Saturday, August 1, 2020

The Miracle of the Offering

ONLINE REFLECTION, ST. PAUL’S, FOLEY – PROPER 13, YEAR A
AUGUST 2, 2020

TEXT:               Matthew 14:13-21

Collect for the Day – Proper 13

The link for today’s gospel – Matthew 14:13-21 – is found further down on the newsletter page.  I encourage you to read it.

I encourage you to read it because it is one of the best-known moments in Jesus’ earthly ministry – the feeding of the 5,000 men, plus, as verse 21 notes, women and children. So, it was a large gathering.

Jesus was likely somber and grieving after he learned of the beheading of his cousin, John the Baptist.  He got in a boat to go away to a quiet and lonely place, where he could grieve and pray.

But the crowds would not have it.  They followed along the shore to where he was. He was touched deeply by their yearning and their faith.  It was late in the afternoon, and he knew they needed to be fed. The disciples encouraged Jesus to send them away to the nearby villages.  There, they could buy food to eat.

It is the next verse that I want to highlight: “Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away. You give them something to eat.”

You give them something it eat. Jesus put the ball back in the disciples’ court.  The onus was on them.

But they complained.  “We have only five barley loaves and two fish.” Jesus asked that this modest foodstuff be brought to him, and he instructed the masses to be seated on the grass.  Then, he looked up to heaven, gave thanks, and began to break the bread.

We genuinely don’t know what happened next – whether the food miraculously multiplied, or whether the masses, seeing his generosity and care, reached into their own knapsacks and brought out additional food. But make no mistake – a miracle transpired.  People were fed.

Jesus tells us, too, You give them something to eat.”  That can be a metaphor for many things – whatever we offer, with generous hearts, even from our meager resources, God will bless and do miraculous things with them.

You are already doing that – God bless you.  Jesus invites us to continue to do so.

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