TRANSLATION MATTHEW 15: 29

Jesus moved on from that place and going by the Sea of Galilee, ascended a mountain, where he sat down. Huge crowds came to him bringing with them people who were lame, blind, maimed, mute, and many others. They set them down at his feet and he healed them, so that the crowd was astonished to see the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking and the blind seeing; and they celebrated the God of Israel.

Matthew is about to give his readers a second version of the miraculous feeding, this time of 4000 men. Mark is the source of this double take. In the first feeding the contrast is with Herod, the king who consumed his people. This time it is with the Jewish religious leaders who interpret the Law of God in a legalistic way, burdening the people with rules, and excluding gentiles from the immediate care of God. Jesus has just learned how wrong that exclusion is, and has healed the daughter of a Canaanite woman.

So Jesus is shown responding compassionately to the needs of the people. Doubtless many of them were technically “sinners” in the eyes of Pharisees, and probably “unclean” but they are unconditionally received by Jesus, to be restored by God’s goodness. Matthew notes that the crowd understood Jesus’ actions, in that they did not celebrate him, but God.

There may even be a hint that some of the crowd were non- Jews, which would justify use of the expression, “God of Israel.” As we shall see, the numerology of the subsequent feeding points to the Gentile nations. Enthroned on his mountain, Jesus is the people’s king, of Jews and Gentiles alike.