Being at the right party
This week’s gospel reading ( Matt 14:13-21 ) is another well-known story. And it is one of those stories where you need to read around it – to the story before of Herod’s meal where Jesus’ teacher, mentor and friend, John, is beheaded. Jesus is trying to grieve. Instead he finds a crowd also filled with grief and anger, looking for hope. And here we so often miss the contrast offered between a birthday party full of depravity and all-consuming self-centeredness and greed, symbolic of all that is wrong with Herod, Rome and the Temple leadership; and Jesus meeting the poor and discarded masses with generosity and compassion. In this act we are reminded of the biblical tradition that God is faithful and the hungry are fed. And in contrast to the abuse of power encountered in the Herod’s birthday bash, we are offered a reminder of God’s gracious abundance and compassion. Despite the impossibility of the story, all these people were fed. Were fed until they no longer wanted, until t...