When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptizer, He withdrew to a deserted place by Himself. The crowds heard of it and followed Him on foot from the towns. When He disembarked and saw the vast throng, His heart was moved with pity and He cured their sick. As evening drew on, His disciples came to Him with the suggestion, "This is a deserted place and it is already late. Dismiss the crowds so that they may go to the villages and buy some food for themselves. Jesus said to them, "There is no need for them to disperse, give them something to eat yourselves." "We have nothing here," they replied, "but five loaves and a couple of fish." "Bring them here," He said. Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to Heaven, blessed and broke them, and gave the loaves to His disciples, who in turn gave them to the people. All those present ate their fill. The fragments remaining, when gathered up, filled twelve baskets. Those who ate were about five thousand, not counting women and children. (Matthew 18:15-20)

There are several things that could be said about this morning's Gospel. The first thing is that it is an important event in the work of Jesus. Important because it appears it's one of the things that does appear in all four of the Gospels. In some of the Gospels, Matthew and Mark, the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes appears twice. Anything that comes in all of the Gospels is of significance, not only to the work of Jesus, but it was of significance to the early Church. If it had not been of significance to the early Church, they would not have remembered it in the various communities. The second thing that we can say about this passage is, what actually took place? Now there we have a problem. Various biblical scholars have tried to explain just what happened. And one has to confess that when their explanation takes place, what happens is that they explain away any miracle. Some even go so far as to say that the actual miracle was not that Jesus multiplied loaves and fishes, but that somehow Jesus touched people's hearts, and therefore got people to share what they had, if we might put it in this way, in their knapsacks, and that the real miracle was not a multiplication of loaves and fishes, but a miracle of generosity on the part of the people, a miracle of sharing I've always found that a rather lame explanation. For one reason, when the people set out, how in the world did they know they were going to be that long, so that they had enough sense to take along with them enough provisions that if they were touched by Jesus they could share. It just simply begs too much.

Let us not try to explain the miracle, because miracles really cannot be explained, can they? We can say they occur, we can report their occurrence, but we really can't explain them, not even science can explain them. But what can we get out of this passage for ourselves? One of the first things that strikes me in this passage is that little parenthetical insertion that Matthew makes, "When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptizer. " It's interesting. We often in our thinking of Jesus and the Baptizer put them so far apart. For some reason in our thinking of the Baptizer and Jesus we think that they are at the two poles of human experience. And yet we have to always bring ourselves back to the recognition that Jesus and John were cousins. There was a close blood relationship that existed between them. Now oftentimes in our mobile society, blood relationships, even between cousins, doesn't mean very much. But in some societies and some cultures, and in some families, that kind of tie is a very dear tie, and then even though distance or work or social standing might seem to separate them, yet they are still very close.

Another thing that we have to remember about John the Baptizer and Jesus is that they're very close in age. There's only six months time between them. Their birthdays occurred in the same year. They were conceived in the same year. And I like to think that when Matthew puts that, "When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptizer, He withdrew ...." Jesus is so touched by the death of John the Baptizer. His heart is broken, so to speak, by the death of John. He feels that death just as keenly, just as poignantly, as he feels the death of Lazarus his friend. And it's another instance of how we begin to see in our Lord the deep compassion he has for people. And it's no wonder, then, that when he lands on the seashore and he sees all the people there, and he says that they followed him, and suddenly Jesus' heart is moved, and Jesus begins to cure them. It just seems to be a natural thing to Jesus to forget His own needs? to forget His own suffering, to forget His own sadness, and suddenly become involved in the problems, the concerns of other people. To begin to be concerned about them. But that concern goes so far that it's not just in healing them, it's in feeding them. IN taking care of such a thing as temporalities, as food.

There is another thing that we can notice in this passage, perhaps not so much about Jesus but certainly about the disciples. They seem rather brusque, rather abrupt with Jesus. There's no title here, "Lord." There's no title of respect. But it simply is, "This is a deserted place, it's already late. Get rid of the people, send them home." There's nowhere where they show in this passage any feeling for Jesus. In fact, one might get the impression that they feel a bit annoyed, that perhaps Jesus is giving the other people more attention than he is showing to them, and they feel left out, they feel slighted. They feel as though they should be getting the attention rather than Jesus Himself. Now one of the things I think we can see is a great deal about ourselves in this passage. Our own compassion, our own concern for other people. And if other people get attention, at times we can feel slighted, we can feel offended, we can feel put out, because they're getting the attention, and I'm not getting the attention. But somehow Jesus rises over all of it, and it doesn't go to Him personally. He simply does what he has to do, what the Father has brought Him to do, and He feels no concern for the individual sensitivity. Oh, he is concerned, but he doesn't let it get in the way of what He should do, the overweening sensitivity of His disciples.

Another thing I think we can bring from this passage is that once again we see the compassion of God, and it's something we have to see working in our own lives, so often, so frequently. Even in times of trial, tribulation, even in times of trouble. That God understands, God is compassionate, God has been there before, after all, before you and before me in the person of Jesus.