| Letters of Aquila and Priscilla |
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Give them some food yourselves (Lk 9:13) |
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Table fellowship is part of our culture in Couples for Christ. Our weekly prayer meetings always end in fellowship with the sharing of some food. The recommended practice is to serve only “one solid and one liquid,” that is, one solid food and one type of drink. Our other activities, teachings and chapter assemblies also end in the same manner. Table fellowship is also an important part of the ministry of Jesus. In fact, eating is mentioned one hundred and nine times in the four Gospels while food or bread is mentioned some ninety times. Bread and eating are not just secondary themes in the Gospels. They are at the very core of the Good News. In the Gospel of Mark, the theme of bread occupies a long section in the middle (6:30-8:21) consisting of the miraculous feeding of the five thousand, the tradition of the elders about eating with unclean hands, the feeding of the four thousand, and the teaching on the yeast of the Pharisees. It is also found at the end of the Gospel during the Last Supper (14:22-26) and when the risen Jesus appears to the eleven “as they were sitting at the table” (16:14). In the Gospel of Matthew, the theme of bread is found in the beginning at Jesus’ temptation (4:1-4), in the middle (14:13-21, 15:32-39), and in the end (25:35, 26:26-30). There are also many other references to bread or eating throughout the Gospel. For instance, the Lord’s prayer (6:11) includes the petition, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Bible scholars call the Gospel of Luke “a gospel of bread” due to the great emphasis given by Luke on the theme of bread throughout his Gospel. When Mary visits Elizabeth, she proclaims in her Magnificat that “the hungry he has filled with good things” (1:53). At Jesus’ birth, Luke mentions the child “lying in the manger” three times (2:7,12,16). Luke wants the reader to take special note of the fact that the newborn Redeemer is in a manger, the place where animals get their food. Luke gives several accounts of Jesus eating with tax collectors, sinners and the Pharisees. While his account of the feeding of the five thousand is much shorter than those of Mark, Matthew and John, it however occupies a central place in his Gospel (9:10-11). He has also closely interconnected it to the beginning and end of the Gospel and linked it more clearly to the bread of the Last Supper (22:14-20). Luke ends his Gospel with the account of the first appearance of the risen Jesus to the two disciples in Emmaus and their recognizing him only at the breaking of bread (24:30-31) followed by Jesus’ appearance to the disciples in Jerusalem asking, “Have you anything here to eat?” (24:41). Finally, we read in the Gospel of John, Jesus’ difficult teaching about eating his flesh and blood that follows the story of the multiplication of the bread and fish. The multiplication of the bread is linked closely to the feeding on the person of Jesus. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is the new Passover lamb to be eaten and shared by Christians. Accordingly, John presents the multiplication of the loaves as the central sign among the Gospel’s seven signs. It is intimately related to the signs before it and after it. John frames the multiplication of the bread in an ascending and descending structure (called chiastic structure) as follows:
The multiplication of loaves and fish for the five thousand in Galilee is reported in all four Gospels (Mk 6:30-44, Mt 14:13-21, Lk 9:10-17, Jn 6:1-21). In the Gospels of Mark and Matthew there is an additional account of the multiplication of loaves for the four thousand taking place in Gentile territory (Mk 8:1-10, Mt 15:32-39). The double account in Mark and Matthew is intended to show that Jesus is the source of eternal nourishment not just for the Jews but for all the people of the world. The central message of the feeding accounts is that God multiplies bread that is shared with others. In the multiplication of the bread narratives, Jesus gives an urgent command that is reported in all the Synoptic Gospels: Give them food yourselves (Mt 14:16, Mk 6:37, Lk 9:13). The fact that this command is reported in exactly the same words in all the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke tells us of its great importance. With this command, Jesus wants to train his disciples to have self-confidence, to show leadership and to take initiative. With these words, Jesus is in fact telling the disciples, “Do not send the people away. You can take care of them yourselves. Be a leader and take the initiative. Find out how much bread we have. With me in your midst, have faith that I will give you the ability to provide the people the nourishment that they urgently need.” In the Gospel of Matthew, the disciples respond to this order by saying, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.” In Mark, the disciples reply with a tone of hostility, “Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?” In Luke, they answer, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people.” And in the Gospel of John, Andrew tells Jesus with a tone of helplessness, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?” My brothers and sisters, Jesus is commanding us, “Give them some food yourselves.” There is a great multitude in Indonesia and throughout the world hungry for the word of God. Shall we ignore them and leave them to fend for themselves? Like the disciples, shall we respond that we have very little time, very little training and experience, and only “five loaves and two fish” and therefore what good are these for so many? Because our community is composed of expatriates, it is natural and quite often that members, especially leaders, will soon leave the community to return to their home countries. By the time members have grown in the community and started to assume positions of responsibility, its time for them to go back home. Even some members who are being eyed for greater responsibility and being developed to assume leadership often leave even before they are able to take up their intended positions. Therefore we find ourselves always with but a few “bread and fish.” Unfortunately, the recent turmoil in Indonesia has made this situation even worse. My brothers and sisters, the leaders of our community will return home sooner or later. And yet the Lord will continue to command you, “Go and feed the multitudes. Give them some food yourselves! Teach them about the bread of everlasting life – the word of God.” You then who are left behind may be tempted to respond, “Lord, how can we do it? Our leaders have gone back home and we have very little training and experience. There are now just a few of us left and the task is great? What good will just ‘five bread and two fish’ do for so many?” I assure you, my brothers and sisters, that the Lord will multiply the mere “five loaves and two fish” that you have if you will just dare to share them with others. If you place your trust on the Lord, he will multiply what you have. And after everybody has “eaten” you will even have a great surplus – twelve baskets full of it! Therefore, I repeat to you the Lord’s command: Go and give them some food yourselves!
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