Lent 4, Year B “Seeking Earthly Answers to Heavenly Problems”

Last week in the Lenten book study, there was a seemingly puzzling remark from the author. “The priest is the natural enemy of the prophet.” On the surface, this seems scandalous—especially to those in churches who have priests. Shouldn’t all those engaged in the work of God be on the same page? How can one group be the natural enemy of another in the work of God? Actually, the answer to this is that they work in two separate directions.

This is more evident in the Old Testament when these jobs were separate. The job of the priest is to talk to God on behalf of the people. “God have favor on this or that person for this or that reason. Here is an accompanying sacrifice on behalf of this person.” The entire role of the priest is to make sacrifice on behalf of the people. Especially then, but still now. Every other job is added on to what we think of when we think of the role of a priest, but actually, the only one that cannot be passed on to someone with better skill is offering the sacrifice—for us offering the sacrifice of the Mass. Blessing things for use in the service of God, and offering Mass. These are the two things you NEED a priest for.

The prophet on the other hand, speaks to the people on behalf of God. Normally when this happens in the bible, this is not because the people need a high five and an atta boy from God. It is normally because the people of God are going astray and need to be corrected. In the Old Testament this comes in various formats depending on the idiosyncrasies of the prophet.

• My favorite are things like Ezekiel making a model of Jerusalem and laying on his side and flinging little pebbles at it for 390 days, and then after that, having to flip over and do the same thing on his other side for another 40 days.
• Or like Jeremiah, who bought a new loincloth and put it on, and then he took that same loincloth and buried it and after many days he digs it up and declares that it is now good for nothing—just like Judah and Jerusalem.

So it seems that they are on opposite sides, or at least opposite ways of engaging God. One tries to see the best in people by understanding their sin and approaching God to make them right by forgiving them. The other sees the perfection of God and then looks around at the state of things around him and declares God’s displeasure at what he sees.

Sometimes, though, the priest can tend to play down to the level of his competition. Especially since his job is not necessarily to be a good example, but to offer the sacrifices. And we see, over time, that the priesthood in the go lower and lower in their expectations of the people and allow them to give less and less of themselves in the offerings they bring to God. For instance:

• Initially when the sacrifices were offered, the person offering the sacrifice performed it himself. I have sinned and because I have sinned, this animal has to die. This should be me, but instead, God has allowed me to offer this animal vicariously.
• Then, when the process became more formal, a priesthood became a profession, as opposed to each head of household. Now the person brought their sacrifice to the priest to be offered on their behalf. It was still the best they had to offer. God requires the best because He thinks you are the best. So, in anything that was offered, it was always the best one had.
• Eventually, as Israel spread out and had to travel to Jerusalem (which was the only place to offer sacrifices), they were able to buy a sacrificial animal at the Temple. The idea is that if you take your best animal with you as you travel, what was once your best is not longer your best, so you give the value of that animal and buy an equivalent that is maintained perfectly.
• Then the idea slowly became, well who would know if I bought a slightly less valuable animal. I’m still offering a sacrifice after all. So it became less and less until it became a race to see who could offer less expensive sacrifice, and the whole process became corrupted and unacceptable to the Lord.

This is what happens when those who should know better allow their environment to cloud their vision of God. No one will know if I compromise on this or that thing that God has commanded. I will just make sure that I do it less than the people around me so that I can have the moral high ground. I wish it wasn’t true, but the examples of this mindset are innumerable, and one can very easily think of high-profile cases of this. So the answer to how to address the problem must come from above rather than below.

Look at our Gospel lesson today: the feeding of the 5,000. It is interesting that the disciples mentioned here are Philip and Andrew.

• Philip was responsible for bringing Nathanael to Jesus. When Jesus saw Philip he said to him, Follow me”, and Philip did. And then when he saw his friend Nathanael, he said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth.” And when Nathanael balked, Philip would not be deterred: “Come and see.” Philip has great faith in Jesus, and understands who he is.
  • But when Jesus asks Philip to feed the multitude who had come out to hear Jesus, he responds, “Two hundred denarii would not be enough to buy bread for each of them to get a little.”
    • Philip, even though this is now to be the fourth sign demonstrating who Jesus is, Philip can only think of an earthly solution to the problem posed to him. We don’t have enough money to even feed them a little.
• Andrew was the first of the 12 to bring someone to Jesus. He brought his brother Peter. “We have found the Messiah.” So Andrew, as one of the first followers, has had the most time with Jesus.
  • Yet when Jesus asks him about how to feed the multitude, he does offer that they have scrounged up all the food they can find, and it is only 5 loaves and two fish. “But what is that among so many?”
    • Andrew has the same problem as Philip, though he tries to solve it from a different angle. Maybe we can get everyone to share their resources. But the resources proved to be even less than the money they had on hand.

Yet rather than looking to an earthly solution, Jesus looks up. He offers them a heavenly solution. He takes what they have to offer and blesses it so that everyone who was there had plenty. They were even able to take up the leftovers to be able to continue to bless people after the event had passed. One of the reasons that this is a sign is not necessarily the fact that this is a miracle, but that this miracle speaks to the nature of God. This miracle speaks to the willingness of God to come to the aid of His people when they cry out to Him. The willingness of Him not only to give, but to give in abundance to those who call out to Him.

Notice what the response of the people is: “This is indeed the prophet who is come into the world.” This is the one who speaks definitively on behalf of God to the people. And it is not the word of anger and disappointment on behalf of God. This is a word, that we find later in this chapter, that says, “I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me shall never hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” His response to the need of the people was not to condemn them for their wrong doing, though He would have been justified in doing so, but it was to provide them with a way through. You have been learning about men all day, and now you are hungry, and I will satisfy that hunger, but I will also satisfy the spiritual hunger to which the teaching has given rise.

The simple answer, and the earthly answer, are what Philip and Andrew tried to provide. But this was a situation that called for something greater than what money could provide, or what they people had on hand. It required an encounter with God. Often times we can be tempted to give an earthly solution to problems that arise in our lives. But look at what happened with Philip and Andrew. They approached the same problem twice; each saw no way out. But when Jesus showed them that the answer lies not with flesh and blood, but with the kingdom of God.

As we approach the various problems in our lives, especially the big ones, we can be tempted to look first to ourselves and try to strong-arm our way out and find a solution on our own. And sometimes that will work. But the danger in solely relying on ourselves is the same problem that arose for the priests in the Old Testament. A lifetime of looking for the earthly solution prevents us from looking heavenward and eventually we wander away because our eyes are only downcast. But if we remember to look for the heavenly answer, to gaze up to heaven and then proceed, Jesus shows us today that it is better than we could even possibly fathom.