Synoptic study (Proper A13)

The feeding of the 5000 is a familiar story. It is in all four gospels and there are a lot of angles we can take. I wonder what Matthew wanted his community to understand… There are some Matthean distinctives I notice:

• First off he links Jesus' desire to go to a lonely place directly to the news about John the Baptist's death. Matthew doesn't explicitly tell us that the disciples have returned; they're just there. The other evangelists seem to make the bustle of their reporting and the crowds the reason for the rest.
• Jesus has compassion on them, not because, as he says in Mark, "They are sheep without a shepherd." Matthew uses that saying back in chapter 9 connected with the harvest. Here Jesus out of his own grief has compassion on those in the crowd who are suffering.
• Matthew only mentions Jesus' healing ministry here. Mark tells us he taught, and Luke says he does both. Matthew seems more focused on human suffering: from the loss of John, Jesus flees the crowd to be alone, to pray and think. Then confronted with their own suffering he is perhaps even more moved to minister.
• Does Matthew show something of Jesus heart when He says, "They need not go away"?
• Jesus does get his alone time that night when he prays on the mountain and takes a stroll on the waves.
• Also does it surprise you that, as far as the synoptic are concerned, we don't know where the bread and fish came from. Our familiar little boy is unknown to us this week.

God as willing provider or wrestler? (Proper A13)

This week we have two images of God that in themselves require some wrestling.

Jacob wrestles with a man all night. The man turns out to be God, the theophanie himself. He wrestles to receive his blessing, like his struggle years ago with the brother he was going to see the next day.

The psalmist invites God to visit him by night, to test him, and allow him to behold God's righteousness.

Paul wrestled in his heart over his people-the people who were given the promise and blessing through Jacob and the patriarchs. Would God be true to them, or would they be replaced by a new Israel?

These men are thirsty and hungry, they long for the filling. The longing in itself is a blessing- a beautiful grace. But where is the feeding so freely given in the Gospel?

Jehovah Jireh

Isaiah gives God's invitation to all who thirst and hunger to come and buy food and drink with out cost. The Psalmist declares that the Lord provides food in due season. He is faithful and will not disappoint.

The Gospel echoes these images as Jesus provide food for the masses.

This is a God of compassion. He needs no strong-arming to bless. As Isaiah declares the bread is freely given, yet so often we fight for food that is no food at all.

How will we wrestle with the two sides of this? Freely given and a costly wrestling to receive.

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