Get Close to Jesus

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on June 11, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 15:29-39.

            Our Bible reading for today is the story of a miracle.  Jesus feeds four thousand people with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish.  In fact, Jesus fed more than four thousand people--what the Bible says is that he fed four thousand men, besides women and children.  So Jesus might have fed eight thousand, ten thousand, twelve thousand people that day.  We don’t know.  But we know that however many thousands of people he fed, Jesus did it with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish.  A miracle.

            And when we read this story, that’s the part we usually jump to--the miraculous feeding.  In fact, in my Bible, the story is headlined “Jesus Feeds the Four Thousand”.  But when we really look at the story, there’s a lot more to it than just one of Jesus’ miracles.  In fact, if we focus just on that, we miss a lot of the meaning of this passage.

            First, we’re told that Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down.  Did Jesus know people would follow him there?  Did Jesus even want people to follow him there?  After all, the Bible tells us many times of Jesus going off by himself, often into the mountains.  Jesus would do that to pray, to renew himself, to keep in touch with God the Father.  Maybe that’s what Jesus was doing here.

            But if he was, it did not work.  We’re told that “great crowds came to him”.  And they brought “the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others”.

            I’ve talked before about how often the Bible says extraordinary things in a really matter-of-fact way.  This is one of those times.  Think about this.  Jesus is on a mountainside.  We don’t know how high up the mountain he was, but it had to be a significant distance, or Matthew would not have mentioned it.  And yet, all these people, “great crowds”, followed Jesus.  They followed him up the mountainside.  That would not have been easy, in and of itself--climbing up a mountainside.  But that’s not all.  They did this bringing all sorts of disabled people with them.  Again, they’re described as “the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others.”

            Think of the faith that took.  Think of how determined these people were to be close to Jesus.  They were not only willing to climb up a mountain to be close to Jesus, they brought others with them, people who could not get to Jesus on their own.  They helped those people get to Jesus, too.

            They did that not knowing what would happen when they got there.  They hoped Jesus would heal their friends, of course.  They knew Jesus had that power.  They’d heard the stories of Jesus’ miraculous healing.  But they had no way to know whether Jesus actually would heal them.  After all, it’s not like Jesus had invited them to follow him up this mountain.  Again, for all we know, Jesus might have gone up on the mountain specifically to get away from people.  Jesus might tell them to go away.  Jesus might tell them to leave him alone.  Jesus might not even see them or talk to them--he might just send the disciples out to chase them off.  They had no way to know.

            And yet they came.  That’s how much they knew they needed Jesus.  That’s how desperate they were to get to Jesus.  They were willing to undergo hardship, they were willing to risk rejection, just to get close to Jesus.  They knew they needed him that much.

            Jesus did not send them away, of course.  Jesus healed them.  Jesus healed all the people who were brought to him.  But here’s another amazing thing.  After the people were healed, they did not go away.  They did not go home.  Their friends did not go home, either.  They stayed there, praising God.  They stayed there for three days.  They had nothing to eat.  They probably did not have a change of clothes.  We don’t know whether they had any water.  And I don’t even want to think about the lack of sanitary facilities.  And yet, they stayed.  They stayed, despite everything, because they wanted to be close to Jesus.  Even after they were healed, they knew they needed to be close to Jesus.  Again, they knew they needed him that much.

            Jesus feeds them, of course.  Again, that’s the part everyone remembers.  Jesus took the little bit of food they had and made it enough to feed all those people and have some left over.  The crowd ate, and was satisfied.  And eventually, Jesus sent them on their way.

            Jesus performed a miracle, feeding all those people.  Jesus performed a whole lot of miracles, healing all those people.  And that’s important, for a couple of reasons.  One of them, of course, is simply these miracles show the divine power that Jesus had.  They show that he was, in fact, not just a human being.  He was who he said he was, the divine Son of God.

            These miracles also show how much Jesus cared about people.  Jesus may not wanted to perform miracles when he went up on the mountainside.  He may not have wanted to be around people at all.  But when Jesus saw these people in need, he did not hesitate.  He healed them.  He healed everyone who was brought to him.  For three days, he healed people.  And when they needed food, we’re told Jesus specifically said, “I have compassion for these people...I do not want to send them away hungry.”  The love for people Jesus shows in this story is incredible.

            But none of it would have happened if not for the faith of the people involved.  None of it would have happened if these people had not been determined to get and stay close to Jesus.  They were willing to do whatever it took to get close to Jesus.  They would undertake a long and difficult journey.  They would bring people with them, people who could not undertake that journey on their own.  They would do so with no food, no water, no supplies of any kind.  All so they could get close to Jesus.

            What are you willing to do to get close to Jesus?  What am I willing to do to get close to Jesus?  What would we be willing to risk?  What would we be willing to undertake?  What would we be willing to give up, to get close to Jesus?

            You and I are in a lot better position that the people who followed Jesus up that mountain.  We don’t have to undertake a difficult journey to get close to Jesus.  We really don’t have to do anything that’s all that difficult.  All we really need to do is simple things.  Pray.  Read the Bible.  Open our hearts to God’s Holy Spirit.  Take some time, every day, to think about where the Lord might be leading us to go or what the Lord might be leading us to do this day.  Feel Jesus’ presence with you as you go through your day.

            So, do we do those things?  Maybe you do.  I hope you do.  My point is not to judge anyone--I don’t know how close you might be to Jesus.  But I think we’d all like to be closer than we are.  I think we’d all like to feel God’s Holy Spirit with us as we go through our day.  I think we’d all like to feel that we’re going where God wants us to go and doing what God wants us to do.

            But that’s not going to happen by itself.  It’s only going to happen if you and I do the things necessary to make it happen.  God will do God’s part--we can count on that.  But first, you and I need to do our part.

            Remember how things went in our reading for today.  Jesus did not seek people out.  Jesus did not go around to people’s homes and say, “Is there anyone here who’d like to be healed?  Anyone here who needs something to eat?”  Jesus went off by himself.  It was up to the people to come to him.  The people had to do their part.  When they did, Jesus did his part.  And everyone was healed, and fed.  And everyone was as close to Jesus as they could possibly get.

            We’re getting close to summer.  Summer tends to be a busy time in this area.  There’s all the farm work to be done, of course.  There’s yard work and gardening to be done.  And because we get so little nice weather around here, people like to find ways to be outside.  They go fishing, they go camping, they go swimming, they go boating.  They go to ball games.  They go golfing.  People do all kinds of things outside.

            And none of that’s wrong.  But it’s important, when we do those things, to still make Jesus part of them.  It’s important that we don’t leave Jesus out of our summer activities.  Whether work or play, if we want to be close to Jesus, we need to make Jesus part of everything we do.  If we don’t make the effort to stay close to Jesus, it won’t happen.  Again, Jesus will do Jesus’ part.  But you and I need to do our part.

            The people who Jesus fed, the people who Jesus healed, were willing to do whatever it took to get close to Jesus.  They knew they needed Jesus that much.  You and I need Jesus that much, too.  So let’s do whatever it takes to get close to Jesus.  When we do, we’ll find that Jesus wants to be close to us.