Right before this passage, Matthew has related the story of how Herod had John the Baptist executed. When our passage opens, Jesus has just received the news of his cousin’s execution. Jesus is distraught at the loss of his cousin and tries to find a quiet place so that he can have a time of mourning. So he hops into the boat and rows his way to what he believes to be a deserted place. No sooner can he see the approaching shoreline than he discovers that the place he had hoped would be deserted is in fact crawling with people all of whom want his attention.

Jesus is faced with a decision: he can either turn his boat around and try to find another place to be alone or he can go on shore and work through his grief by supplying the needs of those who had followed him there. Well the phrase that Matthew uses is to tell us that Jesus had "compassion" for the crowd. The root meaning of the word for compassion means from your innermost gut. So Jesus is moved from the gut of his person to heal the sick in the crowd.

Jesus moves from his personal pain to alleviating the pain of others. Wow! What must it have taken for Jesus to move from his place of hurting to a place of helping? That is what compassion is. It is moving from our own place of feeling whatever it is we are feeling, in order to reach out and tend to the needs of others. Roger Van Harn defined compassion as "the ability to be moved by the needs of others and then move toward them in mercy." So compassion can move us from our own place of hurting to helping others who are hurting.

Jesus moves from the pain that he is feeling after hearing about the loss of his cousin and turns that mourning into working for healing. Jesus’ response to hearing of John’s execution is not to storm the gates of the royal palace. Instead he goes to find a deserted place. Another translation for this could be that Jesus went out into the wilderness.

The wilderness has been a place of spiritual renewal throughout the Bible. John came from the wilderness preaching his message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The Israelite people renewed their relationship with God through their time in the wilderness. The wilderness is what could be called in Celtic Christianity – a thin place. A thin place is a place where the boundary between the ordinary and the divine becomes permeable and the divine seems close enough to touch.

So in the wilderness, this place that has been a place of renewal for the people, Jesus finds that instead of the renewal of time spent alone digesting the news he has just heard, he is spending time with to people that he was sent to serve.

So Jesus spends the whole day with the crowd of people. He heals the sick who are there and then he probably teaches them for the rest of the day. Then as night begins to approach, the disciples state the obvious to Jesus. "Jesus, it’s late and we know that you wanted to come to this place because it is a deserted place. Well, here we are and there is nothing to eat out here. Send the people away so that they can hopefully find something to eat in the surrounding countryside." Jesus answers the disciples, "You give them something to eat."

Once again, the disciples state the obvious to Jesus. "Nobody called the caterer, Jesus. All we’ve got is five loaves of bread and two scrawny fish." This isn’t even enough food to feed the disciples.

You know, I’ve always kind of wondered where those five loaves and two fish came from. In John’s telling of the story, it is a little boy who has offered up his lunch to be shared with the crowd but Matthew leaves it up for speculation. Perhaps, one of the disciples had them tucked away in their coat and honestly they could have stayed there. But this person or people, instead of keeping this small amount of food for him or herself, had compassion on the crowd and brought the food out.

I can remember when I was going to school that the rule was that you couldn’t eat in class unless you brought enough for everyone. I think about this person who didn’t bring enough for the whole crowd but brought out his food anyway. He or she didn’t bring out the food to eat it in front of the others. He or she didn’t try to duck away from the crowd in order to sneak some food.

Even though it wouldn’t make a dent in the hunger that must have been felt by this crowd that had spent the whole day in the hot sun listening to Jesus, the bread and fish were brought out to do what they could. This is another example of compassion in this story. The person or persons who brought out the bread and fish had compassion on the crowd and moved toward them with mercy.

We live in a culture in which individuality is highlighted as the supreme goal. There is this idea of be sure to get yours because there’s not enough for everyone. We live in a culture that is motivated primarily by the fear of scarcity. We have this culture that is built upon being sure that you get all that you can because there is not enough to go around. I heard a quote recently and I honestly can’t remember where I heard it. It said, "There is enough for your need but not enough for you greed."

The One Campaign that started off a few years ago led by rock stars, actors, and other famous people, sought to end poverty in the world. Bono, the singer for the music group U2, kept saying that we are the first generation that can truly make poverty history. We can eliminate poverty from the world. We have the ability to feed the hungry and clothe the naked.

If we are called to imitate Christ in all that we do, are we not also called to have compassion and move toward others in mercy? Isn’t compassion a key part of discipleship? How many times have we moved toward one another in mercy? How many times have we been moved from the gut of our being to show mercy to another person?

When the disciples brought the skimpy meal to Jesus, they were probably wondering what he would do with such a meager amount of food. But nevertheless they brought out all that they had and gave it to Christ. Christ then made that pitiful offering of food enough and not only enough but more than enough. After all, there were twelve baskets of leftovers. They ended up with more than they started with!

How many times have we felt as though we are not enough? We all have our excuses: I’m too busy, I’m too old; I’m too young; I’m too poor; I’m not smart enough; I’m not articulate enough. Trust me, God has heard them all before. Some of those excuses were even in use back in the Old Testament! Jeremiah claimed that he couldn’t be a prophet for God because he was only a boy. Sarah said that she couldn’t have a child because she was too old. Moses said that he couldn’t go to talk to Pharaoh because he wasn’t articulate enough. God has heard it all before. But in every instance, with every excuse, when the person decides to give all that they’ve got to God, it is enough – more than enough.

Likewise when we become followers of Christ, when we decide that we will not try to sneak away to feed only ourselves when the crowd is hungry, when we hand over all that we have to Christ, Christ makes it enough.

After Christ takes the five loaves and two fish from the disciples, he blesses them, breaks them and gives them to his disciples to distribute. I think it’s important to note that the disciples aren’t responsible for making sure that there is enough. That is God’s job. The disciples are responsible for the distribution. If the disciples sneaked off with the portion that they were to distribute, there would not have been enough. There is only enough when we take what God has blessed us with and spread it around for all to share in and be filled. All we have to do is share what we have, God will provide the abundance.