The scriptures referred to are Matthew 14:13-21.
One reason that the writers of the Constitution put the separation of church and state in the first amendment was because they understood the role religion invariably came to play when united to the government: it simply blessed the status quo. Kings were either gods, the offspring of gods or the representatives of the chief god. It's easier to get the people behind you if you portray your actions as the will of the gods, rather than your personal will. Folks aren't as likely to die to expand the nation's territory merely because the leader wants to rule it for egotistical reasons. So they say that the people whose country they are planning on invading are evil or heretics and thus they are going to war because, as they said in the crusades, “God wills it!”
Weirdly, there are Christians who think that their religion should function as an arm of the government, rather than be independent of it. Which means they really don't read the Bible. While there were schools of prophets who were sponsored by the king (1 Kings 22:6), almost all of the prophets included in the Bible were critics of those in power. Jeremiah was a thorn in the side of a number of kings. (e.g. Jeremiah 36:1-26) Hosea railed against the godless kings of Israel. (Hosea 7:3-7) Amos denounced the corruption in both Israel and Judah. (Amos 2:4-8) Again and again they remind God's people that there is a higher authority than any mere human ruler, the best of whom are imperfect and will someday die. God is the ultimate judge and king over all the earth. To forget that is to invite disaster.
There is another problem with seeing the nation's political leader as also being the nation's religious leader. It shifts the responsibility to maintain our relationship with God to that person. Julius Caesar held the office of pontifex maximus, the chief priest of the Roman state. It was a position held for life. And it had tremendous religious and political influence. Beginning with his son Augustus, it became a title automatically given to the emperors. Eventually they were also considered living gods. One of the problems they had with Christianity was that Christians called Jesus the “only Son of God” as well as “King of kings and Lord of lords.” That made Jesus and the emperor rivals.
Basically the pontifex maximus was responsible for seeing that all the religious festivals were observed and all rituals were carried out properly to appease the gods, so that they would favor the Roman empire. And Roman religion was primarily about rituals, not faith or caring about other people. The relationship with the gods was contractual. The basic principle was “I give that you might give.” You made a sacrifice to the gods, said the proper prayers and rituals and you expected a quid pro quo from them.
Unfortunately, a lot of people today also think that if they go to church, say the prayers and do the rituals, that's all that is required for them to be good with God. They think that religion is something that takes place in a special building for about an hour on Sunday. In the film Don Jon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character says, “There's only a few things I really care about in life. My pad. My ride. My family. My church. My boys. My girls. And my porn.” He's a single young man who lives however he wants the rest of the week as long as he goes to confession on Saturday, Mass on Sunday and then dinner with his large family. And he sees no contradiction in that. If you transplanted him to ancient Rome, he'd be right at home as a pagan.
In ancient religions, you didn't look to the gods to see how you should behave because the gods did not behave any better than humans do. Ancient mythologies would be a great deal shorter if you eliminated all the times Zeus couldn't keep it in his pants, or Loki wasn't pulling a scam, or the gods weren't warring with one another. A lot of myths say the earth was created from the body parts of a god or goddess killed by a different god. The gods were superior to human beings only in terms of their power, not their morality. They were like superheroes but without ethical qualities like honesty, faithfulness, or selflessness. You worshiped them not because they cared about you but because if you didn't, they could make your life miserable.
The gospel or good news of Jesus Christ caught on because it says that God loves us, so much so that his son became one of us and even died to save us. Then he rose to give us eternal life. Despite what some misinformed YouTubers say, no other god did that. Gods who died stayed dead, like Balder and in fact, all the Norse gods at Ragnarok. Osiris' wife did reassemble his dismembered body to impregnate herself but that was temporary. He went back to being dead and ruling the underworld. There is a passage in the Poetic Edda where Odin speaks of hanging on the world tree for 9 days but he did not die. And he did not do this to pay for anyone's sins but to learn for himself the magical secrets of the runes.
In contrast, in Jesus we see what God is really like: just, loving, and forgiving. He is the very image of God. (Hebrews 1:3) And in Jesus we also see what we can become, because we were created in the image of God but marred it by misusing his gifts to harm ourselves, others and our relationship with God. By trusting and uniting ourselves to Jesus, he will restore the image of God in us.
But it doesn't happen simply by doing rituals or saying certain prayers and then passively waiting for some magical transformation. It involves us serving Christ in our everyday life. We are called by Jesus to be his disciples, which is just another word for students. When I studied to be a nurse, most nursing schools were attached to hospitals. So we spent half the day in the classroom, getting the necessary medical knowledge, and half the day in the hospital, putting what we learned into practice. It bothers me that nursing is becoming more academic, not because there isn't so much more to learn—there is—but because modern nursing students spend most of their time in classrooms, especially if they are getting a Bachelor's degree in nursing, which is becoming the minimum qualification to become an RN in many states. In that case, it is a major they take along with other classes. At the end of each period in which they are studying a certain specialty, like psychiatry, obstetrics, or orthopedics, they spend a week or two shadowing working nurses at a hospital or a nursing home. As an LPN I found myself showing newly graduated nurses, soon to be BSNs, how to do certain basic procedures. They had a lot of textbook learning and managerial theory but very little practical experience doing hands-on nursing.
In contrast, Jesus sent out the Twelve, and later 72 other disciples, to get experience by preaching and healing. (Luke 10:1) He said, “As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near!' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. Freely have you received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:7) In other words, do what you've seen me doing. That's the way to become more Christlike.
Today's gospel passage comes after the disciples returned from their mission. The feeding of the 5000 is the only miracle recorded in all 4 Gospels. (Matthew 14:15-21; Mark 6:35-44; Luke 9:12-17; John 6:4-13) Obviously it made a big impact. But the part that I want to draw attention to is in verses 15 and 16 of our passage. We read, “When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, 'This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.' Jesus said to them, 'They need not go away; you give them something to eat.'”
The disciples balk at this, citing the fact that they don't have enough food. So Jesus takes over. But I don't think that Jesus just said this so that they would refuse and he could show how powerful he was. He probably foresaw what would happen afterwards—the people he fed would want to make him a king. (John 6:15) And they did not know just what kind of king Jesus was called to be. So he had to dissuade them by emphasizing how he would feed them spiritually through his body and blood. (John 6:25-69)
I think he really meant that the disciples should give the people something to eat. After all, they knew the stories of how Elijah and Elisha multiplied food (1 Kings 17:14-16; 2 Kings 4:42-44) And Jesus had given them the power to heal the sick and raise the dead. What was feeding 5000 people next to that?
But they didn't think of doing that. They left it to Jesus. He was their leader. Let him handle that. And he could and did. But it let them off the hook.
And I'm afraid a lot of Christians feel that because of what Jesus did on the cross, they merely have to say, “I believe,” and then sit back until he returns. But being a Christian is not a static state; it is a learning process. It's more than just sticking your nose in a book, even if it's the Good Book. It's applying what you learn there to the real life situations you find yourself in. Is it scary? Yes. Do you sometimes feel inadequate? Yes. I can remember the first time I did certain procedures on a patient, afraid I would botch it and hurt them. But they survived and I got experience and I got better at caring for and helping others. And a lot of Christianity is caring for and helping others by not only telling them the good news but being the good news to them. As someone said, “Preach the gospel always and when necessary, use words.”
Anthropologists say there are three elements of religion: beliefs, behaviors and belonging. Many Christians tend to focus primarily on beliefs. Some Christians are more concerned with belonging to their particular denomination. But what has hurt us the most in the world is our attitude towards behaviors. For instance, we spend a lot of time thinking and talking about sexual issues, especially when it comes to what others do. That's something Skye Jethani calls “crotch Christianity.” Yet only 9% of all the commandments in the Bible are about sex. Whereas there are more than 800 verses in the Bible about our duties to the poor, the hungry, the fatherless, the widowed, the sick, the disabled, and the resident alien. Not only do a lot of Christians neglect those, some say that giving such things a high priority is wrong. Russell Moore relates how many pastors have told him that after preaching on the Sermon on the Mount, their congregants asked them where they got such woke talking points. And when the pastors tell them this is what Jesus said, the reply is that those things are weak and don't apply anymore. Yet when speaking about the criteria on which he will judge us in the end, Jesus says it is what we do or don't do to those who are destitute, diseased, imprisoned or immigrants. (Matthew 25:31-46) Neglecting them is the same as neglecting Jesus.
Don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that the church alone should or can handle every possible need. Unlike in Jesus' day we don't have an emperor who is pontifex maximus nor a god. We have a government of the people, by the people and for the people. The healthiest and most stable nations today provide a safety net for the needy and seek to help everyone in the country not only survive but thrive. Nor are these communist nations. Finland and the Scandinavian countries consistently come out on top in quality of life and happiness. It's a matter of priorities as to how to use what we have as a nation. Do we simply let a few take as much as they can or do we use what we all have produced to make things better for everyone?
The twelve disciples saw a bunch of hungry people and told Jesus to send them away to take care of it themselves. In reply, he told the disciples, “You give them something to eat.” We see a world full of people who are suffering from lack of food, water, shelter, justice, healthcare, and love. We go to God in prayer and tell him to take care of them. But after we stop talking to him, if we then listen to him, we will find him saying, “You give them something. Freely have you received, freely give.”
