Matthew 14:13-21
On the road…on our way north to Susan’s childhood home in Struthers Ohio…
- Our car’s air pressure gauge popped up informing me that my left rear tire was low and as I watched it…getting lower fast.
- By the time we stopped to examine the tire it was completely flat…
- And when I pumped the tire up with my cordless tire pomp…I saw that it was a leaky valve.
- Well…we were in the middle of nowhere…somewhere south of Akron.
- I called AAA to come…and put the tiny…toy spare tire on…
- Knowing then that I must drive slowly and have the valve fixed within the next 25 miles…
- It was getting late in the day…it would be dark in an hour.
- A guy pulled up alongside us where I had parked to run his two dogs…and we got to talking…he was somewhat of a gearhead…
- A typical Pittsburgh/Cleaveland millworker can do it all sort of guy…
- The kind of guy that can build his own house from scratch.
- Well…the AAA gut came…also a gearhead…full of Yankee ingenuity…
- And together…the two men put a new valve stem in my tire right there on the tarmac…a miracle.
- I am sure something like this has happened to you and you also wondered how you would ever make it back home again…
- Feeling drained of hope and power by the many stresses of life…
- Well…this being our human situation…there is a message for us in today’s text.
But first…we need to review what happened right before this.
- King Herod had arrested and imprisoned Jesus’ cousin John…
- Because John had been telling Herod it was wrong to take his brother’s wife just because Herod had the power to do so.
- Herod threw a party for his cronies…and to please his wife’s daughter…had John beheaded.
- His disciples buried his body and then came and told Jesus.
John had baptized Jesus at the start of his public ministry and declared him to be the Messiah and the Lamb of God.
- Their shared sense of mission…combined with the horrendous manner of his cousin’s murder…
- And the injustice of losing John at such a young age…
- All compounded the trauma Jesus must have felt when he heard the news.
- Not only was this a deep loss for Jesus personally…
- But the grief of John’s disciples weighed on him as well.
- It is no surprise…then…that Jesus retreated to a deserted place to be alone with his grief.
But bad news traveled fast…and the crowds…many of whom had been inspired by John’s message…
- Had been in shock over Herod’s latest atrocity…
- Causing many to flock to Jesus on the day recounted in today’s Gospel reading.
By then…it was late in the day…and Jesus’ disciples approached him with a concern:
- The people must be hungry.
- In times of mourning…people all around the world use food as an expression of care and comfort.
- (S0…they discussed giving them comfort food…macaroni and cheese…but they had no macaroni).
- The disciples suggested that Jesus should release the crowds to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.
But Jesus had a different plan:
- They need not go away…you give them something to eat.
- Jesus was viewing the moment as a time of crisis…which is why he thought they all needed to be together.
The disciples answered: We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish…
- The implication being that…that was not even enough to feed their own group…let alone the whole crowd.
In John’s version of this event…one of the disciples…Philip…blurted that they would have to work months to earn enough money to buy bread for each person to have even one bite.
- In our time…he was saying they would need thousands of dollars to provide each person just a morsel to eat.
- And there was nowhere near that amount in their common purse.
- Jesus agreed with their self-assessment…and said:
- Apart from me you can do nothing.
If we are honest here…we are not so different.
- We are all too aware of what we do not have.
- As a result…we may cling to the little we do have…afraid that we will have nothing left for ourselves if we share it.
- But Jesus saw a bigger picture.
- His Father in heaven had fed the multitudes with manna from heaven…
- And supplied a widow with endless oil and grain during a famine.
- Feeding this crowd? A piece of cake!
Jesus saw a world in which nothing is impossible with God…
- A world in which we are not abandoned by God to fend for ourselves.
- Perhaps you have heard it said: One plus God is a majority…God changes the calculus.
- It is in these moments that we discover what God can do when we bring our nothing to him.
- Jesus had more confidence in the disciples than they had in themselves.
- As Paul wrote…I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Everything changed for the disciples when Jesus invited them to bring their meager resources to him.
- But it’s significant that Jesus did not perform the entire task of feeding the crowds all by himself.
- Having the full nature of God…he could easily have spoken a word…
- And given every person in the crowd their own box lunch…
- But Jesus did not glorify himself.
- Instead…he invited the disciples to take part in the work of service.
Here are some other times Jesus asked for help?
- He asked a Samaritan woman for water.
- He sent his disciples to find a colt for his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
- He had them prepare the Passover meal.
- After his resurrection…he asked them to bring some of the fish they had caught (with his help…of course!).
So…Jesus simply invited the disciples to place their nothingness…
- Their feelings of inadequacy…their real limitations…in his hands.
- Then he took the loaves and fish…blessed and broke them…
- And gave them back to the disciples to distribute to the people.
- As Matthew tells it: all ate and were filled…and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces…twelve baskets full.
When we place our insecurities…our feelings that we do not have what we need…and are not enough to meet the moment…
- In the hands of Jesus…he blesses them and multiplies our resources…
- Returning them to us to share with the world.
- As one hymnwriter put it: Little Is Much When God Is In It.
- And we end up with more love and joy than we started with.
The actions of taking…blessing…breaking and giving in the feeding of the 5,000 parallel what Jesus did during the Last Supper.
- As we come to the Communion Table…we proclaim that Jesus gave his life for us.
- But we should also understand that we are the grains crushed to make the bread of life Jesus offers to the world.
- When he takes the bread…blesses and breaks it and says: This is my body…
- We remember that we are the body of Christ.
- Eating the bread…we are asking Christ to bless us and use us to feed the world’s hunger for justice…peace and love.
How does God feed the world?
- Through people like you and me who are willing to join him in his work.
- What are we going to do with our five loaves and two fish?
- Bring them to Jesus…and then set the table…the feast is ready!