Rt. Rev. Timothy Ravinder, Bishop in Coimbatore.
A SHARING THAT PRECEDES ABUNDANCE... IN JESUS COMMUNITY:
A brief note on Matt 14, 15-16; 15, 32 & 16,
5-11
In the gospel of Matthew the story of
the ‘feeding’
occurs twice. Is it because the evangelist found the story so important that he
told it twice? If we carefully read Matthew 14 through 16, it becomes clear
that there is no repetition of the same story.
FORGOTTEN FARMER...
The honour of economy comes up for
discussion again - the ‘daily bread’. Approaching the arguments on ‘bread’ in
the Bible will hardly be materialistic as I have earlier remarked. Whenever we
bring ‘DAILY BREAD’ up for deliberation, whenever we pray for it - we pray for
everything necessary for obtaining and enjoyment of bread and are concerned on
the oven and the flour but never think about the vast fields, the FARMERS who
toil in it and the entire country which ships and delivers our daily bread and
everything else we eat. For if God did not let it grow, did not bless it and
preserve it as it grows, we would never been able to have access to that bread
and lay it on the table.
FIRST FEEDING...
In the story of the ‘feeding’ (Matt.
14, 15-16) the subject is spiritual. What we choose to do with the bread, how
we share it with each other or how we snatch it out of each other’s mouths,
always defeats and betrays a spiritual attitude. The subject here is not just
about bread. At the Last Supper, Christ teaches his disciples to practice the
feeding in the community - the commune with Jesus as head, which enables the
disciples to DISTRIBUTE the bread so that the people are SATISFIED and have ABUNDANCE OF LIFE.
FAULTY FRIENDS...
In the meanwhile, the disciples
should have gone to the neighbourhood shops well ahead of time to get food.
Jesus community does not have the option to tell people to make their own eating
arrangements. That is not HOSPITALITY! When the disciples ask with surprise:
where then shall we get all the food? Jesus responds that in a community
exercise it is the SHARING, that produces wellbeing and precedes ABUNDANCE:
distribution before production: and not the other way around. Twelve baskets
are left over as a result of SHARING. Material wealth is not a cause for which
the people must sacrifice their daily existence. It is a gift of mercy when
that sustenance is geared to the search for the righteousness of the Kingdom of
God, when we carefully listen to Jesus’ instruction.
FEEDING FOLLOWS...
In Matthew 15, on the second feeding
occasion, Jesus asks the question how we can take care of the situation. The
disciples have completely forgotten the earlier feeding or they thought that
such a thing ought to happen only in Israel. Now they are in Gerasenes, in the
region around the Decapolis - a hostile territory. Here again, the argument is,
more than bread. “But there is more to this meal than physical sustenance (see
on v. 15); eating together is a symbol of unity. Instead of being dismissed and
dispersed (v. 15), the crowds are welcomed into a new community.” That is why a
third instruction is given to us - the warning against the leaven of the Sadducee's
and Pharisee's: the persecutors of the church. The disciples this time have
forgotten to bring their bread. Or, is their concern still directed towards
their OWN IMMEDIATE NEEDS? These concerns must be redirected and revisited.
FINALLY
The fact that all four Evangelists make a mention of it and Matthew and Mark both write for a second time: indicates that it was vital to their understanding of Jesus. Matthew indicates in 16, 9, that the versus contained lessons for the disciples - for us too. Therefore to interpret it merely at the level of material provision is to miss the mark. We need to see beyond. The anti-Jesus leaven permeates society to influence the spiritual, religious and political system. For now the disciples understood that Jesus did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. AMEN.
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