In Jesus’ earthly ministry he did two sorts of miracles for the people: he healed and he fed. (He also walked on the lake, but this was only with his close disciples.) These are the most basic needs for human life. We need food to sustain the body and good health to prevent it from dying. God knows how to get our attention. He knows we are selfish and look for what will provide for us. These needs are not the problem; the needs are created by him! The problem is that we do not see that our physical needs are God’s tools of nurturing not just the body, but a means of allowing us to feel the lack of spiritual fulfillment. For in our physical need we look to God in faith for that relationship that will provide for us in every way.

From verse 1 to verse 9 Jesus is dealing with the pharisees. They understood food as a person’s means of demonstrating how good they are. They found fault with Jesus’ disciples for not washing their hands before they ate. But what do they care if someone else doesn’t wash their hands! they weren’e concerned about hygiene; they were concerned with pointing out that they were righteouss and kept the ‘taditions’ of their anscestors. They weren’t using the physical needs to show how holy they were, thinking that how and what they ate determined their spiritual condition before God; it depended on them.

Jesus says: “Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

In verses 21-28 a non-jewish woman asks to be healed. Yet another physical need. Then Jesus tests her. But I believe that he was actually testing the hearts of his disciples so that they themselves might examine how they understand the gifts of God. For he waited till they brought her to his attention for him to act. He gives her the logical arguement for the Jews: Why should God give anything good to a non-Jew? Then he says: “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

Who are the dogs here? In the disciples’ perspective she was; that is why they asked Jesus to tell her to go away. But in her response she showed that she had faith (indeed before, because she had called him “Son of David”!) and that it was truly her who was one of the children of Israel through that same faith–the faith in the Son of David, promised to Abraham and foretold in the prophets. For this reason she was healed.

She understood the purpose of physical needs: that the mercy of God might be displayed among his people! In verses 32-39 Jesus feeds four thousand men plus women and children. And he did it because he had mercy on them!

“Of course, it’s easy for him to do that; he’s God,” you might say. But what did he use to do it? He used the food that his disciples brought.

People hunger and are sick. What of it? These sorrows are opportunities given to us to show his mercy and bring him glory (verse 31). Are we sick? Do we suffer? Do we need food? Certainly! But why. As a friend recently exclaimed, “But we didn’t ask to be here!!” No we didn’t, but in his mercy God allows us to be here so that we may hunger and need healing.

Yes, that’s right. It is by his mercy that we are here and by his mercy that we can be in need. This is a sinful world, it is not beneficial to wonder any longer “what if there had been no sin?” The sin is here and we are apart of it. But God, in his mercy, does not abandon us to these physical needs alone. Nor does he put us on life support and leave this imperfect world to stuff our bellies and keep us alive just long enough to suffer. No, he brings us into the world, allows us to hunger and feel pain and endure sickness so that we might recognize the sin and look to him for the spiritual food just as he shows that he is the provider for all physical needs.

The mercy is now in allowing us to meet the needs of others. Have you felt the pain of lonliness? Then you can praise God for the need which now allows you to fill the life of another. Have you been sick? then thank the Lord that you can identify with someone else whose body is suffering and thereby enjoy the gift of God’s love with another. The disciples asked that the problem go away; Jesus embraced the woman’s need by using it to give her faith in his power and bring glory to God in meeting it.