Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Matthew 14:13-33

This morning, we get to hear two stories that we know pretty well – Jesus feeding the five thousand by multiplying five loaves and two fish, and then Jesus and Peter walking on water. It’s important to know that the story of Jesus multiplying the loaves and fish appears six times in the four gospels – once in Luke and John and twice in Mark and Matthew (feeding the 5000 and feeding the 4000). That means that this is a pretty significant story that every gospel writer was sure to include in recounting Jesus’ ministry. It’s important to realize that Jesus probably did this on more than one occasion – providing food for people who were hungry to hear his words of hope, so much so that they were willing to go without food, yet Jesus feeds them with both physical bread and the bread of life, God’s word. This story tells us a lot about who Jesus is for us and what Jesus does for us.
The way we typically learn stories from the Bible tend to focus on moralisms about what we should do. There are two Sunday School lessons that we were likely taught in learning these two stories, and I want to challenge those lessons a bit by trying to go deeper. The first is the message that we ought to share. The idea is that once Jesus tells the disciples to give the crowd gathered around them supper, they do, and by people opening up to Jesus’ generosity, sharing what they also have, everyone gets enough, in fact, more than enough. Because Jesus asks the disciples to share, we should share, too. God calls us to be generous – this is true, but I don’t think that the moral of this feeding of the 5000 is simply that we should share…that seems too simple. Frankly, as a parent of two toddlers, I’m kind of tired of talking about sharing. And even our 22-month old daughter Grace gets that it’s good to share. Sharing is good, but I think God wants us to go deeper in understanding what Jesus is up to in this story, and I think Jesus is up to something bigger than teaching us about sharing in feeding the 5000.
Then, immediately after this feeding miracle, Jesus goes up to a mountain to pray by himself, and the disciples go out to sleep in a boat. I’m not sure why they want to sleep in a boat, but some of them were fishermen so maybe they did this all the time. A storm comes up, and Jesus comes toward them walking on the water. Peter gets out of the boat and also walks on water, except when he looks down he loses his nerve and begins to sink, so that Jesus has to save him. We were also probably taught at one point that Peter doesn’t have enough faith in Jesus so he sinks. If we just believe hard enough in Jesus’ power, Jesus might do miraculous things for us. While Jesus can and does do miraculous things for us, it’s problematic when we place the responsibility for those miracles back on ourselves and our ability to believe. It’s this teaching that can really hurt people when someone they love is sick and they don’t turn around, even though everyone prayed really hard for a miracle. Or think of the millions of us who have prayed to win that lottery and lost…prayed for an end to financial burdens and debt, etc. We could think of numerous ways in which if we think this is how God works – we pray or believe hard enough and God grants us our wishes and works miracles – that God disappoints us. It’s harmful to think this way because that can lead us to not believe in God and his promises, it can lead us to doubt and blame ourselves as unfaithful when we really are, and it really treats God like the Genie in Aladdin rather than the one true God of the universe, creator of all.
In reality, these two miracles stories – Jesus feeding the 5000 and Jesus walking on water, are about what God can do through Jesus Christ and not about what we have to do for God. In fact, if you look at what the crowds and disciples do in the story, they don’t do much at all, apart from hanging around Jesus. Jesus asks the disciples to give the crowds supper, and they bring him all that they have, which isn’t much. It’s Jesus who takes the bread and fish, blesses them and divides them up and gives it to the disciples to distribute and gather leftovers. It’s Jesus who comes to the disciples in the midst of a terrifying storm (which had to be bad because they have experienced fishermen on board, remember), Jesus who comforts them, Jesus who saves Peter when he starts to sink. And in the gospel of Matthew, this is the first time that the disciples get it – after they witness these two miracles, they realize for the first time that Jesus is the Son of God. And they give him this title because they know that no one BUT God can multiply fish and loaves and definitely defy physics and walk on water and calm storms. We are not responsible for working miracles. We can’t feed all the world’s hungry or solve global poverty. Apart from water-skiing, we still can’t walk on water, nor can we control bad storms (hurricanes, tornados, blizzards, or otherwise!). And we definitely can’t save ourselves. These things are all God’s jobs.
It’s good to pray and believe, to put our trust in God and even hope and believe in miracles. It’s good to strive to be generous, to share, to offer lavish hospitality. However, the foundation of our faith in Jesus Christ is that he saves us…not the other way around. When we are overwhelmed by the storms of life around us, scared out of our wits, not knowing what to do or if we’re even going to make it, Jesus gets into that boat with us and says, “Take courage. It’s me. Don’t be afraid.” When we are at the end of our rope, out of whatever resources we need – physical, emotional, spiritual, Jesus takes whatever we still have left, our crumbs, our little loaves and fishes, blesses what we have and feeds us, nourishing us with the bread of life that doesn’t run out. Jesus makes what we have enough so we don’t have to.
God doesn’t put conditions on his love for us. Jesus doesn’t say, “First share what you have and then I’ll give you something to eat.” He doesn’t say to Peter on the water, ”Come ahead, but if you sink it’s your own fault.” He doesn’t let Peter drown! In fact, it’s often in spite of ourselves that God loves us anyway, forgives our silly mistakes and efforts to be our own gods. And often, in spite of our little faith in anything – faith in ourselves, faith in God, God has more faith in us! Jesus trusted that Peter could walk on water and was perplexed when he started to sink. Jesus knew the disciples could feed the congregation if he gave them what they needed. For me, this morning’s gospel reminds me to stop short of thinking it’s my responsibility to help everyone else and save the world by Friday. I can’t fix the dying church. I can’t solve the problem of world hunger and darn it, I can’t even walk on water, which sounds really fun. Really, truly, only God can do any of those things. As a follower of Jesus, as a disciple of Jesus, all I have to do is what Jesus asks me to do…sharing what I’ve been given, picking up the leftovers, being brave at times to get out of the boat and letting Jesus catch me when I start to sink.
Thank God it is not up to us to save the world. We could never do it. Thank God that Jesus is the son of God, who DOES save us, who FEEDS us with his very self so that we will never be hungry, who gets right in there with us in the boat to guide us through the storms of life. Jesus, our miracle worker, our teacher, our healer, and our Savior, is enough. Amen.