Trinity 9 Year A – Isaiah 55:1-5 & Matthew 14:13-21

Two words struck me, as I have been reflecting on our bible readings for today.

Compassion and abundance.

Our gospel reading began with these words ‘Now when Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.’

‘Now when Jesus heard what had happened ….’ And we might wonder then, what had happened.

The gospel readings tend to follow one another in sequence, but actually, we have jumped over a little section, so what has happened in the intervening time, between Jesus telling a series of Kingdom parables, as we heard last week, to our very familiar passage today, when Jesus feeds the 5,000?

Well, we see what had happened, if we turn to our bibles and look at the beginning of chapter 14 (give people time to find their place in the bibles). Here we find the account of the beheading of John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin.

Recognising that this is what has happened, helps us to appreciate more clearly why Jesus has withdrawn to a solitary place.

We can only wonder at what might have been going through his mind, Jesus needed to be in a quiet place to process his own grief, and perhaps, this served as a reminder that he too, would ultimately be nailed to a cross, and suffer an excruciating death.

He needed time for himself and so he withdrew, but the crowd sought him out.

I wonder how I might respond in such a situation, in that moment when you need peace and space, to suddenly have your solitude invaded by a crowd of people, many of us, might respond harshly, we might even tell people to ‘go away’ to ‘leave us alone’ to just let us be.

But Jesus has compassion on the crowd, this is not just a couple of people, this is thousands of people.

He puts his own needs to one side, and he serves the needs of the crowd that has assembled.

He shows compassion.

Look up the word compassion in a dictionary and it will tell you that compassion is more than just feeling sorry for someone, compassion, takes that feeling of empathy and drives you to do something to try and help them, it leads to action. In this case, Matthew writes, Jesus had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Rather than driving the crowd away, or instructing his disciples to on his behalf, after all we know they were quite good at trying to keep the little children away from Jesus, he has compassion on them and heals their sick.

So how does the compassion Jesus showed to the crowd speak to us today?

The compassion of Jesus the compassion of God, is an open invitation to come.

In our reading from Isaiah this morning, the exiles are summoned to return and to be restored.

‘Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk, without money and without cost.’

Come.

As Jesus looks with compassion on this spiritually hungry and thirsty world, the invitation is to come.

How do we invite others to come … to taste and see that the Lord is good.

And when we come, there is abundance.

As the night draws on, the disciples start to worry about this large crowd, telling Jesus to send them away, so that they might buy themselves some food.

But Jesus says, ‘no’ you feed them.

In frustration they respond, but how can we, we only have 5 loaves and 2 fish.

The disciples are like little children who go into the kitchen, open the fridge and say, “There’s nothing to eat!” Whilst there is not apparent abundance to the disciples, there is also not nothing.

But it is enough, and in the hands of Jesus, not just enough, but more than enough.

Jesus, takes the loaves and fishes, he gives thanks, breaks the bread and gives it to the disciples to distribute.

Having eaten until they were full and satisfied, the disciples collected up 12 basketfuls of left overs.

Here is abundance … time and time again, we see this same message, the message that teaches us against scarcity, against squirreling away what we have, but rather, being outrageously generous, because with Jesus there is more than enough for everyone.

Isaiah as he writes ‘Come, buy wine and milk, without money and without cost.’

Gives that same message of abundance, wine and milk are symbols of abundance, of enjoyment and of nourishment.

Jesus invites us to come.

Yesterday, we celebrated Lammas, which corresponds to the Hebrew festival of weeks, when a sheaf of the first of the barley harvest was offered.

Traditionally the first fruits belonged to God and were offered to God in an attitude of thanksgiving. In medieval England, tenant farmers were required to present freshly harvested wheat to their landlords. In early summer, grain ran low, while fresh crops were growing, but Lammas heralded the beginning of a season of plenty, of abundance, reward for hard work in a spirit of celebration.

Jesus the bread of life, heralds for us a season of abundance.

As John 10 verse 10 reminds, ‘He came that we might have life and have it in all its fullness.

How do we share that spirit of abundance with others?

How do we celebrate the abundance that Jesus offers?

Jesus calls the disciples and us to dream bigger. He entrusted the disciples to work together to feed the crowd, and he calls upon us to do the same.

So what is this message of Compassion and abundance, prompting us to today?