“You Give Them Something to Eat”
Matthew 14:13-21
Jesus liked to eat.
The disciples of John the Baptist noticed this enough to ask Jesus why He didn’t fast.
Jesus’ enemies noticed this enough to ask the disciples why Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners.
They called Him a glutton and a drunk.
Jesus’ parables often include wheat, or fruit trees, or banquets or vineyards.
One scholar has written: “If [Jesus] had not traveled by foot so far and so often, it is quite possible that He would have been a little chunkier than He appears in most stained-glass windows.”
It’s been said that some of the best stuff in ministry happens over meals.
And I’d agree with that.
Happy and painful news is shared.
Creative ideas are hatched.
Relationships are formed.
People laugh and have fun together.
It’s hard to concentrate when there are rumblings in our tummies.
Jesus knew this well.
That’s one reason why Jesus, in our Scripture lesson for this morning, tells His disciples: “You give them something to eat.”
Of course, Jesus is referring to a crowd of thousands of people.
And so, from the disciples’ point of view, Jesus is asking them to do the impossible!!!
Imagine being in a big, sold-out basketball arena—with no concession stands—and being asked to feed all those folks.
That’s the kind of situation we are talking about.
Sounds scary, actually.
Or…exciting!!!
It depends on how you look at it.
The feeding of the 5,000—which is actually more like 15,000 since they only counted the men—is one of the very few stories about Jesus which is recorded in all 4 Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
That means that it was a REALLY big deal!!!
It was something that a lot of people talked about for a long time.
It was major news.
No one ever forgot it.
And it makes a huge theological statement about how God can do a lot with a little.
Jesus was really starting to get popular at this point.
You know, I often think about those rock or pop bands that finally hit it big—seemingly out of nowhere--because of a song or album which has suddenly gone off the charts.
Imagine how it must be for them to go from nearly complete obscurity to international sensations in a matter of weeks or months.
Everyone wants a piece of them.
Everyone wants to be with them.
Everyone wants something from them.
This is how it was for Jesus at this point.
And it must have been exhausting.
And so, our passage for this morning starts out with a worn-out crew that is in mourning over the death of John the Baptist.
So, they took off to a solitary place, out in the middle of nowhere, but we are told that “the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.”
It sounds like those old news reels of the Beatles in their glory days, stuck in a limo, with hundreds and thousands of screaming fans running after them.
They just couldn’t escape.
But instead of getting mad or frustrated, we are told that Jesus’ response to the people was one of “compassion.”
It’s good to know that compassion is a primary characteristic of Jesus.
Jesus forgot all about His empty stomach and His own sorrow when He saw people in need.
Have you ever become so passionate and excited about something that you forgot to eat or forgot what you had been worrying about before?
That’s how it is for Jesus when He comes across people in need.
Compassion trumps everything for Christ.
Imagine being that altruistic, that full of the love of God for others—that free from self!!!
It Is for Freedom that Christ has set us free.
Many churches in America are in decline, most, as a matter of fact.
According to many experts: A Big reason for this is a lack of compassion or love for others—for those outside our doors.
Research shows that churches which grow have made the hard decision that they will love those outside their doors as much as Jesus does.
William Temple, the former Archbishop of Canterbury once said, “The Church is the only organization organized primarily for the benefit of its non-members.”
That is some pretty heavy stuff.
In Philippians we are taught to “make [our] own attitude[s] the same as that of Christ Jesus.”
And Paul goes into detail as to what that means: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
You should not only look to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
When we put others before ourselves like Jesus did and we are known for how we care and love others people want to know more about us and be a part.
Jesus said to His disciples and to us: “A new command I give to you: Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you much love one another.
In that way people will know you are my disciples if you love one another.”
Can you imagine the spiritual harvest that will naturally follow when we seek to live into this—taking Jesus on His Word?
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning, Jesus was teaching a multitude of desperate folks—even though He was hungry and dead tired Himself.
But it started to get late in the day, and Jesus’ disciples were hungry and tired as well probably being a bit grumpy.
So, they 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.”
This made perfect sense to the disciples.
But to Jesus, it was madness!!!
“Send them away???”
“Send them away???”
My goodness, that would be like us telling some family or person that they can’t be part of our Worship services and activities and ministries simply because they don’t have any money to help pay for it.
“Send them away???!!!”
That’s not KINGDOM THINKING.
That is WORLDLY THINKING!!!
That’s not compassionate and altruistic; that is selfish and inwardly focused.
“Send them away???!!!”
Do we ever do that?
Maybe not on purpose, but because we haven’t made the hard decision that we will love the lost as much as Jesus does?
When we decide to love the lost as much as Jesus does we will never say this is my seat and I’m not about to sit somewhere else.
We will ever just greet our friends and ignore the stranger or guest in our midst.
We will ever be more worried about our building than our community.
And we will ever look at the problems we face and then look at what we have and say, “We don’t have enough.”?
When the disciples come to Jesus and suggest that He “send the people away,” Jesus answers them with the astonishing: “You give them something to eat.”
Can you imagine their shock, disbelief and possibly even anger at this suggestion???
And when they find that they only have five loaves and two fish they return to Jesus confident that He will have to do what they have told Him.
Andrew Connors writes the following: “This seems to be the situation in which the church finds itself today.
People are hungering all around us, hungering for a deeper connection with God and each other, hungering for purpose and meaning, hungering for hope.
Many are hungering quite literally for their next meal.
And the church has been called to feed all these hungry people with fewer loaves and fishes than we have ever had before.”
And so, just like the disciples, we notice our limitations first.
We feel that we are not equipped to do what we have been called to do.
We don’t have enough.
And so, the best we can do is to send people somewhere else: to the yoga studio, the coffee shop, the movie theater, or the local bar.
Rather than lean into Jesus, we begin to drown in our own fear of insufficiency.
We don’t want to deal with the mess and the hunger.
It seems overwhelming, and the responsibility is just too much!!!
I know that feeling, do you?
I know the familiar feeling of being overwhelmed by what is expected of me.
I mean, the needs that surround us seem insurmountable.
Just pick an area of suffering and the needs far outweigh the resources we have to respond.
And so, we revert to our narrow minds, forgetting what it is like to live according to the will of God.
We can get so paralyzed by anxiety that we forget the thousands of other times that God has entered in and made a way when there seemed to be no way: from the parting of the Red Sea to Manna in the desert and the stilling of storms.
What has God done in your life that you never would have imagined possible or what has God done in the lives of people you know and love that is no short of miraculous?
We can live within God’s miracles all the time if we are willing to share what we have been given, trusting that it is enough.
It’s been said that “one of the hardest lessons for believers to learn is that the Lord does provide.”
It really is that simple.
We are to live by faith and never use our “lack of whatever” as an excuse not to do what God is calling us to do for those in need.
Faith tells us that the antidote for toxic doses of fear and blaring messages of insufficiency is found in taking the meager bits and pieces of what we have and inviting Jesus to bless them and use them for the sake of a lost and broken world.
“My grace is sufficient, for my power is made perfect in weakness,” God is quoted as saying in 2 Corinthians 12:9.
We have the resources to provide for the needs of this community if we offer all that we have and all that we are to God for the sake of Jesus Christ and those whom He loves.
The Church does not exist for itself.
Will we all make the hard decision that we will seek to love the lost as much as Jesus does?
Will you pray with me?
