Hungry Heart

^{Mark 6:32} And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. ³³ Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. ³⁴As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. ³⁵When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; ³⁶ send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.” ³⁷ But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” ³⁸And he said to them, “How many loaves have you? Go and see.” When they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” ³⁹ Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. ⁴¹ Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and he divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² And all ate and were filled, ⁴³ and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. ⁴⁴ Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.

Last week, at the First Hour gathering, Steve Lane mentioned how he finds spiritual meaning in the meals he shares with the refugees he serves. That is a very biblical concept. To share a meal with someone means a family bond has been created.

The Jesus movement, like it’s parent tradition, Judaism, loves its meals. Everywhere you look in the Gospels, Jesus is at the table with his disciples, with Pharisees, with tax-collectors and the so-called sinners, those cast out by the religious hierarchy. Wedding feasts, Passover feasts, Sabbath feasts, public meals, private meals, potlucks… well, not really potlucks. That comes later.

It shouldn’t be a surprise then, that the most often told miracle story in the Gospels, the only miracle story, outside the Resurrection, found in all 4 gospels, is our story from Mark 6, Jesus feeding the multitudes. Matthew and Mark tell of Jesus feeding 5,000 plus then 4,000 plus hungry people respectively. Luke and John show Jesus feeding 5,000. It’s a story told 6 times in the Gospels.

The mere volume of the story points to a moral imperative for us followers of Jesus – “feed the hungry, feed the hungry, feed the hungry, feed the hungry, and feed the hungry.”

A Christianity that ignores the feeding of the hungry, a Christianity that ignores caring for those in need, is a Christianity that is missing love. And a Christianity missing love is not Christianity but merely self-absorbed and self-satisfying ideology. Feeding the hungry, helping those in need, is fundamental to our faith!

Here’s another thing to note. Thousands and thousands of people gathered for a meal with Jesus, contemplating what it all means – what does that sound like? Yes, the meal we read of in Mark 6 foreshadows the church. Christians everywhere, to this day, meet as family around a table and partake of a simple meal of bread and a cup of grape-based drink. Indeed, the church centers on a collective meal where the memory and work of Christ fill our hearts.

Back to the story in Mark 6. Why does the meal happen then and there? Why are the people so hungry?

Verse 34: Jesus “saw them and had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.”

Verses 35-36 shows us that he taught until it was late. By this time, the people are hungry. The disciples want to send them away to go into town and eat. But Jesus says, no, you feed them!

The people are hungry because Jesus has been teaching them past dinner time!

Jesus has been feeding their spirits. And then, he insists that their bodies are fed as well. This is the Jesus way.

Often, though, we focus solely on bodies being fed. This is understandable. The fish and loaves are central to the story. But we shouldn’t forget the importance of feeding the spirit.

Jesus’s words in the wilderness come to mind.

“One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Jesus is saying, there’s physical hunger that needs to be fed, absolutely. But there’s also spiritual hunger and spiritual sustenance. That is vital as well.

Hospice workers commonly experience this phenomenon in some patients. Some patients at the end stage of their dying process will themselves to stay alive when there’s no scientific reason they should be staying alive. They are no longer conscious. Their illness has run its course. They haven’t eaten or taken in fluids for days, even weeks. They are skeletal. Yet something is holding them back. Something is left undone. Something is spiritually amiss. Words left unsaid, reconciliation left incomplete, a confession still unmade, a visit from a son still hasn’t happened, an “I’ll be okay” from a best friend, a prayer at bedside with the whole family present hasn’t occurred yet. Whatever it is, they’re holding on because of it.

They are living without bread alone. Their spiritual needs keep them alive. Until their spirits are nourished in some way, they keep holding on. Often, the chaplain is called in for cases like this.

Here’s a re-phrasing of Jesus words for this context:

One can hold on to life despite not eating or drinking for days,

One’s spirit can hold on to life and keep going in an unexplainable way.

But one lets go and passes into eternal life after words of love are spoken…

Words like, “I’m here now,” “we’re okay,” “you are forgiven.”

Bruce Springsteen famously sang, “Everybody’s got a hungry heart.” This is often true to the very end.

But what does the heart hunger for? In the end, what does the heart want most?

The human heart hungers for love and reconciliation.

Theologian Paul Tillich once wrote, “Faith implies love, namely, the desire and urge toward the reunion of what is separated.”

Yes, we hunger for at-one-ment with God. We hunger to be at-one with our Creator. We hunger for reunion with God who is love and in whose image, we are made.

We also hunger for at-one-ment with those we love. We hunger for unity with others. We hunger to be at peace with the world, especially those we’re estranged from.

Jesus helps feed both sides of this spiritual hunger we humans have to the very end!

Jesus brings God to us, and says, be one as I am one. Jesus says, your reunion with God is at hand. Jesus reconciles us to God. This is Christianity 101!

But what about our hunger for reconciliation and reunion with loved ones, with those estranged from us? What about our hunger to be at peace with the world?

To answer, let’s close by looking at Mark 6:34. “Jesus felt compassion for the people because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”

Jesus becomes that good shepherd and gathers us together.

Now, any talk about shepherds in the Jewish-Christian context recalls a singular chapter found in the Psalms. True then, and true now. That’s right. I’m referring to Psalm 23.

I began by saying meals are everywhere in the Jewish-Christian traditions and in the Bible.

Of course, the Bible’s most renowned passage includes a meal! Psalm 23, verse 5 – “you, God, prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”

That word “enemies” in the Hebrew, tsarar, is a rather nuanced word. It means enemy or adversary. Or it can denote the context of conflict and estrangement between loved ones. We can translate Psalm 23:5 like this, “you prepare a table before me in the context of conflict I’m experiencing with others”

The good shepherd Jesus brings those who are in conflict, those whose relationship is stressed and strained, those who are estranged, he gather us together and brings us to the table, to share a meal, to experience the communion and peace of breaking bread together.

Jesus, in other words, brings us to the oneness of the church, to the communion table at the church’s center, to reconcile us to God and to one another, to unite us in bond of love.

Your hungry heart, in need of unity and peace, that is what Jesus fills. His selfless love and compassion, his grace and forgiveness, epitomized on the cross, fills us beyond measure. May you receive that love and compassion, that grace and forgiveness, and may it fill your hungry, empty hearts.