A Banquet in the Wilderness - Rev. Jeremy Tovmassian

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BANQUET IN THE WILDERNESS

Matthew 14:13-21

I don’t know if any of you will remember these - but when I was younger we used to have these books called Magic Eyes

Can you remember those?

They were these books filled with chaotic patterns - all sorts of colors and patterns thrown out on each page.

And they looked like complete nonsense, unless you looked at them the right way. If you saw the images with the right eyes, then you’d get this really cool 3-D picture; the contours and shapes would jump out at you from beyond the page

You had to put it up real close to your face and cross your eyes - slowly move it away from your face and then BAM! The page would come alive!

It was really cool but you had to look at it with the right eyes - and some people simply couldn’t train their eyes to see.

I want to suggest that these Magic Eyes books do a pretty good job of demonstrating what it means to live life with Jesus in the church community.

One of the most important things that happens to us when we join the family of God is that we learn to see the world with new eyes. When we belong to Jesus and when we follow Him, we see or imagine the world in a new way - It takes practice, and training, but that’s we do!

It takes new eyes to see the way of Jesus - it takes time, and it takes the regular work of God - daily, hour-by-hour transformation - to see with the new eyes of Christ!

This morning, Jesus is inviting us to see with new eyes. He is inviting us to see the world as a wilderness. He’s calling us to imagine the space we inhabit, disconnected from its Lord, as a desert, a wasteland - a space without any sustainable life support, without nourishment and without hope

You’ll notice, of course, this story takes place in ‘the wilderness’. Some translations say ‘a private place’ and, while that works, it misses a key point Matthew is making here.

In the story, Jesus gets in a boat, crosses over the sea and meets a crowd of people. He travels with them into ‘the wilderness’ where they experience miraculous nourishment and provision

Now, I hope that all sounds familiar to you because its beyond a doubt that Matthew wants us to pick up the hints and tones of a much older story; the Old Testament story of Israel’s Exodus. You know this story! We’ve told since childhood.

God saves His people Israel from Egypt’s oppressive clutches – leads them through the Red Sea waters and into a wilderness place where they learn the ways of God. That’s where Israel receives miraculous bread from heaven; Manna.

Matthew (and perhaps more precisely, Jesus) wants us to read this whole story with the Exodus in mind. Jesus is redeeming a people for Himself – teaching them the ways of God in the wilderness; a sort of neo-Moses so to speak.

And I want to suggest that this whole story takes place in the wilderness as a sort of indictment - a judgment on the world at large. In other words, Jesus wants us to see with His eyes; we live ‘in the wilderness’ - we inhabit a world that can best be described as ‘a wasteland’ in desperate need of restoration.

And as Matthew’s story unfolds, one gets the feeling that he’s saying something much more than: “Hey remember when Jesus miraculously fed a bunch of people.” No, there’s something much deeper going on here.

The text says that Jesus got off the boat and was met by crowds of sick, broken people. Imagine that, a crowd of people in the wilderness crying out for healing; a community of weak, powerless, hopeless people exclaiming: “SAVE US!”

These are the marginalized and the defeated leftovers of the world – everyone whose been consumed by the wilderness.

And Matthew says that Jesus felt compassion; He was moved by their brokenness and began to heal them there in that dark defeated place.

And then, as the day began to wane, it became time for the people to leave for home. There’s not enough food for all these people. There’s no way to provide for them all. It’s impossible!

But that’s when Jesus does something absolutely earth-shattering - something so fantastic and so compelling that it throws the disciples off and still to this day confuses us.

Jesus invites this crowd of sick and broken people to a lavish banquet in the wilderness. In that place of emptiness and want, where food is nowhere to be found, Jesus invites the crowd to rest on the grass and enjoy a dinner party with Him.

It’s interesting, by the way, how Matthew gently implies a contrast between a dinner party that happened just a few verses before this story [4:1-12] and the dinner party Jesus throws here. The one you’d like to attend is left up to you to decide.

Matthew’s language is unmistakable. Jesus takes the few pieces of bread the disciples have along with the fish; He blesses them, breaks them, and gives them to the disciples to give to the people. [spoiler alert: Jesus does this at another meal later on in the story - Matthew 26:17-30]

Jesus is playing the role of a banquet-host; blessing the meal and providing for the people!

And wouldn’t you know it, in that broken wilderness - in that place of scarcity and want, Jesus creates an abundance of food. He fills the stomachs of his banquet guests; more than five thousand if you count the women and children too

Of course, it’s here that the whole story comes into clearer perspective. The point becomes so powerful and so exciting that it’s hard to miss: Jesus transforms our wilderness waste into a lavish banquet. Jesus is the one who is able to restore the world to its proper place; a place of compassion, healing and nourishment. Jesus, King of Heaven and Earth, is reclaiming our dead wilderness and shaping it into a place of abundant life!

And the beauty of it all isn’t it, that this story isn’t dead and stuck in the past! No, in fact the very reason Matthew tells the story is to remind his church and to remind us that this great banquet-host is with us today!

Matthew’s church, much like our 21st century church, felt displaced and alienated in society - they were mostly Jewish converts so, they didn’t fit in at the temple and they certainly didn’t fit in with Rome!

They, much like us, were wandering the wilderness places of life - waiting for God to act!

And Matthew tells us this story to remind us what God is doing and where God is - He is there with them in that wilderness and He is here with us in our wilderness!

The meal of communion we take together each month confesses this! In taking the bread and the wine, we identify with Christ in the wilderness of the world, we confess our wandering and yet, we remember that this great Host, Jesus our King, is nourishing us even today - providing for us and healing us of our sins!

So if you find yourself in the wilderness this morning, if you’ve been grappling and struggling to escape that wasteland that seems to know no end … have no fear! The whole world is a wilderness waiting to be made new. And there in the middle of it all is this strange victorious Christ who is hosting a banquet – inviting you to celebrate with Him as He begins the transformation from emptiness and pain to fullness and joy!