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| This Byzantine mosaic is preserved in the Church of the Multiplication in Tabgha, in Galilee, in the area which has traditionally been understood as the place where Jesus fed the 5,000. |
"More Than Enough"
Matthew 14:13-21
It had been a long day for Jesus and the disciples. After
hearing that his cousin, John the Baptizer, has been beheaded by order of King
Herod, Jesus is in distress and wants to be alone, so he goes off by boat to be
alone to grieve in a deserted place. But by the time he gets there, word has
spread and a great crowd has hurried around the lake on foot and is gathered
there.
Jesus’
compassion for the needs of others overcomes his personal grief and weariness,
and he responds to the people in compassion, curing those who were sick.
It gets late,
and people are hungry. So, the disciples
come to Jesus and say, “This is a deserted place, and it’s getting late. Send the
crowds away so that they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”
That sounds
like a sensible, thoughtful suggestion. But Jesus has a different idea. He
turns to the disciples and says, “We don’t need to send them away. You give
them something to eat!”
Can you see
those disciples, looking at each other, with the question on their faces? “Are you kidding? How could we feed all these people? Out here
in this deserted place, with these scant resources—where are we supposed to
find food for all these people? There
were 5,000 men, plus women and children! We don’t have anything here but five
loaves and two fishes!”
Jesus says,
“Bring what you have to me.” Then he
commands the crowds to sit down on the grass.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looks up to heaven, and
blesses, and breaks the loaves, and gives them to the disciples, and the
disciples give them to the crowds.”
The gospel
tells us that everybody ate and were filled.
But it doesn’t end there. They
gathered up what was left over of the broken pieces, and there were twelve
baskets full of leftovers!
Imagine
it! As many as ten
or twelve thousand people, and they all were fed and filled, and there
were twelve baskets left over? It seems impossible. How can we explain it? Can we explain it?
Not
surprisingly, modern thinkers have come up with all sorts of interpretations of
this meal. Those who are more literal
in their reading of the Bible say we have to take the story at face value. They argue that some kind of miracle
happened, that Jesus created new food where there was almost none before, and
that we don’t have to understand how he did it.
We just need to know that he did it—that somehow God’s power moved
through Jesus to provide an abundant meal for everybody.
Other folk,
the ones who have trouble believing in miracles but are quite willing to
believe in human goodness, offer another view.
They suggest that instead of the abundance of food resulting from Jesus
performing a miracle, the people in the crowd were so inspired by his teaching
and healing that their hearts were opened, and they reached into their pockets
and travel sacks and pulled out the bits of food that they’d brought—but were
planning to keep for themselves—and they shared the food with each other, so
that everyone ended up with something to eat.
Some might go on to say that God’s power moved them so there was an
abundant meal for all, and some might call that a kind of miracle.
Some others
interpret the feeding story sacramentally.
They say that the people there only received a tiny morsel of food, but
because of Christ’s presence, they received the spiritual sustenance and
strength that they needed from the meal. [1]
So…what did
Jesus really do that day? What
happened? We can’t really know. But I think the important thing in this story
is not how it happened, but why it happened.
Somehow—whether we understand it or not—the God of love provided an
abundant meal for all. No matter how
things may seem, no matter how scarce our resources seem, God is able to
provide enough.
The first
disciples didn’t get it, at least initially.
And often we don’t get it. We
look around and we’re certain there isn’t enough. Enough people…enough energy…enough
creativity…enough resources…enough whatever—to meet some need, to do some
task. And yet when we go ahead and give
it our best shot, we often find that there was enough after all—and maybe even
a basketful or so left over.
Jesus came
so that we may have life—abundant life.
Looking to heaven and blessing the bread, Jesus reveals abundance where
we see scarcity. What seems not enough is blessed, broken, and
given back to the disciples for distribution.
They give the crowd something to eat, and it ends up being more than
enough.
So, I think
if we get hung up on the “how” of what happened, we risk what we disciples need
to learn as we follow Jesus.
Jesus
didn’t lecture the thousands of hungry people gathered there on how they should
have planned ahead before they hurried around the lake… how they should have
packed food to take care of themselves and their family. He didn’t ask them if
they were working or to prove what their income was. He didn’t ask if they were from Galilee or if
they were foreigners. And isn’t that
just like Jesus? He doesn’t seem to have any standards, except need.
In the
church, part of our life of discipleship is learning from Jesus how to trust in
the abundance he promises, instead of the scarcity we fear.
In our
society, we work together as a community to do things we aren’t able to do as
individuals. Our Congress is talking about the budget, which truly is an
expression of our values as a society.
Now, many
members of Congress insist on standards. They want stricter work requirements
for people who receive SNAP (Supplemental Nutritious Assistance Program)
payments. As Barbara Lundblad points out, around 91% of the members of Congress
describe themselves as Christians. Some of them like to quote scripture to back
up their positions, and one favorite text in recent debates about the SNAP
program is from 2 Thessalonians. A
congressional representative quotes the apostle: “‘we gave you this rule: if a
man will not work, he shall not eat.’ So, I think it’s reasonable that we have
work requirements.”[2]
Now, Jesus hadn’t
read the apostle Paul’s rule, because he hadn’t written it yet. I agree with
Barbara Lundblad when she says Jesus must wonder why people like that one verse
so much while they neglect most of the Bible, including Jesus’ own example and
teachings….
Almost
45% of those who receive SNAP benefits / food stamps are children. Another 30%
are elderly or people with disabilities who may not be able to work. Many of
the rest are working, even working full time, but don’t make enough to feed
themselves or their families.
In Jesus’ last teaching session in Matthew’s gospel, he
tells how the Son of Man will divide everyone into two groups. To the blessed
ones, Jesus says, “I was hungry and you gave me food.” But the blessed ones
asked, “When did we see you hungry and feed you?” Jesus replied, “As you did it
to the least of these who are part of my family, you did it to me.”[3]
From time to time, Christians have literally taken
to heart Jesus’ command, “You give them something to eat. When we come to the Lord’s Table, we commemorate
that last Upper Room meal. We also need
to remember how Jesus fed the multitudes.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we need to remember what he says to his
disciples: “You give them something to eat.”
People in
our own communities and in our nation are hungry or food insecure.
20 million
people in four countries are facing starvation: South Sudan, Yemen, Somalia,
and Nigeria. The United Nations calls this the worst humanitarian crisis since
it was founded in 1945. Yet we hear very little about this tragedy.
Seeing
these huge numbers, we might feel overwhelmed. We might think, “There’s nothing
I can do that will make a difference.” But, like those first disciples, we do
have something, and we can give through the Presbyterian Church’s huger program
or Bread for the World. We can write letters to our elected leaders.
Working to
end hunger is both personal and political. Working to end hunger is holy work.
Did you notice? Jesus prayed that God would bless the food
in his hands so it would be enough for all the hungry people. But he didn’t
pray until after he said to the disciples, “You give them something to eat.”
Then, after praying, Jesus gave the broken bread and fish and gave it to the
disciples, and they started passing them out. They may have been wondering how
long the food would last, but they kept going until 5,000 men plus all the
women and children were fed. When everyone had eaten, there were twelve baskets
left over.
God is
still at work in and through us today. In the face of all our concerns about
not having enough, Jesus takes and blesses and breaks and gives—and transforms
everything and everyone. Jesus spread a
banquet for thousands of people gathered … that day long ago, and keeps
spreading a banquet before each of us.
Like that crowd gathered that day, like his own doubtful followers,
Jesus invites us to trust, to accept his invitation, to come and feast bountifully.
Thanks be
to God!
Amen!
Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Dearborn, Michigan
August 6, 2017
[1] I am
indebted to the Rev. Sharyl B. Peterson for her summary of some of the common
interpretations of this feeding story, in her sermon “Feasting, Not
Fasting,” posted at 8/1/2008 in www.goodpreacher.com/backissues
[2] The Rev.
Dr. Barbara K. Lundblad, at Day1. http://day1.org/7931-barbara_lundblad_who_will_feed_them_you
[3] Matthew
25
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