The first character that we meet is Jesus. After a busy period in the region of Galilee at the beginning of his ministry, he takes his disciples for a quiet rest and some one-to-one teaching on the other side of the lake. But they are not alone.
The crowd is following. It is near the time of the Passover, March or April when the grass is green. There is excitement in the air; it is a time of nationalistic fervour and celebration, rather like 4 July in USA or 12 July in Northern Ireland. The Passover is the time to remember when Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, and when God fed them in the wilderness with bread, manna, that he sent down from heaven. They remember the prophecy in the Old Testament that God would raise up another prophet like Moses who would deliver God’s people. Could Jesus be the one who was promised?
There is Jesus and his disciples preparing for their quiet time together when crowd shows up. We learn from the other gospel accounts that Jesus teaches them for quite a while, but now he asks the question about how the crowd will be fed? It says something about Jesus’ openness to others and his willingness to serve and care; he will teach them when they show up uninvited and he will feed them.
So he tests the disciples to see what they make of it all. Philip produces the accountant’s answer. “I have done the sums, assessed as accurately as possible the financial realities, and I have to advise you that this is not a viable proposition.”
As we saw last week, Andrew’s strength lies in bringing people to Jesus, and this is a good thing. He does it even is he cannot really believe that it will do any good. I am not sure if this is desperation “We have searched everywhere and this is all we have come up with”, irony “Here’s the answer to our problem, I don’t think!” or sanctified hope “This is the best we could come up with, but it is not going to do much good is it?”
And the boy? What a wonderful example of sharing and making one’s self available. Some have been tempted to reduce this whole episode to a parable about how good it is to share with each other. It is much more than that, but we should never lose sight of the fact that sharing is a mark of love and Christian commitment. Together with prayers, bible reading, and breaking of bread, sharing is what we do.
Nevertheless the story remains a reminder of the Exodus event. We see the link with the Passover and the manna; immediately after this we see Jesus walking on the water, and then we are led into a tempestuous discussion about who Jesus is that reminds us that for 40 years the people contended with God.
Harvest is a time for us to celebrate God’s rich provision and all of creation. We take delight in the foods, the clothes, the homes, the games, and everything else that he gives us. We take stock and remember to have a care for those less fortunate than us.
We see also that these lead on to a discussion. Who is Jesus? Can we trust him?
The obvious answer is that, yes, we can trust him and indeed we have no other choice.
This is true when we consider our relationship with God. How can we be forgiven and have peace with God? What can we do when our lives seem to be so much at variance with the way that we would like to live? We try to live well, do we not? And yet we cannot live well enough to please God.
This is also true when we consider our finances, whether our own personal finances or those of the church. The need is so great and such are the uncertainties we face that we are reduced to the position of a Philip: “Our need is so great that we do not stand a hope.” Or of an Andrew: “What we have got is totally inadequate to help us meet the need.” Either way, we are doomed. Or are we?
We can be so familiar with the story that we lose sight of the strangeness, the wonder. Jesus turns water to wine, he feeds 5,000 men (perhaps 20,000 people) with practically nothing.
He is trying to tell us something!
He is sowing a seed in each of us. We can trust him. Even if the seed is very small, and we are very small in our faith and Christian experience, he can and will do something mysterious and miraculous in us.
We can know his rich provision, as much as we want or need, and there is much more left over.
There is nothing that Jesus cannot and will not forgive in your life. You have only to trust him. There is no need that you have that he cannot or will not fulfil for those who trust him, obey him, surrender their lives to him. This is the true harvest that he is looking for.
No comments:
Post a Comment