This chapter begins with the narrative of a terrible king driven by lust, anger and power who has taken his sister-in-law as his mistress, only to discover that he is under her power and is forced to commit a heinous and grievous act; she demands and he obeys and beheads John the Baptist, cousin of Jesus. “When Jesus heard of it, he withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by himself,” (14:13).

The rest of the chapter tells of two of the greatest miracles of Jesus, his feeding the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish, and his walking on water, in a storm, to come to his disciples. These are not told to “explain away” the suffering of John, but to say that that event is not the end of the story. There is a tomorrow when the suffering of this world is addressed, when death no longer destroys, but it itself is destroyed. Until then, we hold to the one who comes to us in the middle of the storm and invites us to come to him (vs28,29).