I had a very annoying neighbor when I was growing up. I probably shouldn’t complain because I had just one very annoying neighbor and you may have had loads of them! She was late middle aged at the time. She never held back her opinions and she had opinions about everything. It was actually pretty entertaining for myself and my two cousins; all three of us being laborers on their farm. She and her husband – both graduates from Harvard and him having a PhD - had moved from the city life of Philadelphia in order to go into the organic farming business. They had no experience, and to say they didn’t know what they were doing was an understatement. Oh the laughs my cousins and I had at their attempts at farming with their self-believed brilliance!
She certainly had her political views, and like everything else, was not afraid to share them. She was fond of saying something which just made me roll my eyes at the time, but as time has gone by I’ve come to realize did actually have a good deal of truth to it. Of politics she would often say, “It’s all just a game.” And indeed, at the risk of getting into hot water for sharing political views, most of what I see at state and national level politics looks more like power posturing than real leadership. Those in office and those running for office seem to be driven more by appealing to whatever demographic combination of voters they are hoping to appeal to rather than actual leadership.
Real leadership, whether it be in government, or business, or the military, or even a religious non-profit is going to require making a lot of tough and unpopular decisions. A real leader knows that exercising power has consequences. Some people will be winners. Some people will be hurt. And a real leader has the courage to make those decisions, be able to go to sleep at night, and yet be fully aware that people may also be hurt.
It’s been along time since I’ve read the interview, but during Desert Storm I remember General Norman Schwarzkopf, one of the more famous Lutherans of the last century, saying that he knew his decisions could result in the deaths of tens of thousands of people and he didn’t take that lightly.
Good leaders don’t take their decisions lightly. They aren’t out for popularity. They are out for accomplishing a purpose that should be for the benefit of society and the whole world.
Turning to our gospel reading we find a truly bad leader – Herod Antipas. Scoundrels of the worst sort, the Herod family was sleezy, corrupt, and manipulative. Matthew’s gospel begins with the father of Herod Antipas killing the babies in Bethlehem. Now this generation of Herods is in power. The birthday party they have for Herod was certainly not of the “family friendly” sort. By today’s standards the entertainment was probably downright criminal; and I’m not referring to having someone’s head brought in on a platter!
John the Baptist becomes a toy in the hands of disgusting people, who through dirty dealings had come into, and kept, power. He was an expendable life in the game of power.
Matthew could have put the account of the death of John the Baptist just about anywhere in the gospel. He put it here, and it was probably by design.
Contrast the powerful Herod family and their actions at a banquet with powerful Jesus of Nazareth and his action at a banquet of a very different sort. Herod certainly had tons of food – and tons may not be an exaggeration. It had been gathered by the exploitation of people and probably prepared by slaves. Jesus has five loaves and two fish and a “great crowd” to feed. Numbers in the Bible are always hard to nail down, but Matthew tells us 5000 men plus women and children. So, let’s say roughly 20,000 people.
Last week’s Super Bowl took place in the Hard Rock Stadium which has a seating capacity of roughly 65,000. I wonder how many pounds of hotdogs they sold? I understand that for the Super Bowl there were something like 100 chefs and 2400 culinary staff preparing food. While Jesus doesn’t have 65,000 in his crowd, he has only five loaves, two fish, and a dozen disciples – for today’s sake let’s call them “food distributors” - at his disposal. Can you imagine standing in the middle of that stadium with even just 20,000 people in it and having five loaves of bread and two fish to feed them all?
Again, contrast the banquet Jesus gives with the banquet of the Herods. No one gets killed at Jesus’ banquet. No one gets exploited. No one dances a dance that should not be danced. Yet all are fed. All are fulfilled. And there are twelve baskets full of leftovers; twelve being a number symbolic of completeness. So even after all are filled there is still a completeness of leftovers. This is life with Jesus in charge. This is life in Jesus’ kingdom. From little God provides and abundance.
Now, I wish I could say that if you commit your life to Jesus fully you will have such an abundance, even if you come with nothing. I wish I could say that with enough faith and trust in God that God would always provide for your every need – food, shelter, clothing, medical care, family, friends, your self-worth. It would be great if we would be protected from the bad and evil things that happen in the world, whether they be human induced or natural causes. But that’s not how things work, is it?
Almost as if Matthew knows we’re going to have such questions arise in us, he moves us into the next scene. Indeed, I believe the placement of the story of Jesus walking on the water is no coincidence coming right after the feeding of the 5000.
Jesus sends the disciples away in a boat across the Sea of Galilee. Matthew doesn’t tell us that detail, but since it’s the only body around that must be it! Jesus dismisses the crowds. Jesus’ disciples have a hard time of it. Strong winds are whipping the sea into big waves. These disciples, and remember some of them are fishermen experienced on this lake, are worried. They struggle all night to get across the lake and aren’t succeeding. Remember also, the Sea of Galilee is only eight miles wide. They’re in trouble. When the see Jesus walking to them on the water they are terrified. Is Jesus some evil spirit come to fetch them to their doom? In myths of the time only gods could walk on water.
Well, Jesus lives up to that, doesn’t he? When the disciples fear he is a ghost he says pretty literally, “Take heart, I am; do not be afraid.” or as our translations put it into better grammar, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” I think you get it though. “I am,” or in Hebrew, “YHWH,” is the name of God given in the Old Testament.
The scene gets silly when Peter decides to go on a stroll across the water to meet Jesus. It turns out that he gets a bit wet from the experience, but Jesus is there to save him.
Peter’s request to get out of the relatively safe boat and wander on the water is silly to be sure, but in this brief action I think we find a lot of ourselves and our own faith experience.
We want to believe. We want to reach out. We want to take risks. Maybe we are even bold enough to dare leaving the safe boats of our own little worlds and step out into the danger. Peter is typical of anyone whose life is a mix of courage and anxiety, of hearing the word of the Lord and looking at the terror of the storm, of both trust and doubt. These are all ingredients in a life of faith.
Putting the gospel reading’s stories in order we see the ways of earthly power as exhibited by Herod. Then we see the ways of the kingdom as exhibited by Jesus feeding a multitude with basically nothing. And then we see ourselves – ourselves wishing Jesus were with us fully in flesh and blood to provide the full miraculous feeding, yet knowing he is not with us in that fullness, and that the storms of life still threaten to drown us.
I think the lesson for our lives is that we cannot and should not turn to Jesus expecting miracles to solve things. Instead, to recognize that God has given us the muscles to row the boat across, even in tough and dangerous seas, and that God is with us always -whether we see God or not- journeying with us, for as long as there is distance to be covered.
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