Ordinary 18

The Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 55:1-3; Psalm 145; Romans 8:35, 37-39; Matthew 14:13-21

“When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place to be alone.”

It’s an opening phrase we easily overlook. We skip over to the big event, the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. “When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place to be alone.” There is a sadness in the turn of phrase, “Jesus heard of the death…he withdrew to be alone.”

This is no ordinary death. It hits close to home since Luke tells us John was Jesus’ cousin; his elder by only six months. This is no ordinary death. John is executed. What was going through Jesus’ mind? He was just teaching in his hometown, the Nazareth synagogue. It didn’t go well. He leaves home and now the news about John. Have personal and emotional issues ever piled up like that in your life?

“Jesus withdrew to be alone.” A grey mist of sadness, dejection, and fear, shroud Jesus as he moves away from us to be alone.Head bowed, hands in his pockets, shoulders slouched, a shuffling walk. It is a time of introspection.

Will he be Herod’s next object of inquiry? No one wants to hear his message. Most walk away. Is he on the right path? The clergy are suspicious. Even family has turned their back on him. Jesus is alone.

See, the cross does not appear at the end of the story. The cross is the story. We’ve been taught that we are to identify with Jesus but the reality is that Jesus identifies with us. In his abandonment Jesus identifies with the poor, the abandoned, failures, the rejected, the lonely and the hungry. It is out of his experience that Jesus is moved with compassion, heals the sick, and feeds the hungry.Jesus understands our brokenness because Jesus is broken. Jesus desires to heal our wounds because he is wounded and scared.

One of the most poignant ritual acts in the Eucharist is one that, like the opening phrase of today’s gospel, is overlooked by priest and people – the breaking of the bread. Bread broken, torn, frayed edges, crumbs because the body, the life, of Jesus is broken and torn, because our lives are marked by wounds and scares.

Have you ever just wanted to steal away quietly and be left alone?

What was happening in your life at that time?

Is it that time in your life now?

“Jesus withdrew to be alone,” so that you and I will not be alone.