Our reading is John 6:1-13. It is one of the rare stories in the Bible because it is found in all four Gospels. This is John’s version. Different from the other accounts, John emphasizes Jesus’s divine identity and the spiritual significance of the event. According to our text a great crowd had gathered around Jesus. He had become as famous as a miracle worker. Jesus had brought wholeness and health to the limited and the sick. The crowd came to see a miracle, but Jesus wanted them to experience more. To be seen and heard by all, Jesus and his disciples sat on a mountainside. From that perched position Jesus saw the vastness of the crowd. Wanting to challenge the disciples, he looked at Phillip and said, “Where shall we buy bread for all these people to eat?” Phillip does the math and admits the funds are not available. It would take eight months to buy enough bread. He was right, yet he was wrong. Money was only one option. By the end of the day, everyone was satisfied, and the power of God was obvious. 

This story reminds us of two things. First, with God all things are possible. How else can you explain how Jesus took five barley loaves and two small fish and fed 5,000 people? It must be from God. Second, it reminds us that Jesus cared not just about the spiritual needs of people; Jesus cared for their physical needs as well. He could have sent them away hungry, and no one would have cared. However, that was not Jesus’s way. He cared about the basic physical needs of others. The question is: how concerned are you about the physical needs of others? Our world is crying out in pain; are you going to respond? To answer that question, I am going to ask you three uncomfortable questions. This is question number one.

Do you see others like Jesus? When Jesus looked out and saw the 5,000, he just didn’t see people, he saw their need. He saw they were hungry. Jesus knew they had to be fed because they didn’t have resources to feed themselves. Jesus cared about their temporary physical needs. Do you see the needs of others, or do you look the other way? Many would have said, “They are fools! They should have known better, they should have packed their own lunch!” Do you see things like Jesus? Do you see the needs of others? This is question number two.

Do you feel other people’s pain like Jesus? It is my experience we are more comfortable with the divine side of Jesus and less comfortable with his humanity. We struggle with the humanity of Jesus. Matthew 9:36 describes Jesus’s compassion. It says, Jesus had compassion on the crowds who were “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Jesus had compassion on the 5,000 because they were hungry. Never underestimate the compassion of Jesus. Wikipedia, the online dictionary and encyclopedia, defines compassion as the response to the suffering of others that motivates some to help. Do you feel other people’s pain like Jesus? Perhaps this is a better question, how compassionate are you? Do you look at people, or do you look through people? This is question number three.

Do you do things like Jesus? The Master had the power to feed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus used his power to respond to their need. We do not have the power to feed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. However, we do have the power to do something. What are you doing to help others? What is the Holy Spirit calling you to do? Do you do things like Jesus?

When I was in college, I remember studying the case of Kitty Genovese (1935-1964). She lived in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York City. She was a bar manager. On March 13, 1964, she was murdered by a man named Winston Moseley (1936-2016). He stabbed her with a knife, piercing her lung. She was buried at the Lakeview Cemetery in New Canaan, Connecticut. She was a victim of femicide. As shocking as that crime was, the reaction, or the lack of reaction, of her neighbors was even worse. Investigators discovered many heard her cry out, but no one responded. They simply didn’t respond to her cries for help, they didn’t want to be bothered. They were guilty of a sin of omission. In the science of sociology, it has been called the by-standers effect or diffusion of responsibility.  I would like to say it is an isolated case, but it happens all the time. Can I state the obvious?

Our world is crying out for help but very few are responding. It is not a matter of physical deafness. It is a matter of lack of caring. Do you care about the needy in our world, or are you too preoccupied with yourself? Are you more concerned about the happiness of your family pet, or are you more concerned about human beings who are in need? Jesus cared about people and responded. You must care and respond as well because you are a disciple of Jesus Christ. American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) once said, “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”