“There is More Than Enough”
Matthew 14:13-21
Immediately before our Gospel Lesson for this morning, we are told that Jesus’ cousin, good friend, and trail blazer—John the Baptist—has been beheaded by Herod as a party favor for his daughter.
Right before verse 13—which is where I started reading for this morning—it says that John was buried. “Then [John’s disciples] went and told Jesus” about John’s murder.
It’s hard to imagine the grief that Jesus must have been feeling.
Many of us have had horrible news of a loved one’s death.
When it’s an untimely death, it’s even worse.
I have no idea what it would be like to hear of a loved one’s murder or execution.
Jesus is obviously shaken.
And we are told in verse 13 that “When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.”
Jesus was in horrible grief, and He just wanted to be alone.
We have to understand that at this point in His ministry Jesus was extremely popular.
Thousands of people were following Him.
Everyone wanted a piece of Him.
Everyone wanted something from Him.
And that is exhausting.
It’s hard to hold up under those kinds of demands day in and day out.
But when you are grieving and sad—it’s nearly impossible to give that much of yourself for others.
So, Jesus’ earthly body needed a rest.
His inclination was to get away and grieve.
But we are told that, “the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.”
And when Jesus brought His boat to land… that “solitary place” He’d been seeking and dreaming of was so filled with people that it was like a basketball arena.
What would you do in a situation like that?
What would I do?
Get mad?
Scream and yell?
Get back in the boat?
Fall into an even greater depression?
Perhaps.
What does Jesus experience?
Verse 14 tells us that upon seeing that huge crowd, the Son of God had “compassion on them and healed their sick.”
Jesus felt COMPASSION…
…not anger…
…not frustration…
…not any of that!!!
And that sure is good news for us all!!!
The word compassion means: a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.
That is what Jesus experienced, even in His terrible grief and exhaustion, when He saw the crowds who so needed Him.
There are different ways of looking at situations.
We can react to the needs of others and their demand on our time and resources with frustration, indifference, anger—you name it.
It’s especially easy to get fed up with the problems of other people when their needs interrupt our plans and our wants.
But Jesus isn’t like that.
And that means that God isn’t like that.
God loves us THAT MUCH!!!
God cares for us THAT MUCH!!!
God is THAT unselfish and compassionate!!!
You know, Jesus really has something here, I think.
What I mean is, what would it be like if we were to react to the problems, interruptions and needs of others the way Jesus does?
Would it change our lives?
Would our lives take on new meaning?
Would it radically change our entire view of the world?
Would we become more optimistic and happy?
Would we too, become such lovers of humankind that we could hardly contain ourselves?
What if, instead of feeling exhausted when faced with the task of helping those in need, we felt energized?
How could we pull that off?
How could we get that far out of our selves and our own selfish desires?
Well, the answer is true Christian conversion.
What I’m talking about is a daily, minute by minute walk with Jesus—a life with Jesus—not just a quick prayer for fire-insurance purposes.
With our busy schedules, our computers, games, entertainment options and so forth it is very easy to forget about our walk with Christ, and instead just compartmentalize.
Sometimes I feel as if I just take Jesus out of my pocket, like a dusty old coin, when I suddenly need Him for something then I either put Him back in my pocket or in the box I have for Him on my bookshelf.
And then, in my day to day experience, He is tucked away and forgotten.
When I do that, I can get really, really caught up in what Ken wants to do…
…what Ken needs...
…with little to no thought of the needs and trials of others.
And when I live that way, Jesus does become like a toy or a slot machine or a candy dispenser rather than a daily friend, a LIVING GOD, and transformational entity Who resides in my heart and soul.
And when my Jesus is nothing but a pawn for my desires, I die…
…my soul dies…
…my compassion goes away…
…my frustration comes to the forefront…
…selfishness rather than selflessness rules the day…
…and I am generally unhappy, unfulfilled, and angry with the world, and perhaps even God for that matter!!!
But when I focus on Christ, and allow Him to lead my thoughts, Compassion does indeed rule my heart.
And I can’t sustain this compassion without putting it into practice.
And how do I put it into practice?
Well, by loving my neighbor, not just in word but in deed.
By helping a person who comes to me in need of food and a warm place to stay.
By giving a smile to a homeless person who asks me for some money, rather than breathing hard…and reluctantly pulling a greenback out of my wallet, and handing it over to the person…
…all the time letting them know—by my body language--that they are nothing more than an annoyance to me…
…and I’ve got so many more important things I would rather be doing…
“…so be on your way—thank you very much—you good for nothing mooch!!!”
One thing we notice as we read the Gospel stories about Jesus is that He never looked at other people and their needs as an annoyance.
Instead, He spent time with the people who came to Him with such dire needs.
And oftentimes, the time Jesus spent with others was around a meal.
I mean think about it!
Jesus really liked to eat.
The disciples of John the Baptist noticed this enough to even ask Jesus why He didn’t fast.
Jesus’ enemies noticed Jesus’ love for a get-together over food and wine so much so that they called Him a drunkard and a glutton.
They also asked over and over again why Jesus spent so much time eating with tax collectors and sinners.
Even Jesus’ parables were often about food—He talked about wheat, fruit trees, banquets and vineyards.
It’s been suggested that if Jesus hadn’t walked everywhere He went, it’s quite possible that Jesus would have been a little chunkier than He appears in most stained glass windows.
For Jesus, mealtime was often where ministry happened.
In our Gospel Lesson from Matthew, we are told that Jesus spent an amazing day with thousands of people.
When it started getting late and people’s stomach’s started to rumble the disciples started to get a bit worried.
So, “the disciples came to him 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.’”
But Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away.
You give them something to eat.”
Of course, the disciples realize this is impossible.
Jesus has just asked them to feed thousands of people with next to nothing!!!
Do we, as a church, ever feel as if Jesus is asking us to do the impossible?
People are hungering all around us.
Folks are living in poverty and coming to the church for help.
Our neighbors are hungering for purpose and meaning--hungering for hope in a deeply divided world.
And we have been called to feed all these people with fewer loaves and fishes than we’ve ever had before.
We aren’t equipped to do all this.
We don’t have enough!!!
The smart thing to do would be to send all the people somewhere else.
But no.
Jesus tells His disciples and Jesus tells us: “You give them something to eat.”
Jesus instructs His disciples and Jesus instructs us to bring what we have to Him and then share it.
After-all, the miracle of the meal with the baskets full of leftovers is not our miracle; it is God’s miracle.
We are to share what we have been given, trusting that it is enough.
That’s what it means to have faith in a compassionate and loving God!!!
When we are compassionate to others, it’s not really we who are being compassionate.
No.
It is Jesus Who is being compassionate through us.
And we get to experience Jesus’ compassion just as much as those we are being compassionate too.
It truly is a miracle beyond any and all rationality.
When we take what we have and give it to God, God’s compassion runs through us and on along to others.
And everyone is fed.
And there are leftovers.
And that’s because there is no shortage of compassion once it gets rolling.
It’s contagious.
It moves from one person to the other and back again.
It’s no accident that Jesus tells us later on in Matthew’s Gospel that we will meet Him when we reach out and share what we have with other people—the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the imprisoned.
To follow Jesus…
…to be truly converted to Christ is to express our faith in concrete acts of love and compassion toward others.
And when we do this, there is always more than enough to go around.
