Sunday's Readings: 2 Kings 6: 42-44
Ephesians 3: 14-21
John 6: 1-21
Next Sunday is my Sunday-before-I-go-on-holiday Sunday. I am looking forward to it.
When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
- It appears that Jesus is being misunderstood again. We all know that this happened quite often and that it still happens today.
- The people who were fed with the loaves and fishes wanted to make Jesus king. They recognized him as ‘...the prophet who is to come into the world.’ In him, they saw that there would be bread for all and that he would be just the sort of king they would wish. Here was a king who could satisfy all their needs and wants. They didn't ask what his teaching was about or what God was telling them through him. They saw bread-for-all.
- This was not the sort of king Jesus wanted to be so he did the only smart thing there was to do; he took off and “withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” He probably realized that there was no way of talking the crowd out of their proposed action. He also realized that the crowd was a fickle beast and the first time he didn't supply the expected meal at the expected time, the crowd would turn on him. He wasn't the king they wanted and this situation wasn't the kingdom he wanted.
- The people on the mountainside confused the sign of the kingdom with the kingdom itself. The abundance of bread is a sign of the reign of God, but it is not the reign of God itself.
- There are many who see things the same way now. There are those who expect good things from God, and not just good things, but riches and wealth, simply because they believe. Those riches and that wealth become signs of God's favour while poverty, sickness, and sadness become sign of God disfavour and even rampant sin.
- Some mistake the Kingdom of God for certain political stances. This, of course, carries with it the others side of the coin – that those sitting on the other side of the aisle must be the kingdom of Satan or at least dupes of the evil one.
- Some see the abundant meal as the property of a certain group, a race, a creed, a theological stance... forgetting, of course, that Jesus didn't have his disciples check the cards or records of the crowd. He simply invited EVERYBODY there to sit down and eat their fill. Maybe we have to admit that this is the kind of banquet we'd like to be invited to, but a banquet where we might find the seating arrangement rather uncomfortable.
- We may need to ask ourselves this: If we had been there, would we have desired the never-ending buffet served up at the hands of the Nazarene? Had we been present, would the bellyful of bread been enough for us? Or would we seek the kingdom of God signified in the meal?
- I'm not asking you to tell me. In truth, I don't know how I'd answer those questions myself. None of us can answer that question for anyone else; we can only answer for ourselves. An honest answer may set us on a renewal of our faith and how we live it out. If we admit that the bread alone would be enough for us, we have the chance to change our ways. If we see what is beyond the bread and the fish, we can be energized to take what we see and make a difference in the world.
- Every time we break bread – and today would have been the perfect day to have Holy Communion, by the way – the call of God is present. We are called to go beyond ourselves and our meal. We are called to feed the hungry around us, whether they are starved for real bread, for the nourishment simple community and fellowship brings, or for the presence of Jesus Christ found in the Word and the Word-made-flesh, in both the sacrament and the community of the church.
- I have to admit there is an embarrassment of riches in the Gospel reading today. There is so much there to meditate on, to mull over, and to hear out. Like “What does the Kingdom of God look like?” or “Why did the apostles boat come to their destination when Jesus stepped from the water to the boat?” or “Look what Jesus can do with a bag lunch! What about what we give and have?”
- All that will have to wait for another day; Many of us have things to do. Still I recommend that you think these things over and share your answers with me -and each other- later.
- But what if we don't trust ourselves? What if we don't know what to think when we think about these things? Don't worry! The Holy Spirit is with each and every one of us and the Spirit may just wake us up one night with an idea or inspiration we never expected.
- Will our little insight and faith be enough? Well, if any of us feel that way, it would be good to remember that a little boy's lunch became enough to feed 5000 once Jesus took it. If he hadn't brought it up to Jesus, everybody would have gone hungry.
- In the hands of Jesus, what looks like a little becomes a lot.
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