Pastors Corner

Ever want to go off some where and deal with your own stuff but life won’t let you? Jesus wanted to sometimes. John the Baptist, his cousin according to Luke, though not the other gospels, but certainly a powerful influence on his life and ministry had been executed by Herod. Only Matthew places the feeding story here. But wherever it is placed, the Feeding of the Multitude is the only miracle story in all four gospels.

Society today tells us that we have to set boundaries, we have to take care of ourselves, we have to deal with our feelings, etc. We have become an extremely self-centered society. And then we wonder why so many people do bad things to each other. Why not? Others are not as important, or so society seems to be teaching us. Our rights, never our responsibilities. We throw money at problems. We get the government to throw money at problems. People make money off the problems and so never solve the problems.

The news of John’s death hit Jesus hard.

He tried to pull away from the crowd.

He even tried to pull away from his closest disciples.

Jesus needed to get away.

He got in a boat, casting himself off onto the Sea of Galilee, looking for some quiet, alone time, looking for time and space to grieve.

But it was not to be.

The Sea of Galilee is not all that big.

The crowd followed him.

Jesus sailed the waters.

The crowd hugged the shores.

There were five thousand of them, not including women and children.

When you add in the women and children, the crowd could have totaled as many as fifteen to twenty thousand people.

Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people followed Jesus, a mass of people, covering the shore and the surrounding hills, desperate for healing, hungry for good news.

When Jesus saw the crowd, he had compassion.

It sounds flat in English – “he had compassion.” The original Greek is so much more interesting.

To quote from the noted Bible scholar, William Barclay, “When Jesus saw the crowd of ordinary men and women, he was moved with compassion.

The word which is used for moved with compassion is the strongest word for compassionate pity in the Greek language.

It is formed from the word that means “the bowels”, and it describes the pity and the compassion which move one to the very depths of one’s being.” Jesus’ heart was broken, twice that day – once when he heard the bad news about John the Baptist, and once when he saw the crowd and understood their need.

Jesus was moved, to the core of his being, with compassion.

When the disciples say to send the crowd away, they are not being mean and nasty but practical. They know the crowd is hungry at this point and probably didn’t pack a lunch. They don’t have enough to feed 15-20,000 people, they know it, and hey, it’s not really their responsibility. There’s nothing that says these people were beggars, only that they needed healing and wanted to hear Jesus. Most people of the region were poor but that doesn’t mean that these people can take care of themselves physically. They always do.

Jesus tells us to get right in there and do it ourselves. To take what we have, praise God for whatever it is, and start using it, not hoarding it. This is not about the dividing of the loaves and fishes so much as it is about the multiplication. We don’t pass on the problems for someone else to solve by giving someone money, we solve the problem directly, hands on, as God directs.

The feeding is a giant Eucharist. The words used to describe the breaking of the loaves are identical to how Paul describes the last supper. So great a crowd. Some people waste a lot of time figuring out how he did it or if he did it. Why worry about it? What is important is that he took the “little” he had and turned it into abundance. Small churches in particular need to hear this message. It’s not how much you start with, it’s what you do with it, and how much you end up with. Give us this day our daily bread, we pray in the Lord’s prayer. If God adds a blessing to what we have and do, it will always be enough to achieve his will.

Rev. Jeannette Solimine

United Church of Christ

Colfax, WA