August 6, 2023 Tenth Sunday After Pentecost The text is Matthew 14:13-21.

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¹³Now when Jesus heard [about the beheading of John the Baptist], 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. ¹⁴When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. ¹⁵When 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.” ¹⁶Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” ¹⁷They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” ¹⁸And he said, “Bring them here to me.” ¹⁹Then 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. ²⁰And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. ²¹And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

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May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God the Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

The account of “The Feeding of the 5,000” is the only one of Jesus’ miracles that appears in all four gospels.  This fact alone should confirm for us just how important this event was to the early church and also for its significance for Christians today.  Each of the gospel writers was directing their words toward rather varied audiences and there are events that occur in one or more of the accounts but not all of them.  There are narratives that are found in the three synoptic gospels that John doesn’t include; and there are events that John chronicles that are not found in any of the others.

So again, this miracle story of thousands fed with only five loaves and two fish is unique in its inclusion in Scripture.       

The obvious lesson to be learned from this event is that Jesus is able to miraculously feed thousands of people when there is only a tiny amount of food available; this is the miracle that all the gospel writers thought important enough to include in their texts.  And as always, there is quite a bit more to the story.  Over the previous three Sundays we have been hearing Jesus explain what the kingdom of heaven is like.  And the root of most of the metaphors is that the heavenly kingdom to come is something enormous and wonderful, yet it began from something nearly inconsequential.  There were parables about tiny mustard seeds sprouting and flourishing, becoming trees large enough for birds to nest in.  Jesus taught that seed scattered on “good soil” will yield an abundant harvest.  Another parable spoke to the ability of a small amount of yeast being enough to leaven many bushels of flour, so that numerous loaves of bread result.  The four gospel writers must surely have recognized that the miracle we hear of this morning was the ultimate example of God’s power to create something from nearly nothing; 5,000-plus full bellies most certainly illustrate how the kingdom of heaven is manifest here on earth.  Jesus started with nearly nothing and fed thousands of hungry people; people hungry for bread and also with a hunger for the Good News that Jesus brings.

It is interesting to note what transpired just prior to the feeding miracle.  John the Baptist has been beheaded by order of King Herod and Jesus sought to withdraw into a boat to ponder what this meant for his own ministry and mission.  Yet, when he saw the crowd that had followed him he came ashore, and as Matthew writes, he felt compassion for them and proceeded to heal the sick among them.  The Greek Matthew uses for Jesus’ ‘compassion’ is translated as “having such empathy that one is moved in their very guts to take action”.  We’ve come across this word a few times before, attesting to the empathy, concern, and kindness Jesus exhibited to any who were in need.

His cousin John, the one who was sent by God to announce Jesus’ arrival has just been executed for preaching about the salvation that Jesus was going to bring to the world; yet Jesus put this heartbreaking news aside to tend to the peoples’ needs.     

So perhaps, while this event is an indisputable miracle, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that it is Jesus’ compassion for humanity that results in the crowd being physically healed and fed; as well as spiritually nourished.  It is also telling that Jesus does not personally place the loaves and fishes in the hands of the crowd; he instructs the disciples to distribute the food to the hungry people.  Notice how this transpires; the crowd has been there in the wilderness all day long; they haven’t dispersed to eat and it’s getting late.  The disciples suggest to Jesus that he should send them away so they can return to their villages and have some dinner.  Jesus responds; “you feed them”.  “With what?”, they ask.  They bring Jesus the few loaves and the fish and he blesses and breaks the bread, then commands the disciples to feed the people.  He blessed and broke the bread; sound familiar? 

Suffice it to say, Jesus, in his compassion has ensured that there is enough food available so that all may be fed, and he makes it clear to the disciples that they are the ones tasked with its distribution to the hungry.  “You give them something to eat” Jesus tells them.  Jesus made sure there was plenty of food available, it was up to the disciples to ensure it made its way to those who needed it.  I wonder how Jesus would respond to the hunger that is so prevalent in our world today?  The statistics regarding food insecurity in America have increased dramatically, exacerbated by the pandemic and the ongoing warfare in Ukraine.  12% of the population struggles with hunger in the USA; that equates to 41 million people.  Nearly 17% of all American children don’t know where their next meal is coming from; that’s almost one in five of our neighbors’ kids.  22 million children rely on school meals to keep them well nourished.  “You give them something to eat” said Jesus to the disciples; and he directs these words to us, as well.

We are called to act with the same compassion that Jesus exhibited toward the 5,000; although it’s certain that no matter how much we tried, we won’t be able to feed the 41 million people experiencing hunger in the country.  But with just a little effort, when done with the compassion that Jesus directs us to demonstrate, we can ensure that at least some portion of our hungry neighbors are fed.

To that end, there are plans in the works to host another meal-packaging event here at Emanuel.  You will recall that we held one last year in conjunction with a number of other Lutheran churches in our area.  In mid-April of 2024 we plan to host the churches that participated in the Lenten mid-week Soup and Worship services earlier this year.  The Wednesday evening services will happen again over this season of Lent and offerings collected will be utilized to purchase the raw materials to package a minimum of 10,000 meals.  As soon as all the details are finalized everyone will be made aware of how to donate and/or volunteer to package the meals.  “You feed them” Jesus tells us.  We will have nine months to prepare for the event and with the help of the churches in our community, it is the intent to feed at least twice as many hungry people that were fed from the five loaves and two fish.  While Jesus performed a miracle to enable the disciples to feed those in the wilderness, all it will take for us to provide food for the hungry is the same compassion shown by Jesus.          

 God is Good, all the time.  All the time, God is Good.  Amen.