Matthew 14:13-21
Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." Jesus said to them, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." They replied, "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish." And he said, "Bring them here to me." Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
According to writer Kathryn Huey, Jesus told us that "the question, 'What did you do in the face of human hunger?' would be on the final exam (Matt 25:35) (“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why: I was hungry and you fed me”) – and in this reading he shows us how that is done.
As the reading starts, Jesus is tired and sad. The Pharisees - the representatives of the faith that should be sustaining and uplifting him – have been instead hounding him, following along trying to catch him at something they can make a big legal fuss about. And then, he has just received the news of the killing of John the Baptist. He needs some alone time, some recharging time - some time to spend just with the one he calls Father – so he goes off a ways by himself. But as soon as the crowds get wind of this, there they are, crowding around him again. Whether they know it consciously or not they need him – need him so desperately they follow him everywhere, just to be near him.
So - on one hand we have the desperately wanting crowd and on the other we have a drained and grieving Jesus ... and, Jesus being Jesus, we know where the story goes next. Jesus looks out at the people and, loving them, he disregards his own exhaustion and reaches deep within and gives away even more of himself. He sees their hunger - and over the course of the day there is both hunger of spirit and hunger of body – and he feeds them – all eight or nine thousand of them – he feeds them with what there is present at the time – he gives them what he has: His love for them, two fish, and five loaves of bread.
This is a miracle - not in the sense of a magic trick – not just something to demonstrate his powers. This is a miracle that teaches us who Jesus is and who he is not. He is not one who demands that he have all his ducks in a row before he acts. He is not one who expects the world to change to get in line with his program, so acting will be easy. He is one who sees a needs and fills it - out of his own self if that is all the resource he has to hand. He takes what he is given ... and he makes it more than it is. He makes it enough to feed the hungry.
Let’s suppose Jesus came among us here today and said, “The people are hungry, we need to feed them - what do you have here?” ..... We would look around us and quickly see that all we have here is ourselves. Not just our desire to do what Jesus tells us to do - but our very selves. That’s all we have. The question then is: Are we willing to be, not only the giver, but that which is given? Are we willing to give ourselves to God’s use and accept that in God’s hands we will be enough?
On the face of it, it was plainly ridiculous to expect five loaves of bread and two dried fish to feed that hungry crowd. And yet, we are told they did. On the face of it, it is equally ridiculous to expect the few people sitting in this room today to make any difference in the lives of the lost and rejected of our society. And yet, I believe that Jesus believes we can.....so, do we? Do we believe that Jesus can take what he is given ... even when what he is given is just us ... and make it more than it is?
Are we willing to be the bread and fish? Are we willing to be broken and shared out? When Jesus asks us, “what do we have?” he isn’t asking for an inventory of the tools and supplies we have at our disposal – God wants US – shared freely. Just us, and nothing less. Do we believe it enough to do it?
As the reading starts, Jesus is tired and sad. The Pharisees - the representatives of the faith that should be sustaining and uplifting him – have been instead hounding him, following along trying to catch him at something they can make a big legal fuss about. And then, he has just received the news of the killing of John the Baptist. He needs some alone time, some recharging time - some time to spend just with the one he calls Father – so he goes off a ways by himself. But as soon as the crowds get wind of this, there they are, crowding around him again. Whether they know it consciously or not they need him – need him so desperately they follow him everywhere, just to be near him.
So - on one hand we have the desperately wanting crowd and on the other we have a drained and grieving Jesus ... and, Jesus being Jesus, we know where the story goes next. Jesus looks out at the people and, loving them, he disregards his own exhaustion and reaches deep within and gives away even more of himself. He sees their hunger - and over the course of the day there is both hunger of spirit and hunger of body – and he feeds them – all eight or nine thousand of them – he feeds them with what there is present at the time – he gives them what he has: His love for them, two fish, and five loaves of bread.
This is a miracle - not in the sense of a magic trick – not just something to demonstrate his powers. This is a miracle that teaches us who Jesus is and who he is not. He is not one who demands that he have all his ducks in a row before he acts. He is not one who expects the world to change to get in line with his program, so acting will be easy. He is one who sees a needs and fills it - out of his own self if that is all the resource he has to hand. He takes what he is given ... and he makes it more than it is. He makes it enough to feed the hungry.
Let’s suppose Jesus came among us here today and said, “The people are hungry, we need to feed them - what do you have here?” ..... We would look around us and quickly see that all we have here is ourselves. Not just our desire to do what Jesus tells us to do - but our very selves. That’s all we have. The question then is: Are we willing to be, not only the giver, but that which is given? Are we willing to give ourselves to God’s use and accept that in God’s hands we will be enough?
On the face of it, it was plainly ridiculous to expect five loaves of bread and two dried fish to feed that hungry crowd. And yet, we are told they did. On the face of it, it is equally ridiculous to expect the few people sitting in this room today to make any difference in the lives of the lost and rejected of our society. And yet, I believe that Jesus believes we can.....so, do we? Do we believe that Jesus can take what he is given ... even when what he is given is just us ... and make it more than it is?
Are we willing to be the bread and fish? Are we willing to be broken and shared out? When Jesus asks us, “what do we have?” he isn’t asking for an inventory of the tools and supplies we have at our disposal – God wants US – shared freely. Just us, and nothing less. Do we believe it enough to do it?
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