, “This is a remote place…” Yes, I am thinking He knew it was a remote place when He chose it as His destination. But they had all these people there, and the disciples did not have a way to feed them. They wanted Jesus to send them away so they could get food before it got much later. Jesus told them to feed the people. And this is the time when they had five loaves of bread and two fish. You probably know this story, maybe even learned about it on a flannelgraph back in the olden days. Jesus took the loaves and the fish (or the fishes, as it used to be said) and he blessed them, and started breaking the bread into pieces so the disciples could hand it out to the people. Everyone ate as much as they wanted and the leftovers were about twelve baskets full and 5000 men plus women and children were fed that day. 

So you have the set up for what comes next, which is the focus of this episode of the podcast. 

John the Baptist was killed and it was truly horrible, Jesus went away to be alone with the grief, huge crowds figured out where He was going and followed Him there, He had compassion on them and healed their sick, then the disciples wanted Jesus to send the people away to get food, but He miraculously fed them with the loaves and fishes. 

Let’s pick up in verse 22 of Matthew chapter 14, from the NLT.

Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that His disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake, while He sent the people home. (Jesus insisted, and the disciples did as He said to do. That’s called obedience, my friend, and it ought to be a mark of a disciple in 2025 just as much as it was the mark of a disciple of Jesus 2000 years ago. Obedience matters, and sometimes we forget that in the here and now when we’re living in the age of grace. But have we considered that we may be abusing God’s grace by excusing away our lack of obedience? Being a grace abuser is not worthy of a merit badge. Try not to forget to obey the Lord and please do remember that delayed obedience is actually disobedience, plain and simple. Had the disciples delayed in obeying the Lord, the next verses in this chapter would have played out differently. Our obedience matters! May we always only have hearts and minds and feet and hands that are quick to obey Jesus.) And Jesus Himself sent the people home. Another good word for us. When He says to go on home now, we need to heed Him. Sometimes heading home to get some rest and be with our family, our loved ones, is what He tells us to do. We lean toward the workaholic being the “hero” in American culture, but was that Jesus’ heart? If not, then it’s not the Jesus way. Even if our culture applauds workaholics, lauding them as modern day heroes, let’s bear this in mind: We are never the hero in our story, or really in anyone else’s story. Jesus is the sole hero of all time. So, set aside the workaholic ways and go home when Jesus sends you there.) 

Verse 23: After sending them home, He went up into the hills by Himself to pray. Night fell while He was there alone.

So He did what He first set out to do when He left to go to a remote are to be alone. Sometimes well-meaning people (family, friends, Bible study group members, your pastor, and so on) - at times they may tell you that heading off to be alone is not God’s will for you. It is really, really easy to grab a verse from the Bible and use it to make their point. In Hebrews, for example, it says not to forsake the gathering together of the saints, and that verse could be utilized to persuade someone from not taking some time to be alone. (Also, I want to add that we’re never alone when we know the Lord, because He is always with us. And that is incredibly comforting.) Let this verse be a reminder to you that God always accomplishes what He sets out to accomplish. If He aims to get something done, He does not start it and then have the inability to finish it. He has no inabilities. And so every single thing He starts is every single thing you can count on Him completing. What’s He promised you? That’s what He is going to finish. Your job is to believe Him. Sometimes that act of choosing to believe, even when it flies in the face of all evidence and logic, sometimes that is harder to do than getting our hands dirty and trying to work something out by our own strength. But when you hold tightly on to belief, you simultaneously hold tightly on to hope. Hope is valuable. Hope is precious. The enemy tries to snatch it away from you because he know its worth. But if God has hope for you, then it is yours for the having. Hold on to your belief and hang on to your hope today. 

He went up into the hills by Himself to pray.

When you have the time and opportunity to get away by yourself to pray, I hope you take it. It is never time wasted. It’s an investment, one that will pay dividends throughout eternity. Jesus got alone to pray. We also need to get alone to pray. Period. No excuses, no exceptions. This is a need, not a “eh, I can take it or leave it” optional Christian practice. You need to pray. And you need to have times when you are by yourself, nobody else with you, no phone with you, just you and the Lord and you spend that time in prayer. 

Night fell while He was there, up in the hills by Himself praying. 

It got dark, and the disciples were out on the lake in the boat, still far from land, caught fighting heavy waves and a strong wind. And Jesus came out to them, walking on the water (that’s verse 25). It was the middle of the night and they’d been at it for a long time, after a very long day, which began with the news of John the Baptist’s death. Do you know how heavy and exhausting and intense grief can be? They had had a DAY, and now they were fighting impossible weather. They were afraid when they saw Him walking on the water, but once Jesus told them not to be afraid, to take courage because He was there (which is a good word for all of us pretty much every single day, isn’t it? Is there any circumstance when you don’t want to know that Jesus is there and you don’t need to be afraid? I’ll take that all day long, no matter what comes my way!) Once Jesus told them not to be afraid but to take courage, then Peter called out to Him, “Lord, if it’s really You, tell me to come to You, walking on the water.” “Yes, come, “Jesus said. (verses 28-29).

So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted. Verse 31 - Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little f