The Hungry Crowd

August 3 2008 Lectionary Reading Matthew 14.13-21

Reading: “He gave thanks and broke the loaves.. all ate and were satisfied..”

Matthew 14.19,20 (NIV)

On the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, in a quiet valley, at a place called Tabgha stands the ruins of a little chapel. Long ago, over fifteen hundred years ago, in the 4th. century a pilgrim by the name of Egeria wrote in his travel diary:

Not far from Capernaum facing the Sea of Galilee is a well watered land in which lush grasses grow, with numerous trees and palms. Nearby (at Tabgha) there are seven springs which provide abundant water. It was, says our pilgrim, In this fruitful garden Jesus fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish.

In the wars and conquests down through the years, the chapel and a monastery next to it were destroyed. A few years ago, archaeologists began to explore the ruins of the Chapel at Tabgha, and found on the old floor of the Church, the most beautiful mosaics...... in some places on the floor, there were designs made to look like carpets: with flowers in the patterns: lotuses and lilies and birds: swans, doves, and storks. But then, near the altar the archaeologists found a mosaic: it showed a basket with loaves of bread, with two fish on either side. They knew then that the Church at Tabgha was the chapel built on the site, according to tradition of the miracle of the 5 Loaves and the 2 Fishes.

Reading the gospel of Matthew, we read the story of what happened. We find that a great crowd had gathered to listen to Jesus, and now, towards evening, they were hungry. The Gospel declares that Jesus took 5 loaves and 2 fishes given by a young lad, gave thanks and as the bread was shared out, the crowd had more than enough to eat. So much so that there was plenty left over - twelve baskets.

This is a gospel story that we know well,

most of us will have heard this story almost before we learned to speak,

perhaps told ourselves to children in Sunday School.............

we return to this story this morning the feeding of the five thousand this morning and think for a moment, of what it declares to us, what this miracle declares to us about Jesus:

Three things: the creative power of Jesus, the compassion of Jesus,

and the salvation Jesus brings

The creative power of Jesus Christ

First, the miracle that took place at Tabgha, shows us the creative power of Jesus. Looking up into heaven, we are told, Jesus gave thanks to the Father and blessed the five loaves and the two fish – and there was food for more than 5,000 people gathered there.

In fact, those in the crowd, the hungry, the weak, the sick, the lost were fed in such abundance that the gospel tells us there were twelve baskets full of bread left over.

The hungry crowd, filled.

How did this happen ? Well, the clear meaning of the Gospel is

that this was through the power of Jesus Christ,

the creative power of Jesus in action.

What is this creative power ?

In the first chapter of the gospel of John, verse 14 the gospel writer declares to us who Jesus is. He tells us: the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. The Eternal Son of God, has become a human being, in Jesus Christ.

This is why, just to take one example, in John’s gospel chapter 5, verse 17, it is recorded that Jesus said…. to the teachers of the law…at the pool of Bethzatha:

"My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."

the creative power of God is at work in Jesus.........

Now, to create is something only God can do. That’s what we read in the first chapter of Genesis: God, in the beginning created the heavens and the earth, when the earth was formless and void, and darkness over the surface of the deep God said “let there be light…..” and there was light…………….

There is the creative power of God.

Now, the prophet Isaiah, proclaims that God has not just called the world into being, and created it, He is still the creator. He has, says the prophet, called a people, Israel, into being, and created them. Isaiah 43.1 writes: God created you O Jacob, he formed you o Israel………. and the Lord says I will bring back my sons from afar, my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called, everyone I created.

If we read the Old Testament we will discover the astounding fact that the living God heard the cry of an oppressed slave people, and brought them out of slavery in Egypt into freedom. He told them: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. God brings these slaves out from slavery, breaks their chains, their shackles, their fetters, frees them from tyranny, and leads them out of Egypt. God, in other words, created them as a people. When they are stranded far in the desert, through His creative power, God gives the people water from the rock when they are thirsty, and manna when there is no other source of food.

So here in Matthew’s gospel, far out in this remote place, in that same creative power Jesus feeds the crowd, the hungry, the wandered, the sick and in such abundance that the gospel records there were twelve baskets full of bread left over. Jesus, in the creative power of His Father feeds the crowd and they are filled

The living God, the source of the world’s life, shapes and creates, through His Son, Jesus Christ, who has become man...........

Verses and passages like these in the gospel are precious,

they reveal to us the creative power that belongs to Jesus Christ,

He has power over all things,

power to work in this world,

creative power to order and create us anew

Secondly, the gospel shows us here the compassion of Jesus

When we look here, at the shoreside in Galilee and see

in the midst of the hungry and the lost there, Jesus. When we look, just as the gospel of Matthew tells us, we see the love and compassion of Jesus Christ.

Here is Jesus among them, breaking bread, and in creative power giving all to eat ! Verse 20 says that all ate........and were filled.....

Now, in the crowd there many who were only there to catch a glimpse of Jesus in a crowd that size there would be all sorts of characters, in a crowd that size many would be there out of curiosity perhaps, in a crowd that size the faithful would be shoulder to shoulder with the sceptical,

the eager, with the indifferent.......

but, says the gospel, all ate and were filled..........

for, the gospel says:

the Lord had compassion for them all: and all of them shared bread and the fish together. None went away hungry. Here, we can guess, gathered round Jesus, the Son, are tax collectors, prostitutes, sinners, beggars from the street, and outcasts from the hedgerows gathered in Jesus' presence. And in Jesus Christ the Son of the living God, men and women meet the love, the kindness, the compassion of the living God for sinners.

So, what happens in the crowd echoes 1. the parables of the kingdom, the wheat and the tares, the parable of the net: in the crowd, all are present, all can hear the invitation of Jesus “Come unto me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest” and 2. this ungodly crowd of sinners, are those, like ourselves, for whom Christ died. Romans 5.6 declares that when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly and 5.8 when we were still sinners, Christ died for us !

And He is always the same. Jesus Christ is now as he was long ago, the same yesterday today and forever, loving, compassionate, gracious to us, as sinners......

May the Spirit work within us so that we will know more and more deeply the love and compassion shown to us in His Cross.............

........the salvation Jesus brings

Of course, over the years, the centuries, many many have read and recorded their thoughts about the feeding of the five thousand............ from many viewpoints and perspectives......

But one comment on this miracle I found very interesting, was by Bishop Joseph Ryle, writing more than a hundred years ago............

What did Bishop Ryle see in the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand ?

He saw a very deep meaning: He writes “There can be little doubt that the miracles of Jesus have a deep meaning, and teach great spiritual truths. And the feeding of the five thousand is one of those with great and deep meaning.”

What deep meaning does it contain ?

The Bishop says: The crowd, far out in that remote place is like the world itself. Hungry, searching, looking for what will last. Like those of whom Isaiah speaks, who have all gone astray like lost sheep (Isaiah 53:6); far away from God. But, it is into this crowd that Jesus has come (John 1.14). He is in their midst, in His creative power.

The bread and the fish are passed from hungry person to hungry person, just like the gospel message is passed on from person to person throughout the world (Romans 10.11 onwards). What is that Gospel message ?

Well, I have to say, I like the way the old Bishop gives us the meat of the Gospel, the heart of it:

What is the gospel message ? How we would put it today ? Well, following Bishop Ryle, the gospel message declares that:

Jesus Christ has offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.

and restored us, brought us back to God in His death on the cross

Like the bread and the fishes, that message of the cross is enough, more than enough to meet all our spiritual longings and needs, says Bishop Ryle. In the cross, as the crowd found in the bread and the fish, in the cross there is inexhaustible fullness.

The message of the Cross, says Paul: was ‘a scandal to the Jews, and nonsense to the Greeks’ (1 Corinthians 1.23). But for those who know the cross of Jesus Christ it is ‘the power of God and the wisdom of God’ (1 Corinthians 1:24).

We need a far deeper sense of the riches that are ours, do we not ?

We need a far deeper sense of the creative power of Jesus Christ, we need a far deeper sense of the love and compassion of Jesus Christ,

we need a far deeper sense of the power of the Cross of Jesus Christ. Let us ask God, in His loving mercy and grace, to give us, to grant us, more of these unsearchable riches............ in Jesus Christ

AMEN