A sermon on Matthew 14:13-21 by Nathan Nettleton

The story of Jesus feeding the massive crowd is one of those stories that we probably know a bit too well, and so it kind of sails on past without pulling us up and making us think. We think we are so familiar with it that it couldn’t have anything to say to us. And yet it is a very rich story, and there are any number of directions I could take it today, many of which would have something new to say to many of us.

It starts with Jesus trying to disappear off by himself after hearing the news of the execution of John the Baptiser. There is rich soil there for exploring how Jesus coped with the growing realisation that his own path was heading the same way and his need for time alone with God with his own thoughts and feelings. There is the dynamic that was depicted so powerfully in the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar” of the crowds pressing in on Jesus even when he was trying to take time out, and the struggle that that must have caused him as he tried to look after himself without getting angry and rejecting towards the needy crowds who all wanted a piece of him. And in many churches today, the focus will be on the miracle itself and questions of what kind of miracle it was and what the miraculous dimension of his ministry tells us about his identity, and there is much fruit for thought there too.

You may well be aware that this is one of the stories I often draw on to explain my conviction that the Lord’s Table is to be open to all who respond to the invitation, and not only to the already baptised. I think all the stories of Jesus sharing meals contribute to our understanding of the Eucharist, and this one is clearly so from the way it deliberately highlights Jesus blessing the bread and breaking it to share with all. And so it contributes to my view that Jesus makes an open invitation, and so should we. So I could unpack that more too.

But what I want to focus in on is what this story tells us about the abundant and extravagant generosity of God, and how we open ourselves up to the full experience of that abundance.

Abundance and extravagant generosity are clearly the main focus of this story. Over the last few weeks we have been hearing the parables from the chapter that leads up to this story, and perhaps you can see how this story of the five loaves and two fish multiplying to feed the huge crowd continues the images of the impossibly bumper harvest on the good soil that yields thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold. And even though, as the parables also remind us, the weeds will also flourish in the rich soil of God’s love, the abundant harvest of those who receive the Word and nurture it is never in doubt.

If I were to try to summarise the whole gospel as simply as possible it would probably still centre on the idea of abundance. God’s love and mercy and blessing for you and for everyone are outrageously abundant, and have absolutely no regard for whether you deserve it or could earn it or ever repay it. If you get that, and I don’t just mean that you can repeat it back to me but that you really get it deep in your bones, then you have grasped the core of the good news and you will be beginning to find the freedom and life that it opens up to us all. And this story of the feeding of the crowd is telling us that even when it looks, at first glance, as though our resources have run out and we are down to our last scraps, there is nevertheless an abundance that is just waiting to be released.

So what does it take for that abundance to be released? How are we to get in on it, because we all know what it feels like to be running on empty. Well, I want to give you one very practical and specific-to-our-church example of how this works in the real world, and then I will finish up by bringing us back to what this story and the example are showing us about who God is and what God is doing among us.

First my example. One of the things we are struggling with a little bit in our congregation at the moment is rather pertinent to this story, and that is the provision of food. Some time back we made the decision to no longer do a regular sit-down meal after the service, but to share drinks and nibblies instead. But now we are struggling with that a bit with an increasing number of people finding it too much for them when it is their turn to provide it, and so wanting to reduce their involvement in the roster. That of course then puts more of the work on others, or else means that some weeks we’ll have to have nothing. Now one of the problems here, in my opinion, may actually be that we have tended to want to be too abundant, and so it has virtually become a finger food meal rather than the pre-dinner snack it was originally proposed to be, and so it is actually taking at least as much work and money as the full meal that we decided to give up.

But more importantly, there is this question of how we understand and experience abundance. And the key to it is generosity. You see, I haven’t heard anyone saying that they are tired of receiving the drinks and nibblies, just that they are tired of providing them. And yet, you don’t have to stand back very far for a wider view to see how rapidly self-defeating that is. If I pull off the roster then the remaining people all have to do more, and so then another one quits and the remaining ones have to do even more and it won’t be very long at all until we are leaving church hungry and thirsty each Sunday and we don’t have the time or energy to talk to each other either because we are all needing to go and find food. And conversely, the more willing we all are to give, the less often each of us will have to and the more our overall experience will be one of abundance: for our little contribution we receive back thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold and there are baskets left over. That’s how abundance works in a community like ours. It doesn’t really take anything more than simple mathematics to explain it. I have no idea whether it was something like that that happened amidst the crowd when Jesus blessed the five loaves and two fishes that day because the story doesn’t say anything about it one way or the other. Was it a miracle or just a movement? It doesn’t say, but sometimes it is a miracle if people overcome their reluctance and participate in a movement.

The most important thing about this understanding of abundance is not whether we can keep doing drinks and nibblies after the service. The most important thing is that you are able to taste the abundant blessings that God longs to share with you. But the secret to unlocking that is essentially the same. Over and over Jesus says things like “with the measure you give, so shall you receive,” and he even teaches us to pray for this for ourselves: “forgive us our sins, as we forgive others.” Now this should not be understood in a legalistic sense, but more as a description of practical everyday human nature. Jesus is not saying that God is going to measure what you give and offer you not one iota more. He is not saying that this is a strict economy of exchange and you only get out what you put in and without even any interest. The whole of Jesus life and teaching point us to a God who is recklessly extravagant and pays no heed at all to what anyone deserves or has earned. When Jesus says that you will receive in like measure to what you give, he is talking about you, not about God. He is saying that we set the tone for ourselves by our own actions, and we limit our own experience by our behaviours. If we are harsh and unforgiving to those around us, then we create a mini-climate of harshness and retribution around us, and we find ourselves unable to perceive or receive anything but harsh judgement and retribution. Love and mercy are still flowing from God, but we have created a forcefield around ourselves that protects us from it. “You reap what you sow”, says the Apostle Paul, and it is abundantly true. If you want to begin to change your capacity to experience and enjoy the abundance of God, then you need to learn to open yourself to it, and the only way you learn that is by beginning to treat others as you would wish to be treated. Sounds like something else Jesus said, doesn’t it?

I well understand that you often feel that you are at the end of your resources, and you’re worn out and tired and have nothing left to give. I often feel that too, and Jesus was clearly feeling that himself at the beginning of this story. And in those times the temptation is always to jealously protect our remaining resources. But what Jesus shows us is that that is usually self defeating. Instead, take what little you have, bless God, break it and give it away, and you’ll find that you have far more leftover than you thought you were starting with. It is the abundant economy of God, and it is the road to fullness of life.