Follow the Real Power

4 August 2025  Matthew 14:13-21

“Those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children.”Matthew 14:21

The army available to Herod Antipas was only a couple of thousand men. There was a rumor that he had stockpiled enough weapons to field an army of 70,ooo, but that was a wild exaggeration, and everybody knew it. On the basis of the rumor, however, the Romans exiled Herod Antipas from Galilee to the south of France, where he died a short time later in total obscurity.

Jesus’ power was a good bit more than a rumor. He could command the weather (Matthew 8:23-27). When he encountered a man possessed by demons, the demons wouldn’t shut up, but Jesus cast them out with a single word: “Go!” (8:32). And they went. He turned water into wine (John 2:1-11), and fed thousands from five barley loaves and two fish, with enough to save for another time (Matthew 14:20-21). He never said a word about Herod and his adultery, never said a word about the Romans, their occupation, their tyranny. He didn’t have to. The wind, the germs, and the food all obeyed Him. Everybody knew what that kind of power meant. We still do. It means, “Follow!”

But they didn’t. They killed Him instead. But then there was the Resurrection, and then there was the Holy Spirit. Jesus said He would give His power to the people who followed Him, and He did. Soon His followers were healing the sick and feeding the multitudes. They still are. His followers created medicine and the science of growing things. They created universities that taught others this power. Today we have conquered diseases that used to kill millions before they were six. We have extended life by decades. We grow more food than we can eat, more food than we can sell. In many countries across the developed world there is no starvation anymore. Everybody knew what that kind of power meant. We still do. It means, “Follow!”

But they didn’t. People started to think that the power to heal, the power to feed wasn’t Jesus’ power, but their own. They taught their children the same, and hung a millstone around their own necks (cf. Matthew 18:6), and in the 20^th century they plunged into an ocean of blood. The power to heal became the power to kill – kill even the very, very young. The power to feed became the power to intoxicate, and kill millions more. The 20^th century was the bloodiest century in human history by far. The 21^st so far has been pretty bloody, also. People don’t know what happened to the power to heal, and the power to feed, and they have grown sad, even depressed about it. The 21^st century is known for mental illness, too.

But people are starting to ask better questions. They are wondering why we have minds capable of discovering the structure of very, very small things, structures at the quantum level. They are wondering why math works there, too. They are wondering how it can be that math is the basic language of all physical reality, and always has been, since the first nanosecond of creation. They are considering that since there was a first nanosecond, there has tobe something outside of creation, something responsible for creation, something that made the math, and the wind, and the germs, and the food – perhaps Someone.

And everybody knows what that kind of power means. We always have. It means, “Follow!”

It’s not too late. Follow.