written by Jesse Kleingardner
Healing in place of blood, life in place of death, and leftovers in place of hunger. This is what Jesus brings in this part of the gospel of Luke. Sickness and death are serious realities everyone faces at some point, and hunger is something I face routinely. The crowds were only hungry because they were listening to Jesus for so long. It was not due to poverty (though most were likely poor), but because of a long day of following Jesus. Christ had concern for people’s needs, from the most serious to the most mundane, and he met them all. At this stage in my life, most of the needs I have are extremely mundane. In fact, as a grad student, hunger is the need I relate to most in this reading. Not that I lack food, but often I’m hungry from lack of time to prepare it. I feel as though I am just one person in the crowd of people around Jesus. I can imagine that most of the 5,000 people being fed that day did not really see the miracle. They might have just seen Jesus passing them food without any idea that it was coming from only a few loaves and fish. Only those who were closer to Jesus, like His twelve disciples, had a better view of the miracle of Jesus, knowing that He was multiplying his disciples’ resources to fill the needs of many. It was actually their gifts that everyone was being fed from. They listened to Jesus every day and saw first hand Christ’s healing of the hemorrhaging woman. And only the closest of His disciples, Peter, John and James saw Jesus raise the young girl from the dead.
Just like one of the crowd, I’ll get some time every once in a while to get away to listen to Jesus, and let Him feed me. But I probably am missing the miracles that He does in my life to provide and care for me. I receive the miraculous blessings of Christ’s compassion in my life without much of a clue as to what’s going on. What I’d like to be is a closer disciple of Jesus, one who listens to Him every day. I would get to see, and take part in, the miracles that He performs for people that they might not even see. And I hope for that day when both you and I will be close enough to Christ to see Him bring life from death in our lives as well as others.
Your fellow traveler,
Jesse