A, Pentecost 12 Proper 13 - Matthew 14:13-21 "Struggles of the Heart"
Hearing Jesus feed the five thousand on the shores of
Here Jesus sees the five thousand streaming towards him, like sheep without a shepherd, and he has compassion on them. He shepherds them, and leads them beside quiet waters. When the crowd is with Jesus they are not in want. Jesus directs the people to sit down on the grass as if to make them lie down in green pastures with nothing to fear as he prepares a table before them.
Jesus treats these people like royalty, as if they are anointed. In fact he anointed the sick with healing and compassion. The shepherd’s goodness and mercy followed the sheep — who followed the shepherd to this solitary place. And at the end of the day it was their cup that overflowed with the abundance of food that Jesus broke and distributed amongst the people.
However, the twenty-third Psalm was probably the last thing on the minds of the disciples as the day wore on and the shadows began to lengthen. They approached Jesus requesting that he send the people off to buy food for themselves. In their minds there was no practical possibility of a table being prepared for such a large number of people. The disciples concerned that the crowd would go hungry, know that Jesus sending them away to get food was the only way of avoiding a catastrophe.
One might wonder why those in the crowd weren’t responsible for themselves. After all they had come on foot and new the way home or to a place where they might buy food. However, the crowd was fixated on Jesus and Jesus alone. The disciples possibly saw this and came to the logical conclusion that Jesus would have to send them off. It appears as if the disciples, those closest to Jesus, were not trusting in Jesus as much as the gathered masses there on the shores of
In Mathew’s Gospel account, of the feeding of the five thousand, the only dialog we hear from Jesus is his reply to the disciples, and he says, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” They answer, “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish.” And then Jesus says, “Bring them here to me.” (Matthew 14:16-18)
At this point the dialog then switches back into narrative and Jesus directs the crowd to sit on the grass as he looks to heaven, or more importantly to his Father in heaven, and gives thanks and breaks the loaves of bread.
Then there is the division of the food which in itself is a complete mystery as to how it happens. But it did, and afterwards the disciples are reported as picking up twelve baskets of leftovers.
Dwelling on how this happens will get us nowhere. It’s one of the mysteries of God that’s a complete miracle and it calls us to just believe. However, the feelings we have when we try to rationalise these events go along way in helping us stand in the place of the disciples sensing the situation which confronted them all those years ago on the shores of
Imagine their reaction to Jesus’ words as the day moves towards evening. The back flip in their thinking would have made their hearts churn with confusion, contradiction, and unbelief. All those people were impossible to feed. The math just doesn’t add up as they present just five loaves of bread and two fish to Jesus.
But they overlooked just one thing. They overlooked the true reality of the situation. They looked away from the One in whom all things are possible. They looked away from the One on whom the crowds were fixated. They looked away from Jesus in whom all the glory of God was hidden.
Jesus was teaching his disciples in this instance, just as much as he was healing the sick and bestowing compassion on the crowd.
In the wake of his teaching about the kingdom of heaven in the parables and the disciples’ witnessing the events of Jesus’ rejection at
Jesus was teaching the disciples to see the kingdom of heaven was near. And with the kingdom of heaven present but hidden in the man from Nazareth he was teaching the disciples to seek the kingdom of God and the very real possibilities it held for them when they allowed Jesus to be their faithful Shepherd of Salvation.
The disciples’ lack of faith in Jesus and the kingdom he presents to humanity is further revealed as they leave the place of feeding and fail to see it is Jesus who comes to them walking on water. But we will hear more about that in the Gospel reading next week.
Do you believe that God does the extraordinary in your life? There are so many things that happen in your normal everyday existence. In our day and age humanity is geared with a thinking that one must hold onto what one has. Our giving generally only happens out of our surplus – what we think we can afford. And right there the very fact we have any surplus, like the twelve baskets of leftovers, is due to God having provided in the first place, what we deem essential and hang onto.
One of the greatest contradictions to our modern day accepted wisdom occurs when we gather as much around ourselves as we can, thinking we will have enough. But the opposite is true. The more we hang onto the less we have. What we have is just never enough. We all struggle to give of ourselves, our time, and our possessions, and to give them with the right heart.
For a Christian this is the struggle of the heart. It’s a struggle between our old nature and the new planted in us by the grace of God. In fact, it’s our struggle with God.
As Christians we’re called into a wisdom greater than that of our fallen human nature. We’re called into a belief that what God has given us is enough to do whatever God has given us to do. So much so we will have leftovers.
This is the faith to which God continually calls all of us. He calls us to be fixated on him and let go of that which will perish.
If God would send his own Son to suffer and die on the cross to save us from our sinful selves, surely he will supply us with the necessities of life, so we might live and share his gift of love and servitude with the sheep that live without a shepherd around us. Amen.
