Most people had to withdraw from their holiday plans of travelling abroad this summer, due to the current circumstances, as there are many travel restrictions with quarantine and self-isolations from many countries and destinations being mandatory. Such withdrawals from vacations of holiday destinations, have resulted on people exploring staycations, which is where families stay at home and participate in leisure activities within driving distances from their homes. These are new ideas that people are willing to explore, which they did not in previous times, and this current pandemic is demanding people to try different things which they have not done before. Withdrawing from conventions and trying out something new and different has become a challenge with which people are coping with these days.
The gospel reading from Matthew 14:13-21, is a passage where Jesus withdraws from the public sphere to a deserted place in a boat all by himself, and later when the crowds gathered around him, he cured the sick and feeds five thousand hungry people by sharing five loaves of bread and two fish. This story of ‘feeding the five thousand’ has been recorded by all the four gospel writers and has been one of the most popular stories that people know from their Sunday school days. However, as I read this text again in the context of lockdown, I am more drawn towards the ‘withdrawal’ of Jesus, which has some relevance for our times today. Why did Jesus withdraw, from where did he withdraw and how has ‘withdrawal’ served as a site of witness for him are some of the questions that need our attention here.
Withdrawal as a Protest against the Powers:
In the two passages prior to this given text, we notice the rejection of Jesus at his home town Nazareth (Matt 13:54-58) and then the death of John the Baptist by Herod (Matt 14: 1-12). So, on hearing the news of John the Baptist’s death by Herod, Jesus withdrew from there to a deserted place by himself (14:13v). On hearing about the capital punishment and unjust killing of John who was prophetic, and on knowing that he is being recognised as the risen John the Baptist by Herod (14:1), I think Jesus withdrew from the public sphere in protest against the powers of his day to a deserted place. Jesus when he withdrew from the people in the public sphere, the crowd heard it and followed him (14:3). I imagine Jesus’ withdrawal from the public sphere would have been the talk of the town, and by his withdrawal in protest, Jesus was exposing Herod and his dictatorial, reckless, state-sanctioned, unjust killing of John the Baptist, whom the people of his day regarded as a prophet (14:5). Herod, the crony of the empire, misuses his power and executes John the Baptist, meeting to the whims and fancies of his mistress. Herod had every opportunity to prevent the unjust killing of John, but little did he act with and for justice, and eventually John the Baptist became a victim of state sanctioned capital punishment. When people started to search for Jesus, they understood that Jesus withdrew in protest against the powers and principalities of his day, on this occasion Herod. Elsewhere in Luke 13:32, we see Jesus saying to the Pharisees about Herod, “Go and tell that fox for me…” Jesus did not miss any opportunity to critique Herod for his unjust actions and politics.
By withdrawing into a deserted place, Jesus stepped away from the centres of the powerful public sphere, who were rejoicing the beheading of John the Baptist. On the other hand, Jesus withdrew to the deserted place, the wilderness, to express his solidarity with John the Baptist, who was a voice in the wilderness, and who lived in wilderness away from the centres of the powers. I again imagine, the crowd later on, when found Jesus in the deserted place all alone, would have recognised Jesus’ withdrawal was not only in protest against Herod’s unjust killing of John the Baptist, but also to express Jesus’s solidarity with John the Baptist, who lived, preached, baptised and spoke truth to the powers from such a site of wilderness/deserted place. The verb “Anachoreo” (withdrawal), used seven times in the gospel of Matthew, had always a suggested pattern of hostility/withdrawal/prophetic fulfilment for Jesus. However, in this instance, in this given text I recognise protest/withdrawal/solidarity pattern of Jesus.
Withdrawal as a site of Witness:
When the crowd came to know that Jesus withdrew from the public sphere in protest against the powers, especially Herod, and found him in the deserted place, Jesus had compassion on the people, cured the sick and fed more than five thousand people with bread and fish. Withdrawal for Jesus served as a site of witness, for Jesus did not send them hungry at that late hour in the day, but fed them sufficiently. Warren Carter explains in his book Matthew and the Margins, that this feast of feeding five thousand in the wilderness has to be read in juxtaposition of the previous passage where there was another feast of Herod’s birthday party. If the gathering in the wilderness was about compassion, healing the sick and feeding the hungry, what was happening in Herod’s palace was the exact opposite, heartlessness, revenge, gluttony and unjust state-sanctioned beheading of John the Baptist.
Therefore, for Jesus this withdrawal not only became a site of protest, but also served as a site of witness demonstrating compassion to the multitude of people who were hungry. The pompous party at Herod’s palace was happening at the expense of the hungry people in the wilderness, where a few powerful people in the empire own majority of the resources, leaving many people vulnerable, hungry, powerless and bread-less. I imagine, Jesus shares a simple meal of five loaves of bread and two fish to five thousand people not only out of compassion towards the hungry but also as a critique against the pompous birthday bash at Herod’s palace. While the act of sharing food by Jesus with a multitude of hungry people in the site of withdrawal was life-giving act, the party at Herod’s palace was life-denying where the imprisoned John, who spoke truth to the powers was beheaded as a return birthday gift.
In his withdrawal from the public sphere into the deserted place, Jesus created a community of wilderness, an alternative public sphere based on the values of thanksgiving, sharing, caring, feeding and demonstrating compassion in action. This community of wilderness became a witnessing community, witnessing Jesus’ protest, solidarity, compassion, healing the sick, feeding the hungry and live-giving acts. After feeding the five thousand, Jesus dismissed the crowd, and the disciples, and again went into solitude to a mountain to pray (14:23). What we gather from this is that for Jesus prayer was a personal act, whereas feeding the five thousand was a political and a public act. In other words, on the one hand wilderness for Jesus served as a site of political and public witness, where the hungry are fed and the sick are healed, and on the other hand wilderness served as a site of personal witness, where Jesus spends time in prayer, waiting and listening to God.
As I am completing this reflection, I heard on news that Greater Manchester will be in lock-down again as there is an increase in the rate of transmissions, as social distancing rules have not been strictly adhered to. The easing out of lock down is now withdrawn for people here. Drawing a relevance of this text for us today, the questions that comes to the fore are, what are the signs and sites of withdrawal for us? And how are we witnessing in such sites today? In my quest for reimagining the church today, as we re-turn to the church buildings for worship, we have two options before us, one is Herod’s palace where a pompous birthday bash is happening with the elite and powerful attending, and the other is community of wilderness where feeding of the hungry is happening where people on the margins are attending. For me, churches today are called to be the community of wilderness, where we offer our resources like the five loaves and two fish and willing to work with Jesus in sharing with the rest of the multitude who are hungry and needy. As churches we are called to withdraw from centres of powers in protest against the unjust systems and make a preferential option of being in solidarity with those on the margins. As churches we are called to withdraw in protest from status quos that uphold oppressive structures like that of racism, casteism, patriarchy. As churches we are called to protest against the unjust policies which are making people go hungry and are called to be compassionate in addressing specially child hunger in our contexts.
The new data shows that almost a fifth of UK homes with children go hungry in lock down, as millions of people are struggling to afford for food. In such a context, there is a greater role and relevance for our churches today in addressing hunger which is a reality in our midst, in our own localities. As churches we are called to withdraw from our conventional modes of being and doing church, but rather are called to witness in such sites of withdrawal by feeding the hungry. When I have written such reflections in the previous weeks, I was asked by few of my church friends, are not the charities working on addressing poverty and hunger, and so what is the difference between church and a charity? My immediate response was, if charities are working on issues of poverty and churches are not, that in itself exposes the failure on the part of us as churches for we have not lived up to our call of addressing the needs of the poor, like the hungry in the wilderness. Jesus today wants us as churches to be communities of wilderness, working with Jesus and with one another in meeting the needs of the people, and be witnessing communities living with compassion for people on the margins.
On many occasions we have been like disciples saying to Jesus, “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.” (14:15) Perhaps Jesus is calling to us all to withdraw from such assertions to send people away, for Jesus never wants to send away people in hunger. Jesus then replied to his disciples and he is saying it aloud to us today, “they need not go away. You give them something to eat.” (14:16) Let those that have ears hear this and act now, “you give them something to eat.”
May God in Jesus grant us strength to withdraw from our cosy, comfortable, conventional modes of being church and lead us in our call to be a community of wilderness, where the sick are healed, the hungry are fed and where there is compassion filled with justice for all. May God be with us this summer as we withdraw from our regular ways of doing things, to do something new and different.
Rev. Dr. Raj Bharat Patta
31st July 2020
5 comments:
Thanks very much Raj.ive lived with Dalits in many homes in South India. I have never been sent away... I've always been offered spiritual bread and fish... This day of Eid I've offered simple and perhaps niaive greetings to many Muslim friends [offered from my poverty of knowledge] and yet all has been received with rich generous hearts... Bless you...
Thank you David, receiving people as they are n feeding them to meet the demands of their hunger is a relevant Christian calling for us today. Appreciate ur commitment for peace and justice David.
Thank you Raj for sight of this post. I do strongly feel that the Church, as with many other secular organisations, needs to "pivot": not merely move onwards post this pandemic, but significantly change tack. It isn't a sea-change moment but we need to, if possible, "ride the tsunami". That may well be with little reference in some aspects to what happened before. References to the buildings resonate strongly today: should they?
Thank you Bob, yes we are called to change our track and not do always what we have done, but should engage in something radical and relevant for our times, which is costly yet worth taking risk
Thank you for this Raj. Your reflection on withdrawal has given food for thought. Withdrawal as a time for personal reflection and communion with God can be powerful. As you have pointed out, Jesus was not a passive witness. He witnessed, withdrew and went into action. Sadly many of us witness misery, injustice and poverty- but withdraw and withhold action.
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