I. Theme – God’s care for us all
"Sheep in Paradise" from Basilica of Sant’ Apollinare in Classe, 549, Ravenna, Italy
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Jeremiah 23:1-6
Psalm – Psalm 23, Page 612, BCP
Epistle –Ephesians 2:11-22
Gospel – Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
Today’s readings remind us of the care that God constantly exerts on our behalf. Jeremiah uses the image of God as a shepherd to describe how God will gather the people. Paul explains the reconciling work of Christ, who is the peace between Gentiles and Jews. Jesus has compassion on the crowds of people, who remind him of sheep without a shepherd.With compassion, Jesus saw the multitude “like sheep without a shepherd,” and he bade them to sit down in that green pasture to be rested and fed. The story leads up to the feeding of the 5,000 at the end of the month. The event on the hillside is a prefiguration of the messianic banquet to which all people may come to eat the bread of life. This bread, broken for us, is enough for all at present, with much left over for future throngs.
The scripture implies that a great spiritual hunger had brought the crowd to Jesus, for “he began to teach them many things,” until it grew late. He had very likely told this people that God loved each of them and that the gates of the kingdom were open to all. Whatever human condition was their own, they were not beyond God’s care and acceptance.
These were the crowds of people who may have been poor and sick, people who suffered and had no leadership to speak for them, to bring them hope and healing, and Jesus has seen them for who they are. Jesus and the disciples had hoped to escape the crowds and have a time of rest but Jesus saw the needs of the people were greater than the needs of himself and his disciples, for the people were sick, lonely, hopeless and hungry.
The miracle of the loaves points to the greatest miracle of all, which is described later in Ephesians. There were no “dividing walls” at the feeding–no barriers of legal, social or religious foundation. The multitude sat at Jesus’ feet, looking to him to fill their need. Jesus was a son and teacher of Israel, the first people to whom God was revealed, the first people entrusted with God’s oracles and ordinances. We, the Gentiles, know ourselves to be those who were far off, “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel,” and “separated from Christ” in the beginning. But his peace has come for all. He is the one who unites all the families of the nations. Through him both Jews and Gentiles have access to the Father.
II. Summary
Old Testament – Jeremiah 23:1-6
Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry to Judah began about 627 BCE and ended about 580 BCE. His career thus spanned the period of political turmoil that culminated in Judah’s final defeat by the Babylonians, the destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple, and the exile of the major part of the population.
Jeremiah 23:1-6 speaks of God as a shepherd who desires to gather and care for his sheep. God will raise up for them a king who will fulfill all the promises of the covenant with David (2 Samuel 7:5-16; Psalm 89:3-4, 19-37, 132:11-18). The “Branch” (v. 5) became a technical term associated with the expected Messiah (Zechariah 3:8, 6:12). Jeremiah makes a play on Zedekiah’s name (which means “the lord is righteous”). Instead of the unjust Zedekiah, one will come who will accomplish the lord’s righteousness.
God’s sheep have been scattered through the exile, and God’s desire is not only to gather them back together and to care for them, God desires to raise up good shepherds who will lead them wisely. The people have been led astray by shepherds who were concerned with their own gain and own survival. God’s desire is for leaders who will look to the needs of the people, as David once did. God ‘s desire is for those who have been led astray to be brought back, for those who have been marginalized to be embraced, for those who have been scattered and left alone to be welcomed and reminded that they are part of God’s family.
Psalm – Psalm 23, Page 612, BCP
This psalm is probably the most familiar and popular psalm of all. It celebrates God’s loving care for us under the guise of a good shepherd who provides food, security and protection from all dangers. God guides us on our journey through life so that we might “dwell in the house of the lord.”
This psalm has a long history of devotional use in Christian tradition. Many hymns have been based on it. There are two ways in which it has been understood, depending on how certain phrases have been interpreted.
The psalm is commonly chosen for funerals. This has been the case when the translation of v. 4 has been something like ‘though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death’ as in the KJV. This has been coupled with a translation of the end of v. 6 as ‘for ever’. Thus the psalm has been linked to the hope of resurrection and a steady presence through the frightening landscape of terminal illness.
However, the psalm also has to do with trust in the days of our lives rather than just through the passage of death. In short, it is more about what Christians would call ‘discipleship’ than it is about death. The image of the ‘darkest valley’ could thus encompass a wider range of human experiences than just the fear of death implied in ‘valley of the shadow of death’. The end of v. 6 is also translated in the NRSV as ‘my whole life long’ or literally from the Hebrew as ‘for length of days’.
In the psalm, the singer takes on the role of a sheep or goat, animals herded and cared for by shepherds. These are animals that, without the care of a shepherd, would be easy prey for other animals in the open grazing land.
In the ancient Near East, the king was seen as shepherd (vv. 1-4) and as host (vv. 5-6). Two images dominate the psalm: that of the shepherd with his/her sheep (vv. 1-4) and that of a banquet with military overtones (v. 5).
In the psalm, the shepherd provides green pastures for grazing where is ample food, still waters for drinking, and right paths for travel from one grazing place to another (verses 2-3).
The second clause of v. 1, ‘I shall not want’, speaks not about what I might desire, but the complete provision of the Lord’s shepherd-like care. The sense of the Hebrew is that there is nothing else that ‘I’ might need. . There is also water to assuage thirst, ‘waters of rest’ in the Hebrew, connoting both physical needs met and rest for the spirit.
He revives our very lives (“soul”, v. 3), and guides us in godly ways (“right paths”). In v. 3, the phrase ‘he restores my soul’ is literally in the Hebrew ‘my life’. The implication for the psalmist is that he has been given rest and safe provision after a time of threat and danger. The sheep is also led ‘in right paths’ by the shepherd, whose choice of safe pasture is central to the provision for the sheep.
In troubled areas, the protection of the shepherd provides safe passage for the flock (verse 4). The staff, for rescuing sheep in thickets also guides us And even when trouble is nearby, the shepherd makes sure that the flock can feed and water in safety and can lie down for a night’s rest (verse 5).
There is one other division in the psalm. While at the beginning and at the end, the psalmist speaks about the Lord, in vv. 4-5 the psalmist speaks directly to the Lord as ‘you’. This happens precisely at the point of greatest danger. Trust in the Lord’s protection and provision is thus not only something that the psalmist can speak about at a distance; they are part of his/her personal experience. They emanate from an intimate, personal relationship with the Lord. The surpassing peace and trust that the psalmist knows stand against the threats implied behind the scenes of shepherd care. There is here a trust that allows the psalmist not to fear.
The feast (v. 5) is even more impressive, for it is in the presence of his foes. Kings were plenteously anointed with oil (a symbol of power and dedication to a holy purpose). There are overtones of the Eucharistic meal.
Therefore, the flock can count on continued existence because of the faithfulness of the shepherd (verse 6). May God’s “goodness and mercy” (v. 6, steadfast love) follow (or pursue) him (as do his enemies) throughout his life. He will continue to worship (“dwell …”) in the Temple as long as he lives. The trust of the psalmist throughout their life is more than matched by the persistence of the Lord in his sustenance and care of his people.
Epistle – Ephesians 2:11-22
Today’s reading explains the consequences of Christ’s saving work. The division between Gentile and Jew is as now obsolete and the distinguishing characteristic of circumcision abolished.
The Gentiles are reminded of their former state of separation from God and from Israel. They had no part in the hope of the Messiah or in the promises made to the covenant people. But they have now been “brought near” (v. 13)—a term used by the rabbis for Gentile proselytes—when Jesus freely surrendered his life and sealed the new covenant as a universal possibility for both Jew and Gentile.
Verses 14-18 are a hymn to the peace of Christ, who has broken down the wall of the law that kept Jew and Gentile apart. In the temple at Jerusalem there was an actual stone wall, dividing the outer and the inner courts of the temple, beyond which Gentiles could not go. This is symbolic of the whole system of separation that divided peoples now united in Christ.
Jesus has brought together those “far off…and near” (Isaiah 57:19). In Christ, “one new humanity…in one body” (vv. 15-16) is created—the Church. In the Church the divided groups of humankind are reconciled to one another and together are reconciled to God. Then the image shifts from body to household. The Gentiles are “no longer strangers…but citizens with the saints” (v. 19) built up into the same “dwelling place for God” (v. 22; see 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Peter 2:4), whose cornerstone is Christ Jesus (Isaiah 28:16; Matthew. 21:42).
Gospel – Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
Today’s gospel covers the return of the disciples to Jesus and then the feeding of the five thousand. Mark here uses the term “apostle” for the only time. It is not the official title that it becomes in Luke and Acts, but a simple reference to those sent out on mission (6:7).
The theme of rest recalls the entry into the promised land (Deuteronomy 3:20, 12:10, 25:19; Joshua 1:13) and is associated with the image of God as the shepherd of Israel (Ezekiel 34:15; Psalm 23:1-2). This image of the throng like “sheep without a shepherd” (v. 34) also echoes the Old Testament (Numbers 27:17; 2 Chronicles 18:16; Ezekiel 34:5).
The feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels. The themes of wilderness, eating and bread recall God’s provision of manna for God’s people (Exodus 16; Numbers 11). Elisha also, like Moses, provided food for many (2 Kings 4:42-44). Such abundance was expected at the coming of the Messiah who would gather God’s people to the banquet table (Isaiah 25:6-8, 49:10, 55:1-2). Thus Jesus was fulfilling both the law and the prophets. The absence of the usual report of the crowd’s response to Jesus’ act makes clear that the emphasis lies not upon its miraculous nature but upon its revelation of Jesus’ true significance.
In the early Church, the Eucharistic significance of the feeding made it one of the central memories of Jesus’ ministry. The actions described–taking, blessing, breaking, giving—and their order—are the same as for the institution narrative of the last supper (14:22a). The word for “broken pieces” (v. 43) is used in the Didache, an early second-century Church manual, for the bread broken at the eucharist and at the agape meal. The feeding thus foreshadows the last supper and the anticipated messianic banquet in the kingdom of God (14:25).
III. Articles for this week in WorkingPreacher:
Old Testament – Jeremiah 23:1-6
Psalm – Ephesians 2:11-22
Epistle – Psalm 23
Gospel – Mark 6:30-34, 53-56