In those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, he called his disciples and said to them, “I have compassion for the crowd because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way—and some of them have come from a great distance.” 

His disciples replied, “How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?” He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” 

Then he ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. They had also a few small fish, and after blessing them he ordered that these, too, should be distributed. 

They ate and were filled, and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Now there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha. (New Revised Standard Version)

This was an incredible miracle by Jesus. And it was also an incredible lack of faith on the part of his disciples. Christ had already taught them an important faith lesson by feeding 5,000 people earlier. You’d think they would have gotten it right this time.

It appears that the disciples were anxious about the situation. After all, whenever we are given to anxiety within a stressful circumstance, we typically are not thinking wisely about what to do.

There simply was no evidence that the disciples were tapping into their wise minds – even though they could have. And there’s where the rub is: Do we have the wherewithal to pause, in order to connect with what and who we know?

Let’s notice in the story that Jesus did not seem at all perturbed by the disciples’ small faith. And he certainly was not hindered in any way by the meager supply of food which was on hand. So, a remedial lesson was provided.

All the food the disciples pulled together was given to Jesus. It wasn’t much for thousands of people. Seven loaves of bread and a few fish. Yet, Christ transformed it into enough to feed the entire crowd of mostly Gentiles, without depriving the disciples of their share. They collected enough to fill seven baskets large enough to hold a man.

So there’s the lesson redone and restated, but with a different twist. Whereas the earlier miracle of food was provided for mostly Jews, the feeding of the four thousand consisted of nearly all Gentiles.

Perhaps the disciples did not really want a miracle to begin with. Maybe they believed their ministry ought to be with Israel, and not the heathen nations around them. It could be that Christ’s disciples simply did not want to be in Gentile territory at all, let alone have to engage in ministry to them, up close and personal.

So, we may be dealing with something more than an issue of faith; we might be looking at plain old fashioned prejudice against another group of people. Discriminatory behavior shrinks one’s faith and makes it small – whereas including others, and seeing their inherent worth as God’s image-bearing creatures, increases our faith and helps it grow large.

Jesus had a heart big enough, a mind open enough, and more than enough ability to make the miracle of food happen. In other words, Christ wanted to do it. He had compassion on the people, regardless of the fact that they were not like him.

It could be that a lesson in prejudice was the teaching he wanted them to get a hold of.

We see in today’s story a trajectory of inclusion, that the kingdom of God is meant to be full of diverse people from every nation, race, and background. Jesus purposely went to the Decapolis, a geographical region with a lot of different people – mostly non-Jews.

The Decapolis (which means “Ten Cities”) was a group of ten Hellenistic cities. It was a center of Greek and Roman culture, in a region mostly populated by Jews and Arameans. Each city functioned as a sort of city-state which was dependent upon Rome. There was enough diversity within the Decapolis itself which seemed to prevent them from working together as an organized region.

When it comes to Christian ministry, there are often two issues going on, namely because ministry is all about working with people. One is that we may have a problem, like the disciples of old, in going to a place we’ve never been before – and really don’t ever want to go. We have particular ideas about the people who live there and what they’re like – and we’d rather not have to deal with them.

The second issue is that we may have a problem with ourselves. Unlike the first issue in which we wonder why Jesus would care about those people, the second is wondering if Jesus really cares about me.

In this, you have no problem believing that Jesus would go to the Decapolis and have compassion on the Gentiles. But you struggle with God caring for you, and that Jesus could ever use you in ministry to people like those in the Decapolis. You can think of all sorts of other people who could do the job much better than yourself.

Since you know yourself pretty well, you understand your own doubts, weaknesses, and sins; and have a hard time trusting that the Lord could or would want to involve you in any ministry.

We, of course, could read today’s Gospel lesson from either of the two issues. Yet, we probably need not make it an either/or issue; it may be more of a both/and issue.

That is, Christ’s disciples – including those past and present – likely struggle with both: We continually keep finding that we have personal prejudices which prevent us from reaching out to particular people; and we also have personal insecurities and inhibitions about God truly loving us enough to use us in effective ministry.

Within the story of Jesus feeding the four thousand, both issues can find their resolution. The fact of the matter is that Jesus cared about the people in the region of the Decapolis, and created a miracle in order to take care of them; and, Jesus used a group of men who probably were likely prejudiced, and also insecure about being used for such a ministry.

May you know that you are infinitely loved by God – and loved alongside all sorts of other people, as well, from everywhere in every place. And may you understand that God has you on this earth to be a blessing to all kinds of persons.

May it be so, to the glory of God. Amen.