"A Letter from the Road"

Many times, we hear one of the familiar stories from the Scripture, and find that we’ve heard it so often that we almost become immune to its power. When this happens, it often helps if we can use our imaginations a bit, and put ourselves into the story. Listen again to the story from our Gospel lesson this morning, told this time from a slightly different perspective. See it through the eyes of one of the characters in the story – the boy with the bread and the fish.

 

Dear Aunt Martha,

Blessings to you and Uncle Joseph from your nephew Benjamin.

I’m writing so that you will know that I’m going to be a few days late, and so that you won’t be worried. I know that you and Mother had agreed that I would come for a visit, and to help Uncle Joseph with the harvest. I will be there soon, but I won’t be arriving tomorrow as planned.

I left this morning, and Mother and Father said that I could come by myself. I know the way, it’s only a day’s journey, and after all, I’m almost a man now – I’m almost twelve, and soon I’ll be completing my studies with Rabbi Lev. So Mother packed me a basket with some bread and fish, and I left this morning.

There were a great many people on the road this morning, much more than normal. It seems that most of the town was going out to the fields to hear this man, Jesus of Nazareth, who was going to be speaking to his followers. Along the way I kept hearing the people talking about this man Jesus – what a great teacher he was, and how, when he talked about God, it seemed that he was talking about someone he really knew, almost like a family member. I have to admit, I was curious, too.

When we came to the fields, the place where Jesus was speaking was not far from the road. I could see a huge crowd was already there, and more were coming. It looked like thousands! Since I was there, I decided to go and see for myself what all the excitement was about.

Jesus was already there, with his disciples. They were mostly Galileans – I could tell from the way they talked. And there were thousands of people gathered around them, listening to what Jesus was saying.

He talked a lot about what he called the "kingdom of God," and as near as I could tell, it sounded like what Rabbi Lev was describing to us when he talked about what life would be like if everyone knew how to love God the way we should. Rabbi Lev told us that the greatest commandment was to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors too. The rest of the Law was just to teach us what that kind of love was like when we put it into practice.

Rabbi Lev taught us that loving God meant keeping all of God’s commandments, especially the ones that dealt with being generous to the poor and being just and fair with everyone. He told us that this is why the Law told us, when we harvested a field, not to go back over it and pick up every last grain – we should leave something for the poor. And when we gathered in our grapes and olives, not to go back over the vine or the tree to get every last grape and olive – to leave something there for those who had nothing. After all, he said, the field might be given to us for our use, but it’s really God’s field, because he made it, and it’s really God’s crop, because he made it grow, and the poor people who glean in the fields are God’s people, too, because he made them, and he loves them just like he loves us. Rabbi Lev said that that’s why the Law tells us that this is all a part of loving God – that where the love of God is, there’s always enough.

I wish Rabbi Lev had been there to hear Jesus. I’m sure he would have been overjoyed. I know he’d have that crinkly smile on his face – the one he’d get when he was telling us about everything that God had done when he led our people out of Egypt – that smile where his whole face kind of lit up and shone, and where he looked peaceful, and younger than I knew he was. When Jesus was talking about the kingdom of God, I saw that same kind of smile on the faces of the people in the crowd.

Jesus said many things about the kingdom of God, and the more he spoke, the more I wanted to hear. At one point, he said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Now, Father had always said that we were poor, and certainly when the other boys and I were running around and playing, the people in the town had called us many things. But no one had ever called me "blessed" before. Jesus said that in the kingdom of God, there was no injustice – even if that meant that many who were now first would be last, and many who were now last would be first. He said that the ones who were "blessed" in the kingdom of God were the ones who were merciful, pure in heart, and peacemakers. He said that the people who mourn and suffer now would be comforted in the kingdom of God. Like I said, I wish Rabbi Lev had been there.

I didn’t realize how long I’d been there until Jesus was finished speaking. It was already time for the evening meal! And then something even more amazing happened.

His disciples, the Galileans, had come to Jesus and said that the people were getting hungry, and that they should probably let everyone go home to eat. Jesus told the Galileans to feed the people – to give them something to eat so that they wouldn’t have to leave. The Galileans became quite upset – there were thousands of people, and they didn’t have nearly enough to feed everyone. I was standing right next to a couple of them, and when I heard that they were looking for food, I remembered the basket that Mother had packed for me. I took it to one of them, and showed him what I had brought – five loaves of bread, and two fish.

The next thing I knew, the man had led me right up to Jesus himself. He told Jesus that the only food that they had was what I had in my basket. Jesus looked at me and smiled, and told the Galileans to have the people sit down.

That’s where the really amazing part begins. I held up the basket, and Jesus smiled at me and thanked me, and took the basket from my hands.

I’m not sure that Father would have approved of what I did. Father’s always been very practical about things like that. He’d have told me that I should keep at least one loaf and part of a fish for myself, for my journey. I could give the rest to the Galileans if I felt that I should give them something. But somehow, I know that if I’d done that, it just wouldn’t have been the same.

When I held up the basket to hand it to Jesus, I suddenly remembered the time when Rabbi Lev had taken us to Jerusalem to see the temple. He’d taken us to see the priests offering up the people’s sacrifices in front of the altar of God. It was all very impressive, all very magnificent, and even a little scary, but I didn’t really feel like I understood what was happening.

But when I held the basket up toward Jesus, suddenly I felt like I did understand. It seemed like I was feeling, then, the way that the priests must feel when they’re holding up the people’s offerings – that they’re showing, by their actions, that they know that all of it is God’s – that it all comes from God, and that they’re thankful to God for it.

Then the Galileans came up, and began to fill their baskets out of my basket, which Jesus was holding. Each one filled his basket, then started out into the crowd, giving out bread and fish to the people who were sitting in the grass. When one of their baskets was empty, they just came back up, filled it up again, and went back out into the crowd.

When one of them came to me, he offered me a large piece of fish, and almost half a loaf of the bread. I almost didn’t accept it – that’s more than I usually eat at once, and I was worried that they wouldn’t have enough. But Jesus must have known what I was thinking, because he looked at me and smiled again, and nodded as if to say, "It’s all right, go ahead and take it." So I took the food, and ate. I have to admit, it tasted really good – after all, I was pretty hungry after walking all morning. And all around me, everyone else was eating, too.

When everyone had finished, Jesus told his disciples to go around and gather up the leftovers so that they wouldn’t be wasteful. The Galileans went back out into the crowd, and when they came back, all twelve of them were carrying full baskets! I remembered Rabbi Lev telling us that where the love of God is, there’s always enough. I guess that where the kingdom of God is, there’s always abundance!

The Galileans offered to fill my basket again, so that I’d have food enough for the rest of my journey. But I wasn’t worried about it. Somehow, I knew that the food would take care of itself – what I wanted to know more about was the kingdom of God.

So, Aunt Martha, I think I’m going to spend a few more days with Jesus and the Galileans. I’ll send this letter along to you with a man I met in the crowd who’s coming to your town. I’ll be there in a few days, and I’m sure that I’ll have so much more to tell you about when I see you. Until then, don’t worry. I’ll be there soon.

Your nephew,

Benjamin

 

Real stewardship begins with the realization that everything we have is a gift from God – that it all belongs to God, and is only ours in the sense that it has been entrusted to our care. When we fully realize that, and are willing to put all of it in God’s hands, miracles can happen, as evidenced by this miracle that we read about even to this day – made possible by the faith of a boy who was willing to put everything that he had into Jesus’ hands.

Amen.

 

ã 2004, Bill McWilliams