I wonder if they noticed as the miracle was happening? Five loaves and two fish broken up isn’t a lot is it, and yet as it goes around that great crowd everyone has enough to eat and be satisfied. I wonder if they noticed it was going further than expected, I wonder if they noticed that the supply didn’t seem to be running out. Five thousand fed, and, as Matthew alone notes, that’s just counting the men.
magine you’ve got guests coming round for dinner. How are you going to prepare? Well, if it’s close friends and family you’ll likely make a bit of a fuss, but you’re not going to panic too much about a bit of mess around the corners of the house, usual plates and stuff for the meal. I remember hanging out with some friends at a conference, we’d brought a bottle of port, but ended up drinking it out of mugs because it was all we had. You’re delighted they’re there, you’re going to make a fuss of them, but it’s not going to be anything extraordinary, you’ll make do and muddle along.
But what if it’s your boss, or someone you’re trying to impress?
In our Gospel reading today Jesus gives us three challenges: who do you fear? Whose approval do you care about? And who are you ultimately loyal to? But in the midst of these challenges he also gives us the most wonderful assurance and comfort.
In our Gospel reading today we see Jesus encountering quite a few different people in quick succession, but the thread running through them all are two themes: who Jesus has come for, and what he has come to bring them.
Our readings today are rather wonderful, they speak of the awe and majesty of God, the otherness of God, and they speak of the one who has made him known that we might make him known.
‘The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it’. So begins the film the Lord of the Rings the Fellowship of the Ring. It starts in total darkness with that voiceover before the title card appears at the end of that sentence and the strings of the orchestra play a melody which will thread through the entire trilogy. It has stuck with me since I first watched it partly because it’s an utterly captivating way to start a film, but also because the first half resonates so deeply with our Christian faith.
The world is changed. Changed by the events we celebrate today.
No matter the darkness you find yourself in, Jesus is already there.
As we stand at the foot of the cross we stand in darkness. Literal darkness; we read that darkness covered the land from noon until Jesus’ death three hours later. And metaphorical darkness as Jesus goes down into the very depths with us. And as we stand here in the darkness, we find that Jesus is here with us. And that no matter the darkness we face in our lives, Jesus is already there. The darkness of life’s hardships, the darkness of sin, and the darkness of death.
You’d have heard them before you saw them. This great crowd pouring into Jerusalem for the festival. It wasn’t unusual to sing the Psalms, particularly those called the Psalms of Ascent, sung by pilgrims as they approached Jerusalem.
But this crowd has taken up a different song, a different shout. “Hosanna to the Son of David!”, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”, “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”. It’s a declaration of praise, of victory, of unbridled joy. The Psalms of Ascent drowned out by the sound of a crowd praising God not for what he has done, but for what he is doing. No wonder the people of Jerusalem are in turmoil.
It is fitting that as we begin our journey towards Easter, the great feast of our Salvation, that we should start with where it all went wrong, with the Fall. We heard a few weeks ago, and reflected on, how God created everything. And now that he has finished, he places humanity at the centre of the garden, an earthly paradise, to care for it and to bring order to it.
‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’. Have you ever heard the phrase ‘you can’t take it with you’. It’s an encouragement to use what’s given to you, particularly in relation to money, you can’t take it with you so you may as well use it for your benefit now. Live in the moment it says. And in some ways its perhaps a slightly bleak phrase, soon we will be dead and buried, and what use will the money be then, better to use it to enjoy life while we can. And today we are faced with our mortality. As we are marked with Ash, and remember the dust from which we come and the death to which we move we are called to reflect on our mortality. But not in the hedonistic way that phrase is often used.