How Does He [Jesus] Do It?

Why does God appear to intervene in the lives of people sometimes and not other times? A partial answer (partial because no one besides God has the complete answer), involves considering that there are some things God cannot do. Notice – not will not do, but cannot do. God cannot do some things because God is love and so God cannot do unloving things¹. The main action that love cannot do is to coerce another. As the Revised Common Lectionary takes us through the gospels, we have often been looking at these stories through the perspective of non coercive love.

“After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people? Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place, so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets.When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going. John 6:1-21 NRSV

There is much we could talk about in this text². I want to keep our focus on noticing non coercive love in action. An important part of non coercive love is that it is also deeply collaborative. Non coercive love is not ineffectual. Non coercive love is not unable to do things. Non coercive love acts and is effective through persuasion, and invitation, and collaboration.

Jesus tests Philip. Jesus asks “where” can we buy bread and Phillip answers a different question by saying we don’t have enough money to buy bread. What do you think the test is?

My hunch is that Jesus wants to know, can Philip see a different reality, a different way of doing things? The accepted way of doing things, life based on one’s financial capacity isn’t going to work and is not the way of Jesus. Can Philip imagine another way? How else could people eat except through the marketplace? Andrew begins to see a way forward. “We have a little bit, but it doesn’t seem like enough.”

What they had, was someone willing to share. It’s probably not insignificant that the person with the food was a child. With the child’s offer, they had a start, a beginning. They had an invitation to trust that more would be provided. People debate what the miracle was? Was it that people were inspired to share what they had. Or did Jesus miraculously create enough food (Recalling and echoing the story of manna.) The text doesn’t tell us. When the text doesn’t tell us obvious things, like where the food actually came from, it’s a hint for us to ask a different question. Different questions give us different answers.

What if, like Philip we are invited to imagine another way? What if we see a collaborative effort between Jesus and the crowd? What if we are invited into a way of generosity, of trusting there will be enough instead of living fearfully that there is not enough.

I wrote that last paragraph mostly for myself because when it comes to seeing another collaborative, generous way, I have very poor sight. This is easy for me to say and extraordinarily difficult for me to do. I was raised, perhaps like many of you, to take care of myself, to not ask for help, and to be independent. Those are difficult values to let go of. And yet, I think we are called to let go of them. I don’t know about you, I’m anxious just thinking about that.

Jesus asks, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” What if the answer is, “We’re not buying bread?” In the Roman Empire, food was a controlled commodity. The Empire took food as payment for “taxes”. Jesus is not participating in this unjust system and invites others- at least on this day- to not participate.

In John’s gospel “signs” are what the other gospels call “miracles”. In John’s gospel signs are markers, public notices that point out who Jesus is. One of the signs of God is God’s care and provision. Making sure there is enough food for a crowd is an act God or God’s messiah would do. When the gathered people recognize this, they decide to force Jesus to become the king. And Jesus leaves. The crowd is not wrong about Jesus being king. But Jesus’ response to the crowd is essentially, “I’m not that kind of King.” The crowd’s actions are based in coercion and not love. Coercion has no part in the kingdom of God.

The last part of this text is the familiar story of Jesus walking on the water. This is what theologians call a theophany, an appearance of God. Jesus says, “Ego Ami”. The NRSV and NIV both translate Jesus’ words as “It is I.” which is grammatically correct English. Theologically speaking a better translation is “I am”. Jesus claims (again³) the Divine Name for himself.

After Jesus refuses to be made king by leaving the area and the disciples, John wants to be sure we understand. Jesus refusal doesn’t mean he isn’t the Messiah, the Son of God. But Jesus is the Messiah on God’s terms, in God’s way, the way of non coercive love.

1. Once again, I commend the work of Thomas Jay Oord, particularly “The Uncontrolling Love of God” to you. ↩︎
2. We could also think about the Eucharistic imagery in this text. Or we could think about other symbols, such as how numbers are used in the text and what they might tell us. Why does the author point out that the Passover was near? … and so on. ↩︎
3. In John’s gospel Jesus makes 7 “I am” statements. God makes the first “I am” statement to Moses in Exodus 3:14 when Moses asks God’s name.
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