Last night Herod threw a huge party for his friends. It was the talk of the town this morning and they reckon that people will talk about that party for years to come. Everybody who was anybody was there. The climax of the evening was when Herod arranged for his latest girlfriend to be given the gift of her dreams – the head of John the Baptist. Apparently it was presented to her on a plate. Herod’s cronies thought it was all highly entertaining. Just thinking about it makes me feel sick. It makes all of us feel sick – that is, it makes all of us Jews feel sick. It’s hard enough to cope with those Romans stealing our country, taking our hard-earned money and imposing their own law on us, but for them to turn around and behead one of our prophets! I was outraged. We all were. We don’t expect much of the Romans, but they stooped to a new low when they murdered our prophet.

We, Jews, didn’t know what to do. What could we do against the might of the Roman army? Here we were, living in our “promised land” but we felt impotent. We felt hurt. We felt ground-down. We felt downtrodden. We felt oppressed. We felt powerless. We felt lost. Some of us felt as if God had turned his back on us.

That’s what was on everyone’s minds this morning. That’s what we were all talking about when we met. Then someone mentioned that a man called Jesus was in the district. They said that he was a cousin of John the Baptist. We decided to head off to see this man Jesus for ourselves, to hear what he had to say, because we didn’t know what else to do.

When we arrived, Jesus was just arriving in a boat. He seemed surprised to see the crowds that were waiting for him. Jesus looked tired but he got out of the boat and walked over to the crowds. I watched him, wondering whether Jesus would use this opportunity to give a rousing, political speech. But he didn’t. Jesus simply walked among the people, greeting them, chatting to them, listening to them and blessing them. After a while, Jesus sat down under a tree and people began to bring their sick to him. People didn’t seem to need to hear political speeches. They seemed to be content with Jesus simply spending time among them. There was a sense of peace here and a sense that now was a time for rest and healing for everyone. Time moved on but nobody seemed inclined to leave.

After a while Jesus’s close friends approached him and started to talk to him, pointing at the crowds as they spoke. “It’s getting late; it’s time to go,” we thought to ourselves. But Jesus didn’t seem inclined to leave either. He spoke briefly to his disciples. We saw them head off and speak to some people in the crowd. They returned to Jesus and appeared to hand him some bread. Jesus looked down at the collection of food, stood up, arms outstretched. “Friends,” he called out, “Let us pray”. We all stood and bowed our heads. “Father in heaven”, he continued, “I have before me five barley loaves and two fish. You know each one of us. You love us and you know our needs. Bless us now as we sit, as friends, for this meal. In your love, bless us with what we need.” Jesus and his friends then instructed us all to sit down in small groups.

Jesus’s friends then approached each of the groups and appeared to be distributing loaves and fish for people to share. And while people passed around this bread and fish, they unpacked their own food and shared it with those in their group. Then one group which had plenty of food passed bread over to one that had very little. People smiled their thanks and sat and chatted with others in their groups. Somehow a crowd of thousands of strangers transformed into small groups of people who were concerned for each other and who were willing to reach out, help each other and support each other. There was a sense of family, of belonging, of contentment that was almost tangible. When everyone had finished eating, Jesus’s friends gathered all of the left-overs. They filled twelve baskets! Imagine, twelve baskets from five barley loaves and two fish! Darkness began to fall and we all started to drift home.

When we walked to meet Jesus this morning, we saw ourselves as five thousand people oppressed by Romans. But as we walked home again in small groups made up of old friends and new companions, we saw ourselves as people of God. We now felt a sense of family, of community, of belonging. We had a sense of being loved and cared for and we had a sense of being safe in the hands of our God. In time to come, others will say that today was the day that Jesus fed the five thousand. But I think that Jesus did more than that; not only did he feed the five thousand, he healed the five thousand!

© Claire Murray