Hello and welcome to the third session of Bishop Joe's course 'Six invitations to Dinner with Jesus'. Press play above to watch and listen and/or you can read the script below...

Hello, I’m Bishop Joe, and welcome to this third in our series of reflection on invitations to dinner with Jesus from St Luke’s Gospel.

Today, we’re reading from Chapter 9 - and one of the best known and most loved stories in the Gospels, the feeding of the five thousand. If you want to read along, we’re beginning at verse 10.

On their return the apostles told Jesus all they had done. Then, taking them along, he slipped quietly into a city called Bethsaida. When the crowds found out about it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God and healed those who needed to be cured.

The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside to lodge and get provisions, for we are here in a deserted place.” But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” They did so and had them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled, and what was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.

So this is a story with three characters – so to speak. The crowds, the disciples, and Jesus. And it seems to me a really interesting way to read this story is to ask who is the story really about? Let’s take them in turns.

First the crowds. Most of us, I imagine, are unlikely to receive an invitation to stay as a guest of The King at his Norfolk home in Sandringham. It’s said that King Edward VII’s commitment to being a generous host was so great that he had a pair of scales installed at Sandringham House.

Guests would weigh themselves in on their arrival and departure – to ensure that they had put on a few pounds during their time as The King’s guest.

Probably King Edward VII didn’t have the story of the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand directly in mind when he was light-heartedly weighing his guests. But it has just the faintest echo of what is going on in this story. Jesus provides more than enough for his guests – 5,000 families, likely; not just 5,000 men. Enough people to fill to capacity Turf Moor, the home of Burnley Football Club. When they had all eaten their fill, there were twelve baskets left over. One for each of the twelve tribes of Israel – so, symbolically, enough for everyone all over again. Enough for everyone to take a party bag home with more food in it.

This is a story about the generosity of God: the God who gives to us everything that we have, and who sees our needs and meets them, with more than enough. So one way we might reflect further about this story is to think of all the ways that God blesses us, or of times when God has met our needs. This story invites us to give thanks to God for his provision, and to trust God in our needs.

Or perhaps, instead, we might read this as a story about the disciples. One of the loveliest features of this story is found right at the start and we often miss it. Taking his disciples along, Jesus slipped quietly towards the region of Bethsaida. Jesus was seeking some time away from the crowds, a period of rest with just those who are closest to him. But when the crowds followed him, he immediately welcomed them and meets their needs – teaching and healing them.

And even when the evening was drawing in, and his disciples suggested that He might send them away to find food and lodgings for the night, even then Jesus (tired though he is and wanting some time away) was unwilling for them to go. He wants to continue to welcome them – to feed them.

And he draws his weary disciples into this ministry of welcome. ‘You feed them,’ he says to his disciples. The Greek text emphasizes the word ‘you’. You feed them. And on his instruction, the disciples gave out the food and collect in the left-overs. Presumably, they also travelled into Bethsaida to buy the baskets.

So another way to read this story is to say that we have been invited along to dinner now for the third time – but this time we’ve been invited as a waiters or the washers-up. If this is a story about the generosity of God, it is also a story which invites us to look to see what Jesus is doing and join in. A story which invites us to be generous ourselves, and to give our time, our talents, and treasure to God’s work. ‘You feed them,’ Jesus says to us too.

Or thirdly, perhaps this is really a story about Jesus. Immediately before this story, and immediately after it, in St Luke’s Gospel, we find questions about who Jesus really is. Is he Elijah, returned to earth; or is he the new Moses; or is he the Messiah – the expected king, who would come to set God’s people free from all that oppressed them?

This story provides an answer to that question that becomes immediately before and afterwards. Jesus is greater than Elijah – who miraculously fed just one family, at Zarephath. Jesus is greater than Moses too – who miraculously fed the People of Israel in the wilderness, but just one day at a time with no more left over. Jesus is greater because he is the Messiah, who invites us to the heavenly banquet, the feast which will fill the Lord’s house and which will have no end.