Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Do you trust me???

Jesus had just received news that John the Baptist was dead. Murdered by Herod. His grief sent him to a lonely place to be by himself. But the people heard about this and follow him. Crowding into his private space and private time. When Jesus saw this large crowd that had come the distance to this lonely place to see him, he was filled with pity…with compassion…with love…and he healed those who are sick.
As the day passed it became apparent to the disciples that the people needed to eat. Their solution was to send the people away. Let them look for themselves. Typical human reaction. Look at the situation. Look at your resources. Then make it someone else’s problem. But Jesus had other ideas.
“You yourselves give them something to eat!” he said to his disciples. You can just imagine the disciples response to this one with not an ALDI or Woolies or Cole or even a corner Deli within kilometres. So the disciples see only what they lack. “All we have here are five loaves and two fish.” Not enough to feed 50 let alone 5000. Not enough to provide for these people. Not enough unless you wanted to start a food riot with some getting food and others left to go hungry.
Jesus thinks differently. He takes the food…organizes the crowd…gives thanks to God…and starts handing out bread and fish. Again can you imagine the disciples being given bread and fish, then Jesus telling them to start handing it out to the crowd. They know much food is there. The fear of failure or major embarrassment must have been pretty strong at that point. However, everyone ate and was filled plus there were 12 baskets of leftovers as well.
So what is this story all about??
There have many articles and discussions on this story. Did Jesus perform a miracle and make the 5 loaves and 2 fish feed the crowd? Or did Jesus’ actions inspire the crowd to share the food that they had brought with them to provide the feast? Personally I think that either way a miracle took place. If somehow this small amount of food was made enough to feed a small city then praise God for his bountiful provision. On the other hand, if the actions of Jesus created generous hearts in the people of the crowd and so motivated them to break bread with their neighbour and share their food then praise God for his bountiful provision again. But if we focus just on this one aspect we miss other lessons to be learned.
One of those lessons is this: The story of the feeding of the 5000 is as much about trust as it is about the provision of food from 5 loaves and 2 fish.
The crowd’s behaviour is an act of trust when they left behind their homes and trekked out into the wilderness maybe looking for the promised land once again, except this time in the life and work of the Messiah, Jesus. Matthew is inviting us to remember another group of people who abandoned their homes in Egypt and head out into the wilderness, and experience another "miraculous" feeding: Moses and the manna (Exodus 16).
Think also of the trust that is implicit in this.. NOBODY KNEW WHERE THE FOOD CAME FROM.
Imagine those five thousand people at Jesus' spontaneous dinner party whispering: does anyone know who baked the bread? What kind of fish was this? But that didn't happen. Five thousand people took Jesus’ word for it -- not a family member, not their best friend, not even someone they knew well, and sat down to eat food. They were willing to receive not only Jesus and the bread that he blessed, but also the strangers with whom they shared it. Every one of them became, on that dusty hillside, one with every other. This was a completely spontaneous dinner, so there was no checking the guest list or asking for credentials. Distinctions between Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female, priest and tax collector -- indeed, all the distinctions around which wars were fought between nations, families, and brothers -- just didn't count any more. And remember, in this culture the sharing of food was an expression of relationship, friendship and protection.

There is also a question of trust in Jesus’ direction to the disciples. First when he tells them to give the crowd something to eat. Then when he gives them the loaves and fishes to distribute to the crowd. Finally when the disciples go around collecting the leftovers in baskets. At each point Jesus is confronting the disciples with one question, “Do you trust me?”

Do they trust Jesus enough to believe that they already possess all that is needed to feed the crowd? Do they trust Jesus enough to start distributing the bread and fish to the crowd?
Do they trust Jesus enough to start wandering around with empty baskets, expecting them to be filled?

And as always, our Gospel writer is challenging us also.

Do you trust Jesus? Do you trust God’s provision? Do you trust the promise of Jesus to give you life in abundance? Do you trust God to carry out his work and will despite the lack of visible resources? Do you trust the promises of Jesus to never fail you or forsake you?
In some way the events of this feeding invite us to remember our own wildernesses, our own places of chaos, our own insufficiencies. We are invited to remember and recognize those moments when the task at hand seemed too much for our resources, our spirit, our church. We are invited to remember those times when we have seen and experienced God at work blessing, breaking, and giving away our meagre resources in order to feed a crowd.
The miracle occurred because Jesus risked everything with those meagre loaves and fishes. The miracle occurred because the disciples were obedient to Jesus. The miracle occurred because the crowd obeyed Jesus and stayed and ate and were filled. The miracle occurred because Jesus trusted the Father’s love for his son and his people.
If we are looking for a miracle then trust is the key. Trust in the gracious, loving, compassionate God who has sent his Son and gives us grace and who promises that he will give us all we need to support this body and life, and will never face us with an obstacle that cannot be overcome if only we will trust him.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home