When Jesus heard what had happened,
he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds
followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd,
he had compassion on them and healed their sick. As evening approached, the
disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already
getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy
themselves some food.” Jesus replied, “They do not need to go
away. You give them something to eat.”
“We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they
answered.
“Bring them here to me,” he said. He directed the people to
sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to
heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the
disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were
satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that
were left over. The number of those who ate was about five
thousand men, besides women and children.
Every so often, the lectionary
plunks us down in the middle of a story without the preamble. But we need the
preamble to see how other things happened.
So, back to Verse 8. Herod had wanted
to get rid of John, but didn’t know how.
He had made promises in front of the dinner guests, one being that he
would give Salome anything she wished, if she would dance.
‘Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on
a platter the head of John the Baptist.” The king was
distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her
request be granted and had John
beheaded in the prison. His head was brought in on a
platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they
went and told Jesus.’
So we’re looking at a story which has its roots in the
death of John, Jesus’ cousin. Until now,
in my reading, Jesus has been mainly teaching. He’s called people to follow him
and he has been teaching them about a vision of a different world, a different
way of being. He believed in a peaceable realm – and I’m not sure he had
thought of actual practical ministry.
John the
Baptist was seen by many, even Matthew, as the Messiah . John had many
followers. He was a fiery leader, a
religious zealot, and his followers were more along the line of insurgents.
Jesus didn’t share John’s vision, but
was still working out his own. And it’s necessary to remember that the Jews
were under the thumb of both Rome, and their own religious leaders in collusion
with Rome. No one was happy. The period
of Jesus ministry was a brief time of relative peace between a couple of very
violent uprisings.
Jesus hears about the death of John, and goes away
by himself. He wants to be alone, he wants to think. Maybe he realises that
someone has to step into the void created by John’s death. “He withdrew by boat to a solitary place.”
This was his family, his cousin – even if he and John had a different idea
about how the social change they both believed in – the oppression they lived
under – should come about.
Jesus needs to grieve, he needs to think. The people
need to grieve, too. The text says that ‘having heard’ that Jesus had gone away,
they followed him. Why? Why couldn’t the people just leave him, give him some
space? we might ask. Or are they some of
those ‘ weak in spirit’, ‘ poor in spirit’, who are also grieving - who have seen this act of Herod as the
final straw. But he’s too big to overthrow, too cruel to endure?
What can they do? So they follow Jesus, because they can’t think of anything
else to do.
Jesus has pity on them. Compassion
for them. But those words aren’t strong enough. I think Jesus is struck by
similar grief, and understands them. One of the commentaries I read suggested
“gut-wrenching” response is better. Matthew shows how Jesus first reacted to
John’s death, then the crowd also reacted, and now Jesus is internally torn for
the crowd because he shares their gut-wrenching pain.
Now, a zealous revolutionary could
have used this moment to rally troops. 5,000 men plus women and children, angry
or bewildered over the death of John the Baptiser would make a great start to
an army to storm Herod’s palace. Instead, it becomes a story of a call to ministry,
a story of feeding – physical and spiritual feeding in the face of incredible
cruelty.
So the disciples come to Jesus and
suggest that as the day is getting on, the people should be sent home, as they
will need to eat. Jesus gets a little testy with the disciples.
Jesus says “They have no need to go
away – YOU feed them.” I love this line. For all his teachings about the realm,
about mercy and compassion, the disciples are still not thinking. Or perhaps I should say they think if they
just wait, the realm, the kingdom, will arrive. “All we have is five loaves and
two fishes.” they say. Jesus points out
clearly that the location of abundance is right where they are. What if the
mantra of Jesus’ followers were, “The place of abundance is here”? What if that
were our mantra? The place of abundance is right where we are?
Matthew doesn’t make a miracle story
out of this. Jesus blesses and distributes the bread and fish to the disciples,
for them to feed the crowd, to the crowd eating, and twelve baskets of
leftovers. There is no explanation of how the five loaves and two fishes fed so
many, and with leftovers, just the before-and-after enumeration that it
happened. Matthew just gives the bones of the actions. I don’t know if that is good
story-telling or an attempt to focus on things other than the miracle-moment.
So what happened? How can we know?
Is the multiplication of the food the point, or is it back where Jesus says the
place of abundance is right here, and then puts the onus for feeding squarely
on the followers. YOU feed them. Now, this is filling in gaps, but probably, when
they set out to follow Jesus, they took some food with them.
They see food being passed, and
little by little people share till there’s more than enough. I’d guess those
disciples had more than five loaves and two fish – think about it. Twelve men,
some with spouses, children and assorted family. To me it’s more that they don’t
want to do anything, it’s easier to send the people home. I’m stretching a point here – in Corinthians,
we see Paul chastising the richer followers for eating their own food before
coming to the community meal, because poor people’s food wasn’t that good. What
if the disciples knew there was food among the people, but they were poor and maybe
the food wasn’t that good. Send them home to eat their own food and we’ll eat
ours. Jesus says the place of abundance is here.
So here’s a contrast – John and
Jesus both had ministries, but John was more ‘out there’ in both his style and his
rhetoric, and he had a strong following. I think Jesus call was a gradual revelation –
which is how it is for most of us. Then he’s confronted with disciples who listen
to his teaching, follow with him as he goes about. And there’s this moment –
where they say to Jesus ‘Send them home, it’s getting dark and they will need
to eat.’, and Jesus – in one of those Aha! ministry moments, realises two
things – someone has to step in now that John is gone, and that there are many,
many people who need ministry, and that is what they are called to, not just
him. He’s not just telling them to feed the crowd where they are, he’s telling
them that being called to ministry is more than listening and going with him. The
call to ‘follow me’ means more than just trailing along.
And what does that mean for us?
Churches today continue to work from a sense of scarcity, not from a point of
view of abundance or ministry. “We only have this much. We only have five
loaves and two fishes.” What about ‘Here’s what needs to be done. Here’s what
we do have. How do we spread it around?’
So part of what I see as my role
here is the joint call to ministry we have in this church. We aren’t oppressed by
Romans, but in many ways the world has changed to the point where truly
following that call to ministry which is part of all our lives, becomes much
harder. So, as we go on together, what ministries are critical? What would we
want to see happen in terms of ministry? Of course there is work to be done
which takes funding – but that’s to contribute to possibilities for ministry. How
do we feed those who need both literal food and spiritual food? Do we need them
coming with us, in the door, or do we offer ministry which feeds and empowers
others – and trust that seeds are planted? So many questions, but the questions
we must ask in this new stage of life. What are the ministries we think are
important, in this day and age, given the social and political world around us.
Who are we, for this place and this time? What about our faith is needed in
this place and this time?
And whatever the answers to those
questions, we have Jesus who said “You can do it. The place of
abundance is here.” May it be so.
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