You give them something to eat

 

 Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.  He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.  And He said to them, "Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece.  Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart.  And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them."  So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.  

Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Him; and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again.  Herod said, "John I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things?"  So he sought to see Him. 

And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done.  Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.  But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing.   When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, "Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here."  But He said to them, "You give them something to eat."  And they said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people."  For there were about five thousand men.  Then He said to His disciples, "Make them sit down in groups of fifty."  And they did so, and made them all sit down.  Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude.  So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them. 

 

- Luke 9:1–17 

 

Yesterday we read that when Jesus returned to Capernaum (after healing a demoniac across the Sea of Galilee), that the multitude welcomed Him, for they were all waiting for Him.  And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue.  And he fell down at Jesus' feet and begged Him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter about twelve years of age, and she was dying.  But as He went, the multitudes thronged Him.  Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, came from behind and touched the border of His garment.  And immediately her flow of blood stopped.  And Jesus said, "Who touched Me?"  When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, "Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?'"  But Jesus said, "Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me."  Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately.  And He said to her, "Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well.  Go in peace."   While He was still speaking, someone came from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him, "Your daughter is dead.  Do not trouble the Teacher."  But when Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, "Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will be made well."  When He came into the house, He permitted no one to go in except Peter, James, and John, and the father and mother of the girl.  Now all wept and mourned for her; but He said, "Do not weep; she is not dead, but sleeping."  And they ridiculed Him, knowing that she was dead.  But He put them all outside, took her by the hand and called, saying, "Little girl, arise."  Then her spirit returned, and she arose immediately.  And He commanded that she be given something to eat.  And her parents were astonished, but He charged them to tell no one what had happened.

 

  Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.  He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.  And He said to them, "Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece.  Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart.  And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them."  So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.  Here Jesus calls His twelve disciples together, giving them power over demons and to cure diseases, and sends them out to preach the kingdom of God and heal the sick, making them apostles.  The Greek word for disciple means "learner" and the word apostle comes from the Greek word αποστολος/apostolos, which means "one sent out."   In so doing, my study Bible emphasizes that Jesus gave them power and authority, while He performed healings and cast out demons through His own power and authority.  Their mission is like Christ's, they are to preach and to heal.  Their demeanor is to be humble and reliant upon God, not ostentatious, and not "trading up" for a better place to stay.  The response to those who reject them is also humble, not vengeful but to shake the dust off their feet as a testimony against them.  

 

 Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Him; and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again.  Herod said, "John I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things?"  So he sought to see Him.   My study Bible comments that this is the same Herod to whom Pilate would send Jesus during His trial (Luke 23:7).  He is the son of Herod the Great who slew the innocent infants in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16).  The story of the beheading of St. John at the court of Herod Antipas is found in Mark 6:14-28.  

And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done.  Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.  But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing.   When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, "Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here."  But He said to them, "You give them something to eat."  And they said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people."  For there were about five thousand men.  Then He said to His disciples, "Make them sit down in groups of fifty."  And they did so, and made them all sit down.  Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude.  So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.  My study Bible cites the commentary of Theophylact, who sees a liturgical parallel with the feeding of the five thousand.  He notes that Christ first healed and spoke of the gospel, and then He fed the multitude with the miraculous bread by the hands of the disciples.  In the Church, he says, a person is first healed through baptism; then at the Liturgy, the gospel is preached and the bread of life and the cup are received from the hands of the ordained clergy.  Jesus charges the disciples with the command, "You give them something to eat."  My study Bible says that this commission is  a type and preparation for the apostolic ministry the disciples will perform after His Resurrection.  They will be feeding the world with the word of God, and with the Eucharist.  St. John Chrysostom is also cited in his understanding of today's passage.  He says of the five loaves and two fish that Christ is the same Creator "of both the earth and the sea, who in the beginning brought fruit from the earth and life out of the water."  The Gospel tells us that Christ looked up to heaven before blessing and breaking the bread.  St. Chrysostom says that He does so "not as receiving power from elsewhere, but as honoring the Father who begot Him."  Moreover, St. Chrysostom comments, that Christ blessed and broke the bread teaches us "not to touch any meal until we have given thanks to Him who gives us food."  This blessing also gives us a clear image of the Eucharist, and directs us to pursue spiritual food greater than that which is earthly (see John 6:26-27).  

So, what does it mean to be fed?  How do we wish to be fed by Jesus Christ?   In John's Gospel. this miraculous feeding will lead to the people pursuing Jesus across the Sea of Galilee, even running to anticipate His arrival, because as a result of this feeding, they seek to make Him king by force.  Hence, Jesus' response, cited by my study Bible (see above) found in John 6:26-27:  "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him."  As we can see, these multitudes who followed Jesus into the wilderness are first fed with Christ's preaching and teaching about the kingdom of God.  Also, He performs healings as well.  In this context, let's ponder that in today's reading we're told that the disciples have been sent out as apostles by Jesus, on their first missionary journey.  In so doing, He shares His power with them, and they are to take it through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.   This is a kind of expansion of Jesus' ministry that marks a milestone.  Jesus' power has the capability of being shared with others, even with human beings who serve Christ.  This must surely be linked with faith, and we can see the connection of faith established through the apostles as they go through the towns -- only those who reject them and are faithless are subject to the testimony against them, the shaking of the dust from the feet of the apostles.  So when we think of what food we need, how can we leave out the importance and singular essential quality of needing food that feeds our faith?  In the perspective of the Gospels we see that this is the primary need we have, for faith leads in some way to everything else -- and to this miraculous feeding in the wilderness.  So let us think about feeding, and our impulse -- our needs -- to eat and to be fed.  We know when our bodies are hungry.  Recently experiencing surgery, during the healing process I found myself needing more food than usual, and of a certain type.  But our faith, or lack of it, must work a certain way.  While we're growing as children (or healing from an injury of some sort) we truly need food to feed the growth we're experiencing, the necessary nourishment for that process.  But faith must work the same way.  In fact, it would seem that in some sense the more we grow in our faith, the more we need to nurture it, and the more need we experience to shore it up, to find it and deepen it.  This goes hand in hand with the joy we experience in the faith, and perhaps even the challenges we face in its growth.  In the experience of the Church and her saints, it's perhaps safe to say that the more one's faith grows, so grows one's need for it and for its nurturing.  In Luke's chapter 17, the apostles demand of the Lord, "Increase our faith!"  This demand is sandwiched between Jesus' teaching on the need to forgive at each repentance of a brother, and His teaching that, "If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you."  It leads also to His teaching on what it means to be a good servant.  See Luke 17:1-10.  So Christ's way is to feed the multitudes with what they need, and to teach us what we need.  He sends out the disciples, now become apostles, to feed this need in others, and to seek and to find those who will respond to it positively, grasping it with all their capacity.  For our love of God doesn't stop but expands to hold all that God can give, until we ourselves must share with others the good things we have been given, too.  Like the disciples, our faith may be nurtured when we share it with others.  There are those who teach that all the things of which we partake become a part of us, so we need to think hard, as human beings, about what we take in, and the things in which we participate -- for these things feed us too.  King Herod Antipas seeks to be fed, in some sense, by Christ, but to what end?  Not to faith.  Let us consider carefully what we really need, and what it feeds in us, where we need nourishment day by day, and the daily bread of the kingdom of God.