Empowerment

The teacher already had quite a following.  The powers that be noticed that.  It made them nervous.  People followed him because great things were happening in their lives and they wanted to see what was coming next.  The people had been occupied by the oppressive empire for years and they felt the harassment, control and injustice that empire brandishes.  The felt beaten down after generations of occupation and oppression.
Any isolated protests and demonstrations were quelled, severely.  This hope, any hope would be a welcome thing.  It came to the end of the day and the crowd was hungry after following and learning from the teacher.  The teacher felt compassion for them because they were like "sheep without a shepherd", as their religious and political leaders were in collusion with empire.  They had nowhere to turn.  The teacher told his students to feed the crowd, but they objected, claiming they did not have enough food or money even for themselves.  He told them to have the people sit in groups of 50 and 100.  Then the teacher took the little bit of food they had collected, looked into heaven, blessed, broke and distributed it through his students.  Everyone ate their fill and there were 12 baskets full of leftovers - more than what they had at the beginning.  The chronicler of the story specifies that there were 5000 men, not including women and children.
This took place outside the city, in little towns and villages - not where the larger population lived.  They were all fed.
In a scene like the Passover, when the people of old had gathered together awaiting their freedom from oppression and bondage, they shared this hasty meal in hospitality in the hope of deliverance from oppression.  The taking of food, blessing it, breaking it, giving it is straight from the yearly celebration of that Pesach.  Here again, they were fed together as a community - an intimate act of sharing not done with just anyone, but reserved for loved ones.  And in the sharing of food was the first miracle.  It represented ENOUGH for a people deprived of ENOUGH by empire.
I maintain that the second miracle was their empowerment.  You see, there were around 3500 soldiers occupying their nation at the time.  A full Legion would be 5500 professional soldiers, but these 3500 were mostly area conscripts led by Roman military leaders of the occupying empire.  The teacher raised 5000 men, almost twice that many men in a single day.  A Roman Army Cohort of 500 was usually broken into Centuries of 100 and Half Centuries of 50 for occupation and battle purposes.  The teacher knew and mimicked their tactics and strategies.  What the teacher did, in the face of Rome, was to raise an army in a single day in front of their faces.  He let Rome know that they were up against an organized, unified people.  They did not arm themselves and did not do violence.  They just gathered before them.  The king noticed.  The Military leaders noticed.  Pontius Pilate noticed.  The people also noticed.  It brought them hope - finally, hope.  They stood with one another - stood up to the occupying empire.  (Mark 6:30-44)
This was written in 67A.D., when the tension between the people and their king with the Temple Cult leaders and Occupiers was growing.  It was three years later, in 70A.D. that the Temple was destroyed during an uprising of armed citizens.  After that, a Roman Legion was stationed in Israel for 150 years.  The armed uprising failed, but the hope of the teacher in the people continued and grew, as many of them chose to live what the teacher taught in their world.
This teacher unified them, organized them and taught them a better way - it was empowering.  Like in Birmingham and Selma, Ferguson and Standing Rock and nationally.  They were fed and empowered to empower others in hope, even knowing in the face of overwhelming odds, that they had more power together than they ever imagined, knowing what they could do was empowering and hopeful, and ENOUGH.
No mention of weapons or violence.  In 1940's India, 1960's America, 1980's South Africa and at other times and in other places the most profound progress was made specifically by those who did NOT become like the Occupiers, the Oppressors, but chose the opposite path in different tactics.
And it continues...
     Civil Rights Movement
     Women's Movement
     Peace Movement
     LGBTQ Equality Movement
     Black Lives Matter
     Me Too
     Times Up
     Never Again
People are fed and empowered to empower others.  We come together and stand in the face of empire, speak truth to power and demand change toward justice and peace.  Empire with its normalized Greed and lust for power and based on status is not a sustainable way for the people, so we must stand together and resist empire, not participate in its values and live by a different set of norms and rules.  Even within our own nation, we must recognize that Empire occupies and oppresses most for the sake of the few.  We must also stand together - stand up and stand against empire together.
There is no question that people are oppressed by empire values and practices.  The few benefit, some others collude in the hope of personal gain and the majority under them suffer greatly.
The question is - WITH WHOM WILL YOU STAND, AND FOR WHAT?
I will stand for Jesus' Way in the world - the way of Agape Love, Grace, Justice and Peace.
Pastor Jamie