“Where are we to buy bread for these
people to eat?” (John 6:5)
Okay. So it’s here again—that five week
stretch in Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary when we talk about Jesus
being the “Bread of Life.” This is always a stumper for me. I try to find
something about this that I haven’t said before. As always, I turn to my go-to
gal for all things preaching John, Dr. Karoline Lewis of Luther Seminary in St.
Paul, MN, who gives me the valuable advice to just talk about what the Bible
says and not to try to be too clever or novel about it. If you’ve heard me say
this before, well, just suck it up and consider we’re all getting a refresher
course on two of the more memorable of Jesus’ miracles as they are told in the
Fourth Gospel (John 6:1-21).
The Gospel lesson in the RCL is the story
of Jesus feeding the 5000 and then walking on the water. The problem with most
of the miracle stories, I think is that they’re, well, miracles. That is, they describe stuff that just doesn’t happen in
our neighborhood. They stretch our powers of belief, so we either just file
them away and try not to think about them, or we try to explain them away with
some kind of rational excuse. But for me, I think the fun and some of the real
meat of these Bible stories are in the details.
First, notice that there’s nothing in this
story which suggests that Jesus or the disciples have to feed these folks. After all, they didn’t tell this mob to
follow them. These people want some free healthcare, and they think they can
get it from Jesus. He’d be perfectly within his rights to do what the disciples
suggest in one of the other Gospels: send these folks away before it gets too
late. They ought to be on the hook for their own dinner. I mean, they’re
getting free healing from Jesus. Do they really expect him to feed them too?
But Jesus comes from a place of
compassion. He knows he’s dealing with peasants here, and he decides to see to all of their needs. In typical Jesus style,
he yanks Philip’s chain a little and asks him where the food is to come from.
Philip recognizes the logistical problem, but Jesus remains confident. He knows
that God provides. The problem isn’t one of too many people and not enough
resources. It’s simply a matter of faith and careful distribution.
Meanwhile, Andrew finds a young fellow who
prudently packed a lunch and is willing to share
it. It never ceases to amaze me that the people who seem to be the most
generous are the people who have the fewest resources. I guess there’s
something about surviving on very little that lets you know you can survive. Already this story has
pointed to compassion, faith, and generosity.
So what does Jesus do? My favorite detail
here is verse 11. He gives thanks for the little he has. Don’t just write this
off as ritual piety. I think Jesus is being a kind of “glass-half-full” Savior.
He may not have the ideal amount, but he’s going to praise God that he has something. He’s going to teach people
about gratitude. Then, he gets everyone to cooperate. They all sit down and
share together.
Finally, Jesus shows some prudence and has
the leftovers collected. It’s great when God shows us that we’re blessed whenever
we receive what we need, but it’s also important in this hungry world to remember
my German grandmother’s favorite mantra, “It’s a sin to waste.” And that sin
goes for unnecessary consumption and mismanagement of God’s gifts—whatever they
may be. There’s a word of judgment here about how we use our resources. In my
home church in California there was an older woman named Helen who always used
to say, “There’s room on this planet for everyone but the greedy.”
Of course, Jesus handles the food situation
so well that the folks want to make him a king (v.15). He’s okay with being called
a prophet, I guess, but “king” really stretches things. Truth be told, however,
Jesus was already their king. His love and compassion for them was the embodiment
of God’s will. Unfortunately, seeing that folks just don’t seem to get this “grace”
thing without trying to turn it into something which it’s not, Jesus has to
duck out.
Now, admittedly, walking on water is a
pretty tough trick to master. I won’t even try to rationalize this part of the story.
I’m just going to stick with an allegorical interpretation. In the ancient
world, water was often seen as a sign of chaos and uncertainty. Just look at
the duck boat mishap in Missouri recently and you’ll understand why the
ancients looked at water and weather with awe and trepidation. My take on this
is, in spite of seeing compassion, faith, generosity, gratitude, and gracious
humility, the disciples are still lost at sea without Jesus.
Remember the late, great Soviet Union? I always
thought those guys had a great creed; “From each according to his ability, to
each according to his need.” That sounds almost Christian, doesn’t it? The
problem was, however, that they left Jesus out of their boat. They thought that
an atheist state with high ideals could create utopia. They were wrong.
We need to see God’s way in human form. For
Christians, that means finding it in relationship with Jesus. This
relationship, this dialogue with Jesus, is our constant seeking after
righteousness. Whenever we want to be righteous, when we want to take Jesus
into the boat, we’re already on solid ground.
Thanks for reading!
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