“Jesus’ Fast Food” Matthew 14:13-21
8/3/14 Northside UMC
Pastor Matthew
We have a problem today with food. Many children are starving in our country and world. Food security is an issue. Kate and I have been talking about focusing our local mission on food this year. But childhood obesity is increasingly becoming a problem in our country as well. One reason for this problem is fast food. We love fast food. We’re on the go and we need food to be quick and convenient. Yet this kind of food is not healthy for us. Jesus offers a different type of fast food in today’s Scripture from Matthew. In the most popular miracle of all time, Jesus transforms the loaves and fishes into a feast. In fact this is the only miracle besides the Resurrection that is included in all four Gospels. So Jesus wants us to pay attention! Jesus tells his disciples, “You feed them!” This seems like a ridiculous command. Yet Jesus is telling us the same thing today.
Matthew tells us in vs. 13, “Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself.” “This” was the news that Herod had just killed John the Baptist. Herod had arrested and imprisoned John for preaching against him and then at a party Herod’s daughter asks for John the Baptist’s head on a platter. You know the story. So Jesus needed to get away after hearing this awful news. He is physically and emotionally drained and needed time to be refreshed. Maybe he is even grieving his friend, John the Baptist. Often we need that time to get away and grieve--To go to a deserted place and be alone with God. Just take your Bible and a journal and be with God for a few hours. Tell God how you feel. Are you exhausted? Overwhelmed? confused? Sad? Angry? Be honest with God. He can take it.
Then after this time away, Matthew tells us, in vs. 14, that when Jesus saw the crowds he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Jesus could have made an appearance, like a politician, raised his hands and said a quick blessing for the people, and then got back in his boat to travel to his campground. We like to do that when someone has an issue or concern that we don’t feel we have time to deal with. We say a quick hello, give a smile, and then leave. We don’t really care about the person because we’ve got “more important” things to do. Maybe even holy things to do, like go to church or prayer or Bible Study. But Jesus didn’t do that. He had spent time away with God and he was refreshed, and now He allowed the interruption to happen. There was nothing fast about what Jesus did with the crowds. Things take time in God’s kingdom, and we need patience. Jesus was patient with the crowd and stayed with them until evening, Matthew says.
But Jesus isn’t done yet. The disciples come to him and say, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go to into the villages and buy food” (vs. 15). Now the disciples are tired and hungry themselves. It’s been a long day of helping people and talking with people. They’ve been out in the hot sun doing ministry. For those introverted disciples it was time to recuperate and get their tanks full. You know us introverts need down time to be refreshed. The disciples were ready to go back to camp, build a fire, maybe get some fish and relax around the campfire for the night. You can hear the disciples telling Jesus, “Just order some fast food for the crowd so we can go home and relax.” Yet Jesus has other plans. He tells the disciples, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat” (vs. 16). This is a ridiculous command. Do what? Feed them? Yeah, right Jesus. How? The disciples say they have nothing but 5 loaves and 2 fish and there are 5000 people.
Jesus here seems to be challenging the disciples’ complacency. As one person said, it’s like the boss on Friday afternoon who says you need to do one more thing for next week’s big project before leaving for the weekend (How to Preach the Miracles, 178). One more thing? We get cranky and selfish, and think, “Haven’t we done enough already?” Or we think the boss should take care of it or that it can wait until Monday. Matthew has already shown us many of Jesus’ miracles earlier in the Gospel- the blind and mute can see and hear, a girl is restored to life, and a man is healed on the Sabbath. The disciples must have been like, “You’ve already performed many great miracles, can’t you just hit a rock and make water come out, or ask God to rain down manna from heaven like He did with Moses in the wilderness?” Jesus doesn’t order them to get some fast food in the village—to go get McDonald’s or Pizza Hutt. No, instead Jesus says, “You feed them.” The disciples then give him the food—the little they have, he takes it, blesses and breaks the loaves, and then gives it to the disciples to distribute to the crowd. Everyone is fed--all 5000, besides women and children, and there are 12 baskets left over, Matthew tells us. And they all were filled (vs. 20).
How can this be? I could probably eat one fish and 1-2 loaves of bread just by myself when I’m hungry. Wow! This miracle points to God’s superabundance and ultimately to the heavenly banquet where we will be sitting around the Table with Christ, feasting and fellowshipping with God and others, where all of God’s children will be filled. It points to Holy Communion that we celebrate today. God fills us and nourishes us at the table.
But I still can’t get beyond this command by Jesus to feed them. Jesus asks the disciples and us to give the little we have to God and He will use it. Our little will become an abundance. That’s important. We often think our little is too little. What can I do? I don’t have enough money or time or talents. I’m only one person anyway and this problem is way too big for me. Or we’re tired and have been fighting for too long. We haven’t seen God work in awhile. We say we have nothing to offer, but God takes our little bit, blesses it, breaks it, and multiplies it. Our little step of faith. Our small encouragement of another person, a simple “You can do it” or “God loves you.” Writing a simple note or saying a quick prayer.
Just as Jesus broke the bread in this miracle, Jesus’ body was broken for the salvation of the world. So we get our cue from Jesus. We too are to be broken and poured out for the world. When we give our little, Jesus takes that little and breaks it in order to multiply it. It’s almost as though Jesus can’t take what we have until it is broken. That’s all we can do sometimes—simply surrender to God and ask Him to use the broken pieces of our lives. Broken families, our broken past, broken relationships, broken dreams. Jesus then takes the little broken pieces of our life we have, blesses them and transforms them into abundance for everyone. It’s as though in the brokenness there is healing and wholeness. We must give this little to Jesus no matter how little. It’s when we offer our little that God blesses it. God can’t bless something if we hold onto it or if we hide our brokenness in shame. Steve Garnaas-Holmes preached about this at the Annual Conference in June. He talked about how we as the UnitedMethodistChurch is trying to soar on the wings of eagles and improve, but first we must admit that we are broken and in need. Maybe that’s what we need to do as a church. Start with our brokenness and ask God to use us. Confess that we aren’t as strong as we think. Be humble before God. When we are weak, He is strong, and God’s power is made perfect in weakness as Paul tells us in Corinthians. Then we can lift our heads and look around to the needs of others and humbly ask God to use the little we have.
So what is the invitation for us today? How are we to go and “feed them” like Jesus told his disciples? What is the “fast food” God is calling us to partake in that comes from His abundance? We will be having times of prayer on Wednesdays at 9:00am at the church. We will be seeking the Lord together in our mission as a church. Prayer is a good foundation for all our endeavors. But as we wait for God in prayer, let us do the things we already know we need to do--to love God and love others as Scripture tells us. To love the widows and orphans. To care for the least, the last, and the lost. People are starving for food today—both physical and spiritual food. Jesus is telling us, as he told the disciples 2000 years ago: “You feed them!” Amen.
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