Aug. 4, 2002

Mindekirken August 4, 2002
Pastor Lloyd Thorsen

How in your busy days do you find yourself a quiet place? A place, let's say, to rest your weary soul? And once you found that quiet place, how would you react if you came face to face with a multitude of people, 5,000 men besides women and children? Some theologians have said as many as two or three times as many as those 5,000 men; a multitude of 10 to 15 thousand, many who are sick and need to be healed, and most, perhaps all, are hungry and need to be fed.

What would you do? How would you react? This is the situation in which we find Jesus as we read in our gospel this morning.

But before we continue. We must remember that which happened in the fourteenth chapter of Matthew, we first read of the beheading of John the Baptist.

There was a lavish birthday banquet for King Herod: a sumptuous banquet for Herod's courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. But this banquet was infected with vengeance. Herodias, the vengeful wife of King Herod, wanted John the Baptist to be killed.

Salome, Herodias' daughter, danced before Herod and pleased Herod so much that he promised to grant her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she asked that John the Baptist’s head be delivered upon a platter.

Herod was grieved by this request, but, nonetheless, he commanded that this be done. Not much joy came from this birthday party for a king. Gruesome. A banquet to honor the king ends in horror.

When Jesus heard of John the Baptist's death, Jesus grieved and withdrew to a deserted place to be by himself. Just as you and I, in a time of mourning, he too needed to find a place to be alone, a place of stillness and solitude.

Jesus withdrew in a boat across the Sea of Galilee to a deserted place to be by himself. If you have ever been at the Sea of

Galilee, you will remember that the northern coast of the lake is not all that wide. Matthew tells us that when the crowds heard, they followed Jesus on foot so that they were there when he went ashore.

A moment ago I asked, how would you react if once you came to your place of solitude, you came face to face with ten to fifteen thousand people waiting to be healed and fed by you?

Some of you might say, "Pastor, that is something that will never happen to me, so how can I answer such a question? Well, that's true. It is improbable that you or I will find ourselves faced with 10 to 15 thousand sick and hungry people waiting for us in their need.

But we could very well find ourselves approached by two or three people who felt they needed you or me to care for them. That is certainly in the realm of possibility. Then, how would we react?

If we were in the same situation as Jesus, we could perhaps say, '"Can’t you see, I am grieving? Can’t you respect my own need for solitude? Go away and, if you must, come back some other day."

But Matthew tells us that when Jesus went ashore, he saw the crowd, and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. He had compassion for them.

Evening came and his disciples said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." But Jesus said to them, "they need not go away, you give them something to eat." The disciples replied, "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish." Ten, fifteen thousand people, five loaves and two fish, and the disciples are to feed them? Jesus said, "bring them here to me."

Taking the five loaves and two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled. What a contrast this meal had in comparison to the banquet for king Herod.

Five loaves, two fish. The resources the disciples could muster were meager, but Jesus helps them discover that, in his hands, such resources are sufficient.

Today, just as it was two thousand years ago, we live in a world in which people's needs often seem to go beyond the resources we have available. We are faced with over fourteen million people on the verge of starvation in Africa. We are faced with children in our own country who go to bed each night and are hungry. There are children in our land who go to sleep each night, not having a bed to rest in.

Just as the disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, we too are under the mandate to feed the hungry. We too, are the essential agents of this day to carry out Jesus' ministry to the multitudes. We too are the essential agents of this day to carry out Jesus’ ministry.

How do we understand this miracle of the feeding of the five thousand besides women and children?

Difficult as it might be, we could understand this to be just that, the multiplication of five loaves and two fish. A miracle which happened once long ago on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. And with that which was in the hands of Jesus, five thousand men, besides women and children were fed.

Let us not be critical though of those who feel they must understand this miracle in another way. There are many who see this miracle as sacrament. The people received a small piece of food and were strengthened, for they ate a meal in which they ate the spiritual food of Jesus. If so, they see this miracle as a miracle that takes place every time we come to the Lord's table, the meal in which we are strengthened to walk the way of life which leads us to God. It is the meal at which we will be fed and strengthened this morning.

There are people who understand this miracle another way. It was late and they were hungry. Thousands of people had come from towns on foot. Could not many of them have some food with them, even a little?

Have you ever been to a picnic and seen many people sitting on the grass enjoying their food, and never think of offering some of theirs to someone else?

Jesus gives an example. Meager as it was, he began to share by taking those five loaves, blessing them, breaking them, and giving them to his disciples to share with others.

And, with his example others began to share, and before they knew what was happening, there was suddenly more than enough for all.

If it was this way, it was something more than the miracle of the multiplication of loaves and fishes. It was the miracle of transformation. Transformation of selfish people into generous people at the touch of Christ. It became the miracle of Christ feeding them with himself, implanting his spirit to dwell within their hearts.

William Barclay, a famous theologian at Glasgow University in Scotland has written that it does not matter how we understand this miracle.

"One thing is sure,' he writes, 'When Christ is there, the weary find rest and the hungry soul is fed." He wrote we must never be content to consider the miracles of Jesus, "...as something which happened, we must always regard them as something which happens."

They are not isolated events in history; they are demonstrations of the always and forever power of Jesus Christ, demonstrations of the always and forever power of Jesus Christ as Jesus implants his spirit to dwell within our hearts. He continues to perform these miracles and he has need for each of us in order to do so."

Can you remember these words:

Come, you that are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you ....

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these... You did it to me.

We must never consider the miracles of Jesus as something that happened long ago. They happen today. They will happen tomorrow as Jesus implants his spirit to dwell in our hearts.

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church ·  924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 ·  (612)874-0716