Here we are in the middle of summer. So, I have a summertime question for you. It’s this: Have you had a chance yet to relax, to really relax? Like in the nostalgic days of long-past years. Back then, summertime was when the “living was easy.” We’re told people were able to kick off their shoes and go fishing. There was time for daydreaming, for picnics, for lemonade on the front porch, for really living out all of those scenes found in Norman Rockwell paintings. So, when was the last time you really had a chance to kick back and relax, to take life easy?
For most of us, that time hasn’t arrived yet. Sure, it’s the middle of summer, but it’s also the time for many of us to get ready for school to start, to buy those new clothes at the “no tax” sales1, to finish off those projects around the house before Labor Day, which is only five weeks away. Maybe we can schedule some relaxation time between now and the end of summer, but events will probably intervene and, once again, we’ll be subject to demands on our time, demands made by others around us, our family, our friends, our co-workers.
However, we’re in good company. Jesus had the same problems. Maybe even worse ones. He found it difficult to get away from the demands of the crowds who followed him. Today’s gospel reading tells us something about that. But to really appreciate his problems, maybe we need to recall two events which happened immediately before the story we heard about in today’s account written by Matthew.
The first event occurred in Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth. Matthew tells us how Jesus was rejected by the people who had known him while he was growing up there. And because of their lack of faith in him, he did not perform the mighty deeds they had heard about. The next verses speak about the death of John the Baptist. And then today’s reading begins with the line: “when Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.”
Actually, he wasn’t completely by himself. His friends were in the boat with him as he was taken by them to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The crowds who had heard about the cures he was making went along the northern shore and were there when he landed. Matthew then says when Jesus “saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them and he cured the sick.” Jesus had no time to mourn the loss of his friend, of his cousin, John the Baptist. He had no time to ponder what this death meant in his own life, to his own ministry. Instead, in his compassion he continued to give of himself.
There are times when each of us would rather say, “Hey, wait a minute. I need some time for myself. I need to get away by myself. “ But then our sense of responsibility takes over and we continue to do what we know we are called to do. Today’s gospel reading reminds us of that Christian duty.
However, this reading doesn’t end there. It goes on to tell us how we are able to continue. The story doesn’t end with Jesus curing the physical ills of those who came to him. Matthew tells us something even more important for us to hear. “When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said, ‘this is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.” These friends and companions of Jesus were only being logical. They knew the people were hungry and needed to fend for themselves.
Jesus knew the same thing. He, too, knew the crowds were hungry. But he proposed a different solution. He did not suggest the crowds go off to the villages. Rather, he proposed the twelve disciples feed the people. Although his friends did not refuse, they were once again logical. They told him they had only five loaves of bread and two fish to offer the vast crowd, a number we later learn was probably at least twenty-thousand people, which is more than attend all of the masses at Christ the Good Shepherd or the service at First Baptist in Houston.
We know the rest of the story. Or we think we do. Jesus had all twenty-thousand people sit down. Then “ … taking the five loaves and two fish and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.” Sometimes, we hear these words so often we fail to listen to what is being said. We fail to appreciate the usual Jewish blessing Jesus prayed: “Blessed art thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who bringest forth bread from the earth.”
We fail to recognize Jesus gave the blessed food, not directly to the crowds, but rather to his disciples, his followers, his friends, and they, in turn, fed the people. We fail to understand an even deeper miracle than the one-time multiplication of the loaves and fish by Jesus. We fail to remember the miracle of sharing.
Sometimes, we are less logical than the disciples. For if we were logical, we might wonder about twenty-thousand people who go off to a deserted place without taking along some food. Yet, we might understand how a large group of men and women, each with only a modest supply of food, might be reluctant to bring out the hidden supply they carried. Until they were moved by the words of Jesus so that, as the disciples passed among them with their own limited morsels, the twenty-thousand began to turn to one another and to share the bread and fish they, themselves, carried with them.
Yes, some biblical scholars point out there is no mention made that the bread and fish were “multiplied” but rather that “ … all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over” and filled twelve wicker baskets with them, even though those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children.”
And so it is that Jesus may have performed two miracles that day2. He not only miraculous multiplied five loaves of bread and two fish, but he also brought about the miracle which allowed potentially selfish people to share what they had with one another. He allowed this to be accomplished through two events: through prayer to his father who created all things and through the assistance of those who love him and follow his words.
Yes, there were demands being made on Jesus. Demands for him to heal those who sought after him. Demands to feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty. However, he did not view them as “demands” so much as they were “opportunities.” An opportunity to show faith in God and trust in the abundance of God. And secondly, an opportunity to help others understand how all of us must share with one another what limited resources we might have. An opportunity to recognize that, together, these resources constitute an abundance of God’s love for us.
Yes, we may be here in the middle of summer. A time when we would like to relax and not listen to the continuing demands made of us by others. But it is also a time to remember we continue to share in the abundance of God. A time to remember our Lord urges us to share with one another all that we have received from him. Once more, we hear the words of the prophet Isaiah: “All you who are thirsty, come to the water! … Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy? … Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life.”
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary; August 1, 1999
Is 55:1-3; Rom 8:35, 37-39; Mt 14:13-21
- This was the first year of Texas’ elimination of state sales tax for most clothing items for one weekend as part of a back-to-school “tax break” for families.
- At least one “fundamentalist” in the congregation took exception to this statement. He maintained, with scriptural references in his e-mail, that I was doubting the physical miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish. He was unwilling to buy into the sharing of their resources of those who came to this deserted place. I’m not doubting that Jesus in some unknown manner enabled a large crowd to be filled; I do believe in miracles but refuse to allow only one mode for their manifestation.