Sermon: Jesus as provider
Is 55:1-5, Matthew 14:13-21
31 July 2005
Introduction
You might have noticed that we’ve had a couple of birthdays in our house this month. This has led to long discussions about what sort of parties might be organised. Who would be invited, what would we do, and importantly, what would we prepare for the meal? Lists have to be made, and shopping done, and care taken that we have enough of everything. One of the most talked about aspects is what kind of cake to have – which has to be a balance between something that looks spectacular but is actually not too hard for mum to make. Let me tell you a bombe alaska with a few fizzing sparklers does the job pretty well. Actually, most occasions for celebration or reunion seem to involve food. Going out for a special meal, preparing for a family gathering, meals at the church to celebrate comings and goings, parties with a tub of ice to keep the drinks cold and plenty of nibblies, wedding banquets, even just meeting someone for coffee.
Symbol of food and hunger
It seems to be natural for human interaction and food to go together. And food and its antithesis, hunger, are powerful symbols in scripture as well as in our cultures. Sacred moments are remembered over meals – the Passover, the Eucharist. The Kingdom of God and the idea of life in all its fullness are both spoken of in terms of a banquet table. The reading from Isaiah is an invitation to come and receive good things, not only the essentials of water and bread but also an invitation to delight in what is superfluous and extravagant – milk, wine, rich food. In Exodus the people of Israel know their God is with them in the wilderness when manna and quails are provided regularly and faithfully. But there are also warnings such as in the prophecies of Amos that the people that will experience a spiritual famine because they have resisted God's invitation (Amos 8:11) Food is a sign of God’s presence and favour – particularly to the marginalised. In Mary's Song, God is praised as the One who "...has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty... (Lk. 1:53). And the miracle story we have just read, the Feeding of the Five Thousand, stands out as being one of the few stories each of the four gospels tells of Jesus.
Symbol of communion
It’s clear though that Matthew’s version of the story is already shaped by the church’s regular practice of communion as part of its worship life, and its way of remembering the presence of Jesus amongst them years after the time he lived amongst them in Palestine.
Did you notice for example how the elements of bread and fish in the story are reduced to bread alone, which Jesus blessed and broke before he distributed it amongst the disciples. Notice also that it was a truly satisfying meal – all ate and were filled. There were even baskets of leftovers of significant number, just like the 12 apostles with Jesus at the Last Supper. And since the story comes immediately after the story of John the Baptist’s execution, which would serve as a reminder of the passion element in Communion. The body broken, the blood spilled. As in most of the stories preserved in the gospels, it needs to be appreciated on a number of levels.
The fact that in Mark and Matthew the story itself appears twice should be noticed too – the versions are slightly different but a couple of pages on exactly the same situation occurs where they are in a deserted place and the disciples wonder how they could accede to Jesus’ request to provide bread for the crowds. A little later in the gospel there is more discussion about bread, where the disciples go across the lake but forget to take bread – leading to a pretty exasperated Jesus asking how they could miss the significance of his teaching and example. Listen to these words he says to them: “You of little faith, why are you still talking about having no bread. Do you still not perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves fro the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How could you fail to perceive that I was not speaking about bread?” (16:8-11)
As I said, the story needs to be appreciated on a number of levels.
The nature of the miracle
So I’m not going to spend a lot of time talking about the nature of the miracle. Because it is a story that appears in all the gospels the details of it seem to be mixed up often. Many commentaries and many sermons using this text speak of the miracle of sharing, usually focussing on the little boy who offered his lunch as the version in John’s gospel only tells us. And that is a valid point to find in the story, where it takes the generosity of spirit in a child to teach the disciples and others around Jesus something about the kingdom of God. Even though it wasn’t much that was offered, Jesus was able to use it. Because one child was willing to share, perhaps everyone took out their hidden resources and the problem of scarcity was overcome.
One of the illustrations offered for this text on my sermon aids that come in each week on my email was an old story from the 50s I’d imagine of an ordinary American boy who heard that help was needed in a disease stricken country in Africa, so he phoned a radio station and offered to send a box of bandaids – all he could afford from his pocket money. His generous spirit captured the imagination of the public and before too long 3 plane loads of medical supplies were winging their way to the other side of the world. This is a lovely story, and a challenge to us to consider how generous we are prepared to be in the face of need, but I think the passage deals with bigger issues than this. The feeding miracles in the gospels were not just an isolated response to a need, however big it is, but were pointing to a new way of life, a paradigm shift, a way of viewing our role as the church in the world.
Matthew’s version of the miracle
So in this instance I want to concentrate on the way Matthew in particular shapes the story to emphasise how Jesus can be our provider, and how as his disciples we are invited to submit to his authority and follow his lead.
Let me just read the story again in a different translation – a Victorian Baptist pastor Nathan Nettleton has paraphrased a large number of the lectionary readings and I think as well as refreshing our memoires on the details of the story as it appears in Matthew, it is helpful to hear it in words that are less churchy.
Matthew 14: 13-21........
When Jesus heard that John the baptiser had been killed, he cleared off in a boat by himself, intending to lie low for a while. But the people from all the surrounding towns got wind of which direction he was heading, and followed him around the lake on foot. When he pulled ashore, there was already a large crowd waiting for him. Jesus felt for them deeply, and cured the sick among them.
When evening came, the disciples came to Jesus and said, “We’re in the middle of nowhere out here. It is time to send the crowds on their way so that they can make it to the shops in the nearby towns to get something to eat before it’s too late.”
Jesus said to them, “There’s no need for the people to leave. You lot give them something to eat.”
They replied, “But we’ve got almost nothing here ourselves; just five bread rolls and a couple of fish.”
Jesus said, “Bring them here to me.”
As the food was brought, he told the crowd to sit down on the grass. Taking the five bread rolls and the two fish, he looked towards heaven and gave thanks and praise to God. Then he broke the bread and gave the pieces to the disciples, and the disciples passed them around among the people. Everybody ate their fill, and when the leftovers were gathered up, there was enough to fill twelve bags. This was no small crowd that had been fed; there were about five thousand men and goodness knows how many women and children.
Two perspectives:
Jesus had withdrawn to a lonely place – perhaps to escape a similar fate to that of John the Baptist – a realistic possibility because in Matthew’s account of John’s persecution there are words that are repeated later in the passion narrative in reference to Jesus himself. But when we hear “he cleared off alone by himself” we realise he also intentionally withdrew from society to spend time alone with God, to recharge the batteries, to remove himself from distractions of society.
When crowds follow him there we might have expected he would be annoyed or frustrated, but instead of that we are told he was filled with compassion, recognising that the people in this crowd were also seeking his presence – these were people ready to believe – ready to act on their faith. They were people also ready to leave their comfort zone and come to a lonely place. And if there was any danger to Jesus’ life, no doubt they too were taking a risk by being together with him.
At the end of the day Jesus recognises their need to be fed physically as well as spiritually, but whereas the disciples say “send them away” he says “they need not go away.” There were two perspectives on the presenting situation.
For the disciples, the needs of the crowd can’t be met in this lonely place. They need to go back to where they belong and engage in the normal expectations of society. They need to buy food for themselves.
But Jesus says “No. There’s no need for the people to leave. You give them something to eat.”
In their minds, of course, they were not equipped -- they didn't have a clue as to how they could possibly feed this crowd. What they had to offer was way too little! Five loaves and two fish. But in this situation they had the opportunity to learn what it meant to be Jesus’ disciples in the face of a hungry world. To have his compassion. To have his perspective on the world. Because the clues were already there for them. A little earlier Jesus had been talking to his disciples about family relationships – remember these words Jesus said about them? “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (12:50) Following Jesus meant thinking differently to normal social conventions. Followers of Jesus can take the place of society and provide for the needy. Followers of Jesus can take the place of family and care for each other.
“Here” – the place where Jesus is.
But what gives the disciples the ability to do this? I want to look also at a small word in the interchange between Jesus and his disciples that emphasizes the point that Jesus is provider.
The word is “here”
When Jesus says “you give them something to eat” the disciples answer “But we’ve got almost nothing here ourselves; just five bread rolls and a couple of fish.” For them, “here” is a lonely place, “here” they have limited resources, “here” what Jesus is asking of them is impossible.
But Jesus says “Bring them here to me.” “Here” is now the place where Jesus is. It is because they are “here” with Jesus that the disciples can expect to make a difference. Because of Jesus’ presence the disciples can be for others the family and the providers and the society that is so necessary.
When they understand they are in a lonely place, but they are there with Jesus, the disciples can bring their limited resources and offer them to Jesus. If we want to be disciples, to be followers of Jesus, sometimes we just have to be servants. In the end, all the disciples had to do was to do what Jesus said: bring their resources to Jesus and then serve others. And through them, Jesus fed the crowd.
One of the central propositions in this text is that God can take our "not enough" and turn it into "more than enough." Amazing things can happen when we see with eyes of compassion and make ourselves available to God as agents of compassion.
I’ve been speaking about making a paradigm shift. A new way of living.
Realising that following Jesus means orienting our lives towards the kingdom. Not putting our trust in society to meet our needs, but realizing that it is our father in heaven who provides. Not allowing our normal social and family ties to determine how we live, but realizing that in God’s kingdom, those who do the will of our father are our brothers and sisters. And realizing that we have a role to play in meeting their hunger – for basic needs, for friendship, for family, for belonging.
A Hungry World
So generous provision of bread in the wilderness is a symbol of the chance to belong to God’s kingdom. But we live in a hungry world. You probably know the statistics:
-- 800 million go hungry every day.
-- 50,000 die daily from poverty, 30,000 of these are children.
-- Nearly 11 million children younger than 5 die each year from such diseases as diarrhea and pneumonia.
-- there are between 2 million and 3 million deaths each year from malaria.
-- 500,000 women die each year giving birth.
-- 1.2 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water.
Jesus said to his disciples: “you give them something to eat”. We live in a rich world, rich with resources. And yet people are dying of hunger. Do we need to hear this command of Jesus again: “you give them something to eat”?
As Thorwald used to say frequently, we cannot afford the luxury of despair and cynicism. There is a climate of hope around the world today, with the Make Poverty History campaign, the “Micah Challenge” in the churches, and government and non-government organizations focused on the UN Millennium Development Goals aiming to cut poverty in half by 2015. I have been reading some articles about Jeffrey Sachs, the director of the UN Advisory team set up to oversee the implementation of the Millennium Goals. Sachs argues these goals will be achieved by simple "down-to-earth" development projects such as providing school meals to improve nutrition, bed nets to prevent malaria, fertilizer and irrigation tools to increase crop yields and wells for safe drinking water. He has written about Sauri, a remote village in western Kenya that is one of two test cases for the Millennium Goals program. The village's 5,000 residents, who are beset by many of the conditions that go hand-in-hand with extreme poverty -- AIDS, hunger and malaria -- will receive $350,000 annually for five years for wells, fertilizer, school meals and a generator to make furniture for sale. It has been reported that after a year of aid the villagers are expecting bumper crops of beans and corn, and school attendance among older children has risen by 100 percent. There is a real hope that this story may be multiplied across Africa and across the world, showing that it can be done. Poverty can become history.
There was a climate of hope in the year 2000 when 190 nations signed on to the "Millennium Development Goals", agreeing to help meet these goals by increasing development aid to 0.7 percent of their gross national incomes by 2015. To date, only 5 nations have complied and 7 others have set timetables. America and Australia are not among them. One article I read put the case rather compellingly that America who created a Millennium Challenge Account development program has to date given the equivalent amount of the budget of a single Hollywood film. We need to be committed to a different outlook on life if we are going to be agents of compassion.
(See http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3574421)
Conclusion
So there is a global opportunity and we have opportunities to contribute to this – by participating in the Micah Challenge campaign, by lobbying our government to increase foreign aid in line with the promises made, by informing ourselves on the issues, by sponsoring a child or a community project through Baptist World Aid or any of the other aid organizations, and by making a difference through our church’s special offerings and projects.
But for those of us who are disciples of Jesus it will happen on a much smaller level too. Somewhere in your experience this week, you will see a person or situation where compassion is needed. If you are open to it, you will know in your spirit that God needs an agent of compassion. And when you begin to wonder if you have the resources for this person -- or this situation -- and the words of Jesus may come to you:
"You give them something to eat!"