St Johns East Dulwich

My Dear Friends

THERE’S ALWAYS ENOUGH

In any experience it’s important to assess what has happened, what’s happening now, and what might happen in the future. In other words the consequences.

As important as the story told in the Gospel according to St John (6, 1-13) is, it’s as important to recognise what HAS happened and what will happen.

What has happened? Jesus has been in Cana. He has healed the son of a royal officer and so he may have thought it expedient to move away from King Herod’s territory for a while. So he crosses the lake and lands near Bethsaida. It’s quite a journey, especially for those who have followed him, and then they go up into the hills. They had gone there for peace, with the Passover approaching, but a crowd on the other side of the lake would have been able to see where they were headed. It was an even longer journey around the lake for most of the crowd. If they could see Jesus then, looking down, they were even more visible to him.

Jesus must realise that they will be hungry, and so puts the question to Philip, who came from the area and therefore knew many of the people and also what was possible. Philip presents the problem, that is one that’s impossible to solve. But Andrew has another suggestion. He calls attention to the only resources, which are available, some barley bread (the food of the poor) and pickled fish.

It is then that Jesus takes control. Receiving the ludicrously small amount of food, he gives thanks; it is our word Eucharist that he uses. But unlike the other Gospel writers, John does not mention that Jesus broke the bread or lifted his eyes to heaven in prayer. It is almost as if John is distancing himself from the Eucharist, which by the time he was writing would have had all these features. He distributes what there is, and what was ridiculously inadequate is now ample and an abundance is left over.

What happens next in our sequence is just important.  Whereas Jesus could, and did, make use of what had been provided, he could do nothing with the crowd.  Their response was to try to make him king, and Jesus’ only resource then was to escape into silence and then onto the lake. On the lake a storm arose, which he stilled.  Underlining that while he could deal with nature, he found human nature much more difficult to deal with. He then goes on to describe himself, once they had all dried out, not as a king, but as bread for life.

The basic moral of the feeding is clear. There is enough, if we allow Jesus to help us share.

Your friend and Vicar,

Charles