NB The service will be at Coates, open air, at 10am. Please bring a chair. Some thoughts on the Gospel (Matthew 14.13-21) - The Feeding of the Five Thousand
This is one of Jesus’ most well-known miracles. It occurs in all four Gospels. It is very easy to get stuck on the question -“How did he do it?” - and forget the more important question -“Why did he do it?” On the human level the answer is “because they were hungry and he cared for them”. Time and again we come across Jesus’ compassion in the Gospels. Even on the cross he comforts the penitent thief and is concerned about his mother’s future. It is his compassion for the sick, even on the sabbath, that he is moved to heal them. There are many examples of this overflowing concern for others - withered hands, dead daughters and sons, women bend double, with a long illness, foreign servants, lepers, blind Bartimaeus, and so on. All receive his loving response. He meets people’s needs - he hauls Zacchaeus down from his tree and invites himself to dinner. He is only here in the first place because he has been disturbed by the death of John the Baptist. Love and compassion. His disciples are concerned that it is getting late and the crowd is hungry. Jesus issues a challenge - “You give them something to eat!” The disciples are aware of their inadequacy. They cannot do it. All they have is five loaves and two fish. Jesus orders the people to sit down. Something important is going to happen. The stage is set. Jesus is there, with his disciples and the congregation. What follows is a proto-communion. We remember that in the early church fish was often used with bread and wine. Jesus asks for fish to eat after his resurrection. The Greek word for fish (ichthus) was used as an early creed - Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour. Some people still have fish symbols on their car boots. Notice how Jesus blesses, breaks and gives the bread and the fish, just as is done today at the communion service. There is something Old Testament about the whole scene - five thousand men, besides women and children, sitting on the grass. We are reminded of the Exodus. Jesus is a second Moses, with his twelve disciples representing the twelve tribes of Israel. This is emphasised by the number of baskets of scraps. It is, of course, twelve. The whole story is a proclamation of the generosity of God’s love and an encouragement to the disciples and us to show in what we do how God loves us all. Nobody in this scene is turned away. Nobody has to wear special clothes to gain entry. All are welcome and fed. Jesus is revealing his divine powers and making a prophetic gesture. On 2nd August we shall meet at 10 and we shall sit in our picnic chairs on the grass, ready to receive God’s word and to worship God. We shall, of course, keep an eye on the weather forecast and come appropriately dressed. The people in our gospel today didn’t do any such thing. So great was their need of Jesus that they came as they were, taking no thought for what they would eat or what they would wear, an example to us all, as we continue on our way through this pandemic. Lord God, your Son Jesus left the riches of heaven and became poor for our sake: when we prosper save us from pride, when we are needy save us from despair, that we may trust in you alone; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 31st July is the day we celebrate the memory of St Ignatius of Loyola, a Spanish RC nobleman who founded the Society of Jesus in 1540, having won the support of the Pope to start an order of priests to bring the Gospel all around the world. He died in 1556. Both Reji and I studied for our MA with the Jesuits, as we know the Society of Jesus, in London and have benefitted from their rigorous and kindly teaching.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorCanon John Green Archives
May 2021
Categories |