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Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – August 2, 2020
Centenary United Methodist Church
Psalm 7:1-7; Matthew 14:13-21 Today's Gospel
Lesson is one of the more familiar scenes that we have from the New
Testament. The scene is
frequently titled, Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand. This morning we
are going to look at this storyline because people, eager to remember
one of Jesus' famous miracles, may have missed the substance of what was
actually happening. I can remember how
Sunday School teachers dealt with this in my past.
When we studied this lesson, we were always left with more
questions than we had answers.
Try to empathize with a teacher that had 24 children asking, "Did
Jesus make the fish? Did
the loaves suddenly appear? Who baked all that bread?"
Looking bewildered, the teachers had nothing they could say but,
"This is why we call this story a miracle.
It is beyond explanation." Before we consider
any of the details of this episode, we need to ask ourselves why
approximately ten thousand people were following Jesus by walking around
the northern part of the Sea of Galilee.
Jesus and the disciples sailed to the other shoreline eight miles
away. The reason that Jesus wanted to be alone was so that he could
grieve over the senseless murder of his cousin, John the Baptist.
As you may recall,
Herod had more than enough alcohol to drink during a large birthday
celebration that his wife organized. Herodias
had invited all the kingdom's ruling class of people. After his
witnessing a sensual dance routine by his wife's daughter, Herod
promised to give her anything she wanted, up to half of his Kingdom.
(Mark 6:23) Salome consulted
with her mother who had staged everything for this moment of final
revenge. She hated John who was quite vocal with his public criticism of
her life-style. (Mark 6:17) Salome was told to ask for John to be
beheaded and to have his head delivered to her on a platter. Because
everyone had heard what the King told his step-daughter, the deed was
done. (Mark 6:28) John had been a
highly respected prophet to his people. In fact, the ministries of John
and Jesus ran parallel with each other for some time.
From prison, John the Baptist,
sent his own disciples to ask Jesus if he was the one that John had
predicted would come. (Matthew 11:2f) When John's
prophetic voice had been silenced, Jesus was so deeply hurt by the
news that he wanted to be alone with his grief. The people needed to
grieve as well and were eager to hear what Jesus had to say about the
savage death of his cousin.
John's death is what caused them to walk around the Sea of Galilee.
The writers of the
Gospel accounts were so eager to celebrate the feeding of 5,000 men and
a similar number of women and children, that nothing of what Jesus said
about John's death was recorded.
This event was like a well-attended funeral that went on for
hours. We know this because
as soon Jesus got out of the boat, his heart was filled with pity for
all those who had followed him.
They were as overcome with grief as Jesus and were in need of
hearing words of comfort. The
gathering lasted until late in the afternoon. (Matthew 14:14) Was there really a
miracle during this event?
In Matthew, the loaves and fish appear to have come with what the
disciples had brought with them (Matthew 14:16) In John's record of this
event, the five loaves and two fish were brought by a boy. (John 6:9)
Regardless of which story is more accurate, the food was clearly brought
by someone. No one would make
such a journey without bringing enough liquid and food to provide for
themselves. When it was supper time, Jesus took the five loaves and two
fish, blessed them and set the stage for everyone to begin eating
what they had brought with them.
The crowd did share and our lesson tells us that twelve full
baskets were left over.
Isn't it ironic that history regarded this gathering as Jesus feeding
the 5,000? When the twelve
full baskets were collected, no doubt there were various kinds of bread
made from different grains, and also grapes, nuts, figs, legumes,
olives, raw vegetables and salt-dried Gefilte fish.
In other words, the disciples did not collect twelve baskets
filled with duplicates of the five loaves of bread and two fish brought
by either the disciples or the boy.
For the Jews, it was a sin to waste food, and this is why the
leftovers were always collected and given away to others.
A massive group
eating supper together would only appear to be a miracle to those who
have little or no knowledge of how customary it was for Jews to carry
drink and food when they travel any distance. They needed to stay
hydrated in the sun's heat and carry their own food for energy. The crowd
gathered to hear what Jesus had to say about the nature of God who would
allow their prophet to be killed in such a hideous manner.
We can only speculate about what
Jesus told the crowd. Jesus had a lot to say that would differ widely
from the beliefs of his people. Their heritage gave them countless
memories of the powerful God, Yahweh, that had vanquished the enemies of
the Jews just prior to their exodus from Egypt.
Jesus had to
explain why God did not spare John from the evil thoughts and deeds of
Herodias. It would appear
to Jesus' listeners that the sinful nature of people had no
consequences. Jesus knew that
devious people who have self-oriented needs can never win
anything of substance. (Matthew 16:26) What can we take away from
this episode that can guide our thinking?
Today, a common
practice is to pray to God for a miracle that will give others a longer
time to go on living. We want God to interrupt the normal cycle of life
and death. Jesus once
prayed as we frequently do, asking God for a longer time to be in
ministry. (Matthew 26:39) As often happens with our prayers, Jesus'
prayer went unanswered.
Death can be a lingering process or very sudden and unexpected. I recall a time
when I was very young watching my father holding a grieving father in
his arms. The man's son had just been killed in a sledding accident
after a beautiful snow storm. The sobbing, hyperventilating father was
pleading, "Please, please, Rev. Stetler, tell me why God would allow
such a thing to happen." There was another
time when I found my father crying in our living room.
He had just received a telephone call where the caller reported
that four of Dad's close colleagues had been killed in a major car
accident. The four pastors
were headed to a Conference meeting. There are times when we think,
"These deaths make no sense." As Jesus
discovered, God does not intervene in life or death matters.
Why is that? The
answer is that we are the ones who become stricken when one of
our loved ones appears to be snatched from our lives unfairly.
God is not stricken at all because death is never the end of
anyone's life. To God, our loved one's departure is like going from one
room into another room.
There is no need for God to intervene.
That is our need. We remember well,
the cries of Mary and Martha when their brother, Lazarus, died. They
both said identical comments, "Had you only been here, Lord, our brother
would not have died." (John 11:21) People remember this miracle when
they plead to God to heal their friend or loved one.
The odd thing about
this story of Lazarus is that he and his sisters are not mentioned again
in the Gospels. There were
no more gatherings of Jesus with the three of them in Bethany.
There were no words of gratitude expressed by the sisters.
There were no massive crowds that would have instantly assembled
in Bethany if Lazarus had been brought back to life. The resurrection of
Lazarus is questionable. We have to believe that Jesus restored life to
a person who had been deceased for four days. We also have to believe
that Jesus interrupted the life and death cycle to show Lazarus' sisters
the glorious nature of God. (John 11:40) Really?
Would Jesus have done this?
Jesus already knew that life does not end. (Matthew 17:3)
The demons
underneath our pleas to God are fear and our neediness. The
reality is that no matter how we plead to God for a miracle, eventually
every one of us will graduate from this life. The timing and
circumstances of our deaths vary widely. Some of us escape death by
getting well. Others succumb to an illness.
John was beheaded.
Jesus died on the cross. Our
parents, brothers, sisters and friends all leave us. Think of how
history has assigned the death of six million Jews to Adolf Hitler.
Think of how COVID-19 has interrupted the normal lives of people all
over the world by bringing death. There is no
reason for God to intervene because nothing happens to us at our death
but the shedding of our physical cocoons.
It is our need for a miracle that causes us to make special
requests of God. Our lives
will continue until our energies are released.
No doubt, Jesus
seized on the moment of his cousin's murder to teach the crowd that God
had not abandoned them. Death is
an essential part of life's grand adventure. It comes suddenly or like a
thief in the night. We have often heard
that "No one gets out of this life alive." However, the truth is that
there is no break in our consciousness when we transition from this
life. We do get out of this life very much alive.
We can replace our worries and fears with total peace by
realizing that when our movie is over, we leave the theater
and go home. This is what
Jesus did. He gave us
assurances that this will be our destination as well. (John 14:27-31) CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER Always faithful God,
what comfort we experience when we remember that we cannot earn what you
freely give. All around us
we are blessed with the colors of the cardinal, blue birds and an array
of flowers. We see
innocence in the faces of children.
We are exposed to wisdom from our seniors.
We thank you, God, for all the areas of life that help us to
understand that your love surrounds us in many unique forms.
Remind us that we were created to share, to listen, to accept
others as they are, and to be at peace with our trust in you for the
outcome of all things.
Amen.
THE
PASTORAL PRAYER Thank you,
God, for a new day and for our desire to draw apart from the world for
just a little while. Often during our experiences here, we learn
how better to discern a path that will continue to refine our spirits,
attitudes, and desires. There are times when we discover that many of
the habits that we have learned over time no longer serve the way we
have chosen to communicate. What a joy it is to realize that we
can become a new person without looking back to moments in our past
that once defined us. We have learned that regrets serve no
purpose other than to support our resolve to grow beyond them.
Thank you for helping us to realize that no time spent changing how we
think has been wasted. Every experience that has brought us to
this point has been a valuable rung on our ladder as we climb toward our
destiny. As our world enlarges beyond our neediness and
material desires, guide us toward circumstances that will allow our
spirits to make your presence visible. Allow us to understand the
tension when our understanding of generosity confronts the needs of
self, when our understanding of serving others is challenged by our busy
schedule, and when our pursuit of peace is met by our perception that
nothing good in life is free.
Lead us to learn that life does not need to make sense to us
before we reveal your presence in all that we do. We pray these
thoughts through the spirit of Jesus, who taught us to say when we pray
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