About 20 years ago, I heard a very light-spirited interpretation of the feeding of the multitude, put forward as a sort of “Christian Midrash” by Ralph Milton. Apparently this interpretation had been around for at least 100 years but it was new to me. It goes like this: when the boy stepped forward to offer his 5 small loaves and 2 fish, it inspired the crowd and perhaps put it to shame. One by one, many of the 5000 people gathered there reached into their cloaks and shoulder bags and pulled out the food they had planned to keep for themselves. Once shared with the entire gathering, there was more than enough food for each person to eat their fill, with baskets of leftovers. The selfless gift of the young boy had inspired a miracle of generosity, in which meagre, protected resources proved to be abundant for the needs of all.
Having shared that story, I’d like to set it
aside for future stewardship use. While it
contains an important truth about Christian community and generosity, it also lures
us to take a dangerous side-step away from the Biblical account of this miracle
and on this one, we’ll want to hear what the story actually has to say.
Only two miracle stories are included in all
four gospels. One, of course, is the
resurrection of Christ from the dead, and the other one is today’s reading, the
feeding of the multitude. Given the
number of stories of Jesus that were being passed around between 50 AD and 100
AD, each gospel writer had to pick and choose which events to include, and
which to exclude; how to frame the story, to best convey key truths about Jesus;
how to arrange the stories, to provide an interesting and coherent presentation
of the mission and ministry of Jesus, to best pique the curiosity of those
who’ve not yet heard about him. So how is it that THIS miracle story was so
widespread and significant that it made the cut in all 4 gospels? A dramatic healing, such as the woman with
the haemorrhage, or the raising of Lazarus from the dead, now THOSE stories I
could imagine being broadcast far and wide;
but to be honest, the feeding of the multitude is a bit more on the
“showy” side – more style than substance, at least when compared to curing
someone of a life-lessening illness or overcoming death itself. Why would this event be so widely known? Why would this story need to be told?
It might be good to take a half step back, and
talk a bit about miracles. Years ago I
heard a miracle defined as an event in which the Kingdom of God bursts into our
mundane lives. (Much the same way that a parable puts the
Kingdom of God into words, a miracle puts the Kingdom of God into action). A Roman Catholic source (www.catholic.org)
speaking about the miracle-working power of the Saints, sees miracles as “proof that the
person [performing the miracle] is in heaven and can intercede for us.” The miracles of Jesus, then, are events that confirm that this is not just
a human doing a cool trick – this is God incarnate, reaching into human time
and space. And the old standard
Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (IDB III: 392) calls a miracle “an event,
whether natural or supernatural, in which one sees an act or revelation of
God.”
These definitions, taken as a whole, are vitally
important to us as United Church folks.
As a child growing up in the United Church, I was absolutely thrilled by
the stories of Jesus. I marvelled at how
wise he was, how kind he was, how brave he was.
As a teenager I was chastened by the story of his crucifixion, wondering
I would have had the courage to wave a Palm branch at his arrival in Jerusalem,
or if I would have been keeping my head low and my mouth shut for fear of Roman
retribution. As a young adult, I was
inspired by the way his parables and his teachings turn the usual societal
assumptions on their head: blessings
abound for the poor, the weak and the downtrodden, while those living in
opulence, the bully and the oppressor are on borrowed time. But through all of it, I never thought too
much about the divinity of Jesus. I was
so terribly impressed at his life and work, and the fact that he is still
remembered 2000 years after the fact, that the Divinity part never really
factored in. Yes, I understood that he
pointed his followers toward God, and I definitely believed in God… but when it
came to Jesus, I was WAY more comfortable with him as my companion and friend,
my leader and teacher, but not so comfortable claiming him as my saviour, my
redeemer, my Lord.
The miracles of Jesus were those transcendent
moments when his first-hand witnesses were forced to wonder if he was just a
man or more than that. I think, if we
had the opportunity to speak with those first-hand witnesses, we would hear
that those miracle moments – those times that went beyond just words – were the
scary, inspiring times that told them that this was not just good teaching,
this was God’s teaching. There comes a moment when a tension-filled event turns
into an event that changes the course of history – Rosa Parks staying put in
her seat on the bus, or a protestor facing down a tank in Tiananmen square – an
instant when the witnesses realize that they have crossed over from a memorable
moment to a transcendent moment. For the
crowd gathering around Jesus, miracles were those moments. Miracles were the moments when the
eye-opening lessons being taught by Jesus got a big bold UNDERLINE saying,
“this is not just a good or novel idea.
This is the Word of God.”
So if this is the case, if the miracles are
indeed moments in which something good and true about the Kingdom of God
crosses over from Heaven to Earth, what does the feeding of the multitude
specifically deliver to us from God’s realm?
First, there
is no scarcity with God. Perhaps the
most obvious lesson from this miracle is that a lack of material resources,
while anxiety-producing, does not make a situation impossible. These days a lot of Churches – a LOT of
Churches – are very concerned about their sustainability. And while I understand the concern, there are
a number of congregations, including this one, who are using that anxious
moment as an opportunity to turn assets into mission. In the case of Ralph Connor Memorial United
Church, one of the great assets you have is this wonderful building. The health region needed a place for day
programs to meet, you had a building, a need was met and financial resources
were generated. The local Waldorf
School needed a place so they could add Kindergarten to their preschool
program, space was unavailable through the School District, and again, your
space meets a need and will generate financial resources. While there are only so many times a
congregation can do this before running out of program space, I applaud you in
realizing the full resources at hand, and the way that those resources could be
utilized to everyone’s benefits. In
God’s Kingdom there is no scarcity, and when assets at hand are wisely and
prayerfully used, we realize the hidden abundance in our midst.
Second, the
miracle demonstrates the power of giving ALL. By all reasonable standards, Jesus and the
disciples were faced with an impossible task, 5000 people and no provision
whatsoever for their food. The solution
comes forward, not from a lightning bolt from heaven, but in the form of one
child with a basic peasant’s lunch.
Wheat loaves were the standard of the day, a barley loaf was a little
rock of bread eaten by the underclass.
Three barley loaves would be a meal’s worth for an adult, so the 5 loaves
and two dried fish were about right for a kid and a parent. Most significantly, there’s no suggestion
that the boy had brought more than this – we can safely believe that the 5
loaves and 2 fish were 100% of what he had on hand. That total gift, much like the story of the
widow’s mite, was noticed, applauded, and transformed by Christ as the basis
for food sufficient for all. In the
Kingdom of God, half-measures do indeed avail us nothing. By offering what little he had, the child’s
selflessness was the spark for God’s own abundance to enter the predicament.
Third, it’s
a story about breaking bread with Jesus and that should remind us of
something. Admittedly, the communion
connection could well have been added by Christ-followers after his death, but
scripture does suggest that Jesus specifically gave us two ritual actions to do
in his name and by his power: baptism, and communion. In John’s account of the feeding of the
multitude, Jesus is active in blessing and distributing the bread, much the
same as he shared his memorial meal with his disciples in an upper room. Just before the story is told, John makes a special
point of saying that this miracle happened near the time of Passover, and right
after the miracle story, in John 6:35 we encounter these memorable words from
Jesus: “I am the bread of life; those who come to me shall not hunger, and
those who believe in me shall never thirst.”
In the way he retells the story, John wants to make absolutely sure that
we get the connection between the multitude being nourished by Jesus, and
believers being nourished each time they gather at table for communion. Communion is one of those “God-moments” where
the dividing line between Divine and Human becomes very thin, and that may well
be THE main reason why all four gospel writers included this miracle in their
retelling of the Christ story.
Fourth, John’s version of the miracle story clearly demonstrates God’s power breaking
into human experience. A Miracle does not stand in isolation from people’s
response to it, and immediately after this miraculous occurrence, a
proclamation is made by the crowd: “this is indeed the prophet who is to come
into the world”. As mentioned earlier,
there comes that epiphany, when you realize that an ordinary moment has become
a transcendent moment, and those who were fed abundantly when it appeared that
there were no food resources at all did not miss the “aha” nature of what had
just happened. The miracle isn’t merely
impressive for its own sake; it opens our eyes to Jesus, who has at his
disposal not only the resources of earth, but also the resources of
heaven. Although Jesus fears that the
crowd will take it one big step in the wrong direction and want to crown him as
King of their nation, they more or less understood what they had seen. The likes of Jesus, they had not seen before
and this was one more sign to prove it.
Fifth and finally, it embodies the full importance of children in the Kingdom of God.
All four accounts of this miracle involve a boy presenting his food. None of them just have some guy from the
crowd, or one of the disciples – it’s a child.
In his book, Jesus: A Biography
from a Believer, historian Paul Johnson goes to great lengths to emphasize
how radical it was that Jesus spoke with, to and about women and children. Even within our day and age, the ability of
a child to have his or her thoughts and desires taken seriously is very minimal
yet Jesus, time and again, says that in the Kingdom of Heaven, children are the
model of how we relate to one another. God
is referred to as Abba or Daddy, Jesus sternly rebukes the disciples when they
try to keep children from him, baptism is described as a rebirth and a
re-entrance into the helpless trust of infancy, believers are directed to
become like children in order to really embrace the wonders of the
Kingdom. And here, in the 6th
chapter of John, it is the selfless act of a child that saves the day. The
child in this story is no mere sidebar in this story – the inherent spiritual
wisdom of children is to be celebrated within every family of faith.
I’m well aware that believing in the miracle
stories of Christ is one of the places where Christians open themselves to
ridicule. Well, so be it. Within Christian tradition, miracles are not
usual, normal experiences, they are extraordinary events where the Divine
realm reaches right through to the human.
And because of this, the miracles of Jesus push us to engage important
faith questions, about the identity of this Jesus whom we seek. Was he just a philosopher, or Son of
God? Was he just a social and religious
reformer, or direct participant in the Kingdom of Heaven? Was he here and then gone, or still available
to walk with us as we move through life?
The eye-witnesses to the life of Jesus, and the martyrs who were willing
to give their lives in his name shortly thereafter, were clear in how they
would answer these questions. As for us,
2000 years and a whole lot of experiences later, the answers may not be so
evident.
Friends in Christ, I hunch that the miracle
stories in the Bible create as many questions as they answer. Stay open to those questions – particularly
the big questions, about who Christ was and who Christ is. And in the seeking, be ready to be blessed,
even in the midst of scarcity, even in the midst of uncertainty. In the name of Christ Jesus, source of life abundant. Amen.
Works
cited:
Buttrick, George A et al. The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. Nashville: Abingdon,
1962.
Johnson, Paul. Jesus: A Biography from a Believer.
Blackstone Audio, 2010. Chapter 6.
http://www.catholic.org/saints/faq.php
And,
for some challenging discussion on this miracle story, see also:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2011/07/if-it-was-only-sharing-to-hell-with-it.html
© 2012 Rev Greg Wooley, Ralph Connor Memorial United Church Canmore AB
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