Matthew 14:13-21
Jesus withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. 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.” Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
A Food Desert
The term food desert is used, as you may know, to describe geographical areas that have “limited access to affordable, fresh, healthy, and nutritious food, urban areas where there isn’t a supermarket within 1 mile of a census tract, or in rural areas where there isn’t a supermarket within ten miles of a census tract. “ That’s the definition you can find on Wikipedia, and it goes on to say that food deserts are “commonly paired with food swamps, which, lacking grocery stores, instead have convenience stores or fast food stores whose foodstuffs are commonly associated worsening health outcome including an increased risk of developing chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. And, still more from Wikipedia, “In 2025, the United States Department of Agriculture reported that an estimated 12.8% of the US population were living in low-income and low-access census tracts. That’s 39 million….and of this number, 22 million people live in food deserts" as I have just described them.
Well, I saw what a food desert was when I made my first trip by myself to Cleveland when I first came here many years ago. I don’t remember if I was going to a Diocesan event at the Cathedral or if I was making a pastoral visit to Cleveland clinic. But, as a newcomer to Northeast Ohio, it was my first trip alone to Cleveland. Wisely, I had given myself enough time to I had given myself enough time to get lost ….and also time to find a grocery store to grab something healthful from the produce section before whatever I was going to. But no luck. No grocery store.
And a great flood of compassion came over me as I saw people—and one man in particular--loaded down with just the kind of fast food that shouldn’t make up a daily diet. And, over the years I’ve shared that story with many of you, along with the thought that in a way we can see the attractiveness to people in food deserts of fast food joints—of so-called value meal-- that provide a good number of calories---but not healthy calories, they have lots of fat and carbs and sodium-- for a couple of bucks. We can see how the cycle continues.
That experience was almost twenty years ago, and a similar flood of compassion has come over me in the intervening years, and still does so today, when I enter grocery stores and wonder how families on lower incomes provide for their families given the higher cost of food. Many of you have shared the same experience with me.
Our Ministries
Well, it’s a testimony to many people in this congregation who have served at our weekly community meal since 2012—providing nutritious and healthy meals with joy and out of compassion. This stretch of West Market Street is not the middle of a food desert, but the community meal is an oasis for some who need community and need a meal. And similar praise is due to those work in our Community Assistance Program (funded by our Christmas Offering) and those who work in the Barnabas Employment Ministry (funded by our Easter Offering) which don’t provide meals directly….but in helping people with other bills frees up money to pay for food, the very basic need of life, and in helping people find jobs leads to money for food. Each of those ministries is a ministry of compassion.
And it is compassion that is my theme today. It’s front and center in the gospel lesson today. I see three brief lessons in the well-known account of Jesus feeding the five thousand put before us today.
Three Lessons
So….a three point sermon today, which is a kind of classic way of preaching, isn’t it? I’m not sure if a three point sermon is better than a two point sermon, or a one point sermon. But certainly it’s better than a sermon with no point, right?
Purity of Intent
So, point #1. Jesus acts out of pure compassion, out of love for the hungry crowd.
He creates a feast that stands in sharp contrast to the feast described in the verses that immediately precede the feeding of the five-thousand. In the earlier verse, we read that Herod had gathered for a birthday party honoring him, gathering a crowd of people who wanted to be part of his political power bloc. He threw a party for himself. And Herod wanted to keep his power by keeping as many people as possible close to him. The banquet was all about Herod, and it included Herod fulfilling his promise to rid the world of John the Baptist. A rash promise he had made, but one which he didn’t break for fear of looking weak.
So this feast was a calculating, loveless, truly ugly affair, dominated by self-interest all the way around. It’s emblematic of the truth that love of money, and love of power corrupt our motives. Loving the wrong things, or loving things in the wrong way pollute our motives.
In contrast, Jesus acts with complete purity of intent when he sees the need of the crowd. Complete purity of heart. He heals them. He will feed them.
And in doing he lays upon us the lifelong task of learning how to act with purity of intent. This is learning how to live not by acting good to look good, but making someone else’s flourishing our aim. Meeting needs not for show, or virtue signaling in a way that draws attention to us, or promotes us, but meeting needs not for show, but because it’s the loving thing to do.
Jesus provided training for this way of living---a daily set of excericises, so to speak—when he urged his followers to do things in secret: to give without telling anyone (‘don’t even let you left hand know what your right hand is doing); and to pray in secret. These are a set of ways that teach us to do things for God’s sake alone. .
Active Compassion Even When Under Pressure
Point #2. I’ve just mentioned the preceding scene, Matthew’s account of Herod’s birthday. Matthew’s gospel includes the gruesome detail of John the Baptists beheading and the parading of the head at the banquet, and then includes the detail of the disciples burying the body of John the Baptist. Now, someone at Church Publishing, responsible for the printing of the gospel lessons that are in our bulletin week by week (you can look at it again) left out the phrase which begins verse 13. I’m not speaking of a translation issue here/ All the manuscripts and translations included the phrase. And that phrase is “Now when Jesus heard this…,” meaning when he heard the news about John the Baptist.
And it’s just been cut out. Maybe they thought they were doing us a favor, moving the story forward and not asking us to look back to what went before….But Matthew is making sure that we do see what went before so that we see that when Jesus heads for a lonely place---which is the phrase used to describe where Jesus goes to pray and get strong and steady in presence of the heavenly father---Matthew wants us to see that Jesus is moving with some concern and some urgency. The great forerunner to Jesus, John the Baptist, has met a violent death. This puts (as one of our Christmas hymns puts it) a “gathering gloom” in the air. Jesus can sense that he, too, will meet a violent death. History or time is heavy with significance.
Let’s put aside views of Jesus that don’t treat him as fully human and capable of sadness, as if he were like Superman….he is fully human and is fearful that he, too, will soon be killed.
And yet….this is Point 2. Jesus continues his ministry even under these pressures. His concern for his own welfare doesn’t put a stop to his compassion. Faced with a needy world, he doesn’t say, No More ….or Not Now …..or Maybe Later. He continues to give, to serve, to help.
So there’s a lesson here for us about not being slow to answer the call to serve, or to give, or to share. He continues with the work given to him, and we, too, should give, keep kindness, altruism, other-regard even when under pressure. Of course, there are times when we need to regroup, recharge, put some things in order before taking on other things……
…but there can be times of delaying that are effectively a lack of trust that we really can do what God wants us to do even if we ourselves. We may delay by saying ‘we have concerns, or we aren’t fully rested, or we don’t don’t feel adequate.’ Or we may think we have to be in a perfect state before we can give towards others. Sometimes we delay responding to God by saying that we will serve, when the kids get through high school or college, or get settled in a career, or when have more money in the bank.
I’m moved in a positive direction when I hear of people taking risks like going to seminary in mid-life. I get magazines from a couple seminaries that tell the stories of seminarians who left careers…..and move into seminary housing middle-aged. They have stories of people answering God’s call. There is already a massive shortage of ordained leaders and a greater shortage to come……I wonder how many have neglected that call because they are not ‘perfect’ or ‘have concerns’ of need more money. God provides! And Jesus models the ability to give even when under strain.
So we see that the Christian heart---that is, a Christ like heart—acts compassionately with purity of intent for the good of others---that was Lesson One. And Lesson Two, we don’t shut off the flow of compassion and service when we’re under pressure, or until we have everything else in order. These are lifetime lessons that we have to embrace and live out day by day in the particular circumstances that are ours so that our very souls are reshaped to be like Christ’s …..and I’m afraid that some popular slogans like ‘Practice Random Acts of Kindness ‘ may be well intentioned, and may be somewhat helpful (if you see me by the side of the road with a flat tire, please practice an act of kindness….)….don’t give us a true sense of the transformation of us that the gospel has in view. The gospel has in view a daily, steady growth in compassion and giving.
Abundance
And what’s the 3rd lesson? It’s that active compassion has confidence in God’s abundance. There, in the middle of a deserted place, is a consecration. And what wasn’t enough becomes enough. God works to create an oasis, a feast, a great provision for the crowds through Jesus and through the disciples.
The disciples, whose first words were: “We can’t handle this!” “ No way can we feed the crowds!” “ “We just don’t have enough!” But, listening to Jesus, they take what they have in their hands, and place it all in Jesus’ hands. All of it. And he holds it all up to God, like the Great High Priest that he is, and it becomes something else……it becomes enough, it become God’s bread for that day and for those people.
And every aspect of Christian living should have this confidence in God’s abundance. Every Christian should see the basic dynamic of our living as placing things in Jesus’ hands, as a consecration, a handing over, so that God’s can work. Yes, we are going to feel like we are in a desert of some sort again and again. We will feel like we are unforgiven, or unworthy, or unnoticed, or unaddressed, or unable….or feel that some things are barren, or even that life is barren and unfruitful. But we have to let ourselves be schooled, to learn God is abundant. How so? The list might include these affirmations:
• God is rich in mercy ….not miserly.
• God gives wisdom to all who ask…he’s not stingy.
• God is continually speaking and guiding…he’s not unconcerned
• God is continually sending (we talked about his in the Adult Forum today)…the right book, the right person, the right word, the right situation, at the right time…he’s not inactive.
• God is continually giving strength to endure…he’s doesn’t hoard power for himself.
• And God continually lifting up the downcast…he inspires hope.
And all of these things come out of his character. Out of his love for us
Conclusion
So, in the middle of any desert, God can create an oasis, through the work of others, through the efficacy of Scripture, through Christ, through the Spirit, and through the mystery of handing over all things to Him.
Amen.