“When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves."

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you here the story of the feeding of the 5,000?  Are you amazed at the miracle?  Do you question whether are not the story is no more than that...a story...and not an actual historical event?

 

What does the story call you to do?  Does it call you to feed the hungry?  Does it call you to ministries of justice and community?  Does it call you to think about those around you?

 

It is no doubt that this morning's Gospel, The Feeding of the 5,000, evokes many different feelings in many different people.

 

This passage is the source of ridicule for a reasonable faith...people spend untold hours and months and years trying to prove that this encounter between Jesus and the people never existed...after all, Jesus would have feed one tenth of all Palestine in one fell swoop. 

 

This passage is seen by some as one of Jesus' greatest accomplishments.  There are passages wherein Jesus heals a person or two...and other times when He has contact with an outsider...

 

but to some, this is Jesus' ultimate act of social witness...He feeds an entire community...from scarcity He brings forth abundance.

 

And still others explain away this Gospel passage by again saying that the miracle was not preformed by Jesus...but rather the miracle occurred because everybody offered what they had...and from that offering, the entire community was fed. 

 

And it is no doubt that this morning's Gospel brings out strong feelings in people...strong feelings that test our faith in the performance and working of the miracles of Jesus...and tests of faith that give a vision of what community could and should be at its best.

 

But there is another take on what this morning's Gospel is all about.  It is an understanding that was at one time in the history of the Church almost universal. 

 

Throughout the history of the Church, many of her scholars and bishops and scribes have seen the feeding of the 5,000 as a foreshadowing or prototype of the Holy Eucharist...and have seen some of the intricacies in the passage as metaphors or allegories pointing to grand things.

 

"and taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke"

 

This is the model of a ritual Jewish meal, but is also the ritual used on the night of the last supper...so Jesus follows the same pattern and works toward the same goal.

 

"and they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over."

 

The twelve baskets are viewed as the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles...this represents the entirety of Judaism and the foundation of the Church Jesus will leave on earth.

 

I think there is something else very interesting in the passage.  The passage begins by saying "This is a deserted place and the hour was now late.." and the passage ends by saying "and they all ate and were satisfied." 

 

So, Jesus meets the crowds in a deserted and dark place and then feeds them and they are satisfied. 

 

This subtlety in the Gospel is most telling...it is ever important.

 

The people come from all over...they have been searching for something to help their lives make sense.  They have been searching for meaning...searching for hope. 

 

They are tired and ragged.  They are hungry. Jesus feeds them and they are satisfied. 

 

What a perfect and timely allegory for our own day and time.  There are record numbers of self-help books being published and bought.  People have lost direction and are in desperate searches to find the answers to life's toughest questions.

 

There are myriad books and seminars and events on spirituality as well.  People are empty and hungry and in search of nourishment for their souls.  Polls show that America is at a new high of those who are interested in spirituality...are searching for food for the soul.

 

But brokenness is all around.  Our political situation is perhaps more divided than it has been in our lifetimes...our communities are seeing decay.

 

People are moving to places that separate them from the world at large.  Involvement in realms public is on a downward trend.

 

We have trouble relating to one another.  Divorce is at an all-time high...again polling shows that people are more isolated and more lonely than ever before. 

 

We live in a time of great hunger.

 

People are journeying...searching for food...searching for nutrition...hungry to feed their souls. 

 

And they are walking around in the dark...walking blindly and wandering around looking for something so that life will make sense.

 

And Jesus feeds them.  And His Church feeds them.  Jesus gives His Church the Holy Eucharist to feed the world...to fill the hungry with good things.  To give sight to the blind and those who sit in darkness. 

 

 Jesus gave us the Holy Eucharist so we could have the gift of Himself.  So that we could find the answers to questions...so we could find food for our hungry souls...

 

Jesus gives us the Eucharist so that we can find wholeness and health and light in a dark and broken world.

 

Jesus gives us the Eucharist so we can have communion with Him...receive Grace...enter into an everlasting community...so that we can have life in the midst of death.

 

An what an awesome gift it is...we are fed...our hunger satisfied.

 

Something else is very telling in this passage this morning.  The disciples have an active role as well.

 

Jesus said, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat.

 

And again, "[Jesus] blessed, and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds."

 

We, who have committed ourselves to Jesus, who have found light...who have been fed, have a duty to feed others...to help them get the nourishment they long for...the nourishment they so desperately need.   

 

We have the task and the duty and the obligation to show others to the Holy Eucharist...to go into the crowds and offer people food and light...to offer them Jesus.

 

Let us not forget who feeds us...who satisfies our spiritual hunger...and never forget our duty to show that true Food to others.