July 29 2012
2 Kings 4:42-44; Eph 4:1-6; John 6:1-15

At the beginning of today’s Gospel passage, we hear that crowds were following Jesus because of the “signs that he was doing for the sick.”  As we know, when you or someone close to you is sick, it is hard to think about anything else.  In those days, there were no vaccinations or antibiotics, not to mention reading glasses, appendectomies, X-rays, or hip replacements.  So there was a large crowd of perhaps 5000 people, who were attracted because Jesus performed “signs for the sick.”  He was their only hope.

And then they got hungry.  As most people in the world know, when you are really hungry, it’s hard to think about anything else.  We often fail to appreciate the gift of food today.  You walk into the dining room and food is served, probably more than you want.  I go to the grocery store, and the food is stacked up in colorful displays, cellophane packages, boxes, or cans, much more than I need.  Farmers are much less apt to take food for granted than we are, especially this year, when New York’s apple crop was destroyed by a late frost, and heat and drought are burning up the wheat and corn.  They know how dependent they are.  In ancient times, and for most of the world today, people cannot take food for granted.  Hunger is the normal lot of most people in the world, and a drought, flood, or war can quickly turn it into famine.

So the people got hungry.  Jesus asked Philip—one of the twelve—where they could buy bread for the crowd.  Philip did the math and figured out that it would cost a fortune just to take the edge off the crowd’s hunger.  The pastor of a church today might well panic, realizing how much money was needed, with no time to start a fundraising campaign and no wealthy donors in sight.  When you need money, it’s hard to think about anything else.  Where will the money come for food, for the kids’ new shoes, for college tuition, for my old age, for taxes?

Jesus was a prophet in the line of Elisha and of Moses.  Moses gave the Israelites manna in the desert, and Elisha multiplied loaves, as we heard in today’s first reading.  For the contemporaries of both Moses and Elisha, these were signs that showed they were prophets.  The people of Jesus’ day were waiting for a new great prophet, a Messiah King who would bring them health, plentiful food, and prosperity, not to mention freedom from Roman domination.  And along came Jesus, healing people and feeding them with abundance.

But Jesus had something else to offer.  They were attracted by his “signs” or miracles, but what Jesus had to offer was a higher mode of life, animated by his own spirit.  It was eternal life at the cost of self-sacrifice, which meant, among other things, not chasing after health, food, and money.

Jesus healed the people and fed the people because they needed it, but he was not the kind of Messiah King he knew they were looking for.  So he withdrew again to the mountain.  The people who had experienced these miracles would still try to find him, but when they did, he would try to teach them about love, self-sacrifice, and eternal life.

They had to learn, as we modern disciples do, to move beyond signs to the possibilities of a deeper, meaningful, more fulfilling life.  What Jesus had to offer was eternal life now, through love and self-sacrifice, in spite of sickness, hunger, money worries, and all the other distractions of life.  This is what we celebrate when we come together for Mass or for a communion service.  We remember Jesus as the one who gives us life and calls us to give our own in return.