Gospel reading: Matthew 15.29-37
After Jesus had left that place, he passed along the Sea of Galilee, and he went up the mountain, where he sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them, so that the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.
Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ‘I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?’ Jesus asked them, ‘How many loaves have you?’ They said, ‘Seven, and a few small fish.’ Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.
Reflections
The passage starts by describing how great crowds brought many people to Jesus for healing. Then at the end of three days, he was concerned about them for they ‘have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.’ So Matthew continues the story of the feeding of the 4,000. Jesus did not just heal once, and then let the people get ill again, but continues to care and provide. In my own life, God did not just save me at that moment I first turned to God, but has continued to save and heal me, and provide for me, for which I continue to give thanks.
There is much else in the passage that clamours for my attention: ‘he went up the mountain’ and all the other mountains in the Bible; how the NRSV translation* labels people by their illnesses – ‘the lame’ etc – instead of seeing them as people first and foremost; ‘God of Israel’ and Matthew’s likely readership among Jewish Christians; the compassion of Jesus for the people; how Jesus took, gave thanks, broke and gave… and how the disciples had a role in the giving.
So it is easy to miss a word like ‘faint’ in the noise; it is a very faint signal. Obviously this different meaning of ‘faint’ is taken out of context of the passage, but it also bears reflection.
In the Silly Verse for Kids, Spike Milligan gave us “What a noisy place to belong / is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!!” And this world is a noisy place to belong, and our minds are noisy places to belong. So it’s very difficult to notice and listen to God’s still small voice. But it is important not to waste even more bandwidth on the noise by worrying about it. It will never be possible to silence it. Instead simply accept it’s there and move beyond it to look and listen for and pay attention to that faint signal that is not clamouring to be heard, but gently and patiently making itself present.
* The Greek uses adjectives rather than nouns, but perhaps this amounts to the same thing.
-oOo-
Since April 2020, I have been jointly hosting a shared Lectio Divina group on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings. These are my reflections only, during the prayer session and as I wrote them up. Please see my separate commentary and leaflet for more information about shared Lectio.
