Jesus Feeds

Collect for Thursday in the Third Week of Lent

Keep watch over you church, O Lord, with your unfailing love; and, since it is grounded in human weakness and cannot maintain itself without your aid, protect it from all danger, and keep it in the way of salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Jesus Feeds (Matthew 15:1-39)

Matthew 15 contains several familiar stories; the most familiar to most of us is the story of the feeding of several thousand people from a modest portion of bread and fish.  For many of us, as children this story illustrated Jesus’ ability to perform miracles.  Perhaps this is all that we needed to take from the “feeding of the thousands.”  However, as we come to understand the story more fully we draw more from it.  One aspect that I have always found helpful is that Jesus was seeking to speak to this crowd but immediately saw that the group’s basic needs must be met first.  I often find this to be a good reminder that as we encounter need in the world we are called first to help meet that need. 

Another familiar story from Matthew 15 is that of the woman seeking deliverance for her daughter who is possessed by a demon.  Again, as young people we saw this as yet another examples of Jesus’ ability to heal and perform miracles.  This brief story, however, is far deeper.  I have heard this passage preached a number of times and always find something new in it.  As followers of Jesus it is sometimes hard to come to terms with what appears to be the fact that Jesus really couldn’t be bothered with this woman and her daughter.  Even more interesting to me is the fact that the mother essentially talked-back to Jesus and, frankly, called him out.  Given the gender roles of the time this had to have been quite startling.  And what does Jesus do in this situation?  He rewards her and her faith.  That instant had to have been revolutionary in and of itself.

For all these great stories, during Lent I find that in terms of Matthew 15 I draw more from the portion of the chapter that speaks about the things which emanate from our hearts.  If Lent is to be a time of reflection, of discipline, of re-focusing and renewing our faith, I find the verses 1-20 to be very helpful.  Here we have another example of Jesus challenging the scholars and leaders of the day, taking them to task for their laws and traditions that have no place in the New Covenant.  Jesus tells us that it is what is in our hearts, and what that may lead us to do, that defiles us.  He rejects the hand-washing traditions about which some people were presumably rather obsessed.  He points out that unclean hands do not defile us but unclean hearts do.  This provides another example that the faith Jesus calls us to has far more to do with how we act, how we treat one another, how we honor God through our words and actions than whether or not we adhere to old purity customs such as ritual hand-washing.  It is this new call to us as followers that I find helpful during Lent.  What does God really require of us?  Are we living our lives in a way, led by our hearts, which is pleasing to God or do we simply follow our human desires?  Taking time to reflect on our own hearts is, to me, at the core of Lent.

Marcus White

Trinity Church, Wauwatosa