Sunday before Advent – Where are we to buy bread?

Jeremiah 23:5-8       St John 6:5-14

Jesus said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

Today we are once again at the end of the Church Year and anticipating the next.

Our Gospel begins today with a large crowd coming towards Jesus and the disciples.  They have seen the miracles of healing of diseases that Jesus had done and they are following Jesus and the disciples up the slope of a mountain to where they were resting.  Jesus lifted his eyes from his attention to the disciples before Him, to see these crowds coming.

When Jesus sees it, he questions all the disciples by asking Philip, “‘Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?’ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.”

Jesus uses every moment to teach, he knows what he is planning, and he probably even knows what Philip will answer.  Jesus is bringing out of his soul, the state of his present understanding of who Jesus is, so that it might become plain, drawing what is inside to the surface.  It is like how we are to teach children, by not making immediately clear the answer, so that we might draw out of them an ability to think, and give them a confidence that accompanies finding the answers for themselves, so that they will be able to struggle through impasses in the future.

Today’s Gospel is from the 6^th chapter of John’s gospel.  The last time we heard of Philip by name was in the first chapter, when he was called.  John and Andrew were the first to follow Jesus.  They were John the Baptist’s disciples and it was John who pointed out Jesus as the Messiah and they sought him out.  Andrew brought his brother Simon to Jesus saying, we have found the Messiah, so clearly they believed.  And the next disciple to assemble around Jesus was Philip, the first disciple whom Jesus sought out and said directly, “Follow me.” And he followed him.  So there is little doubt that these disciples by this time all thought of Jesus as the Messiah.  After being gathered by Jesus, they saw the Miracle at Cana, water into wine; Nicodemus had come to Jesus privately; Jesus had driven out the money changers from the Temple; Jesus had his disciples baptise others; there was the encounter with the Samaritan woman; and they saw Jesus healing many with diseases.  And just before today’s Gospel, Jesus has proclaimed himself openly in Jerusalem as the son of God, concluding by saying to the Pharisees, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me.”  Jesus is saying very clearly and publicly that he is the Messiah, the Prophet who is to come.

And yet, how were the disciples to know the implications of this?  How could it really sink in?

God is ever seeking to stretch the hearts and minds of humanity as to who He is, and who is His Messiah.  Until our hearts and minds are stretched we will not image Him very well.  We will give only a kind of fragment of an image – something which points to Him, but which could point so much more clearly.

Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 

The answers Philip and Andrew give help to illustrate the magnitude of the coming miracle.  But their answers also show that their thinking is small as to the person and power of the Messiah.  Elisha had multiplied 20 barley loaves to feed 200 people.  What could the Messiah do with only 5 loaves and 5000? [1 Kings 4:42-44]

What about our minds and hearts?  Each one of us no doubt, even after another year of the Church’s calendar, need our minds and hearts enlarged as to who Jesus is and what He is doing in our midst, and of what is possible for us, in Him, in the coming year.

Jeremiah predicts, in today’s reading, that the foundational story of deliverance for the Jews – their Exodus out of Egypt – will be eclipsed by a far greater Exodus in future:

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt’, but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”  [Jer 23:7-8]

This prophesy was no doubt an encouragement to Israel at the time of exile in Babylon of a future drawing the people of God back from all the lands that they had been exiled, not just Babylon, but in the earlier exiles.  It happened after 70 years.  And we might see this prophesy pointing to something greater, as the present drawing of the people of Israel back to that homeland.  But the prophesy is surely also pointing to the greatest exodus that is happening for Jew and Gentile alike from all the countries around the world, an exodus from the slavery to sin and death, when they turn to Jesus.  They come to inhabit their own land, the kingdom of heaven, into which we have been born again by our baptism and faith, and into which we can truly find rest, wherever we are on earth.  It is not a state on earth but a state of mind and heart.

God is always seeking to expand our view of Who He is, and of the salvation He can bring.

Is there some question, like that to Philip, that is being put before our minds by God in our present circumstances?  Is God testing our faith to the limits as we look up for direction in our suffering, for help, for understanding, in our present prayer?  Are we being asked, in the silence, in the waiting, to expand our vision of who God is?

Will we answer with a sort of practical sarcastic despair – “200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little?”… “here are five loaves and two small fish but what are they among so many?”

Like children, God is trying to draw us out by not answering immediately our cries.

Then Jesus acts.  He says, “Have the people sit down.”

And from those precious hands, the few loaves became a superabundance of bread, the two fish fed 5000, and there were leftovers.

In a moment Jesus explodes the categories in their narrow minds to unveil the Maker and source of all food and abundance on earth, and the love of God towards His people who hunger for righteousness, who hunger for the Lord who is our righteousness.

Jesus makes the disciples pick up what is left over – the people were stuffed to the gills – and strangely there are just twelve baskets of fragments left over.  One basket for each disciple to hold in his own hands as they depart from the mountain, to bring home the miracle to their body and soul, so that it would never be forgotten, so that they would never despair again of having enough.

The grace which came down from above that day, continues to pour out on the earth, through the heavenly and earthly ministry of Jesus Christ in His Church.

This morning, and every Sunday, though it seems often we must wait for fulfilment, there is also an immediate answer from God.

Like on that day when 5000 were fed on the grass with bread from heaven, so does Jesus offer us bread, but much more, the supersubstantial bread of heaven this morning in churches all around the world – hundreds of millions coming forward to receive this same grace, today.

Is our vision of God ever expanding?  We started in the introductory Sundays of Trinity season, praying  God would "make us to have a perpetual fear and love of your holy Name." [Collect for Trinity 2]  Are we a little more afraid of God today than last year, not in the sense of fear of condemnation, but fear of the freedom He gives us?  Are we a little more in awe of His providencial arrangements?  Are we a little less sure that we understand who God is, a little more humble?  And at the same time are we also more sure of His love and enjoying more of the mercy He offers us, the deep forgiveness that is His to give through the death of Jesus and His resurrection?  Are we truly growing in our love of God and our neighbour in response to His love?

Let us prepare ourselves now, through repentance and faith, as we finish the year and begin anew, to participate in the central means Jesus has given us for our growth.  As we reflect on Him, we see ourselves better and humbly come forward to receive the Bread from heaven and the Cup of salvation.

Let’s pray that our Christian life might be not a circle, arriving at the same place each year, but rather an ever ascending spiral into the life of God.  And that, together with others, the fragments of our faith might be gathered and be a more unmistakable witness to the world that:

“This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

And indeed, not we but “The Lord is our righteousness.”

Amen +