We have been hearing many parables of Jesus these past few weeks as recorded by the apostle Matthew. Some of the recent Gospel readings have had gaps in what we hear; for example, in chapter 13, the parable came from verses 24 to 30, and then 36 to 43. It makes me wonder: What aren’t we hearing in the gap verses? Sometimes in the missing verses it is just a little bit of repetition: Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables, without a parable he told them nothing. Or, he told the disciples that he would explain the parables to them in order to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah. These omitted verses do not tell us anything more about each of the parables, and so they are set aside for brevity, I suppose. Today’s reading is different. There is no parable, and, as you may have noticed, there are no missing verses from chapter 14, verses 13 to 21. However, to be truly transparent, this should be verse 13b through verse 21. What we have heard today is: Jesus withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. Verse 13 actually begins: Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. Why am I telling you this? I feel like a lawyer on a tv show who is trying to set the scene and explain the witness’s state of mind. And any moment now the judge will say, move along, move along.
What Jesus heard just before he withdrew to be alone, was a report from some disciples who traveled to tell Jesus of the death of John the Baptizer. It wasn’t exhaustion of having told so many parables to the people and needing to withdraw from them to rest his voice, but rather needing time to grieve for his cousin and what he himself was going to face. The disciples, too, many of whom had been followers of John, also had just heard the shocking news of his death. And finally, the people, many of them must have been familiar with John and his ministry and also heard of his terrifying death. They gathered from the towns and gathered to be with Jesus.
Jesus in his compassion spent the day with the people and cured their sick. Sick from physical infirmities, and also sick from grief? When it was evening the disciples came to Jesus and said, “the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” And what follows is the feeding of their bone-weary bodies and the healing of their broken hearts and grieving souls.
The feeding of the multitudes is important enough to be included in each of the four Gospels of the New Testament. This is true, too, of the feeding of the Israelites with manna from heaven, as they escaped from Egypt and traveled to the Promised Land. Those people suffered from bone-weary bodies, broken hearts, and grieving souls. The story of the manna is important enough to be included in four books of the Old Testament, as well as in two psalms, one of which includes these verses:
He commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven;
He rained down on them manna to eat, and gave them the grain of heaven.
Mortals ate of the bread of angels; he sent them food in abundance.
We have heard that people are fed with manna from heaven. People are fed with two fish and five loaves of bread, blessed and broken. Soon we will come to the communion rail, we people of God, and we will be fed with bread and wine, Christ’s body and blood.
We are fortunate to have a God who understands our need for nourishment. Jesus definitely understands all that comes from food and drink and time around the table. For him such a gathering is a spiritual practice, and an opportunity for teaching and learning. This story today often is given a heading of “Jesus Feeds Five Thousand”. Actually, Jesus gives food only to the disciples; it is they who feed the five thousand.
We also are fortunate to have a God who shows us compassion when we question our ability to feed and help others. Jesus gives nourishment to the 12 which gives them strength for this ministry of feeding.
Like the disciples who said, we have nothing here but five loaves and two fish, we might wonder what good are our little efforts at feeding others. Certainly, there is some of that sense of powerlessness in the making of sandwiches week after week. After all, the hungry are always with us. I have known of people in the Church who have helped with natural disasters, caring for victims of hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires. And yet these disasters are always with us. After one of the funerals this summer, a woman said to me, it must be hard for you church people to be around so much sadness all the time. Yes, being present and supportive to those having to say good-bye to loved ones is always with us.
The compassion and strength we need, we can derive from Jesus. Jesus, grieving for his cousin, still has compassion for the people and spends the day with them. As was commented at Holy Curiosity bible study this past week as we delved into this Gospel reading; “Generosity of Jesus opens the generosity of ourselves.”
The story today is not so much about food for us when we are hungry, but rather nourishment for us to have the strength and confidence to minister to others, whether five times or five thousand times.
I remember when I used to work here at the church every day and often greeted people at the door. So many times, I didn’t know if I helped them or not. But there were two encounters that always give me strength to try again. One was a young couple, she was pregnant, and they were out of resources. After I asked if they had family who could help, and seeing them look down and shake their heads, I referred them to Catholic Community Services. Some days later I received a phone call from them. With the help of CCS and anonymous sponsors, they had gone home to Arizona, they had been welcomed home by her family, and they were in a good place, they said. The other encounter was a single woman who came around in that time of the year when it’s dreary outside and raining off and on. She looked wet and cold and miserable. She had had a fight with her sister and had walked out of the house with nowhere to go. I called the Mission and they took her in. Again, some number of days later she returned to the church. I don’t know if it was a sunny day, or if it was the woman herself who was providing the rays of light. She was back at her sister’s house, she was happy, and she was thankful for the help she had been given.
Going back to Holy Curiosity bible study this past week, we each wrote what delighted us about the passage. Here is one comment that resonated with me. “I am delighted that no matter how little we think we have to offer, it can be multiplied beyond belief.”
God loves us and gives us gifts too numerous to name, more than we can ask for or imagine. It is our responsibility to receive the gifts and pass them on to others. God chose us to be God’s children, and we can live a life where we are ready to respond with generosity and a belief in abundance.
Amen.
