Reading through Matthew 14 today, I saw that Jesus had a period of mourning which caused Him to withdraw and be by Himself. This took place after He found out that His cousin, John the Baptist, was beheaded. We could only imagine what kind of pain Jesus felt. This was His cousin John, His forerunner. If Jesus, in John 11 wept when he found out that a friend, Lazarus had died, how much deeper was his grief knowing that it was John who had died a merciless death under Herod?
After the brief period of mourning, Jesus got back into doing the works of the Kingdom by healing the sick. Furthermore, He performed the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. We often read the story of the feeding of the five thousand but we fail to back up a bit by a few verses to realize that prior to the great miracle of provision was a painful period of mourning or terrible grief.
0 Comments