Saint Matthew 14:13-21
58-year-old Shawn Warner – {a former Army paratrooper turned author} was sitting at a table in a Kroger store in Fort Worth, Texas, behind piles of copies of his {Young Adult} murder mystery, Leigh Howard and the Ghosts of Simmons-Pierce Manor, when two strangers approached him and began asking about the novel.
TikToker Jerrad “Red” Swearenjin, who filmed the interaction, said he started talking to Warner because the writer looked “super defeated”.
“When Red came up and talked to me, I was just so eager to talk to anybody at that point because there was a lull in my sales,” said Warner.1
Red posted his conversation along with a picture of the book on his Tik-Tok site and before long it was trending. Then it was going viral.
In an interview Mr. Warner was asked why he thought the video caught on, went viral?
Warner replied: “At its heart I think it was because this was an act of kindness that Red stopped by and talked to me when nobody else was. It was pure kindness on his part.”2
Kindness, pure kindness, is what we have before us this morning in this familiar miracle story of Jesus showing compassion and kindness to a hungry crowd when he himself could have used some.
Word had just come to Jesus that John the Baptist, “Jesus’ cousin, herald, compatriot, minister, and friend John the Baptist, the one with whom he once danced together in their respective mothers' wombs, has had his unjust incarceration culminate in the death penalty. For greed and pleasure. John’s head has literally been served on a platter, his severed body picked up by friends and buried, and Jesus receives the news and wants to be alone.
What I am touched by this time in reading this story is not the gasping miracle of feeding 5,000 people but the deep mercy of it. Jesus hears the news about John and wants to be alone—a lesson in itself—but his grief does not close off for him the moments of compassion.”3
We are already told that he had spent the day curing their sick and now it was time to go home. He had done all there was to do. The hour was growing late when Jesus, looks up and notices that nobody has had anything to eat. Perhaps it was his own stomach growling that made his aware of this fact but there they were all standing with the sun going down, far away from their homes and villages, with no prospect of anything to tide them over for even a little while.
This was not poor stewardship on their part. It was not poor planning. Who knew that they would have been there all day? At this moment they were not enjoying any sense of abundance. They were hungry, needy, with very little {read: no} prospects of resolving the matter on their own. I have no doubt that if the people could have provided for themselves, they would have.
Jesus sees and not only offers compassion but kindness. Jesus feels for the people so strongly that Matthew uses a Greek word that literally means he got a knot in his stomach to convey his level of compassion. Linguists tell us that “Kindness is when we do something good for someone because we want to, while compassion is when we do something good for someone because we feel they need it.”
Jesus sees a need, feels it deep down in his gut, and he wants to do something about it.
We know the rest or, at least, we think we do.
Familiar words launch us into the depths of Jesus’ kindness and compassion. Words that open with an astute observation by his disciples.
That evening the disciples came to him and said, “It is already past time for supper, and there is nothing to eat here in the desert; send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy some food.”
But Jesus replied, “That isn’t necessary—you feed them!”
“What!” they exclaimed. “We have exactly five small loaves of bread and two fish!”4
Their reaction is reasonable. While they may not be sure that the local restaurateurs, or the delis, or the 7-Elevens in the surrounding villages will have enough space or supplies to accommodate such a large number of people they are positive of one thing – they do not.
But nothing is going to stop Jesus’ kindness and compassion. This is no fish tale, he is on a roll. But to make this logistical nightmare work Jesus is going to need some help.
Jesus did not gather the loaves, multiply the loaves, and distribute the food to all those people by himself. He asked his disciples to bring what they could find. He took what the disciples found and brought to him, and Jesus blessed, broke, and gave it back to them. Christ’s disciples gave the food to the crowds – enough to satisfy everyone, and even more. Perhaps Jesus could have done all of that by himself . . . but that isn’t what he wanted. Jesus chose to perform this miracle with his disciples’ help.5
He could have done everything by himself, but he didn’t. He put the disciples to the task of . . . well . . . being disciples.
There certainly could have been other ways of feeding the hungry that didn't involve so much work by the disciples. Jesus could have miraculously made the people's hunger pains disappear, but he wanted everyone in his entourage to help out.
Have you ever thought about how much work it would be to distribute food to 5000 men, besides women and children -- and then to clean up the mess?
It would have been so much easier for the disciples if Jesus had done what they asked.
Sometimes, for divine miracles to occur, disciples may have to do a lot of work. Perhaps that is a difference between disciples and the crowds. While all received the benefit of the miracle; the disciples were asked to work and work hard to make it happen -- and then to clean up the mess.6
Sometimes, for divine miracles to occur, disciples may have to do a lot of work.
By putting his disciples to work Jesus was not only allowing them to watch his kindness and compassion but making them participants in that kindness and compassion to others.
He was teaching them, firsthand, what it means to let your hearts be broken by the things they break the hearts of others.
In a wonderful essay in the latest edition of The Christian Century, Amy Atkins-Jones, wondered what Jesus thought as the bread and fish were being passed out.
I wonder if anyone came by to knowingly squeeze his shoulder. I wonder if tears were shed or laughter filled the air. I wonder if Jesus ate in silence or simply listened in on the conversations floating around him. I wonder if anyone made sure he remembered to eat too.7
If they did, they understood what he was showing them about kindness and compassion.
Now they knew that the kindness and compassion of Christ was not about the head-knowledge of theology or philosophy.
The kindness and compassion of Christ was not about showing off our linguistic abilities with smooth words spoken at a safe distance.
The kindness and compassion of Christ was about someone in our moments of deepest hunger or darkest despair, taking us, and holding us, and loving us until we can see the light and feel filled again.
As bestselling author Shawn Warner said of his experience becoming a TikTok sensation from an encounter in a Texas Kroger. “If there is a moral to the story it is just how a simple act of kindness can do so much.”
Remember, we may not be able to heal the world today, but we can begin with a voice of compassion, a heart of love, and an act of kindness. And it will be no less than the same kind of love, compassion, and kindness, we have seen in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
________________
1. Ella Creamer, “YA Author Shoots to No 1 on Amazon Bestseller List after Viral Tiktok Video,” The Guardian, July 7, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/07/ya-author-shoots-to-no-1-on-amazon-bestseller-list-after-viral-tiktok-video.
2. Robin Baumgarten and Larry Potash, broadcast, WGN Morning News (Chicago, Illinois, August 3, 2023).
3. Amey Victoria Atkins-Jones, “August 6, Ordinary 18a (Matthew 14:13–21),” The Christian Century, July 31, 2023, https://www.christiancentury.org/article/lectionary/august-6-ordinary-18a-matthew-14-13-21?code=LGiPq4Yw3L4AKienCYu6&utm_source=Christian%2BCentury%2BNewsletter
4. St. Matthew 14:15–17. (TLB) [TLB=The Living Bible. (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1972)]
5. Carla Pratt Keyes, “Enough for Everyone,” A Sermon for Every Sunday. July 28, 2020, https://asermonforeverysunday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Carla-Pratt-Keyes-Feeding-5000.pdf.
6. Brian Stoffregen, “Matthew 14.13-21 Proper 13 - Year a,” Matthew 14.13-21, accessed September 4, 2023, http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/matt14x13.htm.
7. Atkins-Jones, loc.cit.
Sermon preached at The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saint Luke
6 August 2023
No comments:
Post a Comment