you give them something to eat

Think back through the story Mark has just told us. Herod is off in his palace, probably far to the south of the Sea of Galilee, carousing with his cronies, winking at pretty girls, beheading prophets. His henchmen on the ground are grasping bullies. Here are his people, desperate for leadership. And here is a young prophet to whom they flock. Is he the king-in-waiting? That’s the echo we must hear behind this story. N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone

Restorers respond to brokenness as if they see right through the moment into a future that bears a mystical resemblance to the pristine state of the past. Then they work to create that future. Their unique vision enables them to face some of the greatest problems in our world without even a flinch. Gabe Lyons, The Next Christians

I have received no assurance that anything we can do will eradicate suffering. I think the best results are obtained by people who work quietly away at limited objectives, such as the abolution of the slave trade, or prison reform or factory acts or tuberculosis, not by those who think they can achieve universal justice or health or peace. I think the art of life consists in tackling each immediate evil as well as we can. C.S. Lewis, Weight of Glory

Five thousand men.

Five loaves and two fish.

Everyone eats. Everyone is satisfied. Twelve baskets of leftovers.

It’s a can-do story brimming with optimism, with vision of infinite possibilities.

Up to this point it’s an unparalleled divine miracle. Elisha of old had fed 100 men with twenty barley loaves and some fresh ears of grain — and had some left. Jesus takes a mob of 5,000 men (no doubt plus women and children), organizes them nicely into groups of 50s and 100s (sitting on the green grass no doubt like sections of ripened harvest in the field), and he feeds the equivalent of a small city.

The three quotes above help orient me towards this story and its application. The first by reminding me of the context: the backdrop of the story we’ve just read about the beheading of John at the hands of Herod. This was a leaderless people that to the “leaders” in the land were at best a resource to be utilized and managed, at worst a mob avoided and feared, oppressed and exploited.

 And now Jesus shows up on the shore and he neither avoids nor uses nor abuses them. He has compassion on them. He spends the day with them. He feeds them. First with the living Bread and then with their daily bread. And just how did he manage to get 5,000 men (men!) to actually form themselves into groups of fifties and hundreds? Perhaps that was the greater miracle that day!

The disciples, as is frequently the case, are clueless. They see only the little they have. Jesus sees right through the numbers and the present limitations to that “future that bears a mystical resemblance to the pristine state of the past,” what the New Testament calls the Kingdom of God. And, in what in many ways functions as the first true “communion,” he takes bread. He blesses. He breaks. He gives.

But unfortunately they did not understand about the loaves. John tells us they all showed up the next day looking for more  — of the wrong kind of bread.

It is said that in a triumphal procession, conquering Roman generals were accompanied by a slave who whispered in their ear that “all glory is fleeting.” The rest of this story functions as that servant for us, if we are listening for the whisper.

They want to make Jesus their king — the wrong kind of king — and even plotted to take him by force and begin the revolution. Jesus evades them, retreats up the hill while sending the twelve back across the lake. On the next day, as John tells the tale, that same crowd and more would be waiting for him back across the lake, napkins tucked into their collars, empty plates at the ready for the next feeding. It became what some call “the Galilean Crisis.” As he literally held forth his arms he told them to eat his flesh and drink his blood...they abandoned him in droves. Even the twelve started looking over their shoulders.

The lesson for us, for Jesus “restorers” in a world still filled with too many oppressing Herods and oppressed peoples? Let yourself feel compassion for the crowd. See beyond the numbers and the present limitations around you to the limitless possibilities of the kingdom of God.

Take and bless and break and give.

And don’t expect most to get it.