St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes, Vicar
Year B/Proper 12: John 6:1-21
Who, what, why, when, where and how. These are the six foundational questions that any journalist would seek to answer when writing a story. My years as a television journalist, have embedded within me a natural curiosity for answering those basic questions, and really comes in handy when exegeting scripture.
Today’s passage in the sixth chapter of John is the miracle of Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000. The scene is set on the other side of the Sea of Galilee in the daytime. The festival of the Passover was near and news of Jesus’ miraculous healing power had spread like wildfire. Having witnessed Jesus’ healings, the large crowd continued to follow him. One commentary suggests that there were nearly 20,000 people, counting the men, their wives and children.
As the wave of the crowd approached, Jesus retreated to a mountain to be alone with his disciples and to feed them with his teaching. Jesus tested Philip with, a “where” question: “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” Philip did not answer the question that was asked of him. Jesus asked a “where” question and Philip answered a “how” question that was never asked. Apparently, Philip heard Jesus’ question as, “How are we to buy bread?” to which Philip responded that it was impossible; they did not have money to buy enough—not even six months’ wages would come close. Andrew chimed in, noticing the boy with five barley loaves and two fish, but also concluded that feeding the people would be impossible. Philip and Andrew had settled on the impossibility of feeding the people.
Had Philip and Andrew actually answered Jesus’ question—“Where are we to buy bread?” they might have realized that the solution to the impossible was standing before them. During exam time in seminary, a wise mentor of mine told me, “If you don’t know the answer, the answer is always Jesus.” Philip could have benefitted from such wisdom. When Jesus asked, “Where are we to buy bread?” he might have answered, “Jesus, you are always the answer. You will provide the bread.”
According to the text, the crowd followed Jesus seeking healing from sickness, not food. Jesus had anticipated that people who had been traveling long distances, would inevitably become hungry. Taking the limited resources in creation—the five loaves and the two fish—Jesus produced supernatural abundance, in response to human need that had not yet been made manifest. Through Jesus’ divine provision of food for temporal, bodily hunger, those who were fed also experienced being filled with the spiritual food of Jesus himself, the eternal bread of heaven. This spiritual healing is the response to the human condition of suffering, which is a state of the soul, not of the body.
The crowd’s response to Jesus’ outpouring of divine abundance, however, was a desire to hoard Jesus for their own purposes by forcefully making him their king. We know that Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world, and that this feeding miracle was not done to glorify him, rather to point to his father, the God of divine provision.
Knowing the people’s earthly desire, the Omniscient Jesus withdrew to the mountain by himself. We do not know if any physical healings took place because Jesus left abruptly. The people had blocked their blessings, and they had no clue that they were even doing it. The people had come for healing from bodily sickness. But Jesus fed their bodily hunger, and he knew that they were unaware that they were starving for much more.
When people feel a sense of lack or emptiness, we are a lot like empty stomachs that growl loudly until nourishment is provided to satisfy the hunger. The difference between bodily hunger and spiritual hunger is that bodily hunger cannot be denied; without food, the human body will eventually die. Spiritual hunger, however, can go undetected and denied; for some, it is a lifetime of spiritual starvation and a chronic state of being hangry (unsettling combination of hungry and angry).
For those who do realize a deep sense of lack or emptiness within, many have no idea where to look for nourishment, where they can get the living bread that obliterates spiritual hunger forever. This is where you and I come in as the living instruments of God’s freely-given grace. When we encounter starving souls seeking nourishment, and they don’t know the answer to where they must go to feed their deep soul’s hunger, remember that the answer is always Jesus.”
How often do we refuse to answer the questions that are asked of us by God because deep down we know that answering questions of the soul might challenge our arrogant and false belief that we have all the answers and that we can fix our problems on our own? When faced with the harsh or overwhelming demands of day-to-day living—layoffs from jobs, unstable housing, debt, illness, loneliness, grief, helplessness and despair—there will be wilderness times and our faith will be tested. The answer to those tests is to focus not on how help will come, but from whence our help comes. Our help comes from the LORD who made heaven and earth.”
We do well to remember that we are powerless to do anything apart from Jesus. We need God to powerfully move within us to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine. God’s faithful people need reminding that Jesus is always the answer.
We must, also, boldly respond to the spiritual food insecurity beyond the church building by bringing Christ’s light and bearing Christ’s hope in this dark, despairing and spiritually-starved world, so that those who seek to hunger no more will be divinely led to Jesus, the one who is, at once, the bread of life and the one who provides that same bread.
Shortly, we will baptize the souls of Dustin and Liliana, into the body of Christ. During the presentation and examination of the candidates the parents, Godparents and sponsors will be asked, a question that never fails to produce goose bumps for me, “Will you by your prayers and witness help this child to grow into the full stature of Christ?” That question reminds God’s children, that we are all on a lifelong journey of nurturing each other, and being nurtured by each other, to the full stature of Christ. The baptized are compelled to nurture and feed humankind with the spiritual food of Jesus Christ, guided by the blueprint of our Baptismal Covenant.
Brothers and Sisters, may we be, with God’s help, always be certain that Jesus is always the answer. Amen.
