Rev. Maureen Frescott
Congregationsl Church Of Amherst, NH
July 15, 2012
John 6:1-14
“A Boy and His
Lunch”
John
Mark was an inquisitive child. He lived with his parents and his three brothers
in the small fishing village of Capernaum, on the north shore of the Sea of
Galilee. John Mark was only 10-years-old but he was more adventurous and
intellectually curious then his three older brothers.
His
mother encouraged this, which is why on this fine morning she allowed him to linger
in the garden studying a butterfly while his brothers went on ahead to help
their father haul the day’s catch of fish onto shore.
John-Mark
was fascinated by things that were out of the ordinary.
Most
likely because he and his family were Gentiles living in a village that was
predominantly Jewish. He knew what it was like to be different.
And
the butterfly that caught John Mark’s eye in the garden that morning was a
living example of the beauty that can be found in difference.
Having
sufficiently satisfied his curiosity and with the morning fleeting by, John
Mark ran into the house, grabbed the lunch basket his mother had prepared for
him and his brothers, and he set off skipping down the road to join them by the
seaside.
But
just before he arrived at the spot where his father normally anchored his boat,
John Mark noticed a commotion arising on the shoreline. People were piling into
boats and running up the road that skirted the seaside, chattering on about
some prophet who had set sail with his followers and who was last seen headed
to the deserted shore on the opposite side of the Sea of Galilee.
John
Mark had a sense as to whom it was they were talking about.
It
was probably the same prophet who had approached two local fishermen, Simon
Peter and his brother Andrew, and lured them away from their boats and their
livelihood. Causing them to cast down their nets and leave their poor father to
fend for himself.
John Mark had seen this prophet in the
village before.
The
local men called him Jeshua.
There
was nothing special about him. He looked like an ordinary man, but rumor had it
that he cured a man who was possessed by an unclean spirit, and he healed Simon
Peter’s mother-in-law when she came down with fever.
Now
John Mark was raised to be open-minded, but casting out demons, and healing the
sick? Weren’t those magician’s tricks?
Besides,
why would someone who had powers such as these be living in Capernaum?? Why not
just conjure up a castle and a bevy of servants and live the good life in
Damascus or Antioch?
Why spend your nights sleeping on the
ground, and your days talking to a bunch of dirt-poor fisherman in a back-woods
place like Capernaum??
It
just didn’t make sense.
In
reality, what Jeshua was best known for was stirring up trouble in the local
synagogue. John Mark didn’t attend synagogue himself but he had heard the older
boys in town talking about this man who was always getting into debates with
the local rabbis - challenging their beliefs and answering their questions with
questions of his own.
John
Mark loved a good debate as much as the next boy, having been schooled by his
father in the nuances of philosophy, but when it came to religious beliefs you
either believed or you didn’t…right?
If
your beliefs were very different from the majority of those in your faith
tradition then why stick around and argue with them?
Why
not just go out and start your own religion? Build your own Temple, pray to
your God in your own way?
It
just didn’t make sense.
But
with all the commotion going on by the seaside that day, John Mark let his
curiosity get the best of him, and before he knew it he was running along the
shore road, his lunch basket swinging beside him, making his way to the
deserted place on the far side of the sea, where the man named Jeshua was
reported to be.
By
the time he got there, there were already thousands of people gathered on the
hillside overlooking the shore. The
prophet was standing in a boat on the shoreline. John Mark watched him step out of the boat and walk up the
hillside with his 12 followers in tow. John Mark waved to Andrew and Simon
Peter but they didn’t see him as the crowd surged forward.
Once
they reached the top of the hill, Jeshua signaled for his followers to sit and
then he leaned over to say something to the one named Philip.
John
Mark could not hear what he was saying so he quickly pushed his way through the
crowd to get himself within earshot of the action.
Using
his lunch basket as a battering ram, he quickly found a way to make the tightly
packed masses move aside and let him through.
John
Mark poked his head through the front of the crowd just in time to hear Philip
tell Jeshua, “Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to
get a little."
Bread?
Why did they need to buy bread? John Mark wondered.
They
weren’t thinking of feeding all these people were they? These people had
followed Jeshua on their own accord. If they were foolhardy enough to come all
the way out here without anything to eat then let them suffer the consequences.
Let them find their own food.
As
he thought this, John Mark instinctively tightened his grip on the basket that
his mother had lovingly packed for him and his brothers that morning.
It
was getting close to lunchtime and his father and brothers were most likely
bringing in the mornings catch right about now.
They
would be expecting John Mark to be there on the shore waiting to deliver the 5
loaves and 2 fishes that would sustain them for the remainder of the day.
Little
did they know that John Mark was miles away from where he was supposed to be,
having impulsively followed a preacher man who used parlor tricks and fancy
words to convince others to do his bidding.
A
so-called prophet whose own followers couldn’t agree on who
he was or how his words and actions were to be interpreted.
John
Mark didn’t know much about the Jewish faith, but what he did know is that there
didn’t seem to be much consensus on how to interpret the words written in their
sacred texts. The men on the
hillside were arguing even now.
Off
to John Mark’s right there was a group of men who called themselves Sadducees, who saw the written law of Moses
as the only law that the Jewish people needed, and who rejected the man-made laws
and traditions that grew up around the sacred text. They were convinced that
Jeshua was a false prophet because he kept insisting that God would resurrect the
dead. Resurrection was nonsense, according to the Sadducees, and this Jeshua
character was blasphemous for even speaking of it.
To
John Mark’s left stood a group of Pharisees,
who unlike the Sadducees expanded upon the law of Moses and adhered to
additional laws and traditions meant to keep the faithful in line.
If
you stepped out of line the Pharisees were the first to call you on it, and
Jeshua was always stepping out of line. He spoke of a Divine love that was overly merciful and far
too inclusive to come from the one true God.
God
loves tax collectors and prostitutes? To the Pharisees Jeshua was a heretic for
sure.
Then
there were the Zealots, who very
nearly came to blows right there on the hillside that morning as they discussed
how to bring Jeshua into their fold. The Zealots were political revolutionaries
who believed that the only way to overcome the oppressive rule of Rome was to
overthrow those in power, using violent means if necessary.
The
Zealots believed that Jeshua was sent by God to be the leader of their
revolution, as he preached a message that was subversive and laced with
anti-Roman rhetoric. Jeshua was the liberator they had been waiting for.
John
Mark noticed that here was one group on the hillside that was equally despised
by the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Zealots - these were the Samaritans. They were outsiders, interlopers from the north, who
practiced a watered down version of Judaism and who were unwelcome in the
cities and villages of Judea. Disdainful
looks came from all around.
But
the Samaritans liked Jeshua; he treated them as equals and he spoke to them
with love.
Finally,
there were the more common adherents of the Jewish faith who didn’t feel the
need to distinguish themselves with a secondary label. They
went to synagogue on the Sabbath, followed the law of Moses and honored the
traditions passed on in their communities.
They
too were tired of Roman rule, but
they were just as tired of all the infighting that went on within their faith.
The
Jewish people needed to stand together, not tear each other apart, and Jeshua
just may be the one to unite them. They
wondered if Jeshua was the Messiah that God had promised them. A savior who
would bring them together, lead them to freedom, and reinstate their standing
as God’s chosen people.
With
all the religious tension on the hillside that morning, John Mark couldn’t
understand why the first words out of Jeshua’s mouth had to do with food. Why was he talking about bread?
Perhaps
Jeshua thought if he fed the masses, they’d actually listen to what he had to
say.
Then
again, he was always going on about the need to feed the hungry and give to the
poor, maybe he was just demonstrating what he wanted others to do. Leading by
example.
John
Mark had also heard that the people who followed Jeshua would often have meals
together and break bread in his name, maybe this was just his way of
indoctrinating them to the practice.
While
John Mark pondered all these possible explanations, he failed to notice that
Andrew had spotted him in the crowd….and before he knew it, the disciple was
standing right in front of him, casting a shadow over the startled little boy.
“What
do you have in the basket?” Andrew asked.
“Just
a few pieces of bread and some fish,” John Mark stammered. “Just
enough to feed me and my brothers,” he quickly added, as he moved to hide the
basket behind his back.
Andrew
quickly snatched the basket and looked inside.
“Come
with me boy,” he said.
John
Mark obediently followed Andrew.
He
could not disobey the command of an elder and admittedly he was fascinated with
the idea of getting closer to the man named Jeshua.
Andrew
approached Jeshua, and with some weariness in his voice he said, "There is
a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?"
Jeshua
said, “Make the people sit down,” and then he took the basket from Andrew and he
opened it.
John
Mark began to panic. He wanted to scream, “That’s my lunch AND my brothers’ lunch. What are we going to eat if you give our
food to all these people?”
John
Mark was all for feeding the hungry and giving to the poor, as long as he and
his family didn’t go hungry in the process.
But
he said nothing as Jeshua reached into the basket. The prophet took the bread and
gave thanks to God, and then he passed the basket amongst the people.
The
crowd pushed forward, with those in the front reaching in desperation to get
their meager share before it was gone. Those
in the back of the crowd knew that
there was no hope that they would eat that day, but they too reached greedily
for the basket.
John
Mark just stood there. His lower lip began to quiver.
What
had he done?
His
family wasn’t rich. His father worked hard to catch those fish.
His
mother worked hard to bake that bread.
Now
because of his curiosity and his stupidity he had lost the only meal they would
have that day.
As
the people continued to pass the basket and he saw the five loaves, and then
the two fish being broken apart and dropped into waiting outstretched hands, he
felt the tears begin to sting against his cheeks.
And
then something very strange began to happen.
The
basket continued to be passed along the hillside, eagerly grasped by the
twentieth and then the thirtieth, and then the fiftieth person.
Soon
one hundred people had put their hands into the basket and brought them out
again with bread and fish overflowing their grasp.
How
could this be?
The
tension in the crowd soon turned to giddiness.
Waves
of laughter began to erupt as people followed the progress of the basket in
amazement.
One
man yelled to a friend who was reaching into the basket, “Hey Jacob!” Isn’t
that the same fish that I just ate?”
The
anxious fear that had descended upon the crowd when the small basket of food
first began to circulate, was gone.
The
fear that there would not be enough
to go around, was gone.
The
fear that the Sadducees, or the Pharisees, or the Zealots, or the Samaritans
would take more than their fair share leaving nothing for anyone else, was
gone.
The
belief that one group or one person was somehow more or less deserving of
reaching into the basket, was gone.
Suddenly
John Mark understood why this prophet teacher known as Jeshua was so
preoccupied with food.
Food
was what sustained them.
Without
food they could not live.
Yet
food was a scarce commodity.
By
giving the people an abundance of food Jeshua had shown them how much of their
fear, and mistrust, and desire for power over others, came from a feeling of
scarcity.
The
feeling that there is not enough to
go around.
When
the scarcity was turned to abundance all of the people’s fears slipped away,
and were replaced with joyous cooperation.
Could
the same be said of love? John Mark wondered.
Did
people fear, and mistrust, and exert power over others because they believed
love was a scarce commodity?
Did
they believe that love was so scarce they had to hold on to it, or hoard it, or
withhold it from others to ensure that they would never go without?
What
if there was enough love to go around?
What
if love existed in abundance?
What
if love could be passed along in a basket with each person reaching in and
taking their fill, and passing it along to the next person without thought of
who it was they were passing it to?
Nothing
would be held back, no one would be denied, no one would go hungry, in a world
of abundant love.
John
Mark thought of the people in his life with whom he had been reluctant to share
his love.
He thought
of the friend who had angered him by breaking a promise, he thought of the man
who had cheated his father out of a fair payment, he thought of the kids who
wouldn’t play with him because he was a Gentile, and he thought of the people
whom he had judged and avoided because they were different from him.
What
would it feel like to love all of them, despite their transgressions, real or
imagined?
What
would it feel like to pass that basket to them without feeling as if he was
giving something up, or being taken advantage of, or giving them more than they
deserved?
What
would it feel like to live in a world of abundant love?
Perhaps
Jeshua was onto something after all, John Mark thought.
Perhaps
he is not a magician or a heretic, but a true prophet who actually understands
how God’s love works in the world.
Perhaps
he is the savior that they ALL had
been waiting for.
Amen.
