More than bread Pt 1 – More than words
Readings: John 6. 1-21
We’ve switched from Mark’s Gospel into John for the next few weeks. This is why we skipped over the main chunk of last week’s Gospel, because we’re focussing on it this week but in John. And from that we’re launching into the rest of chapter 6 which is all about Jesus’ claim ‘I am the bread of life’ which we’ll spend the rest of the summer looking at.
And what John wants us to see in this passage are heavy overtones of the Exodus and wilderness wanderings of God’s people. Jesus and his disciples have headed through the water and, as Mark notes, they’re in a deserted place. And great crowds are following them.
Think Moses and the people of God, entering the wilderness through the parted Red Sea. But looping back a moment it’s an interesting note isn’t it, that great crowds are following Jesus. It’s not just that crowds slowly form as Jesus starts doing stuff. There’s this great crowd of people following him from place to place.
So here comes Jesus, arriving at the edge of the wilderness with this great crowd in tow. As I say, there’s echoes of Moses here. And then Jesus and his disciples head up the mountain, again echoes of Moses ascending the mountain of God at Horeb. And if we haven’t got it, if we haven’t noticed the clues he’s been dropping so far, John makes it clear, he references that Passover was near, that great celebration of the Exodus and coming into the promised land. He’s hammering home this point, here’s the truer and greater Moses, here is the one who will bring a truer and greater salvation. That’s not to say he’s making things up, massaging events to fit a narrative, more that he’s spotted what Jesus is laying down as he goes and does things, Jesus is the storyteller here, John has just spotted what Jesus is laying down.
So what comes next in the wanderings of God’s people? They become hungry and ask for food. And what happens next in this passage, the great crowd has caught up with Jesus and he turns to Philip and says ‘where are we going to get food for all these people?’ The people are once more to be fed in the wilderness, fed miraculously at God’s hand.
As a side point it’s a lovely point of realism here, one of those incidental things which show this is a record of real events and not made up. Jesus asks Philip. Why Philip? Because, as we read in Luke’s Gospel, this happens near Bethsaida, and earlier in this Gospel we heard that Philip is from Bethsaida. Philip is the local boy, he has the local knowledge, of course Jesus turns to him to ask that question.
But Philip, he immediately writes of Jesus’ question as ridiculous, as impossible. Even 6 months wages won’t cover the cost of enough bread for each to have a little. But Andrew, he see’s a possibility. He’s met a boy who has brought his packed lunch with him, some small loaves and some fish. It’s small, it isn’t going to go far, but Andrew offers it. Perhaps he’s making a joke ‘we’ve solved the problem Jesus! We’ve got 5 little loaves and 2 small fish!’ But perhaps he really does see in this little offering the potential that Jesus brings. I must admit that’s where I fall on this, Philip sees only problems, Andrew perhaps sees possibilities.
But this nevertheless is a small meal of meagre contents. Barley loaves are the cheapest type of bread; it’s the inexpensive bread of the poorer classes of the day. And the fish is likely pickled to preserve it, there to moisten the rather dry bread. Yet Jesus takes this meagre offering and transforms it doesn’t he. Jesus accepts from us even the most meagre of offerings given in faith. Just as he transforms us, transforms the poverty of our nature, the lack in our fallen humanity, by the riches of his grace, his overflowing goodness, so when we offer him what we have, no matter how small, if we offer it in faith it will be sufficient for what he purposes, for what he plans to do.
Jesus sits the crowd down, gives thanks in words similar to those we have taken for use during Ordinary Time at the opening to our Eucharistic prayer where I take bread and wine; ‘blessed are you Lord our God, King of the Universe…’ And starts handing it out. And once everyone has had their fill, he sends out his disciples to gather in the crumbs so that nothing may be lost. Interesting detail again, nothing shall be lost, he’ll speak those words again later of his disciples and all who follow him, that he shall not lose one of them.
They gather up the leftovers and they, miraculously, have more than they started with. From five loaves and two fish we have over 5000 people well fed (notice John only counts the men, there could be as many as 20,000 or more) and with them full, twelve baskets of leftovers. It’s astonishing, an amazing miracle which points to so much, and we’re going to spend the rest of the summer thinking about some of those themes as Jesus launches into his saying ‘I am the bread of life’. But for the remainder of my sermon I want to focus on one thing. Jesus feeds them.
We heard last week how Jesus sees the crowds, has compassion on them for he sees their hunger, and he begins to teach them many things, satisfies their spiritual hunger with his teaching, with his words. But, as Mark records, when it gets late, having taught for some time, he sees that the people are now physically hungry. And he doesn’t go ‘not my department, I feed spiritually, go find some physical food and come back later’. No, just as he has fed them spiritually, so now he will feed them physically. Just as he has met their spiritual needs, so now he will meet their physical needs. And if that takes miraculous provision in a deserted place, so be it.
We can often draw a nice neat line between the secular and the spiritual can’t we. Here’s the spiritual stuff, the religious stuff; church, prayer, Bible, etc. Here’s the secular stuff; food, clothing, money, education etc. We like drawing a nice neat line, here’s God’s stuff, here’s the world’s stuff. But we know don’t we that it doesn’t work like that. That our faith has implications for what clothing we wear, what we do with our money, what we think about education and so much more. We can’t draw a nice neat line, it’s all tangled up together.
And it’s true here too. We may want Jesus to stick to the religious stuff, keep out of the practical stuff. But Jesus’ concerns for the crowd, his concern for us, his love and care for us cannot be bounded by such distinctions. Jesus cares about our whole lives, our whole selves, mind, body and spirit. All of it matters to him. So if the crowds are hungry he’ll feed them, out of the same compassion that means he’s been teaching them about life and faith and God.
God has created us to be physical beings, of course he cares about the practical needs of life, he created us to have them. God can no more be kept to the spiritual religious stuff and away from the practical than we can keep the waves from the beach. Jesus cares about our needs, body, mind and spirit. Which means when we pray ‘give us this day our daily bread’, he expects us to be thinking about bread. He also wants us to be thinking about our wider needs, but bread is literal here, as well as spiritual.
And if we here at St David’s are to show this community what Jesus is like. If we’re to be an outpost of God’s Kingdom, to reveal what life is like when God is in charge, we need to be care as God does, as Jesus does, about the practical as well as the spiritual. James’ letter is the readings at the moment in evening prayer and in chapter two he writes this ‘Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.’
And yes Jesus’ ultimate goal is that they come back to God, that they are saved eternally, that they know the salvation of God. Very shortly as he sees the crowds coming because they were fed rather than because of what he’s teaching them he’ll rebuke them for it. But he still feeds them.
There’s concern in some parts of the church that we’re becoming too secular. That all we’re doing is providing foodbanks and toddler groups and debt support and have forgotten about our commission to make disciples, to bring people to Jesus. And there’s a risk isn’t there that that’s all we do, some churches have fallen into that mindset. But let’s not swing the pendulum too far the other way such that we divorce practical and spiritual, that we fail to care for the whole person.
The vision for the Church of the Holy Spirit is that it will be a place where we meet the varied needs in our community in practical ways. And that it will be a place that shares Jesus and the hope of the Gospel with our community too. But let’s not let that project distract us from what we might do here, what could we be doing to come alongside people, not offering a handout, or even a hand up, but coming alongside with true care and love.
As the people realise what has happened they come to take Jesus by force, to make him King. It’s a real prospect, 5000 men, that’s a fair fighting force. But Jesus slips away, his kingdom is not of this world. Whilst he cares for and meets our physical needs, our practical needs. His vision is greater than that, a people saved forever, brought from slavery to sin, through the wilderness of this world into the promised land of eternity, God’s Kingdom come in its fulness. And as he walks not through the sea, but over it, we see the truer and greater Moses, the truer and greater King.
As author and theologian Rev. Dr Ian Paul wrote on his blog this week ‘Jesus is the true king, who provides for the needs of his people, both physical and spiritual. Nothing and no-one is lost from those who receive his grace. It is his presence—the presence of God himself—who quietens the storm and brings us to our final destination’.
Amen.