Week 35 of the Church year
പെന്തിക്കോസ്തിക്കു ശേഷം ആറാം ഞായർ
A crowd has been with Jesus for three days and has nothing left to eat. He says he will not send them home hungry, in case they collapse on the way.
After three days of teaching and healing by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus has compassion on the hungry crowd. The disciples have seven loaves and a few small fish. He gives thanks, breaks them, and four thousand men, plus women and children, are fed.
A month after the feeding of the five thousand, the Church reads a second feeding. Jesus does it again, for a different crowd.
Jesus noticed that people were hungry, and that some had a long way to go home. Faith pays attention to bodies too.
ഈ ഞായറാഴ്ചയുടെ വായനകൾ
Forgive seven times; faith like a mustard seed; we are only servants.
Jesus feeds five thousand and walks on the water.
[NOTE: add once the reference is checked]
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord.
The Lord has a purpose, and who can turn it back?
Peter leads the believers in choosing a replacement for Judas.
Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up; there is one God, the Father.
Jesus has compassion on the crowd and feeds four thousand. This is the Gospel of the day.
Open in five scenesThe cloud fills the tabernacle and leads Israel on its journey, and the psalm prays that God will answer in the day of trouble. Isaiah says the Lord’s purposes will stand. Paul writes that for us there is one God, from whom all things come.
References follow the official lectionary of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. Your parish may read them in a different order.
Pick a scene to see what happens in it and what is easy to miss.
Jesus calls his disciples: I have compassion on the crowd. They have been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, in case they faint on the way.
This time Jesus raises the problem, not the disciples.
The disciples ask: where could we get enough bread in this deserted place to feed such a crowd?
They have already seen five thousand fed (Matthew 14). They still ask the same question.
How many loaves do you have? Seven, and a few small fish. He tells the crowd to sit on the ground.
Jesus always starts with what they have.
He takes the seven loaves and the fish, gives thanks, breaks them and gives them to the disciples, who give them to the crowd.
Here Matthew uses the word “gave thanks”: in Greek, eucharisteo, the root of “Eucharist”.
All eat and are satisfied, and seven baskets of leftovers are collected. Four thousand men are fed, besides women and children. Then he sends them away and crosses by boat.
This feeding comes right after Jesus healed the Canaanite woman’s daughter and many in the region. Crumbs for the outsiders became a full meal.
The verse to keep
“എന്നാൽ യേശു തന്റെ ശിഷ്യന്മാരെ അടുക്കെവിളിച്ചു: ഈ പുരുഷാരം ഇപ്പോൾ മൂന്നു നാളായി എന്നോടുകൂടെ പാർക്കുന്നു; അവർക്കു ഭക്ഷിപ്പാൻ ഒന്നും ഇല്ലായ്കകൊണ്ടു അവരെക്കുറിച്ചു എനിക്കു മനസ്സലിവു തോന്നുന്നു; അവരെ പട്ടിണിയായി വിട്ടയപ്പാൻ മനസ്സുമില്ല; അവർ വഴിയിൽവെച്ചു തളർന്നുപോയേക്കും എന്നു പറഞ്ഞു.”Jesus summoned his disciples and said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away fasting, or they might faint on the way.”
The crowdപുരുഷാരം
People who stayed with Jesus for three days, bringing the lame, blind and mute to be healed.
“—”
അവർക്കു വിശക്കുന്നതു അവൻ ശ്രദ്ധിച്ചു
The crowd had been with Jesus for three days. They had brought their sick, watched them healed and praised God. It would be easy to say their souls had been fed and that was enough. Jesus did not say that. He saw they were hungry and worried they would faint on the long walk home.
His compassion was practical. It was about food, distance and tired bodies. The disciples had seen him feed a crowd before, and still could not imagine how to do it again. Jesus asked what they had, gave thanks for it, and made it enough.
Faith is sometimes treated as only spiritual. This Gospel says otherwise. Caring for people’s bodies, feeding the hungry, giving someone a lift home, making sure an elderly neighbour has eaten: these are part of the Gospel too. Jesus fed souls and stomachs on the same hillside.
കുടുംബമായി സംസാരിക്കാം
Who around us has a practical need we have not noticed?
Two minutes after the audio. Everyone gets a turn, and nobody is interrupted.Meet one practical need this week: a meal, a lift, a repair, for someone who would struggle without it.
Lord Jesus, you had compassion on the hungry crowd. Give us eyes to see the needs around us, hands to meet them, and thankful hearts for all we have been given. Amen.
The whole year
Every Sunday of the Church year, season by season: readings, the Gospel and a question for the family.
Sunday 7 of 18 in Pentecost