It’s Mother’s Day. When I read in our gospel that the Pharisees came to Jesus and asked for a sign from heaven from him right after he fed a multitude with a few loaves and fish I can’t help but think of all of those mothers who have worked hard to put a healthy meal on the table for their family day after day and the response they too often get for it is: “Bleh, I don’t want to eat that!” A million bitter retorts come to mind!
While it’s a stretch to make a connection between an unappreciated mother and Jesus feeding a multitude, I think they both get at a part of human nature. People are never satisfied; especially if they don’t know what goes on behind the scenes.
The feeding miracle we read is usually called the “Feeding of the 4000”. It is the second of the great feeding miracles in Mark’s gospel. Both Mark’s gospel and Matthew’s gospel include two great feeding miracles. Luke and John only include the more famous Feeding of the 5000. Historians and biblical scholars usually suggest that there was only one great feeding miracle by Jesus and that Matthew and Mark have included it twice; and with a slightly different viewpoint from each other. There is good biblical precedent for this. Biblical authors will tell two versions of the same account, with each telling having a different meaning. In the case of the feeding miracles Matthew and Mark present the Feeding of the 5000 happening with a Jewish audience and the Feeding of the 4000 happening with a non-Jewish audience. This then shows God’s equal abundance. If you can remember worship from two weeks ago we had the story of the Syrophoenician woman who came to Jesus begging for help for her daughter. Jesus said it wasn’t fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. She replied that even the dogs ate the crumbs that fell from the children’s table. Well, if this feeding miracle is the crumbs, then they also create quite an abundance!
That may indeed be Mark’s main intent in including this story shortly after the Syrophoenician woman story. That’s my interpretation. But it also sets up something else. Shortly after the Feeding of the 5000 there was conflict with the Pharisees. Now it’s happening again. We the readers are supposed to find it ironic and laugh at it. But to be fair to the Pharisees and to what Mark writes, in neither case are any of the Pharisee sect described as being present at the miracles. Indeed, Mark does not tell us that Jesus is angry with them. He
just says that Jesus sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.”
It makes sense to demand proof of something. But in the case of the Pharisees it seems like they endlessly want more proof. While it is easy to criticize them for that, there is also something of ourselves in that.
I don’t know what it is within us humans, but we always want more. Give us something that we want. It satisfies us for a while and then we want something more, something new, or better. At this point all of us live with luxuries and conveniences that the world’s wealthiest of 150 years ago did not have, and could not even imagine. Refrigeration, air conditioning, central heat, electricity everywhere, phones, cell phones, airplanes, rocket ships, satellite communication; and of course my favorite… indoor plumbing; hot and cold running water.
We have: pain medications, anesthesia, sterile rooms for surgery, and so much more.
Think back 150 years ago. That would be 1874. Imagine trying to describe a car to someone in 1874. If you’re lucky they’d have heard of the steam driven horseless carriage, which was first invented in 1803. But they’d ask how you’d get anywhere with it? After all, they were heavy and unruly.
Well, you’d reply that you’d build roads.
Build roads with what? Corduroy roads made by laying down logs in swampy areas?
No. Concrete and asphalt. They’d have heard of concrete used in masonry but asphalt hasn’t been invented yet.
Where would you build these roads?
Anywhere, everywhere. Wherever you want.
But what about mountains? Your “car” wouldn’t be able to take people across those.
You’d reply that we’d move mountains or cut tunnels through them.
And where would you get all the coal and wood to fuel these cars?
You’d reply that you’d create a fuel that hasn’t been invented yet. It would be liquid and you’d build pipelines and stations all over the place so people could get some everywhere.
But they’d ask why you’d do this? For certainly only the richest of the rich could afford such a contraption.
No, you’d say you’d make them cheaply – by the millions and everyone would have their own.
Everyone?!? You’d let everyone have such a thing?
Of course. You’d explain there’d be a test of course, to show proficiency, but that wasn’t hard to pass. And then everyone from young to old, weak or strong, smart or not could operate a car.
How fast would it go? Surely 15 mph would be a breakneck speed!
You’d reply that you’d build roads so that everyone could drive one of these cars safely and easily at 70 mph.
And they’d think you were nuts. Completely nuts!
Oh how comfortable and convenient things are for us! And are we satisfied? Do we walk around feeling a glow of the comforts and conveniences of our lives every day? Do we wake up on a windy wet blustery day and think, “Oh how blessed I am to have a home where I am insulated from all that makes me uncomfortable! I couldn’t ask for a gentler, easier, better, more luxurious life than this!”
I doubt we feel that way!
We may not be like the Pharisees always asking Jesus for a sign. But we are like them in always wanting more.
Maybe Jesus had just one major feeding miracle. Maybe he had two. Maybe as Matthew and Mark report that there was one feeding miracle for Jews and one for non-Jews. But it wouldn’t have mattered if Jesus had feeding miracles all the time and every day. We’d want more.
The human condition seems to never be satisfied. We always want more. We think we deserve more – as if we think we work too hard and are not paid enough even as we enjoy lives of ease and luxury beyond what our forebears knew or could even imagine.
Jesus’ deep sigh in his spirit fits for all generations. If we always want more we’ll never be satisfied with what we have. Unfortunately we rarely feel grateful or joyful for our lives.
What is the cure? It’s not a once and done thing. This is not a medicine you can take and have the problem go away. The need for more is a chronic condition.
Like someone addicted to a substance the first thing is to recognize that we have a problem. Life is not about an abundance of possessions. I suspect that’s why so many people are unhappy and wandering aimlessly in our world today. They have so much that gives them nothing.
So, we name before God our problem. Perhaps we should do that every day, or multiple times a day.
Then we set our minds on things that will satisfy us. You can be almost certain that the things which satisfy will not be things you can buy. Nor will they be things that you can come by easily.
Have you ever had one of those all-in-one skillet meals that you can buy? It’s a bag of frozen stuff and you just dump it in a skillet and turn on the heat. With minimal stirring you have a complete meal several minutes later. They may taste good after a long hard day and you appreciate the convenience of the meal. But they are not good as a steady diet. Good food, real food, satisfying food, takes work. Even if you roll your eyes at what your mother puts on the table after she spent quite a bit of time cooking, and making all sorts of dishes dirty, and using all sorts of cooking skills, there will likely be more overall satisfaction and health for you.
God is not stingy with us. God gives us an abundance. Our lives are better for it. Let us recognize these good things so that we can be satisfied and content, rather than being endlessly hollow because of our misguided feeling that we always need more.
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