Day 16: Matthew 14
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
I can eat. When I was at university, a few friends concocted something called the McDonalds challenge. This basically involved 10 of us sitting round and taking it in turns to select an item from the pound menu. We'd keep ordering until one by one, people would drop out, and the last one standing was the winner (though looking back, none of us could really be classed as winners that day). 11 rounds later, and I was on the verge of victory. 3 large cokes in a row had put my last remaining opponent in trouble, and he bowed out. If I ate one more round, I would be champion. I chose a McFlurry and set about claiming the victory. On the drive home, I've never regretted anything more. After fighting to keep it all down, I lost the battle. I asked a friend to pull over, as I vomited down my leg and in the street.
Classy.
I love the feeding of the 5000, and most people think that's because it's about food. For me, it's not really about food. It involves food, but it shows us so much more about the heart of God. The first bit I love about this is that the story comes just as Jesus has heard about the death of John the Baptist. Jesus learns that his cousin has died, and wants to just be alone for a while. Instead, the crowds follow him.
When Jesus sees this, he doesn't take the perfectly reasonable route of telling them that he just needs some time. He looks at the crowd and has compassion on them. No matter what his own personal pain and feelings are, he doesn't put himself above the crowd. This isn't a crowd of his closest friends. It's a crowd which have come to hear him, but a crowd that will mostly walk away and reject Jesus and his teachings.
As Jesus puts their needs before his own, he shows us a truth we all take for granted. He shows us that God is never too busy for us. He firstly meets their needs through healing those who are sick. That's not enough though, he cares enough about the unimportant issue of their hunger. He could have healed the sick, spoke a bit, and sent them away. No-one could have been too disappointed with that. Instead, he wants them to leave satisfied. I believe God longs to show us more satisfaction than anything else we might try to fill our lives with. Whether they come to Jesus with a big, desperate need, or whether they're just hungry, it doesn't seem to matter to Jesus. The people need something, and Jesus can provide.
Secondly, I love the lack of rules. It doesn't seem like there are any qualifications of who can and can't eat. There's no splitting out who is good enough and who isn't. To me it seems pretty simple; if you were in the crowd, you got fed. As Jesus gets people to sit down and brings them into the feast, there is no investigation of their backgrounds or qualifications. By doing this, Jesus lets us into the heart of God. He shows us that all can come, that background is no barrier to being with Jesus. If you wanted to sit and eat, then you sat and ate.
A few years ago, I was part of a team which helped university students prepare for interviews in the business world. During this time, one girl produced her CV to a friend of mine. As he looked over it, some chewing gum fell out of his mouth and landed right in the middle of the CV. Both people saw it, but the girl was too polite to say anything, so they both carried on looking at it with this big blob of gum in the middle.
Our lives can be like that. We can’t run to God with our CV, showing him how good we are. None of us can impress God with what we do, as our lives will simply not match up to Him. The idea of taking our achievements to someone perfect looking for them to be impressed is bizarre, but I know I do it so often. I know I can often get proud and even think that God is lucky to know me. Normally at that time God reminds me how graceful He is, and how truly flawed I can be when I go through life without Him. You see, all of us have a blob of sin sat in the middle, no matter how much we try to dress things up. The brilliant thing is that God isn’t looking for the CV.
Grace brings us to God despite our sin and weakness. The feeding of the 5000 shows us this, that God doesn't ask us to go through rituals to approach Him. He tells us to come, whatever the state of our hearts. I hope I never lose sight of grace. I believe the feeding of the 5000 shows us a grace that invites us to sit with Jesus, wherever we're from and whatever we're done. I believe that the life of the disciples shows us a promise that as we walk with him, he won't leave us in that state. It's a promise that He will shape our lives daily, changing our hearts and lives so that we will reflect something of a greated kingdom as we go about our days knowing Him. It's a great story. It's a story about life, about love, and about the heart of God who isn't fed up of us.
Like I said, it's not about food.
Like I said, it's not about food.
I love how communal this passage of Scripture is.... picnicking together on the grass. Doing life together, and chatting on a hill. Being equal, eating the same thing and no one being higher or lower than anyone else. This is CHURCH.... Sometimes I walk into the sports hall after a meeting, look at the tables set up at 'Cafe Revive' and think, "wow, this is Church". Obviously, I don't know the conversations people are engaging in, but I hope they are honest, heartfelt, open and sharing GENUINELY what our weeks were like, and what we need prayer for. I get so moved when I see clusters of people praying...this is what should happen. Or, why not talk about what you've just heard in the preach? How did it challenge you? Let's not be reserved any longer!!
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