Matthew 14:13-21
“Don’t Just Send Them to Burger King”
by: Ken Sauer, Pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church, Chattanooga, TN eastridgeumc.org
Think back to a time when you were really, really sad.
For some of us this will not be a difficult exercise.
Perhaps we are feeling this way right now, or maybe we felt this way yesterday.
For others, the last time you were really, really sad may have come after the death of a parent, perhaps, or a close friend.
Maybe it was after you had to move out of the house you had loved.
Perhaps it was the loss of a job.
Maybe it was the onset of an illness.
And maybe, when you felt really sad what, you really wanted more than anything was some time to pray in a quiet place, with no one to bother you.
Right before our Gospel Reading for this morning, Jesus has just been told that His cousin and His colleague, John the Baptist, has been murdered.
He had been beheaded, and his head was brought into a wild party on a platter.
John had been a prophet, a great man.
He had been the one who had baptized Jesus.
We can’t help but infer that the news of John’s death made Jesus very, very sad.
As a matter of fact, in verse 13 we are told that “when Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.”
Jesus wanted to be alone with His Father and grieve.
Yet when Jesus slips away to be quiet and alone, the crowds quickly discover where He is and flock all around Him.
And Jesus’ reaction is not frustration or anger, but compassion.
Jesus transforms His sorrow over John, and perhaps even His sorrow for Himself, into sorrow for the crowd.
We are told in verse 14, “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.”
In 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 the Apostle Paul writes, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”
A famous author wrote, “Life breaks us all. But then we are strong in the broken places.”
And it’s true.
No one can counsel an alcoholic like someone who has been there.
It’s the same with divorcees, the bankrupt, and the sick and the lonely.
The Lord wastes nothing!!!
Our pain, our sadness and the comfort we’ve received from Christ are often our best ministries.
So, Jesus transforms His own feelings of sadness into love and compassion for those in need.
And if we (ourselves) have come into the story of Jesus, it is because we have been touched, ourselves, by that compassion of Christ!!!
Once we experience God’s healing love, we are compelled to pass it on!!!
And that’s how it was for Jesus’ first disciples.
They saw, first hand, how Jesus cares for people.
They experienced how much Jesus cares for them.
And so they too wanted to care for people.
Therefore as evening approached, knowing that the crowds must be getting hungry, the disciples—showing compassion—came to Jesus and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”
It makes perfect sense!
Wouldn’t it be good to send them away now, so they can go and buy food rather than getting all hungry here, miles away from anywhere?
I believe that Jesus is delighted when people around Him come up with ideas which show that they are thinking of the needs of others.
But often what Jesus does with our ideas is to take them and do something startling with them!
“If you really care for them,” Jesus basically says, “You give them something to eat.”
And this is where faith really comes in.
Our small idea of how to care for people gets bounced back at us with what seems like a huge and impossible idea.
And so we protest.
“We can’t do that!”
“We haven’t got the time.”
“We don’t have the energy!”
“We don’t have the ability.”
“We don’t have the money.”
“All we have is…
… “five loaves of bread and two fish.”
But what Jesus does with what we give Jesus is so mysterious and powerful that it’s hard to describe in words.
Take the Community Block Party, for example.
That huge extravaganza all started so small and innocent like in one of our Evangelism Team Meetings where 5 or 6 of us meet every Wednesday evening at 6 pm.
By the way, everyone is encouraged and invited to join us.
Anyhow, the idea was floated a year and a half or so ago, among just a few of us.
We planned to give the neighborhood a few weeks notice.
Divvy up the people in the neighborhood who are interested and ask them to bring some food.
Like, “this person brings a pot of beans.”
“This person brings a dessert.”
“This person brings some drinks.”
We, East Ridge United Methodist Church could supply the grill and the meat.
To keep the time together fun, we talked about having some kid’s activities such as a bicycle parade.
“We could give out prizes for the best decked-out bike”
“We could have a raffle with a couple of small prizes.”
Well, as you know, this past April, nearly half the Church took part, and with the help of a $6,500 evangelism grant from the Conference—we had a Block Party with a number of “big name artists,” tons of food donated from businesses up and down Ringgold Road, inflatables, big prize give-aways and about 500 people in attendance!!!
It was a huge undertaking and a huge success!!!
And to think it all began with an idea, a desire to bring people onto the church property who would never otherwise come, and show them the love and compassion of Christ.
Were there times when we felt overwhelmed by the task?
For me, it was most of the time.
But God worked through you and me, and it was a lot of fun to boot!
The feeding of the 5,000 is an episode that so impressed the disciples that it is the only miracle of Jesus, besides the Resurrection that is recorded in all 4 Gospels.
And it’s a story of a small group of people facing an overburdening need.
And boy, do we have an overburdening need pressing against our small church today.
The world scene, outside these walls is frighteningly desperate and needy!!!
So much so that it can be easy for us to feel a sense of overwhelming inadequacy.
I mean, with our giving down right now we are currently more than $7,000 in the hole!!!
But if we would all tithe our incomes—which means give 10 percent—or at least try and tithe—we would have more than enough.
I know that we are not a rich church, but together, through faith in Christ, we can move mountains!!!
The most striking thing about this miracle of Jesus is the role of the disciples and the call of the Church!!!
It’s more about the Church’s job in the world than the miracle itself!!!
First of all, notice that it initially begins with the disciple’s desire to be like Jesus, and take part in meeting the needs of the people.
The idea the disciples have is to send them away so they can buy some food for themselves, but Jesus tells them in no uncertain terms that it is their job to feed those who are hungry.
Jesus says, “They don’t need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
What an overwhelming task to say the least!!!
I mean, there were probably about 20,000 people there since Matthew only records the men.
John chapter 6 tells us that Philip had already run the numbers.
“Eight months wages wouldn’t even be able to finish the job!”
And this is the voice of despair.
It’s the voice of us who hear the world’s crying needs and then open up the church financial account to look at the paltry balance sheets.
The disciples, faced with overwhelming and impossible odds reply to Jesus’ command in disbelief: “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish.”
Jesus’ answer?
“Bring them here to me”
They bring them to Jesus and that’s when Jesus takes over.
Jesus receives the offering, blesses it, and causes the multitudes to be fed miraculously!!!
But that’s not all.
When the meal was over and everyone had eaten their fill, the leftovers were gathered up…
…that’s right…
…the leftovers!!!
And the leftovers were put into the disciples’ baskets.
Which, I suppose, is Christ’s clear statement to you and to me that if you give to Jesus, there will still be enough left over for you.
As a matter of fact, the baskets were full!!!
And everyone who has ever tithed to the Church can relate to this!!!
And so today, as we stand on our own hillside amidst overwhelming need, I ask you, “What’s in our picnic basket?”
For indeed, all of us have something to offer!!!
As with the small boy who simply made his supper available, so we can do the same.
Cause it’s not our ability but our availability that matters to God.
Are we available to reach out to our community for the sake of Christ?
Would we be available to provide a free meal once a week in the Family Life Center for the people in this community?
Remember, last week, how I mentioned that hotel off Ringgold Road that is just teaming with young families and tons of children?
These are people who have lost their jobs and their homes to foreclosure.
They are the hungry multitude on our hillside.
Are we available for them?
And like the disciples who wanted to be like Jesus, do we have compassion for their plight?
How much do we care about the people in the homes that surround this building…
…about the people who do not go to church, and do not have a relationship with God?
Do we want our church to grow?
Imagine this sanctuary filled with the people from this community, the Sunday school classes filled.
It can happen.
As the Apostle Paul wrote, Jesus is “able to accomplish abundantly more than all we ask or think.”
Do we see the crowds and say, “It can’t be done,” or do we look at Christ and say with confidence, “With God all things are possible?”
This story about the feeding of the multitudes reminds us that Jesus wants us to help do God’s work in the world.
Notice that after Jesus had broken the bread and blessed it, He gave it back to the disciples, “and the disciples gave them to the people.”
The disciples were Jesus’ hands and feet, and we, the Church of Jesus Christ are called to be the hands and feet of Christ today.
May we respond to the needs around us with compassionate hearts, offering all we have to Jesus, so that He might bless it for us to share.
Amen.
