Malankara World

Sermons Based on the Lectionary of the Church

Human Helplessness and Abundance of God

by Very Rev. Lazarus Remban

Devotional Thoughts for Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Gospel: St. Luke 9:10-17

The miracle of loaves and fishes is very familiar to us and this is the only miracle of Jesus related in all four gospels.

When the Apostles had comeback from their tour our Lord took them to the neighborhood of Bethsaida, a remote village, for rest. But there also the people crowded, disturbing his privacy. But to Jesus, human need took precedence over everything.

The evening came, home was far away, and the people were tired and hungry. Jesus ordered his disciples to give them a meal.

This Gospel tells us many things, a few being:

1. Jesus was concerned that men were hungry.

It would be most interesting to work out how much time Jesus spent, not talking, but easing men's pain and satisfying their hunger. He still needs the service of men's hand. The mother, the nurse, the doctor, the friend, the parent, the social worker, they have all preached far more effective sermons than the eloquent orator.

2. Jesus' help was generous

There was enough, and more than enough. In love there is no nice calculation of the less and more. God is like that. God has created a world where there is more than enough for all, if people will share it.

3. There is a permanent truth in an action in time

In Jesus all men's needs are supplied. There is a hunger of the soul, there is in every man, sometimes at least a longing to find something in which he may invest his life. As St. Augustine says " Our hearts are restless until they rest in Him". St. Paul says, " My God will supply every need of yours" – even in the desert places of this life.

See Also:

Feeding Multitudes with Five Loaves of Bread by Jose Kurian Puliyeril
 

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