The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Ordinary Time
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Isaiah 55:1-3
These verses invite poor people to a joyful banquet. The only condition for inclusion is a thirst for God.
Rabbinic commentators often used water as a metaphor for the Torah. The Jews were a people well accustomed to the desert, and the most important thing you can have in the desert is water. V1 also mentions grain, wine, and milk. These were all staples of the diet in that region and indicated abundant harvests and healthy flocks. This all implied being favored by God.
V2 implores the people to listen, which evokes the Shema from Deut 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: the LORD is our God, the LORD is One.” Listen is a verb that indicates not only hearing but also acting. When the prophet says, “listen to me,” he’s saying to do what he says: come to the banquet.
He repeats the command to listen in v3, and then refers to the “steadfast loyalty promised to David.” You can read about that in 2 Samuel 7. The purpose of the banquet to which the people are invited is to reestablish the covenant bond with God. This section of Isaiah is addressed to a nation in exile, away from the temple. Its purpose is to remind them of all that God has promised and encourage them to be faithful in believing the promises.
Romans 8:8:35, 37-39
This is the last of five weeks in this chapter. For background on this chapter, see this post.
In Paul’s culture, the theory of retribution was very active: good would be rewarded and evil punished. Paul turns this understanding upside down by insisting that the righteous, precisely because they are righteous, will encounter suffering, but that does not separate them from Christ. Suffering actually unites us with Christ.
Chps 5-8 begin with hope in the face of suffering (5:3). This passage comes back to that idea, and brings the section to a close. The whole of chapter 8 reminds us that the struggles continue, but the decisive battle has been won.
What then shall we say to this? The previous verses from last week talked about being called and predestined to this life in Christ. Paul now rhetorically asks, “How should we respond to that?” He begins by recalling Psalm 118:6, which says that we should not be afraid of what mere mortals can do, and also Isaiah 50:8, which says God is on our side. How do we respond to knowing our destiny? By knowing that God is on our side to help us fulfill that calling.
Paul then contemplates things that some might say would separate us from God’s love. He proposes two major categories of things to consider: earthly and cosmic. He begins in v35 with a list of seven potential earthly threats. In that culture, these were all very shameful events that struck at the core of a family’s honor and were to be avoided at all costs. Paul is saying that even social consequences like this would not separate us from God’s love – that shame is not enough to separate us. A more modern-day list might include having an abortion, being divorced, being the “wrong” political party, being on the wrong side, or being a member of a particular ethnic group.
V36 quotes Psalm 44:23, a Psalm that laments the community’s suffering. By using this quote, Paul is saying Christians run the daily risk of death and might appear as helpless as sheep on the way to the slaughter. The fact (in Paul’s mind) that such an existence finds so accurate a depiction in scripture is a sign that it was foreseen by God and can be gathered into a wider salvific purpose. In v37 he says that any kind of suffering can be conquered overwhelmingly because God is on our side and no one can be against us.
In v38-39 he shifts to from earthly threats to cosmic ones. Angels and principalities were considered to be astral beings who exerted a powerful influence on created beings. These were very real beliefs. If you lived in a culture that didn’t understand why some things happen (why do people get sick or why are some people born with physical deformities), you had to explain that. Angels and principalities were how they explained the unknown. It would be challenging to come up with a modern equivalent, because science has explained so much for us!
Paul concludes by saying that the love of God manifested in the Paschal mystery is the unshakable basis of Christian life and hope. Nothing will separate us from God’s love for us.
Matthew 14:13-21
Matthew 11-12 told stories of how people rejected John the Baptist and Jesus. Chapters 14-17 are stories of a slow acknowledgment of Jesus. We will spend the next five week in this section of the book.
In the passage just before this, we get the story of Herod hosting a banquet. He makes a rash promise, and John the Baptist pays the price with his life.
Today’s passage is another banquet: the feeding of the five thousand.
All four gospels have this story, and, especially around the blessing and breaking of the bread, the wording is exactly the same. The fact that this even is recounted by all (and twice in Matthew and Mark) probably indicates the historical veracity of the event.
Some interpreters want to explain this miracle away by saying that the “miracle” is Jesus getting everyone there to share out of their own provisions with their neighbor. In American culture and experience, this might certainly be termed a “miracle!” In the majority of cultures around the world, however, this type of sharing is commonplace and culturally expected.
The passage begins with Jesus getting the news of John the Baptist and withdrawing. This is the Greek anachóreó, from which we get our term anchorite, a recluse. He withdraws to a deserted place, which is meant to evoke the image of Israel wandering in the desert, where they were, coincidentally, fed with manna. Jesus tries to get away for a minute to process this news about John, but the crowds follow him.
In v14, Jesus sees the crowd and, instead of annoyance at the interruption, he is filled with compassion for them. The disciples see the crowds as well, but their compassion extends only to telling Jesus to send the crowds away to buy food elsewhere. Remember that they are in a deserted place. If there are any villages around, they would be small and hard pressed to supply food for dozens, much less thousands.
Jesus, in v16, challenges the disciples to find a real solution to the problem. v17 lists the current resources as five loaves and two fish. There doesn’t seem to be any symbolic meaning to these numbers, and, the fact that all four gospels agree on this probably indicates, again, the historical fact of this small detail.
Jesus then asks for the food and orders them to sit the people down. Matthew has a particular emphasis on Jesus’ authority. Sitting down is the word recline which was the usual position for eating.
Verse 19 is crucial to interpreting the narrative: Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.
At this point, it’s helpful to read from Matthew 26:26-27 (Matthew’s account of the last supper): While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had blessed it, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”
There is undeniably a Eucharistic connection between Jesus’ actions in feeding the 5000 and later at the last supper. In chp 26 these are the words of institution, they are, to this day, what makes simple bread into a sacrament. And Matthew is very clearly applying those same words to what Jesus does with this bread.
A Typical Jewish blessing before meals from that time was, “Blessed are you O LORD our God, Ruler of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.” This might have been something like what Jesus prays. The fish seem to get left out of the distribution. They’re an historical detail but pale in comparison to the bread.
In v20, twelve baskets full of fragments are gathered after the meal. There wasn’t symbolic significance to the five loaves and two fish, but there probably was symbolic significance to this count. It could refer to the twelve tribes or Israel. There were also twelve disciples, and Matt 19:28 will reference the disciples judging on twelve thrones in the end of the age.
There are several important things to point out from this story. First of all, Jesus refuses to send anyone away hungry, even when the means to feed them seem completely lacking. This ties us back to the Isaiah reading: the banquet is there, and it’s overflowing. Come!
Another important detail from this reading is that the disciples are the ones by whom the crowd experiences the abundance of Jesus. And I don’t think we have to confine “disciples” here to the twelve. This is anyone who evangelizes and brings the good news to others.
Finally, I think there is an important inner movement in the disciples: from fear to faith to feasting. Initially, they want to send everyone away; they don’t want to deal with the crowd. They are all still reeling from John’s death. Remember that Jesus himself was baptized by John, so there is a fear of what might happen. They start this story in fear. Jesus asks what they have, and they bring it to him. Even though they can’t conceive of what Jesus might do with five loaves of bread and two fish, they must have enough faith that they bring it. And then everyone is fed. I think not only the crowds but the disciples must have joined in this feast. They were all fed!
Have you ever made this inner movement yourself, from fear to faith to feasting?
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
© 2023 Kelly Sollinger