It's a miracle!

I've always believed that the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 (Matthew 14:13-21) was the best kind of miracle story. There’s just no way you can tell it that it’s not a miracle.

It’s late in the day, the story goes, and the disciples want to send a crowd of people away so that they can find food in local villages. Jesus tells them - the disciples - to feed the people. That seems ridiculous to them because all they have is five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus takes what they have, blesses it, and gives it the disciples to distribute. Everyone gets fed and there’s twelve baskets of leftovers. It’s a miracle.

It’s a miracle in so many ways.

Jesus, with the power of God, made five loaves and two fishes turn into enough food to feed everyone. Ok, that’s a miracle. It confirms Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Word made flesh, and has powers beyond this world. It’s about affirming who Jesus is and what the power of God can do. 

Jesus, with a demonstration of generosity and graciousness, inspires everyone in the crowd and they look to see what they have that they might be able to share. Radical hospitality at its best. That’s a miracle. It’s about affirming that Jesus is about showing us what we are all capable of.

It’s a metaphor for how all must be fed, both physically and spiritually. Still a miracle.

Even if Jesus had said sure, send them all from this “deserted place” to the local villages, I guarantee someone would have said “it’d be a miracle if they could find enough food for everyone.”

Still, then, a miracle. All are fed and there’s leftovers. It’s like the greatest of all potlucks.

For me, though, the story’s not just about being fed, physically or spiritually, it’s about compassion and kindness. It’s about sharing together, both in the abundance and scarcity of what we have. Especially how Matthew tells it.

The author of Matthew places the story immediately after everyone hears the news that John the Baptist has been executed by Herod. John, who proclaimed the Messiah’s coming, was a colleague in ministry and, according to Luke at least, was a cousin of Jesus was dead. “Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there 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.” (Matt. 14:13)

It’s no wonder Jesus wanted to get away. I imagine he was grieving. But the crowd follows him. It would be easy to suggest the crowd followed him out of their own need, but what if the crowd, having heard the same news, was grieving too? What if it wasn’t just Jesus’ compassion for them in their need, but that the crowd felt compassion for Jesus? Perhaps this was a community sharing their grief and beginning to heal together. 

If that’s like communities now, I imagine more than a few of them, those that could anyway, stopped on the way to make a casserole or “a covered dish” or pick up some groceries they would have been happy to share. Still a miracle.

Do you understand?

Jesus tells a lot of parables. I’ve talked about this before, obviously, because, well, Jesus tells a lot of parables. Each of them is deserving of attention, study, understanding and thought. Which is why it’s so interesting to me that, after concentrating a bunch of parables about the kingdom of heaven into a single block in one chapter (13), the author of the gospel of Matthew has Jesus ask the disciples “do you understand?” Even more interesting is that they answer “yes.”

Really? The authors of all the gospels seem so often to go to great lengths to demonstrate to us that the disciples don’t understand and yet here they simply do. No questions, no clarifications, just a bunch of sayings and they understand the kingdom of God. An excellent example for all of us. I guess.

Except, we do spend rather a lot of time studying, thinking and talking about the parables of Jesus - pretty much everything Jesus, for that matter - so I have to wonder if it was all that simple. To me, it seems reasonable to consider that either the disciples didn’t get it at all but were afraid to say so, or that we just got the “sayings” part of the story and they had a lot of questions, thoughts and commentary of their own.

I think it was the latter. I think there was so much more to this exchange. I don’t mean to impugn the intelligence, sophistication or wisdom of the disciples (or any of the crowds who followed Jesus), they were good ordinary folks. But good ordinary folks ask questions and discuss things. It’s how they become apostles, leaders and wise teachers in their own right. 

I like to think the gospel authors knew that and left us with a similar opportunity, in our own time and place, as the disciples who were with Jesus. In Matthew, for example, I think those parables got many questions and lots of discussion before Jesus even got to the “do you understand” question. I also think that, by asking the question, Jesus didn’t just mean the obvious surface meaning, but that they had taken the time to think and ponder and mine the depths of the parable for meaning. That’s the thing about parables, especially ones about “the kingdom of heaven:” it’s not just one meaning, or even the many layers of meaning, each of which is valuable. It’s the thinking, the ongoing wondering and relating the story to our own lives in the kingdom, making the kingdom and being the kingdom, together.

We won’t learn by pretending to know. We learn by wondering and asking questions, seeking the wisdom that’s at the heart of the story. That’s what Jesus means by understanding. 

Or it could go like this

Depending on how you define it, Jesus told anywhere from a dozen to fifty parables. Basically, a parable’s a story with a meaning that’s used to teach a lesson. But it gets more complicated after that, because the lesson is often more than what’s obvious in the story. Parables can have a lot of perspectives, a lot of layers, and they invite a lot of thought. That’s why Jesus used them so often.

Out of all those parables, Jesus seems to offer his own explanation only twice, both farming stories, both found in the same chapter of Matthew’s gospel. They’re most commonly referred to as the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Weeds. Yes, I said “seems to” just then. Many biblical scholars now think that it wasn’t Jesus at all, but the author of the gospel (or a later author) who added them so that the it would be clear that the point was consistent with the themes of the gospel.

There’s many good reasons to think that. The very simple one I like is that Jesus used parables as a teaching tool. Why would he tell the story if he had to explain it? He almost never does, except here, and I think he almost never does, not because the meaning’s obvious, but because he wants us to think about it. Many parables have multiple meanings. Many prompt additional questions or thoughts. There’s more than one point and the Parable of the Weeds is a really good example of that.

Jesus tells this parable. A farmer plants a field with wheat. An enemy sneaks in and plants weeds so that when the field begins to grow, the weeds appear with the wheat. The farm workers want to go and pick out the weeds, but the farmer says that might damage the wheat, so let the wheat and weeds grow together. Then, when the field’s harvested, they can be separated, the wheat for grain and the weeds for burning.

The author of Matthew gives Jesus a perfectly reasonable explanation to offer: the field is the world, the enemy is the devil, the wheat is children of God, the weeds children of the devil. At the harvest, angels send the good to the good place and the bad to the fiery place.

Ok. I guess. As long as you remember that it’s God who judges who’s wheat and who’s weed, not us. And that you believe God does that judgement thing, rather than offer love and grace to all. And that you believe there’s a good place and a bad place in the next “life.”

But, what’s a weed, anyway? That’s so subjective. Isn’t it just something that naturally occurs where you didn’t want it? A plant that doesn’t seem to belong? What if the field is, indeed, the world, but the purpose is to show that we all belong together, the ones we each think of as valued as well as the ones we think of us weeds, because we’re all valuable. And, since this is the world, where we end up might be more about intention than judgement. A “weed” can have a purpose.

Maybe this could be about reminding us that what we perceive as good and bad do coexist in this world. But maybe it could be about belonging, rather than judgement. Maybe it’s about how quick we can be to judge and want to root out anything and anyone that doesn’t seem to belong because they’re not the same. Maybe the farmer isn’t “the Son of Man” so much as the Creator and maybe this is a world where all things can belong because they’re all valued, just as they are.

It goes something like this

I wonder how often Jesus told a story. The gospels, succinct as they are, seem to indicate that Jesus only ever told a story once. And that makes sense: the gospel authors wouldn’t want to be repetitive. But I bet Jesus reused some of his best ones. Different crowds, different places. Maybe he even retold some in a slightly different way, relating to his audience. The parables, metaphorical stories that have a point, could have multiple meanings, so it makes sense to me that Jesus would use them again and again. Good material can be hard to find.

Here’s one I think he might have reused more than a few times. I’ve borrowed it from Matthew 13: 1-9.

Listen, Jesus said. A wise old woman looked out her window one day. She looked up at the sun and down at the earth and she looked at her calendar and her clock and she said to herself, “it’s time.”

She picked up a large bag full of seeds and threw it over her shoulder. She stepped out her back door and she began tossing the seed to the earth, spreading them out as far as she could. And, when her bag was empty, she went back in the house and watched out the window, waiting.

Some of the seeds landed on the path from her door. She stepped on a few and some were eaten by the hungry birds that followed her.

Some of the seeds landed on rocks, where the birds didn’t see them. The sun was warm and the seeds sprang to life. But there was no water there, so they just shrivelled up.

Some of the seeds landed among weeds. There were dandelions and crab grass and chickweed and thistles. The weeds did very well and it wasn’t long before they overwhelmed the little seeds.

Some of the seeds landed in good soil. It was warm and wet and full of good things seeds need to grow. And they did, making a beautiful garden of the brightest flowers and the greenest leaves.

Jesus paused for a moment. The people were looking at him very confused. A couple were smiling, trying hard not to laugh. “What’s so funny?” Jesus asked.

“Well,” said one, “I’m not much of a gardener, but even I know that’s a lot of wasted seed.” “Yeah,” said another, “I have a bit of garden at my house and I would be a lot more careful where I planted the seeds. If you want things to grow, you have to be careful where you plant them. This woman is anything but wise.” There were nods of agreement all round. Except for Jesus.

“Perhaps,” said Jesus. “But the seed that fell on the path fed the birds. The seed that fell on the rocks was caught by the wind and planted elsewhere. Or, over time, perhaps enough will land there to make a little pocket of soil on the rock and start to wear it down. And the seeds in the weeds, well, what is a weed anyway? Sometimes they’re important, too. Besides, one or two might be strong enough to grow with the weeds, who knows?”

“Yes,” said someone, “who knows, Jesus. You have to invest in the best location. You have to plant where you know the seed will grow.” There were murmurs of agreement from the crowd.

“But,” said Jesus. “What if the seeds are God’s love? God invests in the certainty that all creation is deserving of love, just as it is. When we live God’s love in the world, each seed is like an act of love offered by you. The point is that it’s offered, with generosity and without conditions. Wherever it lands it has the hope of doing good, of growing more love and more generosity. Imagine, just imagine how full and beautiful the garden of earth would be, if we all offered love with the generosity of this wise old gardener.”

The Yoke's On You

Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Yes, I’m quoting Jesus. Specifically, from Matthew 11, verses 28 to 30. Just as importantly, though, I think we all need to say it, feel it and do it.

It’s so easy to leave these words with Jesus, a call to “the saviour” whose company brings comfort and peace. Life is easier with Jesus.

Except it isn’t. Simpler, maybe. Better, for sure. Fulfilling, certainly. Empowering, definitely. But easier it’s not. Not just because of the Bible Jesus whose words we read, but the living Jesus with whom we share life.

There’s two parts to this. The first is the rest that we can find in Jesus. To be clear, that’s not sleep or a break or “down time,” it’s rest. Rest rejuvenates and refreshes. It gives us the opportunity to rebuild, re-energize and re-engage the world with enthusiasm and spirit. I think Jesus is really talking about a sabbath time here, time for us to put down our everyday things to spend a little time on our relationship with the divine. And that is real rest: it refreshes and reinvigorates us. And we need that if we’re going to yoke ourselves with Jesus.

Yes, that’s the point: with Jesus. We might think of a yoke as an individual thing a beast of burden wears to help carry its load. We’ve even made it a symbol of hard labour or use the metaphor of the yoke of oppression. It’s constricting and constraining and a sign of hard work. But not with Jesus.

In Jesus’ world, a yoke wasn’t an individual thing at all. Its purpose was to connect two together in order that they may share the load they carry. The “burden” of being Jesus - of knowing the divine spirit and very earthy humanity of each of us and living love and grace into the world as we learn to do from Jesus - isn’t just light, it’s inspiring and life giving, and, most importantly, shared. Jesus walks with us, bonded to us, and shares the load we carry, both inspiring us with that burden of being Jesus and uplifting the many burdens which the world might lay on our shoulders.

So let’s not stop there. If the divine spirit and earthy humanity that Jesus shows us is alive in each of us and we can understand this yoke Jesus talks about as what binds us to Jesus, to share our burdens with Jesus, of the spirit and of life, then why wouldn’t we see that same yoke connecting us to another?

In a world where so many are grieving, struggling with mental health, wrestling with life, can we not offer to share their burdens? It takes little expertise to sit down, just like Jesus, and say “tell me your story.” Or how can I help share your burden? For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Taking the Test?

Like any good library, the Bible is full of a great variety of literature. Historical stories, myths, legends, fantasy, romance, instructional texts. There’s poetry and songs, biographies and letters, and much more. Not a lot for children, but there’s some stories and parables here and there.

There’s a few holes, of course, especially when it comes to things that we’ve become more open about, issues that have become more topical, but it’s an ancient library. The librarians may have tried to anticipate what we’d need, but even then, I wonder if they could have foreseen today’s world. Thank goodness we have so many other books, along with newer stories and contemporary writers. I don’t think the Bible is the only library, I think it inspires us to be open to others and look for what is true, creative and life-giving in every story.

That doesn’t mean we have to like it. Being challenged and uncomfortable is part of the journey. So when I think there’s more than a few stories in the Bible that I don’t like, that make me uncomfortable and challenge me, I know that’s a good thing. At least, I try to know that’s a good thing. Ok, sometimes I really struggle with finding it to be a good thing, but I hope that I get there and find some good in it.

Pretty much at the top of my list is the story of Abraham and Isaac. Famous or infamous, depending on your perspective, equally horrifying and reassuring, it’s the story of  God testing Abraham by demanding that he sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham seems willing to go through with it, but at the last moment, an angel stops him and a ram appears and they sacrifice that instead.

There’s a variety of interpretations of the story, from it being about faith to it being about putting an end to human - especially child - sacrifice (it was the ancient world) to the idea that it represents the disconnect between young and old and the willingness of one generation to sacrifice another. There are hours of worthwhile bible study here.

I have trouble getting past the first line. “After these things God tested Abraham" (Gen. 22:1).

Does God really test us? I wonder about that. I think we test ourselves and I think the world tests us. And we naturally compete with each other and the world around us. God is with us at all times - in all "tests" - but I have trouble believing that God tests those to whom he offers unconditional love and grace.

I think God wants us to succeed at living. And dying, whenever it's time, death is a part of life. I think God wants us to have the fullest, most complete and whole life we can in the time that we have, whatever that time is. That time that is so dramatically impacted by our relationship with the rest of living things.

But we have the free will to choose our path. So I wonder that maybe sometimes we needed to tell stories where, instead of us being made in the image of God, we made God in the image of us. So we gave God the need for proof and the power and control that comes with the obedience of others. That way, we'd know that the right path was doing as we're told and following the word of the law. Maybe we still do it.

But the Word became flesh, as John says, and we had a living example to follow, a life that showed us God's love and grace is offered to all, whatever their journey. However life tests us, challenges us, breaks us or rewards us, God is with us.

It's A Long Road

There’s so much conflict in the world. Everywhere. Globally, between nations, within nations, in communities, between individuals, even within individuals. So much conflict. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if there could just be peace?

Of course it would. And, though it might not feel like it lately, there are moments, many moments. But peace can’t be imposed, it has to be built and to build it is a long journey of engagement, with empathy and understanding overtaking apathy and fear. Peace doesn’t just happen, it’s made.

I think that’s what Jesus is getting at when he says things like “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword …” and that he’s come to set family members against each other (Matt. 10:34-36). I don’t for a moment think Jesus is advocating hostility or violence, but acknowledging there will be conflict on the journey to peace. The question is whether or not we make that conflict constructive or destructive.

It sure seems like we’re good at destruction. Defensiveness and hate come easily with fear and ignorance. Having power over others is a simpler means to an end, however that power is manifested, and with the right power, what one person wants can overwhelm what others need. Difference can turn to disagreement that turns to a battle full of hateful words, destructive behaviour and damaging consequences and the possibility of peace seems extinguished. But there’s another way.

In that same passage from Matthew, Jesus goes on to say that those who choose to put their own family ahead of me, Jesus, those that are comfortable with things as they are and don’t want to rock the boat and those that are unwilling to follow me, Jesus, will find nothing more than what they have. They won’t have the wholeness of life with me, Jesus. 

But what if you read that again and instead of the name Jesus, you substituted what Jesus is all about. And, instead of the family and rocking the boat, you understood that Jesus meant the structured society and systemic injustice that maintains it. Then you’d hear Jesus making the point that there is another way to peace, to the heaven on earth that he says is so near.

That way is to engage difference and conflict with love, with empathy, respect, justice, compassion and understanding. That way is to journey together, not in competition with each other, but with care, support and encouragement. That way is to build a covenant, not negotiate a deal. A covenant in which we work together, share, and build something new: a world working towards wholeness, of people, of relationships and of community.

That’s a long journey, especially when not every one is on the same road or willing to travel the same way. I think Jesus knows that. I think Jesus knows that there will be successes and failures, joy and grief, life and death. I think Jesus also knows that the journey is always about living into life, not living towards death, and that’s where we will find wholeness. “The road goes ever on and on” - J.R.R. Tolkien.