Exploring My Strange Bible - Severed Heads & Hungry Crowds - Gospel of Matthew Part 22

Episode Date: October 1, 2018

We’re looking at Matthew Chapter 14. I consider two stories alongside each other in this teaching. One is the story of John the Baptist getting beheaded by the royal family. It is followed by another story of Jesus providing food for hungry people in the wilderness that interrupts his cousin’s death. The character of Jesus shines brightly in this episode.

Tim Mackey, Jr. utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 10 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called The Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology. You can find those resources at thebibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week. All right, well, in this episode, we're going to keep exploring the gospel according to Matthew. We're going to be looking at a story from Matthew chapter 14.

This is of no relevance to any of you, but it's a special thing in my memory. This is one of my favorite titled sermons of all the sermons I've ever given in whatever the 10 years that I've been preaching sermons. The title of the sermons was called Severed Heads and Hungry Crowds. I'm considering in this teaching two stories that Matthew's put alongside each other. One is the story of Jesus' relative, John the Baptist, getting beheaded by the royal family that the Romans put over the land of Israel, the family of Herod. It's also followed by a story of Jesus providing food for hungry people in the wilderness that interrupts his grieving over his cousin's death. And the fact that these two stories are next to each other is very suggestive.

It shows Jesus unable to actually mourn and grieve the death of his cousin, but instead he just constantly keeps giving of himself even in his own moments of greatest need. Character of Jesus shines bright in this story. It's a very beautiful portrait of how he operated in the world even in the midst of his own pain. So there you go, Matthew chapter 14. Let's open up and learn together and discover what new things there are to be seen. Matthew 14. The key here is, it all comes down to this, the key Halfway through, the story is of this mounting tension. As Jesus, he's put himself out there, the kingdom movement is there, and the most important people, the most influential people, the powers that be,

are suspicious of Jesus, or they reject him outright. And we have another story of that today. But then we also have how Jesus responds to that rejection. And it's very powerful. Matthew chapter 14. So at that time, Herod, the Tetrarch, heard reports about Jesus. And he said to his attendants, imagine him in a governor's throne room or something like that, he said, there's got to be John the Baptist. He's risen from the dead. That's why miraculous powers are at work in him. Let's pause real quick here.

That's the story. More's going to unfold out of that, but it's just a little strange report about Herod, one of the governors of the region, and he's hearing about Jesus, right? Jesus has momentum, lots of people around him. He's doing these signs and wonders, and so he gets onto Herod's radar, right? The regional governor's radar, and this seems quite odd to us. We're like, right, the regional governor's radar, and this seems quite odd to us. We're like, he doesn't, he hears about Jesus of Nazareth, and he says, who's this guy? It's got to be John the Baptist, who's dead. Now, just stop right there. If you've been following through Matthew so far, what's the last thing you learned about John the Baptist?

He appeared at the beginning of the story and then we heard about him just a couple chapters ago. Do you remember? In chapter 11, he was in prison. He's in prison. That's the last we heard about John the Baptist. He sent messengers and he was asking Jesus, are you sure you're the one? That was his question to Jesus. Are you sure

you're the Messiah? That's the last thing we heard about John the Baptist. And now all of a sudden he's what? That's the last thing we heard about John the Baptist. And now all of a sudden he's what? He's dead. He's dead apparently. This is Jesus' cousin. This is a very close person to Jesus. They were colleagues together. How did that happen? So Matthew knows that you don't know the story. So this is, you know, this dates me in a million ways, but Wayne's world, this is the moment. Right? It's the flashback. It's very, it's really interesting in the Gospel of Matthew, he pauses the story and then he goes back in time. I know that you don't know that John the Baptist

is dead, so you learned through Herod, so now I'm going to tell you the story, Matthew says. Verse 3, now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. This is because John the Baptist had been saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother Philip's wife. Now Herod, he wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of all the people because everyone else considered John to be a prophet. Okay, so stage is set. Matthew just gave you the back story here. Now this is, here's what I'm going to do.

I don't usually, I sometimes show you maps. They're always very simple maps. This time I want to show you a very complicated map. And everything I'm about to say in the next three minutes, you're going to promptly forget. And that's the point. So don't, it's not, just work with me. Work with me. Here's a political map of Israel-Palestine in Jesus' time as an adult. So we've heard of Herod before in the story, haven't we?

Do you remember Herod? So we had a Herod at the beginning of the story. Jesus is born in Bethlehem. Rumors are out there's the Messiah born in Bethlehem. What was Herod's response? Right? He kills all the baby boys in Bethlehem. Horrified.

He was a horrible person, a murderous, murderous man. This is not that Herod. This is that Herod's son. This is that Herod's son who took the same name because he wanted to be like dad. And he's no better. Here's what happens. It's very fascinating. And history geeks, you'll love this. So that all of the region kind of colored, you can see maybe inside of a thick red line, was big bad King Herod's kingdom. And it was his kingdom given to him under Rome. He was kind of like a puppet king. He was half Jewish. He was a horrible man, ruled with an iron fist. When he died, he had three significant sons who were all vying for power. A civil war almost started as each of them tried to become king in dad's place. And so what they eventually had to do was iron war almost started as each of them tried to become king in dad's place.

And so what they eventually had to do was iron out a treaty where each of them got a big section of land. So over the green is a guy named Archelaus. He became a governor, as you can see in the map there, about 6 AD. Jesus would have been about eight or nine years old when the map changed here. So Archelaus is over the green. The green is where Jerusalem is and Bethlehem down by the Dead Sea and so on. Okay, up in Galilee, do you see Galilee up there? What color is that? That's gray. So gray is ruled by a guy named Antipas, who called himself Herod. His given name is Antipas, but he took on the name Herod when he became governor because he wanted to be like dad. So he takes over Galilee, which is where Jesus is doing all of his stuff. The kingdom movement starts in Galilee through Jesus.

Now, Antipas had great aspirations to become, you know, like his father. And so this is what he, do you see he's not only over Galilee, where else is the gray? Do you see it? Right down there is a whole other section called Perea down there a little south. So here's the fascinating story of how that happened. So do you see on the bottom right of the map there's a region called Nabatea. Do you see that? Remember you're going to forget all this. There's no quiz, right? You're going to forget all this, but that's part of the point, right? So Nabatea. Nabatea was a kingdom whose capital city still exists today, carved into stone in modern-day Jordan. What's the name of that tourist site? Petra. Petra. You know Petra? Have you seen the pictures of Petra, a kingdom carved in stone, right? That was the capital city of the Nabataean kingdom.

So Herod, he makes this alliance with the king of Nabataea to get all of this land by marrying his daughter, the princess of Nabataea, which has a great ring to it, right? So he marries, and so he gets this whole stretch of land right here. All right, that's the second son. The third son of Herod is Philip, who gets this region up here, kind of in the upper right off the map. It's tan. Do you see that there? Okay, here, all right. Here's the story. This is like a political soap opera like you wouldn't believe. So the whole family is accountable to Caesar out in Rome. So all the family and their wives, the three brothers and their wives and so on, they go on this trip to Rome.

And there, Antipas over Galilee falls madly in love with his brother Philip's wife, who's the governor of the upper right. Do you see that, right? So they have this whole affair and so on, sex scandal, this kind of thing, right? And so they agree in Rome, they're going to come back. And Antipas, I have to talk slow and intentionally here because the details are so murky, Antipas divorces the princess of Nabatea and sends her back. That doesn't go over well with the king of Nabatea. And so the king of Nabatea then declares war on all of this land that Antipas just got. So now there's thousands of soldiers dying on the border because of a sex scandal, right? So that's from the divorce from the princess of Nabatea. Then Philip's wife,

who fell madly in love with Antipas, she goes back and she divorces Philip. That doesn't go over well. So now there's virtually civil war on that border up there. And so now Antipas has his love Herodias, and they're living in the region of Galilee together, where this story happens. Are you with me? War on the borders. Sex scandal, right? I mean, it's just, is anything new under the sun? You know what I'm saying? It doesn't change, does it? And that's part of my point here. This is all forgotten, isn't it? Like, we don't, you're going to forget this five minutes from now. And why is Matthew giving us all of this backstory here? It's sort of like the shadow of Herod looms over Jesus and the kingdom at the very beginning,

almost, right, almost murders Jesus and kills all these baby boys in Bethlehem. And now here, halfway through the story, the shadow of Herod's family looms again over Jesus and the movement of the kingdom. And what is that shadow? It's the same shadow of the human condition that is the human history, right? Human history. Somehow, when humans get together and we make kingdoms, it's just, it's not a friendly environment for the kingdom of God, make kingdoms, it's just, it's not a friendly environment for the kingdom of God, right? Because it's just ego and lust and power and money just writ large and projected out, and thousands of people die. And unfortunately and tragically, John the Baptist becomes a casualty as the kingdoms of this world rumble on. And here's the story, verse 6. On Herod's birthday, so John the Baptist was an outspoken critic of Herod and this marriage. He

thought it was super screwed up. On Herod's birthday, it's a royal birthday party. Think throne room, royal birthday party, lots of wine, you get the deal. The daughter of Herodias, this is his new wife's daughter, so used to be his niece, right? Now it's his daughter-in-law, danced for all of the guests and pleased Herod so much, read between the lines, what's royal birthday party, lots of wine, used to be my niece, now my daughter, comes, pleases everyone with her dancing. This is not a Puritan movie, right? You get what I'm saying? Here, she pleased Herod so much that he utters this rash, drunken vow. He promises on oath to give her whatever it is that she wants. So then her mother comes in and says, hey, tell him to give you John the Baptist's head on a dinner platter. The king was distressed. He's like, dang it, why did I say it? What? No, no. But because of his oath and

everybody, the dinner guests who were there, he's like, what? I can't lose face here? I would lose his pride and honor. So he ordered that her request be granted, and he had John beheaded in the prison. His head was then brought in on a dinner platter, birthday party dinner platter, severed bloody head of John the Baptist, given to the girl who then carries it across the royal throne room in the birthday party and gives it to mom.

That's the story. The kingdoms of this world, they rumble on doing what humans have always done. Right? It's about money, it's about land, it's about power, and it's about sex. And John the Baptist, John the Baptist dies a grisly, horrifying death

because of the thoughtless, rash, drunken vow of an irresponsible king. What kind of world are we living in? Good people, horrible things happen to them. Bad people sit in power. You know what I mean? Matthew's giving us a portrait of the world as we know it. And right here, it looks as if everything might come crashing down, because that's the fate of John the Baptist. And who just came on

to Herod's radar for the first time? Jesus. This is not good news. This is not good news. Verse 12, so John's disciples came. They took John's body. They gave it an honorable burial. And then they go and they tell all this to Jesus. And then we're back to the Jesus story here. It's a long digression. Right? This whole thing here. Long digression. And then we're back to the present moment. And this is all backstory to yet one more hostile threat to Jesus and the kingdom movement. And so then it raises the question here, like, what is Jesus going to do? He's flown under the radar up to this point, just catching flack from the Pharisees and so on, and they've already plotted to murder him. But now it's like he's not under the radar anymore, right? The stakes are high. You know, like the Herod's family is aware of Jesus now,

and that is not good news. And so look at Jesus' response. This is how Matthew frames the story that follows that is familiar to us, at least to many of us. Here's the story that follows. Look at what Jesus does. He says, when Jesus heard about all this, heard what happened, comma, the pause, so just stop. Jesus hears that report. It's John's disciples

and friends. They come to Jesus. They tell him everything that's happened. How are you feeling about life right now? You're Jesus. He's your close cousin. This is someone who, Jesus' formative moment, remember, in his baptism and anointing as the Messiah, John was right there. They've been colleagues together in the kingdom of God movement. And so Jesus, like, just imagine what's sinking in for Jesus as he hears this. With the careless, drunken flick of a wrist, John the Baptist's head is gone. So there's grief, there's surely fear for Jesus, and surely he's wondering, like, what's ahead for me? Look at what Jesus does. When Jesus heard about all that had happened, he withdrew by boat, privately,

to a solitary place. It's emphasized in three ways. What's Jesus trying to do right now? Get away, get by himself, no people. Now privately, he's never by himself entirely.

He's got this crew of 12 who he's committed to, they go with him everywhere. But that's his first response,, I got to get out of here. And so he gets there, you know, they're around the lake, the Sea of Galilee. So he gets the 12 of them and they take off in secret and in private to somehow sail along to some really isolated, secluded section of the coastline on the other side. That's Jesus' whole point. And so I think Matthew is this window. We're supposed to, I think, reflect on what's happening inside of Jesus. Why would he want to get away? I mean, just the grief, right? The pain,

right? The sadness that something so horrible would happen to someone who was like a man of such principle like John the Baptist and he's just annihilated because of a stupid drunk king is horrifying. And he's thinking, of course, about himself and the fate of the Jesus movement that he's begun. Like, you can just imagine what kind of mindset Jesus would be in. And this is the way Matthew introduces us to the familiar story that follows. I'm just going to read it. Hearing of all this, the crowds followed Jesus on foot from the towns. So when Jesus landed, what does he see?

People. What was Jesus trying to get away from? People. All right, he's trying to get by himself and process all of this heavy, heavy stuff, and he lands, and who's there? The crowds. They're always there, always these needy people. But when Jesus landed, he saw this large crowd. He had compassion, and he had compassion on them, and he healed their sick. As evening approached, the disciples came to him. And they said, Jesus, we're out in the middle of nowhere here.

We're in this super remote place. It's getting late. These crowds, they need to go. Because they need to go to the villages and get food, Jesus. Jesus replied, they don't need to go. You give them something to eat. Well, that's a bad idea, Jesus. We only have five loaves of bread and two fish here. We brought food for 12, Jesus. Why don't you bring that here to me, he said. So he directed the people to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and he gave thanks, or some of your

translations said, he said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves, and he gave them to the disciples, and then the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied. And the disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over, and the number of those who ate was about 5,000, just counting the men, not to mention the women and the children. And that's the end of the story. Actually, it's not the end of the story. Sorry, I forgot. Keep reading.

Immediately, Jesus made the disciples get back in the boat and go ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd. Then what does Jesus do? Dismisses the crowd, gets up on a mountainside by himself to do what? To do what he was trying to do all along, which was get by himself and pray. Verse 23, pray. So Matthew's framed this story. You have this intense, heavy, tragic news. Jesus withdraws to get by himself. And his efforts are totally frustrated. He can't escape the crowds. But he doesn't see the crowds as an inconvenience.

He just does what he always does, which is love people and move towards them in compassion. He does that. And then he finally gets to do what he was trying to do all along, which is go pray and process this heavy, heavy news. You guys with me here? It's the flow of the story. So, in framed right in there is a story that's probably familiar to many of us, which is Jesus feeding this huge, huge, thousands of people with this meager little amount. And I think most of us, you know, we read these stories in bits. We never read them two hours as a whole, right? So we never actually hear the stories in context. So we're seeing that this story

takes place in a time of great emotional pain for Jesus. And we read this story of the feeding of the 5,000, you know? It's Jesus is powerful and Jesus can do amazing things. It's the basic point of the story. Get it? Jesus is amazing and can do powerful things. Should we go home now? That's great. And they go, no, there's one more layer to it. Remember from the video, Matthew has this new, Jesus has a new Moses thing. And so I think Matthew's intentionally put this story here. Can you think of another story in the Bible where you have Israelites wandering in the middle of nowhere without adequate food, and then the leader of God's people miraculously provides food

for everybody out in the middle of nowhere? Can you think of that story? That's a Moses story, isn't it? Right? From the wilderness in the stories of the Torah. And so Matthew, this is another part of Matthew portraying Jesus as the new Moses. But there's even more here, and this is what I just want to use the rest of our time to reflect on. And this story is beautiful, and it's been actually immensely helpful for me in the last couple weeks. What the focus of this story on,

pay attention to what Matthew focuses on, and it's this conversation that Jesus has with the disciples. Jesus feeds these thousands of people, but he feeds them through whom? Through the disciples. Who actually gives the bread to the people? Did you catch that? Jesus gave the bread to the disciples. The disciples give the food to all of the people. This is a story about the disciples. This is a story about Jesus. In Jesus's grief and pain, he does what the only thing he knows to do, which is to love people.

And he loves people, and he provides for them in their moment of need and brokenness through his disciples. And the focus of this story is this conversation Jesus has with the disciples, and the focus of this story is this conversation Jesus has with the disciples, and it's beautiful. And so, as a practice that I've found, we've done it a few times in Matthew, when you come to a familiar story in the Bible and you think you already know it, it's a practice I found helpful is to pause and to count up all the different characters in the story. Who are all the main characters in the story? And then to slowly read the story through using your imagination as if you were each of the characters. And just to allow the story to affect you from all these different angles. And the disciples are key in this story here. This is a story about Jesus and the disciples. So let's put

ourselves in the shoes of the disciples. And let's sit ourselves in the shoes of the disciples, and let's sit ourselves in the context Matthew's given us. So you're one of the twelve. You've been hanging out with Jesus every day for the last year and a half, and you're with Jesus when he, right, these disciples of John come. They look, they just look broken, and they're crying, and they come, and you hear them have this conversation with Jesus about his cousin, and you just, you watch they come, and you hear them have this conversation with Jesus about his cousin, and you just, you watch. Like, what would that news do to Jesus? When Jesus's other family member, Lazarus, died and was placed in a tomb, what was Jesus's response then in the Gospel of John? He was broken, and he wept. So just imagine a grieving Jesus over John,

and Jesus comes to you, the disciples, and he's like, we've got to get out of here. I've got to get away. And so you're like, yes, absolutely. You know, we've got the boat and so on. So you come and you get onto the boat and Jesus is broken and he's saying nothing. And so you're like, okay, we've got to get Jesus somewhere where there's no people. So one of you is like, okay, we know the spot. Let's go here. It's a few miles this way, no one will find us there,

no one knows about it, there's a cabin, my friend or something, I don't know, you know. Use your imagination, right, you know, sanctified imagination. So they're trying, their whole point is you're trying to care for Jesus and get him away from people so he can process this heavy news. And then once you come around and you start to see the shore and you can make out the landing, what do you see there? People, crowds. And you're one of the disciples, you're protective of Jesus, and you're like, dang it, where do these people come from, right? It's like pop up out of the ground. They're everywhere, right? These hurting, broken people. They've heard about the kingdom of God, and they've heard that Jesus can bring healing and salvation to their lives, and so they come from everywhere, right? And so there they are, just the crowds.

And so you're, think what you would be thinking in that moment. You're bummed. For them, this is a huge inconvenience, right? For what you think Jesus needs. And then Jesus sees the crowd and he has a very different response than you do. And how he responds is how he always responds to people. And it's what Matthew describes right here as compassion. It's like Jesus has this bottomless well of love and compassion for people, especially losers, right? And especially people whose bodies don't work and who are poor. And so, and you watch Jesus. This is powerful. And think

about the context here. Jesus surely is experiencing grief and sorrow for John the Baptist and almost certainly for himself as he thinks about what this means for him, right? If Herod knows about him now. And he sees the crowds of hurting people, and he does what Jesus always does. He turns his sorrow and grief over himself and John, and he translates it into compassion and sorrow for other people, and for their pain, and for their loss. And so you land at the shore, and Jesus is not bummed at all. He just moves, he just does what he always does. He moves in, he starts getting people's names, he's praying for them, right? He's healing them, he's speaking good news and God's love to them, and you're just like,

this, this is why I follow this man. Right? I mean, this is quintessential Jesus. Right? This is why we love him. I'm speaking present tense. Out of the story. Here we go.

Right? This is a Jesus moment where you're just like, I love this man. He's so amazing. And he's so wise. And he's so loving. And so, man,

you're one of the disciples. You spend a year and a half every day with somebody who treats people like this. It will rub off on you, right? It's contagious. And so, he's doing this. Jesus is doing his thing. He's healing people. The hours are going by, right? And you're watching. He does the Jesus thing. And then, you know, you'd be like, man, Jesus loves these people. And all of a sudden, Jesus is rubbing off on you. It hits you. It's late in the day. We're in the middle of nowhere. There's like thousands of people here. I don't know how many people there are here. They need to eat. Like,

people need to eat. There's a lot of poor people here. There's no, like, there's no food. We're in the middle of nowhere. I should tell Jesus about this. So you go and tell Jesus this idea. You're like, Jesus, man, people have no food. It's late in the day. They need, they need to go to the villages. And so Jesus is like, yeah, good job. You're thinking about someone else for your change, you know, someone other than yourselves. A really great job, you know. So that's cool. He's rubbing off on you. That's just progress, you know. So Jesus, but look at Jesus' response. So this is your idea. Jesus, these people need food. I've got an idea. We should help them get back to the villages so they can get food. And Jesus says, great idea, but actually, they don't need to go away. Look at what he says. They don't need to leave. Now, you're just like, wait a minute. No, they do need to leave because there's no food here,

Jesus. Like, that's my whole point is that there's no food here. They actually do need to leave. And look at what Jesus does. Then he says, no, they don't need to go away. I really like your idea. You give them something to eat. Do you see that? This is just not what you were hoping to hear, right, if you're one of the disciples. So what's happened here? This is how Jesus works with his disciples, apparently. Jesus rubs off on his disciples, and they begin to notice things that Jesus would notice, like people are hungry and need food. It's great. It's progress, right? And then, so you take this idea to Jesus, and you're like, hey, Jesus, here's these people. Here's the situation. I think that you would care about this kind of thing, and Jesus is like, yeah, that's really good. You do something about it.

It's great, right? So where do we go from here? Well, you're one of the disciples, and a million reasons come into your mind why that's a bad idea, right? For you to be the one to give them something to eat. So here's the one that you think of. Jesus, we only brought food for 12, right? I've got these five loaves of bread and two fish, right? We're in the middle of nowhere. This is our food that we brought for the 12 of us. And in your mind, you bring that to Jesus because that clearly is going to end this conversation. You know what I mean? Jesus will hear that and he'll be like, oh, oh, oh yeah, good point. Yeah, that's right. We don't have any food. I guess I have to go now, right? I guess they do have to go, right? What's your motive for saying we don't have anything? Well, we just have what we brought for ourselves.

That ends the conversation, right? Put Jesus in his place, right? What are the wild ideas about us feeding people? And then look at Jesus' response. Jesus, we don't have anything, just this little bit for us. And Jesus says, oh, that's perfect. It's perfect. Why don't you bring it right here?

Bring it here. So in Jesus' mind, this is all going according to plan for Jesus, right? He rubs off on his disciples. They notice things that he would notice. They bring their ideas to him, and then he like turns it all around and hands it back to them with the challenge for them to go do something, except now the challenge is this monstrous kingdom of God task that they're totally inadequate for. And so then they think of a million reasons why I'm not the person to do this and why this is a really bad idea, Jesus, but I'd be the one. And then Jesus says, oh, you only have that little bit. Oh, that's perfect. That's exactly what I was envisioning. So why don't you bring that here to me? perfect, that's exactly what I was envisioning.

So why don't you bring that here to me? And then what happens is, this is to me the beautiful, beautiful part of this story. Because what Jesus does when his disciples bring the little, the next to nothing that they have, and they bring it to Jesus, what Jesus does with that next to nothing is they have. And they bring it to Jesus. What Jesus does with that next to nothing is mysterious and profound. He, bring them here to me, he said.

He directed the people to sit down on the grass. And then he took the five loaves and the two fish and he looks up to heaven, right? To the Father. He gave thanks, or some of your translations have, not he gave thanks, but what? He said a blessing, said a blessing, and then he broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. And the disciples gave them to the people.

So Jesus takes the next to nothing that the disciples give, and he holds it up in prayer and in blessing to the Father, and he breaks it. And then something happens there. Now, there's a number of things that are really cool going on in this story, but here's one that you'll find really cool. Can you think of another story in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus took bread, said a blessing, broke it, and gave it to his disciples? Oh, there you go. Spoiler alert, right there. All right, Matthew 26. Matthew 26. Right? This is the last supper, right? The last Passover meal. This is the night that Jesus was

betrayed, Matthew 26. As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after saying a blessing, He broke it. And then He gave it to the disciples, and He said, take, eat. This is My body. Then He took a cup, and when He had said a blessing, He gave it to to them and he said, drink of it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for the forgiveness, for many, for the forgiveness of sins. So think with me here. Think back to the video. Matthew, the composition of Matthew takes place, you know, 30-ish years, and Matthew has been telling and retelling and retelling these stories for decades now. And so, as Matthew reflects back on this story of what happened in the middle of nowhere with the five loaves and the two fish, Matthew retells it using the language of his memory of the Last Supper. Are you with me? In other words, these two events

are connected in Matthew's mind. How are they connected? So the Last Supper is this moment where Jesus was trying to communicate to them the paradox of how he would truly become king, and how the kingdom would be inaugurated and come in and crash into earth here. And it would happen through a grisly execution that's even more disturbing than John the Baptist. John ends up with his head on a dinner platter. Jesus ends up being executed on a Roman execution rack because of the jealousy of some priest in Jerusalem and a corrupt Roman governor, right? And it's Jesus who's this kind of person, and he treats people this way, and he ends up,

talk about good people meeting a horrible end. Jesus is going to end up crucified, and he's trying to communicate to his disciples, like, this actually isn't a tragedy. This is the way it's supposed to go. Because right here, the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus becomes paradoxically the place where the love and the justice of God meet together. Where God's justice on all of the horrible, screwed up things that humans do to each other that just get projected out large, like John the Baptist and so on. But what is happening in Herod's birthday party? It's just the human condition. It's just what goes on inside of your heart and mind all the time. Most of us lack the power and the resources to actually act this terrible, right? But if most of us had this kind of power

and authority, we would act the same way, and let's not try and pretend that we wouldn't, right? kind of power and authority, we would act the same way, and let's not try and pretend that we wouldn't, right? And so Jesus ends up actually embodying God's justice on all of human evil and sin, but at the same time embodying God's love as the judge takes his own judgment into himself. And Jesus' death on the cross, it's his absorption of sin and evil so that forgiveness can come to screwed up people like you and like me and Jesus likens this seemingly tragic event to his body being broken and given to others

somehow this crazy thing that happens to Jesus becomes something that gives life to others. And so Matthew uses the language of the Last Supper as he remembers the story of how Jesus asked them, the disciples, to participate in the kingdom coming into the lives of these hurting, sick people right there on the shores. And so, do you guys see what's happening here?

It's beautiful. Somehow Jesus takes something that seems insignificant or nothing or negative, and then he breaks it, and he prays for it, and he blesses it, and then it becomes a gift to others. And Jesus did this with His own life and death, and Jesus now does it with the next to nothing that the disciples have. What,

by the way, whose food is this? Five loaves and two fish. Whose food is this for? This is the disciples. What are they giving away? They're giving away everything. This is the only thing they have right now, right? What a stupid thing to do, give away your food in the wilderness. But somehow, like, it's this, here we are. The kingdom costs everything. It's like the parable that Cameron taught for, the pearl, the treasure. It's like somehow Jesus invites us into this journey of being his disciples.

It's going to cost everything, everything, right? And it has to do with Jesus rubbing off on us so that we begin to notice situations and people and things that Jesus would care about. And so we bring this to Jesus' attention. We're like, hey, this is really screwed up. And that kind of thing shouldn't happen in God's good world. And these people should be cared for. And right, it's this, you begin to care about people the more you immerse yourself in Jesus' story. And then you bring that to Jesus' attention. And Jesus says, yeah, that's a really good point.

You go do something about it. And then you have a whole bunch of reasons why that's a bad idea. I'm nobody. I don't really have anything. I just have these loaves of fish or whatever. I just have my paintbrush, you know, I just have, you know, my musical abilities, right, I just have a little bit of time and money, and I just have these relationships, and I'm not significant, or whatever, and Jesus says, it's perfect, it's perfect, why don't you, why don't you just bring that here to me? And so you offer that to Jesus, and He enters

your gift into the paradox of who He is, that it's somehow through giving up everything, and it's giving up your pride, and it's giving up your actual life, what you consider your life and sustenance, you give it up to Jesus, and he does something profound with it. He breaks it. He breaks it. And then he prays and blesses it, and then he gives it back to you. And then you have this basket of fish. Imagine, you have this basket of fish and bread, and so you go out, and he says, now you go feed the people. And so you go out and, you know, the first run, this is freaky, right? So you go out and you, whatever, you've like 15 people, right? And you're like, okay. And so you go back to Jesus and there's more.

And so you take it and you go back out again. And this is really strange because I don't know where this is coming from. And then you run out and you're exhausted, you know, it and you go back out again and this is really strange because I don't know where this is coming from and then you run out and you're exhausted, you know, and then you go back to Jesus and there's more. And now you're really weirded out, whatever, and you go back and that's the story. That's the story. This is how Jesus works. So this message has had a bunch of different pieces to it. We've had this video. We've had this bad soap opera, right, of the kingdoms of this world. But what this story is giving us is this portrait of what does it actually mean to be a disciple of Jesus. And, you know, kingdoms of this world are going to do what kingdoms of this world are going to do. The world is no more unstable or unpredictable than it was 2,000 years ago, because there's people in it,

you know. It's just, and what does Jesus do? Jesus does what he always does. He does what the kingdom of God is about. It's about loving God, loving your neighbor, and it's about moving towards people and noticing hurt and need. And then Jesus invites his disciples into this experience, and they're completely inadequate, and they're completely confused, and that's actually what makes it so beautiful. And paradoxically, Jesus takes that paradox into himself. He blesses it. He breaks it. And so whose idea was it to feed the people?

It was your idea, just one of the disciples. But then again, like how it actually all ends up is totally not your idea and how it worked out. And there you go. There you go. And that's the mystery and the terrifying thrill of being a disciple of Jesus. And if I'm not actively engaged in some part of that process of this story, I should pay attention, and I should ask myself if I'm actually following Jesus. So what does this mean for us? I can't answer what this story is going to mean for you and what it means for you to respond to it. But I just would say this. We have this time, as we do every week,

to worship Jesus and take the bread and the cup. And we have a chance to ask Jesus to remind us of people, of circumstances in our lives that he would care about and that he would notice. And then to pray this terrifying prayer of like, Jesus, something should be done about this. And I'll already tell you what you're going to hear Jesus say. You do something about it since

you're my disciple. And then here we go. And so let's treat the bread and the cup today as a moment of bringing these people and these circumstances to Jesus and to ask him, what are you asking me to do? And then bring your objections and then know that he'll have objections to your objections, right? And then, and let's just sit

and listen to what Jesus wants to say to us as his disciples. That's the only thing I know how to do in response to a story like this. Amen? Thank you guys for listening to Exploring My Strange Bible podcast. We'll see you next time. We're going to keep exploring the gospel according to Matthew, so we'll see you next time. We're going to keep exploring the gospel according to Matthew. So we'll see you then.