In Jesus' Hands

In Matthew 14:13-21, the disciples want Jesus to send the crowd away.

It is late. The people are hungry. There is not enough food.

The disciples see a problem that needs to be removed.

Jesus sees people who need to be welcomed !

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Welcome, brothers and sisters, and peace be with you. May the words on my lips and the meditations in our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen. Imagine a small cafe in a busy town on a cold, wet evening. Just before closing time, a man comes through the door. He is tired, soaked from the rain, and clearly has nowhere else to go. He asks if he can sit inside for a while, and perhaps have a cup of tea. The cafe owner looks at the clock. The tables have already been cleared. The staff are ready to go home, and there's not much money in the till. For a moment the owner is tempted to say I'm sorry, we're closing. Instead, she looks at the man and says Come in, sit down. She makes him a hot drink and finds something for him to eat. It wasn't a great sacrifice it didn't solve all of the man's problems. However, for that one evening, one person who could easily have been turned away was welcomed instead. Sometimes compassion begins with something as simple as refusing to say go away. In today's gospel, Matthew chapter fourteen verses thirteen to twenty one, the disciples want Jesus to send the crowd away. It's late. The people are hungry. There is not enough food. The disciples see a problem that needs to be removed. However, Jesus sees people who need to be welcomed and he says something that changes everything. They need not go away. Instead of sending them away, Jesus tells his disciples to find a way to feed them. And that is where the miracle begins. Jesus has just heard the devastating news of the death of John the Baptist. He was grieving. He was tired. He needed space. But the crowds followed him. And even in his grief, Jesus saw the crowd not as an interruption, not as an inconvenience, not as a problem to be managed. He saw their need, and he responded. The story of the feeding of the five thousand is one of the best known miracles in the gospels, and I'm sure that we have all heard it many times. But today I want us to notice something about Jesus. Jesus sees the people, whereas the disciples see a logistical problem. Jesus sees human beings. The disciples say there are too many people. There isn't enough food. The day is getting late. Send them away. You know, to be totally honest, if I were one of those disciples, I would probably have been tempted to say something similar. On first impulse, it seems a reasonable suggestion. There's nothing wrong with recognizing a practical problem. The disciples are right. There isn't enough food, the people are hungry, the place is remote, the hour is late. Yet Jesus responds They need not go away. You give them something to eat. That must have sounded impossible. Us feed all these people with what? The disciples are looking with human eyes at the size of the crowd. Jesus is looking at the immensity and the possibility of God's grace. Perhaps that is one of the challenges of our faith. We often see the size of the problem. Jesus sees the opportunity to love. We see how little we have. Jesus asks, What are we willing to place in God's hands? We see the crowd and think someone should do something. And Jesus says, You give them something to eat. This gospel challenges us to look again at the people around us. Who are the people we've stopped seeing? The lonely neighbor. The elderly person who rarely receives a visitor. The family struggling to pay the bills. The young person who is anxious about the future. The person sitting quietly at the back of the room. The refugee trying to begin again. The friend who always says I'm fine when we know they are not. The person who is grieving. The person who feels forgotten. Jesus sees them all. If we are his followers, we are called to see them all too. And Jesus asks us to offer what we can from what we have, from the blessings we have been given. This is an important lesson for Christian discipleship, because we can sometimes spend a great deal of time thinking about what we lack, such as I'm not clever enough, I'm not confident enough, I'm too old, I'm too young, I don't have enough money, I don't have the right skills. What difference could I possibly make? Remember, Jesus does not begin by asking us what we don't have. He reminds us to bring what we do have. Perhaps it's only a little a listening ear, a kind word, a little of our time, a meal shared with someone, a prayer, a gift, a welcome, a decision to visit someone who is lonely, a commitment to stand beside someone who is struggling. We may think this is not enough, but in the hands of Jesus little can become much. Miracles begin when disciples stop asking what can we possibly do? And start asking what can we place in Jesus' hands? Five loaves and two fishes may not look like much, but Jesus can work with that and he can also work with what we give him. Jesus says to us Bring it to me. Bring me what you have. Bring me your gifts, bring me your compassion, bring me your willingness, bring me your small offering, and let me use it, because the miracles of God's kingdom often begin with ordinary people who are willing to place what they have into the hands of Jesus, because what we give into his hands well that can be enough. Ironga Itengoa Uteatua te matua tetama mete waduatapu Amine.