The Sunday Before Advent
THE SUNDAY BEFORE ADVENT (John 6:5)
Mr. Jason VanBorssum, Postulant
In the Name of God: ✠ Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
The Gospel appointed for this morning from the sixth chapter of John recounts the one miracle that is recorded in all four of the Gospels. The “Feeding of the Five Thousand” we call it. The Gospel of John is the most deeply theological, spiritual, and even cosmological of the Gospels. The overarching theme of John’s Gospel, and indeed the fundamental message of the Good News of Jesus Christ, is that the Kingdom of God is here, is now, is present and that Jesus, the Word made flesh, is the Kingdom-Bringer. Echoing Genesis 1:1, John’s Gospel opens with the prologue, “In the beginning,” asserting that God’s divine reason, the Λόγος, the Second Person of the Trinity pre-existed the creation of the cosmos and, indeed, was “with God” and “was God.” The Second Person of the Trinity became incarnate – took on human form – in the person of Yeshua ha-Notzri, Jesus of Nazareth. As the divine Λόγος, Jesus was both “fully God” (as the Second Person of the Trinity) and “fully man” born of a woman, Miryam ha-Notzri, Mary of Nazareth, the Second Eve, the Blessed Virgin Mary. In John’s Gospel, Jesus asserts, “The Father and I are one.” And immediately after the narrative of the Feeding of the Five Thousand recounted in today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus continues the theme of food and nourishment by proclaiming, “I am the Bread of Life…I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
One cannot read the Gospels – and especially John’s Gospel – and conclude that Jesus was merely an exorcist, faith healer, great teacher of ethics. John’s Gospel reveals the divinity of Jesus, but the story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand is also making another point. The point is not that Jesus performed miracles, therefore he is God incarnate –because lots of people have done really weird and amazing things over the course of human history, and we don’t consider them the Second Person of the Trinity.
The Feeding of the Five Thousand demonstrates that when the gifts that we offer to God pass through God’s hands, there is enough for everyone. Apparent scarcity becomes sufficiency and even abundance. Scripture recognizes in countless verses in both the Old and New Testaments that there are rich people and there are poor people. Indeed, Jesus explains to his disciples, “The poor will be with you always.” The injustice of which the prophets of Israel and Jesus himself spoke is not that some people are rich while many more are poor. The injustice is that while some have vastly more than they will ever possibly need, many more of our sisters and brothers lack the basic necessities of life.
Let me set the scene here: Jesus goes up a mountainside near the town of Bethsaida. Bethsaida was on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. He and his disciples are unable to get away from the multitude of thousands that are seeking after Jesus. Jesus sees them approaching, coming, still coming. Jesus realizes that the crowd has been walking a far distance for a long time, and they must be quite hungry. And I’m sure that Jesus and his disciples were hungry, too. So, Jesus asks Philip – who was from Bethsaida – Jesus asks Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?” This is a very practical question. Jesus is basically saying to Philip, “OK, Phil, you’re from around here. Where is the nearest Kroger?” But Philip doesn’t answer Jesus’s question. Instead, he begins to explain to Jesus, “Uh, Rabbi, this task is impossible. It’s too expensive. It would cost 200 denarii – [that’s about six months’ wages for the average person in First Century Galilee, about $15,000 for us today]. Rabbi, we don’t have that kind of money!”
In the accounts of this story in Matthew and Mark and Luke, the disciples urge Jesus to tell the people to go away. Just tell them to get out of here. They need to fend for themselves. We. Can’t. Help them. But Jesus insists, “No, no, no. You – YOU – give them something to eat!” It’s interesting that Jesus seeks to involve his disciples both in terms of determining what they have in the way of resources and to do the actual work of distributing the multiplied loaves and fish.
After they have taken stock of their resources, it is Andrew, Peter’s brother, who reports back to Jesus, “Well, there’s a kid here who’s got five barley loaves and two dried fish. But what are they among so many?” Andrew is reemphasizing Philip’s point: “Rabbi, our provisions are minuscule. With all due respect, Lord, the gargantuan, impossible, ridiculous endeavor you are envisioning…Are you crazy? I mean…no!”
A quick recap of the scene so far:
Jesus asks a challenging question;
The disciples examine the situation and conclude immediately that this isn’t going to work;
The only solution is to tell the multitude of people to go away and fend for themselves.
But Jesus doesn’t let his disciples off the hook. He says, “No, no, no. You feed them!”
“Master, we can’t! There’s no way!!”
“Alright. What have you got?” Jesus asks.
“Like five little barley cakes and a couple of dried sardines…?”
“OK,” says Jesus. “Give ‘em to me, give ‘em to me.”
This is critically important: until the disciples are willing to commit what they do have towards this holy enterprise, Jesus waits. In this situation, God is not willing to act until His followers step up and commit. They must be part of the solution, however small and seemingly inadequate their contribution may be. Here’s a beautiful side note: and I think this is a powerful reminder for us – the loaves and the fish that Andrew collects come from a little boy. From a child. In Israelite society, children were not even considered whole persons. Children were even lower in the social order than women. That’s not true anymore! At least not in my house, I can tell you that! Truly, children were the “least of these.” Right? But it is the gifts of a child – a half-person, marginalized and voiceless – that will be enough to feed a multitude once what is apparent scarcity passes through God’s hands and is miraculously increased.
Next, Jesus instructs his disciples to tell the people to sit down. “Sit, sit. All y’all have been schlepping around all day! Sit, sit!” This is symbolically important because in Jewish custom students would always sit to receive instruction and rabbinic teaching. And Jesus is about to deliver very important teaching by performing a great miracle. It is also an example of gracious hospitality because Jesus is preparing to have his disciples collectively serve thousands of people. But the multitude is not told to queue up and stand in line like at a soup kitchen or a cafeteria. Rather, after walking many miles through faith that Jesus is the promised Messiah, Jesus looks on the people with tenderness and says, “Sit down. Sit down in the cool spring grass. Rest. We are going to serve you a meal.”
Jesus takes the loaves. Then he takes the fish. He lifts his eyes up to God and gives thanks. In the original Greek of the New Testament, the word here is εὐχαριστέω. Eὐχαριστέω. Eucharist. Eucharist. That is, to give thanks, to express appreciation for God’s blessings and provision, to render and return gratitude. Why do Christians say grace before meals? Because Jews did (and do). Meals mark a daily and important opportunity to offer praise and thanksgiving to God. The traditional blessing which Jesus would have prayed is still used today: Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu, Melekh ha-olam, ha-motzi lechem min ha-aretz (הארץ†מן†לחם†המוציא†, העולם†מלך†, לוהינו†-א’ ה†אתה†ברוך†). “Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.” The gifts are presented, they are blessed, they are distributed to the faithful, and there is enough for everyone. In fact, there are twelve basketsful leftover! Jesus gives his (now completely exhausted) disciples one final task: “Gather up what is left. Let nothing be lost; let nothing be wasted.” There is abundance and there is also no waste. How unlike our society today. We have a vast abundance and yet tremendous waste. And millions cannot get what they need.
John is illustrating Jesus’s power, to help his readers in the First Century believe and know that Jesus is the Son of God. But I think that when performing the miracle itself, Jesus was doing it for the disciples’ benefit. For our benefit. Jesus could have created bread; he didn’t need five barley loaves and two small fish. He turned water into wine, so he certainly could have turned stones or whatever into food. He actually didn’t need the contents of that little boy’s lunchbox. What he insisted upon, however, was that his disciples must participate. To be part of the solution, to be part of the miracle. To paraphrase Saint Augustine, “Without God, we cannot; without us, God will not.”
Too often, we are overwhelmed by the vastness of the need and we just give up. Or we look away and simply ignore the need altogether. We may fearfully cling to what we have, believing that we cannot faithfully and generously give to God because this is all we have (or so we think). But the matrix of the Kingdom of God is not a zero-sum game. If we give away our little piece of the pie, perhaps we fear that that means that someone else wins and we lose. Maybe we expect God to take care of everything by Himself, without us participating in His Kingdom in even a small way. “It’s not my problem! God, clean-up on aisle 5! God, clean-up on aisle 5! It’s your world, God. Clean it up, please!” But the Gospel of Christ is crystal clear: you have; your neighbor needs; you give. In God’s Kingdom, the pie grows ever larger and larger and larger still. There are no fixed assets in God’s economy: there is immeasurable abundance. Jesus proclaims, “I came that you might have life and have it abundantly.”
Let me offer a few principles for reflection. Our resources may seem woefully inadequate to meet the need, but we are to take an honest inventory of what we do have and bring our resources to God. We place our gifts in God’s hands to do with them what He will. And in the process, we exchange control for trust and faith. Like on the Galilean mountainside, like at the Passover meal of the Last Supper, and like on this altar, this Holy Table, Jesus blesses the gifts we offer and places them back in our hands, increased and more powerful than we could have possibly imagined. We share this Holy Communion with one another and, because Christ is somehow present in the Sacrament, we, like that crowd of five thousand, share a sacred meal with God Himself.
This week, families and friends will gather to celebrate Thanksgiving. Roast turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, wine, football, fellowship. This Thanksgiving, let us enjoy rest and relaxation and yes, feasting. Let us also recommit ourselves, as “very members incorporate in the mystical Body of Christ” – the Church – to offer up the blessings we have been given, placing them in God’s hands so that He will perform the miracle of multiplication. In so doing, we will experience the holy joy of being – like the disciples – basket-bearers of loving-kindness, of justice, of mercy, to the multitudes. And we’ll also be on hand to witness and help to gather up what is left over, marveling at and sharing in the abundance of the Kingdom of God.
Let us pray. Stir up, we beseech thee, O LORD, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our LORD. Amen.
