EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: A

[cappie]

For the past several Sundays, our Gospel readings have been focused on Jesus’ parables as recorded by Matthew.  

But in today’s Gospel, we turn from parable to miracle, with Matthew’s version of the feeding of the five thousand. Telling and retelling stories of Jesus’ miracles was an important way Jesus’ early followers remembered and honoured him. And the story we hear today — the story of Jesus feeding the multitudes — was perhaps the most important miracle of all.

It is the only miracle included in all of the Gospels. Matthew and Mark like the story so much, in fact, that they each tell it twice, with slight variations.

Each version presents the same dilemma: crowds have followed Jesus out to a deserted place to hear him teach. When evening comes, it becomes clear that people have not come prepared. There’s not enough food — the disciples only have a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish — and the people are hungry. The disciples do not know what to do. In Matthew today, they suggest that Jesus should send the people away, to fend for themselves in the nearby villages. However, Jesus turns to the disciples and tells them: “ give them something to eat yourselves.” And this is the heart of this miracle. 

Jesus is saying those words to us today, just as clearly as he said them to his disciples on the deserted shores of the far side of the Sea of Galilee all those centuries ago. There is a hungry world out there, and it is our responsibility, our duty, to feed them. This hunger is both spiritual and physical. And although it may look like there’s not enough bread to go around, the miracle we recounted today teaches us that, in fact, if we open our eyes, we will see that there is enough - that God has already provided enough bread to feed every last person on earth. It just depends on how you divide it up.

Biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan argues in his book The Power of Parable that the miracle stories in the Gospels are really parables in disguise. Miracles are parables told about Jesus and should be understood in a similar way to – and taken as seriously as – the parables of Jesus. The miracle we heard today may seem simple on the surface: Jesus is able to magically multiply bread and fish. But push a little deeper, and it is really a parable about how we see the world. Is there enough to go around, or not? What does it mean to share this world God has given us? What kind of people are we going to be — those who share or those who hoard?

Both Matthew and Mark drive home this point by providing a prelude to the miracle story. In both Gospels, the feeding of the five thousand is directly preceded by the story of Herod beheading John the Baptist. The connection between these two stories might not be immediately clear, but here is how Mark and Matthew tell it: John has been in prison for some time for accusing Herod of adultery with Herodias, his brother’s wife. Herod throws a feast for his birthday, inviting his rich and powerful friends. Herodias’ daughter dances before Herod at the feast, which pleases him, and he tells her she can have whatever she wants in return. She asks for John the Baptist’s head on a platter — and Herod obliges her.

Herod’s feast is exclusive, a private gala for the rich and the powerful, and leads to death. Jesus’ feast is inclusive, a community picnic for the poor and the oppressed, and leads to life. Which party would you like to attend?

As often as we take the Eucharist, we re-enact Jesus’ picnic on the lakeshore. Just like on that day, Jesus takes our bread, blesses it, breaks it, and shares it with all who are hungry. And he is calling us to do the same with our lives – take the blessings God has given, break them open, and share them with others. Jesus is calling us today: Come to the party where no one goes hungry, where there is bread and joy and life for all.