Miracles” Over the past few Sundays, we have been hearing about Jesus’ parables and how they provided insight into the kingdom of heaven. Beginning today with the Gospel reading for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we start hearing about Jesus’ miracles. Like parables, in the Gospel of Matthew, miracles offer clues as to Jesus’ identity and reveal various aspects of the kingdom of heaven. The multiplication of loaves and fish is one of the few miracles recorded by all four NT Gospels. The eucharistic overtones in Jesus’ four-fold actions are striking: “taking” (the five loaves and two fish); “blessing” (the food); “broke” (the loaves); and “gave” (the loaves and fish). This is likely one of the main reasons all four evangelists preserve the story. Close resemblance to the Israelites receiving manna from heaven in their forty-year Exodus journey in the desert is another probable cause for this miracle story being so well attested to in the Gospels (compare with Ex 16). While much scholarly attention is typically given to the eucharistic and Exodus parallels, the immediate narrative context of the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand—the execution of John the Baptist by Herod Antipas—is also noteworthy. Matthew tells us that Jesus, upon hearing the news of John’s violent and senseless death, “withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself.” Jesus’ retreat implies this was difficult news for him to hear. But Jesus was given little time to pray and reflect on the life and death of John the Baptist. Soon the crowds heard of Jesus’ whereabouts, and he was no longer alone: a crowd of “about five thousand men, not counting women and children,” had gathered around him. It is not unreasonable to imagine a crowd approaching ten thousand. But rather than incite the crowd to react negatively to the death of John, Jesus “was moved with pity for them.” Rather than take the opportunity to publicly denounce Herod and his wife to the crowds, Jesus “cured their sick.” Rather than sending the crowds away hungry, he miraculously fed this massive crowd. Jesus offered the crowds hope, not revenge, in light of the death of John the Baptist, further highlighting the power of the kingdom of heaven. In the first reading from Isaiah, we hear the prophet speak in God’s name: “All you who are thirsty, come to the water!” Isaiah then offers divine assurances: “Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare.” Speaking around the year 550 BC, Isaiah was the great prophet of hope during Israel’s captivity in Babylon (597 –538 BC). Isaiah’s prophetic vision helped sustain the Israelites when they felt God’s presence was no longer in their midst. What likely struck the captives as unbelievable were the prophet’s words: “I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David.” Isaiah is referring to the Davidic covenant (see 2 Sm 7:12—16) that God established with David as King of the United Monarchy, Israel. To imagine that God was now offering to the Israelites, in their lowly state of exile and captivity, the same “benefits assured to David,” probably seemed astonishing (and perhaps foolish) to many. In his letter to the Christian community in Rome, Paul asks the rhetorical question: “What will separate us from the love of Christ?” Paul sees neither anxiety and distress, nor cosmic powers and principalities, nor even life and death itself as powerful enough to break the bond between believers and Christ. This, too, speaks to the power of the kingdom of heaven.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 14:54:53 +0000
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