Life Lessons 1: Hangry—Isaiah 55: 1-5; Matthew. 14: 13-21
A few years back my friend and I went on a small road trip to Jacksonville. We wanted to see the beach for a couple of days and take advantage of a long holiday. The road from Macon to there is not all that interesting. You go straight down I-75 and across I-10 to the eastern coast of Florida. It’s easy travel, but long. And as we started down I-10, where I certainly was not speeding (don’t strike me, Lord), my friend started to get very irritable. I finally asked what was wrong, and she said, “I’m hangry. And we have about 15 minutes to get food before I become a completely different person capable of a number of felonies.” You better believe I stopped at the next gas station with “great haste.”
If you’re not familiar with the term “hangry” it’s a mixture of hungry and angry used to describe someone who is uncharacteristically hateful because they need some food, and need it fast. I think this may have been the disciples fear when they come to Jesus and say that he needs to send the crowd away to buy food because it is late. Hangry people don’t want to listen to sermons even if it is Jesus preaching them. That’s why we have fellowship time BEFORE church here. Now, there are three things we can learn from what happens next: first, something miraculous occurred; second, that something was human needs being met; and third, God was the source and the disciples were the resource.
First, something miraculous occurred in Matthew 14. Scholars have debated for years how exactly this feeding of the multitudes happened. It is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels. There is also agreement across the theological spectrum that something miraculous occurred. The problem is there is disagreement on how. The more idealistic will say that Jesus miraculously made the food never run out. The realists will say that Jesus inspired the multitude to share all that they had to make sure all were fed. I don’t particularly care how you explain the how because what is important is that something miraculous happened that day.
It’s important because, while we all may enjoy magic tricks, we need faith’s miracles. For people who easily doubt, question, and worry, these reminders help ground us in real power God has. For someone who is physically hungry, food is a miraculous cure. For someone tired, grumpy, and whose face doesn’t fit right in the morning, coffee is an amazing cure. And for someone who is struggling with God’s call, next steps, or a difficult journey, hangry in spirit, the bread of life is a miraculous thing.
In Mark Jesus teaches, here he is healing the sick. Jesus spends his time in this miracle story feeding the people spiritually. He was exhausted to begin with and went off by himself to be alone. What’s interesting to note is this come right after his cousin, John the Baptist, is executed. Jesus is grieving, hurting, tired, and trying to be alone. But his ministry follows him. His calling searches him out and goes to meet him. And here’s the important part—the first miracle is that Jesus finds compassion for these people in their messy and unruly state even as they interrupt his “me time” and while he is still grieving his cousin.
The second miracle is that Jesus not only fed those people spiritually with love and healing he also fed them physically. Jesus took care of them in every way. I would submit to you two miracles happened that day, and they are rooted in compassion followed by care.
And you can see a hint of what happened. Because something miraculous occurred, human needs were met. As one scholar notes, it’s a very concrete and fully developed picture of human need being met. Here is where many churches and ministries tend to struggle. They will preach at people, but not feed them, help them, encourage them, and make sure they are okay. On the other side, many places give a person a plate of food, and then send them on their way. You cannot minister to someone if you don’t sit down and talk to them. You cannot feed them with bread alone—they need the bread of life as well. But you also can’t send them away hungry and suffering. Hangry people need food and faith.
That’s one of the most beautiful things of the gospel stories. Everyone who met Jesus had their needs met and their souls filled with God’s goodness. The amazing author, Maya Angelou, once said, “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” This is the problem we have today. Faith is not meeting human needs. The church is too tired to minister with strength and power. Ministers are too crushed or fearful to speak prophetically and pastorally. People feel that the Christian churches lack authenticity.
But people are still hangry for faith, or as Jesus calls it…hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Yet the collective church and ministry is too weary and too focused on simply surviving to hope for miracles which meet the hangry needs of humanity. We need to hope for miracles. We need faith to meet human need.
Lastly, what we learn here is that the source of this miraculous event is God, and the resource was the disciples. God is where the miracle of the feeding of the multitude came from. But it was the disciples who were the resource and made sure the blessing met the need.
I’m going to take a moment to brag. Now I’ve been told not to talk about my mom in sermons, so this story is DEFINITELY not about my mother. But let’s say someone’s mother delivered meals to homebound people for the local charity called Christ’s Hands for many years. In doing so, some folks wanted to just grab the food and say “thanks,” some wanted to have no interaction at all, but some needed a person to talk to. This person’s mom would spend as much time as possible during the meal delivery talking to and listening to those people. You see human need must be met both by feeding the hungry and by ministering to their spirit. We become the resource to share and serve God’s mission and blessings here on earth.
That can be a hard task. We’re easily distracted and self-focused much of the time trying to survive the day in and day out of life on earth. But we look again at Jesus who was grieving a hideous injustice which caused the death of his cousin; Jesus, who was likely fleeing to the outer country to escape Herod’s sphere of power; Jesus who just wanted a little time to rest and be away from it all. The crowds, however, followed, hangry, needy, sad, and pitiful. In the end, Jesus was filled with compassion for them. So, he healed the people, ministered to them, and fed them in a miraculous way. I think this is the example we need to understand Galatians 6:9, “Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
I guarantee we will be weary, hangry, irritable, tired, and fed up at times. My friend got so hangry on our trip that I really thought she was going to toss me out of the car window. But there’s a difference in simply being weary and in being weary at doing good. Don’t get them confused. We overcome the weariness, the hangry, when we remember that we need miracles, and God will provide. We overcome weariness and hangry when we have the hope and strength to meet human needs with heavenly blessings. And we overcome the weariness and hangry when we remember that we are the resource God uses to match holy blessings with human needs. So when you are hangry, tap into God’s blessings and miracles, which nourish our souls and can meet the needs of this world. May God revive and strengthen us again.
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/831635724837604