10th Sunday after Pentecost

Matthew 14:13-21

(In the verses just before this reading, Jesus has just been told that John the Baptist has been killed.)

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And, those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Five Loaves

 Today’s gospel reading of the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish is a story filled with mystery and wonder. When we hear it, we’re transported back to an ancient time, with miracles and when God walked the earth. It almost feels like a fairytale, in which the unexplainable happens, a story filled with magic.

I’ve gone to church almost every Sunday of my life, and I have to admit that I don’t remember the vast majority of the sermons that I’ve heard, but I distinctly remember this one sermon that I heard about this passage. I don’t remember who the preacher was, but I remember the sermon.

The people were up on a mountain. There weren’t any stores nearby, and even if there were, what store was going to have enough food for 5,000 people? And, that wasn’t even the actual number, because it doesn’t include the women and the children, so it was probably more like 10,000.

It’s interesting that in this version of the story from Matthew, that there is no mention of the little boy who offered his bread and fish to help feed the crowd. Though the story of the feeding of the 5,000 appears in all four gospels, this boy, who I always thought of as a central figure in this story, only appears in the book of John. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the disciples simply tell Jesus that they have five loaves of bread and two fish, with no mention of where that food came from. But, let’s continue with the version of the story that I think most of us are familiar with.

Can you imagine if you were one of the disciples, and a little boy had come up to you with his little bag of food to help feed everyone? It’s so innocent and sweet, but it’s just not enough, because what are five loaves of bread and two fish against 10,000 people? And so, we come to the miracle. Jesus blesses the loaves, and he blesses the fish, and they pass the food around, and everyone gets to eat as much food as they want.

And now, we come to the reason why I’ve remembered this sermon for all of these years. The preacher said that people in these times, in this part of the world, would never travel without food, that most of the people there would have brought some kind of provisions with them. And, this is where the miracle happens. All of these people brought out their food, and shared it with their neighbors. That the five loaves and the two fish did not multiply themselves, but were instead added to as the miracle of the moment and miracle of Jesus’ words took root in their hearts to move them towards generosity and hospitality. That such a thing would happen was indeed a miracle, if not the kind of miracle that we have always been taught about this passage.

After everyone had eaten their fill, they collected all of the leftover bits of food, and they filled twelve baskets full of food! It was a miracle! Either way you look at it, five loaves of bread and two fish not only feeding 10,000 people, but multiplied to the point that they had leftover food, more food left over than the amount that they had started with in the first place! Or, a miracle of generosity and hospitality, community and sharing. Either way, it was a miracle.

When I think about these stories, these miracles that Jesus did, it always fills me with awe. For the most part, he wasn’t necessarily trying to be showy or create some kind of spectacle. The miracles were meant to help, to feed, to heal, to bring back from the dead. Jesus wasn’t a magician performing on a stage; the point of all of this wasn’t to draw attention to himself. He was servant leader, showing us what was important, what we needed to pay attention to, not through his demands or his power, but through his compassion and his service.

So many of Jesus’ miracles and teachings revolved around food. Over the last two Sundays, we’ve talked about the parables of the mustard seed and the wheat and the yeast. And, we all know the story of when Jesus turned water into wine. On the first Sunday of every month, we celebrate communion, to remember the miracle of Jesus blessing us through the simple elements of bread and wine, a miracle that touches us even now, 2,000 years later, and 6,000 miles away. And, it makes sense that so many of these stories and miracles are tied to food. Food is central to our lives; we need it to live. We are intimately connected to food. What better way to teach us and to help us to understand than by using food?

As we sit here now, having just had communion, our bodies are in the process of breaking down the bread and the juice into sugars and proteins and minerals that our bodies will use to grow and repair tissue, to give us energy. Our digestive systems are extracting the water from it to replenish the water in our bodies, which are made of 60% water. It’s no accident that God’s grace is conveyed to us through this simple meal. The bread and the grapes become a part of us. God’s grace becomes a part of us.

And, with that grace comes responsibility. We always talk about what it means to be a child of God, to be a Christian, what it means to love someone. Jesus used his miracles to take care of the people around him. When he was surrounded by thousands of hungry mouths, he fed them. When the sick came to him, the blind, and the lame, he healed them. And, he sat down at the table with the outcasts of society, the tax collectors, the prostitutes. He touched lepers and women who were bleeding. He used Samaritans as the heroes in his stories. These are the lessons that Jesus taught. This was the life that he lived, the examples that he set forth for us to follow.

There are those in the world who would have us believe that God reserves grace and love for a select perfect few, who conform to their idea of what is normal and acceptable. That God is an arbitrary and petty God, who is more concerned with arbitrary and petty rules, than with kindness, and fairness, and generosity.

There were 10,000 people on that mountain. 10,000 people! It is a statistical impossibility that all 10,000 of them were perfect and pure, keeping to all 613 commandments in the Bible without fail or flaw. But, Jesus fed them all, without exception. They didn’t have to pass a test or prove themselves in any way. Jesus fed them. We do not have the right to judge people before we help them. We cannot refuse food or aid because we disagree with someone’s political affiliation, religion, or lifestyle choice. That is not what Jesus would do. Jesus would feed the 10,000. Jesus would bless the bread and the wine and make an eternal covenant with us, so that we would always know that we belong, that we are God’s children, with all of the benefits and responsibilities that come with that.

There is a difficult road ahead of us. People are being ostracized for all kinds of reasons. Some people will make us feel uncomfortable. Some people will make us mad. It’s okay to be uncomfortable and mad. It’s not okay to ignore someone who needs help. It’s not okay to ignore someone who needs compassion. These stories about Jesus were recorded for a reason, to give us guidance on how to live our lives. So, live out the grace that God gives you. Feed the 10,000, and let the grace of communion fill your heart and radiate out into the world. Amen.

~ Rev. Charles Wei