Are Jesus’s Feeding of the 5000, Voting, and Census-Taking Related?

Yes, because each and every person counts.

When I was little, the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 always stirred something deep within me. I wondered how could Jesus be so worried about feeding people he didn’t even know? Why did Jesus care so much about that,especially since he and the disciples did not have enough food?

Once grown, that story became even more important as my understanding of compassion and inclusion grew. We can learn many important life lessons from the feeding of the 5000. One of the chief lessons that Jesus teaches in this passage clearly shows that every person counts.

Matthew’s Gospel underscores the importance of inclusion — of communal sharing. It bears repeating

This story models the sharing of food, a meal. Human beings spend lots of time eating together. This serves as a primary means of belonging, another basic need for us all. As Commander Spock would say, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” In this instance, I say, “the needs of the many are the needs of the few,” and “the needs of the few are the needs of the many.”

Jesus: Brokenhearted yet still responsive to the people

Prior to Jesus and the disciples feeding the 5000, Jesus had  gotten some devastating news. Herod, the Jewish king in Jerusalem, had just executed his cousin, John the Baptist. John had criticized Herod’s sinful ways. Consequently, Herod had John arrested and ultimately beheaded.

God sent John ahead of Jesus to announce the coming of the Messiah, Jesus. We cannot value the importance of their relationship highly enough. As a matter of fact, although very dangerous, the disciples went to Herod’s palace to retrieve John’s body. They wanted to give John a proper Jewish burial because John the Baptist counted (Matthew 14:1-12).

Having heard of John’s execution, Jesus withdrew to a deserted place, undoubtedly to mourn John and to pray. Jesus lost his most important ally. He must have felt so alone, abandoned, even. And, although he craved quiet, the crowds found Jesus anyway. In the midst of this grief, the people called upon Jesus to teach them. He had compassion for them and healed the sick.

However, as night came, and the people had endured sitting under the broiling sun, the disciples worried about feeding that massive gathering of people. To bring home his point, Jesus said to them, “You give them something to eat.”

Jesus recognized the importance of providing the people with nourishment as they returned to their homes. Jesus prayed. And miraculously, the five barley loaves and two small fish became sustenance for the great assembly. Jesus blessed the food, and the disciples gave it to God’s people–all of them (Matthew 14:13-21).

The beauty of this story lies both in the acknowledgment of the group and of the individual. Jesus recognized the entire company as citizens of heaven on earth, and therefore, they deserved care and inclusion, and to have a voice — they deserved acknowledgment as human beings. They deserved to stand up and be counted.

Everyone counts in the Reign of God

Our Gospel writer, Matthew, even makes a point of telling us the number. Traditionally, the count only would only have included men in Jesus’s time. Yet, we can easily imagine how this number totaled two, three, or perhaps four times the number of men by including their wives and children with them. Each and every person counted and received their fill of food. And, lots of food remained after everyone had eaten.

Jesus teaches us an unmistakable lesson. People count. Even poor people count — those with no voice. People count in the Reign of God, even those whose only role revolves around serving people more “important” than they are.

If everyone counts enough to be fed in the eyes of Jesus, then everyone must also be important enough to be counted through the right to vote and the census

I’m sad to say that not everyone counts equally. Even though our beloved country’s founders sought to establish equality, we have fallen far short of that ideal — for 400 years. Equality in 1776 referred specifically to white, land-owning men.

In fact, by the time the Declaration of Independence occurred in 1776, slavery had already been practiced in the American colonies for about 10 generations, or 150 years, beginning in 1619 at Jamestown, Virginia.

The Civil War was about preserving slavery, make no mistake

The US Civil War erupted when the newly formed Confederacy instigated the Civil War to preserve slavery. And, at the time, the Congress, President Buchanan, and the US Supreme Court all supported the legality of slavery. You’ll hear historical arguments that the Civil War was about States’ Rights. It was, but only secondarily.

For example, journalist Jake Flanagin notes that in the Texas declaration of secession, “state leaders published a defense of slavery that amounted to little more than a bizarre, quasi-eugenic treatise for white supremacy.” The document mentions slavery 21 times.

Not only have people of African descent been disenfranchised, or prohibited from voting, but white women did not receive the right to vote until 1920. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 made it truly possible for African American women to vote. Poll taxes and literacy tests often defeated their ability to vote.

Voter suppression continues our ugly legacy of slavery and lynching — the brazen effort to DIScount human beings, especially people of color and the poor

According to the ACLU, denying voter access can occur despite seemingly harmless limits like voter ID laws. Often IDs are expensive. Even when IDs are free, low-income people often cannot afford the supporting documents necessary to obtain a state-issued ID card. They may lack public transportation, which makes getting a valid ID much more difficult.

More obvious ways to limit voting include mass purges of voter rolls, and decreasing the number of voting precincts. The ACLU reports that “long before election cycles even begin, legislators can redraw district lines that determine the weight of your vote. Certain communities are particularly susceptible to suppression and in some cases, outright targeted — people of color, students, the elderly, and people with disabilities.”

In the last few weeks, outrage arose over Postmaster DeJoy’s gutting of the US Postal Service. The hue and cry rose to the level that Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, recalled the House from vacation to hold hearings about these troubling changes.

Congressional representatives questioned DeJoy about suspending overtime, removing 631 automatic mail scanners, and reducing the number of letter boxes and post offices. These tactics seek to threaten fair access for all voters in the presidential election that will occur on November 3, 2020.

According to Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, voter disenfranchisement is “certainly alive and well.” Michel Martin of NPR’s All Things Considered interviewed her on Sunday, September 13, 2020. Ms. Clarke noted that “with close to 200,000 Americans now dead from the pandemic, we just believe that people should not be forced to choose between their health and exercising the right to vote at this moment.”

Clarke gave just a few of many examples of manipulative acts that states currently use to disallow voters their right to vote despite the fact that we are in the middle of a pandemic:

• Denying absentee ballots despite health concerns over exposure to COVID-19;
• Establishing premature deadlines by which voters have to return their absentee ballots despite the pandemic;
• Requiring voters in the middle of a pandemic to have their ballot notarized in order for it to count.

Additionally, Ms. Clarke gave a chilling example of a blatant attempt at intimidation to keep African Americans from being counted:

[In] Macon-Bibb County, Ga. — officials there sought to move a polling site from a majority-Black school to the local sheriff’s office. And Black folks in that area spoke out immediately to say, look — this is not a place where people are going to be — you know, feel encouraged or feel that they can openly cast their ballot. Officials would not relent. And so we were able to go in and work with the community and got that site ultimately moved to a majority-Black church.

Stopping the Census too early is another direct way to DIScount human beings

According to an article in Vox on September 6, 2020, “the potential consequences are vast: The census count influences not only the number of representatives each state gets in Congress, but how much federal funding each state receives — and how voting district lines are drawn for the next decade.”

Federal District Judge for Northern California, Lucy Koh, granted a temporary restraining order on September 5, 2020. The Trump administration had tried to end census polling a month early. Several civil rights groups and members of Navajoland sued to block the stoppage of the census count. Judge Koh’s order allows the census count to continue until September 17, 2020. The parties will be back in court then for further review.

Judge Koh ruled that, “An inaccurate count would not be remedied for another decade.” That “would affect the distribution of federal and state funding, the deployment of services, and the allocation of local resources for a decade.” Inaccurate census numbers have the most negative effect on the poor and minorities. Four former census directors have expressed tocto Mr. Trump that the census count should continue until April 2021.

We must demand the taking of a thorough 2020 census

Once again, we see this administration boldly work to cut off the most marginalized from their rights including the right to be counted. This denial of their personhood and their rights lessen their opportunity to receive full funding.  Without collecting a proper census count, vital services for people in need get undersourced or simply eliminated.

If we say we follow Jesus, then everyone counts. If we sit by while our government does all in its power to keep people from voting and being counted in our number, then we fail Christ and we fail each other.

Do all you can to help others count and be counted. Click here to learn more about how you can be a part of the solution.

Blessings on your journey.