Bible Tuesday for Pentecost 9, 2017

Isaiah 55:1-5

Ho, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and you that have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labour for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
4 See, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
5 See, you shall call nations that you do not know,
and nations that do not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.

Here is a Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament version of Jesus’ Living Water teachings. In this and other Hebrew Scripture passages, water is synonym for Torah, covenant relationship with God. Relationship with God does not cost money, yet it feeds you, quenches your thirst, and satisfies you. In this same vein, the gospel of John presents Jesus as the living Torah, the Living Word, the Word made flesh. Jesus says to the woman at the well, “If you drink this water [live in relationship with God through Jesus] you will never thirst again, for the water that I give is living water.” Jesus was obviously drawing on this passage.

In verses 3 – 5, the prophet is transferring the covenant that God made with King David to the whole people of Israel. God promised King David that someone from his family line would rule Israel forever. Well, that line fell apart shortly before the Southern Kingdom fell to Babylonia. But in these verses, the prophet declares that all Israel will be heirs of David and through them, “nations that do not know you” shall know God. A King is no longer needed, in the eyes of the prophet.

Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21

The Lord is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The Lord is good to all,
and his compassion is over all that he has made.

The Lord upholds all who are falling,
and raises up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
16 You open your hand,
satisfying the desire of every living thing.
17 The Lord is just in all his ways,
and kind in all his doings.
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfils the desire of all who fear him;
he also hears their cry, and saves them.
20 The Lord watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.

21 My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,
and all flesh will bless his holy name for ever and ever.

Psalm 145 is one of many acrostic psalms, meaning that it has one line which begins with each letter of the alphabet in alphabetical order. The psalmist praises God for caring for all creation, the wheat and the weeds. The psalmist attributes God’s benevolence and compassion to the covenant God has made with creation, referenced in the first verse of the reading as indicated by the key words “abounding in steadfast love.”

Romans 9:1-5

I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit— 2I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people,* my kindred according to the flesh. 4They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; 5to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah,* who is over all, God blessed forever.*Amen.

In this passage, St, Paul laments that his people, the Jews, are by and large, rejecting Jesus as Messiah. Paul reminds the church in Rome that God’s salvation of humanity comes through the Jewish people. God made the first covenant with Adam and Eve, and all of the subsequent covenants with Abraham and his progeny, which is the Israelite or Jewish people. Paul makes the point that while the Messiah comes through the Jewish people according to Jewish law, the Messiah is above and rules over all.

Matthew 14:13-21

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. 15When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ 16Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ 17They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’ 18And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’ 19Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.21And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

The first verse of the above pericope states that Jesus withdrew to be by himself when he heard something. What was it? The very sad news that John the Baptist was beheaded at Herod’s birthday party as a result of drunken boasting. Grieved, alarmed, probably frightened, and definitely disgusted, God in human flesh reacts to this news by seeking alone time, prayer time. Jesus jumps in a boat to get away, but the hunger and need of the crowds crashes his grief.

This story appears in all four gospels but the setting is different. In one, Jesus has just spent the day teaching the disciples and the crowds, but here in Matthew, the crowds receive not a formal lesson, but rather Jesus’ compassion and healing. In one of the gospels, a child has a lunch of five loaves and two fish. Here in Matthew, the disciples have this among themselves. “Loaves” is a generous term for the little dinner rolls that are in the original text. The fish are smaller than small perch, likely smoked.

Note that the number of food items is seven. While we, westerners, tend to skip over the number to focus on the amount of food, Matthew’s Jewish audience would have noted the number of items, seven. In Jewish culture, the number seven has symbolic significance. Seven is the adding of the number four, which is the symbolic number of all creation (four winds, four directions, four corners of the earth) with the number three which is the symbolic number for God. (Remember, this is Jewish tradition so the number three does not signify Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for them.) The addition of four, symbolizing all of creation, to three, symbolizing God, equals seven, the number symbolizing God’s activity in creation.

The number twelve is also symbolic in Jewish culture. Again the number four symbolizing creation and the number three symbolizing God, but this time they are multiplied for emphasis. The result? The twelve tribes of Israel (symbolizing all of God’s people, since the twelve tribes were supposed to evangelize to all who traveled through their trade route lands), the twelve disciples/apostles (who are the new patriarchs of the new twelve tribes who are made up of all peoples, not just Jews).

Jesus, who is God in human flesh, takes a couple fish and a hand full of little pita breads, which are products of creation, and causes this little bit of food to feed 5,000 men plus how many thousand women and children. Seven = God interrupting creation’s natural course to do His own thing. To emphasize God’s activity in this feeding, and that the feeding is for all people, loaves and fish, healing and compassion, mercy and forgiveness, how many baskets of leftovers are collected? Twelve. Jesus fed the original tribes of Israel, this crowd of Jews, and the leftovers will feed the new Israel, the people who will know God through the work of the disciples and apostles.