Sunday 3rd August
I’m not sure if any of you are familiar with a film called ‘The Miracle Maker’ – it’s an animated film and about the life and ministry of Jesus which I first came across at my children’s old school. It was actually the title of the film that made it stand out to me as something memorable and it made me think – this is exactly how many people would describe Jesus; as ‘the Miracle Maker’.
Jesus’ miracles, or signs, make up a large part of the Gospel stories and while some of these are less well known or found exclusively in one or other of the Gospel accounts, there are some which are very familiar and well known, and indeed well loved.
Well I’d guess that today’s Gospel reading is one such story. The feeding of the 5000 is one of Jesus’ well known miracles – and it is the only miracle (apart from the resurrection) that is recorded in all four of the Gospels.
This particular miracle has a lot to say…… it contains a lot of symbolism and many themes arise from it, but this morning I want to look at 2 aspects of this miracle which tell us something about the nature of Jesus and how we should live our lives as his disciples.
The first of these points is that Jesus is compassionate. Now you perhaps think that I am stating the obvious here and that of course we know that Jesus is compassionate. But in fact this story differs slightly from some of the other miracles or healings carried out by Jesus. In other scenarios a request or plea is put to Jesus, for example it is Jesus’ mother who informs him that the wine has run out when he carries out his first miracle at the wedding in Cana and when Jairus’ daughter is raised from the dead it is Jairus himself who asks Jesus to come to the house. But in today’s passage Jesus sees the needs of those around and he has compassion. And more importantly he sees the need of those around him, has compassion and then acts on this. Compassion with action – we read in verse 14 ‘when he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion for them and cured their sick’
His compassion causes him to act and there is a challenge here for us. Do we see the need of those around us? Not just those who are hungry and need food, but those who have other needs. The lonely, the sick, the bereaved. Do we see the needs of those in our world, in this town of Louth, do we feel the compassion felt by Jesus and more importantly how do we act on this compassion. We are called to be Christ like – to grow into the image of Christ – and his model of compassion and action is one we are called to follow.
Last Wednesday in the church calendar we remembered William Wilberforce who spent many many years trying to bring about the abolishment of slavery – which ultimately, after unimaginable amount of effort, did take place. And on Wednesday some of the words of the Collect which struck. It says ‘grant that, as your servant W W toiled against the sin of slavery, so we may bring compassion to all’.
How can we reach out and help those who are in need? We can’t perform miracles on a large scale like or transform the world in such a notable way as William Wilberforce but we can reach out and make a difference – however big or small. It’s a challenge to us – but an important one
The second point is about what we can offer. We read in verse 17 ‘We have nothing here but 5 loaves and 2 fish’.
‘We have nothing here but………’ or in a different translation ‘all we have is………’
How many times do we say similar things when we describe what we have to offer. How many time do we use the words ‘but’ or ‘only’ or ‘all I have’? For example ‘I can sing but not very well’; ‘I can play the piano but I’m only grade 1’; ‘all I have is a couple of spare hours to volunteer – it’s not much’.
In this story the disciples do not feel they have much to offer but they give to Jesus what they have. It’s also about sharing – they could’ve kept the food for themselves or only shared it with those they knew well. But when Jesus asks them to bring it to him they do – to share it with others.
Let’s reflect for a moment on what Jesus then does with what he is offered.
We read that he takes it, blesses it, gives it back to the disciples and then they distribute it to the crowds. There is so much to unpack here. Jesus can take what little we are able to offer – in our time or resources, our gifts or talents – and he will bless it. He then hands it back to us as a gift to abundantly fill the lives of those to whom we share it with. For me this a humbling and encouraging thought -especially at times when we can feel small, helpless or insignificant.
This Miracle story – the feeding of the 5000 – can tell us so much about Jesus the Miracle Maker, his compassion for those around him, his desire to act upon the compassion he feels and his ability to take the seemingly small and insignificant and use it for his service.
And it also tells us a lot about ourselves – called imitators of Christ – to have compassion for the poor, hungry and the lost, and the importance of action – however big or small to help those we see around us. But perhaps above all this story tells us about sharing what we have and the call to offer our gifts, time, talents and indeed our hearts to Jesus and the assurance that however insignificant it feels, through Christ our offering becomes significantly greater and can be used and shared in abundance.
Amen