Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (G)

Luke 9:10-17

¹⁰ On their return the apostles told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. ¹¹ When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing. ¹² Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, “Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.” ¹³ But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” ¹⁴ For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” ¹⁵ And they did so, and had them all sit down. ¹⁶ And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. ¹⁷ And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.

The joy of leftovers! There are many people I know that will never take a doggie bag home from a restruant. I know others who constantly have a refrigerator filled with restruant leftovers. There some other people who are more like myself and make entire meals in order to freeze them and heat it up latter. But what do you do with twelve baskets full of broken pieces?

Bread pudding! Think of all the leftovers. If I filled a bushel basket with whole loaves, without bending or smashing each loaf you can only put so many in a basket. If I took only those loaves and crumbled them up how much of the basket am I likely to fill, half? A quarter? Three quarters?

Maybe half. This is a lot of leftovers. It is therefore easy to see how God desires to feed, nourish, and care for his people. He does not want his people to be lead or drove away from the message he has to preach. He does not want them to have any further stumbling blocks. He wants them to come and hear about the reign of Heaven. He wants them to hear how God does not tempt us but tested Jesus to make him the prefect lamb of God to take away our sins.