July 28, 9th After Trinity
Readings: 2 Kings 4. 42-44; Eph. 3. 14-21; Jn. 6. 1-21
Theme: Jesus Feeds the People
Today we take a five-week holiday with the gospel of St John, resuming our continuous study of the gospel of Mark in September with chapter seven. The adapted version of the Revised Common Lectionary that we use in the Church of England since 1992 supplements the biblical texts used across many churches with periods of the study of John, so that in its three-year cycle of reading the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), John is not overlooked and certain themes, such as those of creation, are properly emphasized in the liturgical cycle of our biblical readings.
So, today we are presented with St John’s account of the feeding of the five thousand and Jesus walking on the water. What do these accounts tell us about Jesus?
Essentially, they tell us two things. The first is that, just like the account of the feeding of the people in 2 Kings, in which Elisha feeds the people with bread, so too will Jesus feed the people, on the other side of the Sea of Galilee (Tiberias) with barley loaves. This multiplication of the five barley loaves and two fish given by the boy is a sign that Jesus has a unique relationship with God, the Lord of Creation. He can create out of little a great deal. However, this multiplication from five to five thousand is also a symbolic event. It represents the kind of feeding of us which Jesus is offering. Not only is the body and its needs to be satisfied but our very desire for the abundance of life will be met by Jesus. In giving us the bread, Jesus will be giving us himself to eat. It is, in other words, a symbol of the Eucharistic event which is revealed in this wonderful story of the feeding of the five thousand. This is made explicit later in this sixth chapter of John, when in verse 23, we have the reference made to, “where the bread had been eaten after the Lord had given thanks”. This “giving thanks” that we find in verses 12 and later in 23 uses the Greek verb “eucharistein” which is the origin of our word “Eucharist”. The Eucharist is a thanksgiving meal in which we give thanks for God and all God’s blessings to us. In the context of this episode as recounted in St John, it is a double thanksgiving. It is a thanksgiving for the creation of God, and also for salvation which is signalled by John as being our new Passover festival. The event of this feeding of the five thousand occurs at the time of the Jewish Passover, the same time that will later frame the paschal mystery of Jesus’s death and resurrection. In other words, the feeding of the people is a sign that it is Jesus who will save them. That he is the messiah, the chosen one of God.
This motif of creation and salvation is retaken in the second part of our passage from St John today in the incident of the walking on the water of Jesus. Typically, in the Bible, it is only God who walks on the water. So, in the Job 9. 8, we have God “trampling on the seas” and in Isaiah 51.10 it is God “who made the sea-bed into a road for the redeemed to cross”. The incident of the walking on the water to the disciples communicates that Jesus has a special and unique relationship with the Lord of Creation, such that he can, like God, walk on the water. As we spoke about miracles a few weeks ago this should not be simply understood as a suspension of the laws of nature, a miracle is the revelation that the laws of nature are not the whole story about nature. Through the resurrection of Jesus, the laws of nature have been sublimated, so to speak, in the new law of nature, love itself. Love walks on the waters which themselves have been created through, with and in love, as we will say at the culmination of our Eucharistic prayer in this communion service. Yes, the revelation of Jesus’s walking on the water is that just as the Creation has been made out of love, then so too in assuming this creation in the incarnation of Jesus this very same Creation will be redeemed out of love. The love which creates and the love which saves is one and the same love.
This is why when we gather each week for our Eucharistic service we are giving thanks for God’s Creation and God’s salvation in such a way that unites us with the actions of Jesus. We, like Jesus, take the bread and give thanks and are all fed by it. In so uniting us to the very core of the New Testament message of thanksgiving, our weekly Eucharistic services enact the power and the might of God to create and to save, to heal and to forgive, to feed and to shelter us under God’s wings. And as we are fed by Jesus, so too are we visited by him as he comes to us walking across the waters which separate heaven and earth. As we sit in the boat with the disciples and are buffeted by the strong winds of life, Jesus comes to us across these waters and calms them as he gets into our boat with us. So, let us place ourselves on that very grassy place with those five thousand people today as we too receive the bread of life. May it fill us with that true peace which calms the stormy winds of our lives. Knowing this, we can rest safe in the alms of Lord who has created and saved us through love, with love, and in love, for the glory of God the Father. Amen.