This Sunday we will be looking at Matthew 14:13-21, which is the story of Jesus feeding five thousand (plus women and children) with nothing but five loaves of bread and two fish.
It’s a story about the abundant nature of God’s kingdom, and the scandal that it is so freely shared.
As I read this story this week, I started to see a thread that I’m not sure I’ve ever really noticed before. It’s this…that the meaning really changes depending on what you think the crowd hears. The NIV takes away a little bit of the ambiguity that’s in the Greek (I think the NRSV and even the King James do a little better job in this particular verse…verse 13)…what I mean is, there’s a good chance that the crowds are hearing the same news that Jesus heard…that John is dead and Herod is probably gunning for Jesus next. (the NIV seems to suggest the crowds are merely following Jesus because they are infatuated with him and the miracles he performs wherever he goes).
Read in this way, the story begins to make a bit more sense.
Time and time again in the gospels, the crowds (along with the disciples) are looking for Jesus to be someone he’s not. They want him to set them free. They want him to be the militant messiah who will lead them to cast off the yoke of Roman oppression and finally usher in the kingdom of God.
Hearing this report about Herod, could it be that the crowds now seized upon an opportunity to follow this Jesus into battle? Could this be the moment?
Could it be they followed him out into his solitary place, hoping and praying that he was simply choosing their rallying point? Their muster field?
I wonder if this is one reason just the men were counted…five thousand able bodied, fighting men were present, willing and able to march on his orders, able to defend and protect their leader and fight for a more just world order; the Kingdom of God to be established.
So Jesus sees these crowds, this throng of people willing him to be the kind of messiah they think they want…and he has compassion on them. He heals their sick. He feeds them. He turns scarcity into abundance and through it all, proclaims to their weary hearts that the kingdom of God is not yet to come, and will not come through conquest.
Indeed, it is already here. Already among you.
The Kingdom of God is already among us; found in the breaking of bread, turning scarcity into abundance, defeating not just a particular side within a conflict, but re-defining the conflict itself.
For the well-fed and the healthy have little reason to take up arms.
This is the task the disciples were given here, in this solitary place where the crowd had followed Jesus. “You feed them” Jesus said.
They protested at first…for all they saw was scarcity; five loaves, two fish. But when offered to Jesus, they become not just sufficient. They become abundant.
Do we trust the words of Jesus enough today, to offer him what meager resources we may have?
Do we trust our master enough to simply feed the crowds instead of sending them away?
I hope to see you Sunday!
Preparing for Sunday 