REFLECTION

Maybe it's just me and a strange working of my mind, but I find today's lectionary readings a little incongruous in the light of this week's government launch of an anti-obesity strategy! That strategy in its emphasis on healthy eating, bans junk-food advertising before 9pm, special promotions on unhealthy food options in the supermarket, and the sweet display at the checkout. However, in our readings, we have the street-vendors' sales pitch not selling but giving away everything from the basic bread and water to wine and rich food. And we have a feeding of five thousand people not just enough to take the edge off their hunger, but enough to fill their stomachs and to have an abundance left over. Quite a coincidence.
Or, maybe, you have a feeling of déja vu, with this narrative of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. It's so familiar a story often told to children, used in children's Bible story books, and regularly comes up in the Lectionary for Sunday Services. Perhaps that's the problem: it's too familiar we have stopped thinking about it. Do we, however unconsciously, pass over it as little more than a nice story to tell the children, or a miracle narrative we'd rather pass quickly over because it doesn't fit easily with our 'adult' scientific thinking?
What picture of Jesus does it paint in our mind's eye? Perhaps a charismatic figure who can't escape the crowds. A man forever patient with the demands of that crowd that even when he has sought solitude to reflect and pray he spends the day teaching and healing, responding to others. A compassionate man who won't send the people away hungry at the end of the day. A miracle-worker who, magician-like, turns five loaves and two fish into a meal for five thousand?
Of course, we can fixate on the miracle, either by marvelling at it like we might marvel at the magician's conjuring trick or the amazing skill of an elite sportsperson, or by seeking to find a rational explanation of it that might satisfy the scientific mind. Alternatively, we can dig deeper and seek to understand what Matthew trying to say to his readers and what the passage might say to us today.
First of all, this is a great story of compassion in action. Of course, there's the compassion of Jesus responding to the needs of the crowd that had followed him in healing the sick among them. Even the disciples may be showing a degree of compassion, or at least concern, in asking Jesus to send them on their way to find food for themselves in the villages. That would have been one solution to the problem of so many hungry people. Perhaps they were also concerned for Jesus, afterall his retreat into solitude had been thwarted, and the day must have been exhausting. There's also Jesus' compassion in feeding the crowd rather than sending them away hungry - compassion that goes the extra mile.
Secondly, we should note the resonance with the Exodus story. The setting is a 'deserted place', like the wilderness of the Israelite's wanderings. The miraculous provision of bread and fish for the crowd is like God's provision of the manna and quails. The crowd's looking to Jesus to meet their need, to teach them, to lead them, is reminiscent of Moses leading the people out of their slavery. Isn't Matthew picturing Jesus as a new Moses?
Thirdly, there's a strong echo of the Eucharist: 'Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples....' (v.19). With it, there is also an echo of the Messianic Banquet.
Above all, our readings from Isaiah and from Matthew both proclaim the overflowing generosity and care of God for his people - a people returning from Exile (Isaiah), a people seeking out Jesus (Matthew). But each also demands response. The 'street vendor's' call in Isaiah needs to be heard and acted upon: 'come, buy and eat!' In the feeding of the five thousand the disciples are not totally passive - they work out what resources they have, they organise the crowd, they distribute the food, and they clear up afterwards collecting all that is left over. They are part of the miracle, even if in a very minor way.
What might we learn from this for now? What might it say to us in a time when there continues to be suffering through wars, abject poverty, and injustice? What might it say to us in a time of 'coming out of lockdown' and 'entering a new normal'? Not, I am sure, that God will wave a magic wand and all the troubles of the world will be over, or that we can sit on our laurels and wait for God to provide for all our needs. God calls us to play our part in faithfulness to his way. And most amazingly of all, these readings remind us of how God can do astonishing things with and through our meagre gifts, our limited abilities, even our weak or faltering faith and trust:

'Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
³ Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
⁵ See, you shall call nations that you do not know,
and nations that do not know you shall run to you,
because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.