John 6:1-21
A Morsel Which Sustains Us
I have been working this week on the
“welcome” materials for incoming students.
They will be here two days after I get back from the alumni trip to
Germany. Realizing that we may only get
a paragraph or two of introduction, it is important to craft a message which covers
both aspects of what we seek to do.
Here is another way to explain to
you what I mean. You may have already
experienced it, if you have come to the communion rail, and knelt next a small
child on one occasion and then on another next to an adult friend who struggles
with a persistent problem.
When a small child comes to the
rail, one who is not receiving the bread and wine, a blessing is given to
them. I don’t have a prescribed text,
but I do try to follow a formula. I tell
the child that God loves them. And I assure
the child that God will protect and care for them. That is the message I want them to hear, and
that they need to hearl.
All is well and good, until I
finish these words of assurance and turn to the next person. When that person is someone who has had a
long and difficult struggle with a chronic illness or someone whose life has
been disrupted by a tragic event; when that next person in line isn’t some
adorable little child but a real-life survivor of the world’s harshness; I
stumble even over the simple promise that in this morsel of bread, God is
promising to be with you. The young
child has been assured that everything will be just fine. The adult is given a bite of bread and the
hope that maybe this will be enough to tide you over.
I guess it isn’t a full blown
inconsistency. But it is at least a
stark contrast. And every time it
happens I ask myself over and over again, “Which is the truth?” I struggle to determine whether both can be
true.
This gospel lesson forces us to
think about this dilemma. A miracle
occurs in these few verses. Jesus takes
a few loaves and a couple of fish and he feeds a hungry crowd - 5,000 in
number. This gospel lesson supports the
blessing offered to those children at the communion rail - God does
provide! But, even as we make our
initial reading of the text, powerful symbols break through and help us to see
that there are multiple levels of meaning here.
God is providing for hungry children; God is doing something more
meaningful that filling a couple of thousand bellies. They are filled, not as a result of the bulk
of food consumed but rather from a blessed morsel - the morsel which comes from
God’s hand.
Let’s start with the confident
assurance that God does indeed provide.
The Feeding of the 5,000 is a
miracle story. There are lots of miracle
stories each of the four gospels.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all include a number of miracle stories. But, this story, the feeding of the 5,000, is
the only miracle story contained in all four gospels. Mark was written first. Matthew and Luke came next and as they were
being written a copy of Mark was available to the writer. John comes last and he certainly had access
to the other three versions of the Jesus story.
These last three knew what Mark had included. Perhaps figuring their readers could know
about this or that event in the life of Jesus from the other versions, some
parts were left out. But none of them
wanted to leave out this story of 5,000 being fed with a few loaves and a
couple of fish.
Perhaps they deemed this story as
important because in it God is meeting such a basic human need, a need that is
persistent and continuous. People were
hungry then, people are still hungry today.
Wherever and whenever the bible was read, there would be hungry people
somewhere within the region of the reader.
Perhaps there is no better example of God’s providing than to
acknowledge God’s gift of food. God
gives that which we really need. God
gives that which we will continue to need.
Jesus feeds those who follow
him. Jesus has compassion upon them and
provides for them. It has been (and
still is) vitally important that believers see Jesus as one who will not
forsake them but will provide for them.
A God who cannot satisfy my need is no God at all.
This story, in the bible, in all
four versions of the Jesus story, makes it clear that Jesus is God - that Jesus
is able to satisfy our needs.
In writing about this story there
is a theory as to what really happened.
Sometimes referred to as the “lunch basket” theory - it proposes that
there was plenty of food in the pockets and purses of the 5,000. It just wasn’t equally distributed. Such a situation would lead to hunger
(starvation) for some, gluttony for others and the very real possibility of
social unrest when the have-nots saw the abundance of food among the
haves. And so, this little boy shares
his lunch basket, sets an example for the others who then share their baskets
and all are fed. It is a good theory - I
have even preached a few sermons suggesting such a progression of events. I am sorry that I did. It may be a very rational explanation for
what happened on that grassy knoll and while the ability to engender the
courage to share one’s bread would be very Christ-like; it misses an important
point to the retelling of these events.
This story must communicate the truth that in Jesus the world has one
who has the ability to meet our needs.
He does feed us! God does provide! This is what has to be said - this is what
must be understood. We can talk all we
want about “how” he does it. But unless
and until we firmly understand that he is the one who does do it - there is no
point to the story at all.
I believe, and I trust in the
affirmation that Jesus is the one who will provide for me. This he does as no one else can. He is Messiah - he is the One who has the
ability to meet my needs.
So, when I place my hands on the
heads of those little children, kneeling at the communion rail and I tell them
that God will look out for them, that God will protect them and that God will
provide for them - I am not lying. I
believe this to be true and I have experienced this to be true. Unflinchingly I announce that God has the
ability, the desire and the trustworthiness to do this.
And then I move on to the next
person. To the person who has not been
protected, the one for whom God has not supplied every need.
You know the hurts and pains to
which I refer - you share them with me (or another pastor) regularly. Parkinson’s disease first took from Marvin Dooer
the ability to play the organ on Sunday mornings and has now restricted him to
a wheel chair. Gail Paul knew she was
having “foggy” days and now her dementia robs her of the ability to know her
pastors and even family members. The
child-becoming-adult caught up in alcohol and chemical abuse still doesn’t seen
the destructiveness of his actions.
These are very real needs. They
are evils which any one and any God would want eradicated from our midst. And yet they continue.
I have lived through a few of these
myself. Times when I wondered “What’s
the bother in praying? God is going to
do (or not do) whatever it is that God wants to do. How can my words have any effect?” In the midst of such needful situation I have
to fight the temptation to slap away the hand which is extended in order to
offer me that dry chip of bread.
Sometimes, too many times, a warm
smile and a promise are not enough. I
want to know why God hasn’t already responded to my need. I want to know why God allows my pain to
continue.
Here is where we come to those
subtle parts of this gospel reading.
Here is where we start to deconstruct and see the hints of a deeper
resolution.
I mentioned earlier that the
feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle contained in all four Gospels. True as this is, it is important to note the
slight variations in each of the accounts.
Only John places this miracle on the calendar. Verse 4 tells us “Now the Passover, the
festival of the Jews, was near.”
This is significant for two reasons:
First, the Passover coincided with
the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, which, according to Joshua 5, commemorated
not only the flight from Egypt but also the first food from grain eaten by the
Israelites when they reached the promised land. Eating this grain meant that
God would no longer send frost-like substance called “manna.” This bread which appeared each morning kept
them alive for years. Now that they
could gather grain and bake their own bread, God would stop sending “bread from
heaven.” Ah, but God is about to resume
the practice of sending this bread from heaven.
It won’t be on the morning ground, it will come from a loaf that Jesus
will bless and break and give to us.
This bread, like the manna of old, will support us as we journey to the
promised land.
A second significant aspect of
dating this feeding at Passover is the manner in which it ties this offering of
bread to another giving of bread. It is
at a later Passover observance that Jesus will take the final loaf of bread,
bless it, break it and give it to those assembled. He will call that bread his body and the cup
they share he will refer to as his blood.
The feeding of the 5,000 is eschatological - it connects the events of
this life with the fullness of God Kingdom.
Jesus takes a few loaves and a
couple of fish and he feeds the multitudes.
They are satisfied.
Were their bellies full? Who can say.
They may have only had the smallest morsel, but that is enough. Jesus has given them enough of a taste of the
future fulfillment. They can now
continue on their journey. But don’t be
concerned if you missed that initial feeding - twelve baskets are full of the
remainder. Twelve being the multiple of
three and four - these twelve baskets are enough for all those who dwell within
the four corners of the earth or the three levels of the universe. There was enough, and there remains plenty to
spare.
Those chronic illnesses don’t go
away. Our wayward children are yet to
return to the fold. There is still
brokenness and hatred. God hasn’t given
us everything. But yet, we are able to
hold on. We do not lose faith. We do not turn from this God and go in search
of another. The morsel we have received
is enough to affirm our trust in Jesus and to quiet our spirits as we wait for
the fullness of God’s gifts.
Amen.