Sometimes a closer look at a Gospel text – together with a change
of context – makes the Scripture message come alive.
Today’s Gospel is an example. I read the commentary in Bible Diary 2012 and then went to Dulce Nombre where the
Parish Council meeting began with a reading and discussion of the Gospel.
Today’s Gospel of John’s account of the multiplication of
the loves and fishes (John 6: 1-15) has some very suggestive elements:
• Jesus looks at the people and wants to help. Our God is a
compassionate God. He asks his disciples to feed them.
• We don’t have the money to buy, say the apostles.
“Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough…”
Scarcity
and money are the prevailing attitudes of the apostles.
• But there’s this little boy with two fish and five barley
loaves.
"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two
fish;
A little boy – not one of the five thousand guys there, but an insignificant kid.
A little boy – not one of the five thousand guys there, but an insignificant kid.
• Barley loaves:
Yuck; it's not wheat. It’s tough. It’s like tortillas made
of sorghum, I suggested.
• “What good are these for so many?”
Again the apostles think in terms of scarcity: this can be enough?
• Jesus has the people recline – about five thousand men, and
God knows how many women and children. And it was a kid who shared the bread
and fish.
•And Jesus “gave them as much as they wanted.”
Enough for everyone.
•Gather the leftovers:-twelve baskets full
"Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted."
Don't waste: share.
• Let’s make him king:
The people wanted to take him by force and make him king.
Jesus resisted these efforts. With him as king the people
would have everything they needed for free – even if was only barley bread and
fish. As some one suggested at the Parish Council meeting they’d be dependent
on Jesus the king to supply their [perceived] needs.
God works through little things – little kids and a few
loaves and fish – and does marvels. But humans either are stuck in their
emphases on scarcity or they want a miracle worker – a political savior – who will
make everything right, without their effort, without their meager contribution.
Is this a parable for today?
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1 comment:
One way to read the story is that it does not involve what we generally call a miracle.
Jesus shares and there is a sufficiency. Could this have been because other people, inspired by His example, reached into their hidden stores and also shared?
Of course, sharing is a miracle: love.
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