Good morning. It’s a beautiful day filled with the glories of spring. Each day we have is a miracle, the nice ones and the nasty ones, but this day is one of the nicest.
The Gospel lesson today tells the story of the feeding of the 4000 (not counting women and children!). There are a lot of different ways to interpret this story. I don’t think that we should ever remove the wonder from the stories of Jesus.
Some interpreters do exactly that with this story. They try to fit the story to the logic of people hoping to make the Gospel more palatable to more people by stripping it of wonder and making it more rational. They say that what REALLY happened here is that when the young boy agreed to share his food then everyone acknowledged that they too had a little food hidden away in their garments and so suddenly there was plenty of food to feed the crowd. The “”miracle” is the generosity of people who just needed Jesus and the young boy to show them how to share.
I don’t buy that.
Just before the feeding story is told the Gospel says: “the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.” It’s pretty clear that the story reflects the many wondrous miracles that Jesus was performing. He was healing people. That’s why the crowd had gathered in the first place. Even more importantly he was healing people to show them the glory of God and that is why we are told they “praised the God of Israel.” And when they grew hungry, Jesus performed another miracle: he fed them and the food that he was given multiplied to meet their needs.
Trying to rationalize the Gospel to make it more palatable to human minds is an exercise in destructive futility. God came down to earth in the form of a human, lived among us, suffered rejection and physical punishment of the very worst that society could throw at him, died to human life and was resurrected by the power of God. Somehow through that death and resurrection God cleared away all the obstacles dividing us from God and from one another and invited us to show the faith, the trust and the courage to proclaim through our lives and our words to all the world that God had a better life to offer us – now and through eternity. That’s the beginning of our Gospel and the beginning of our new lives. It is a wonder. It is a miracle. It is astonishing. It is a mystery. It is the truth!
Prayer: Heavenly Father, forgive us when we doubt the proofs of your power and creative love. Thank you for the gifts you have given to us, the love you have shown us, and the new life that you have invited us to live. Like the crowds that surrounded Jesus on the hills, we give you glory and praise. Amen.
Today’s readings are Morning Psalm 12, 146; Ecclesiastes 8:14—9:10; Gal. 4:21–31; Matt. 15:29–39; Evening Psalm 36 & 7.
Blessings.
Pastor Jim
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