Bread, rock, and gold calves get our attention

By John Pearring

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021222.cfm
I Kings 12:26-32, 13:33-34 
Mark 8:1-10 

When things happen in scripture in two's, we should perk up our ears and consider what God is up to. For background, I'd like to make a reference to the two incidents, years apart, where Moses strikes a rock for water. The events are identical, with one crucial difference. The second and third instances of double events are in today's readings. In our first reading from Kings, the Hebrews worship golden calves just like they did in the desert 500 years earlier. It's a startling affront to God. Our third duality of events is in today's gospel. Jesus feeds loaves and fishes to a second large gathering just a few days or weeks after feeding the 5,000.

In the desert march with Moses, the Jews were dying of thirst at two different times. Moses pleaded with God for help, and God told Moses to strike a large rock with his staff. Water would pour out for the people of God to know that they are loved. This was the first time.

"I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink. So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel."
(Exodus 17:6)

Moses violently hit the rock with his staff, and water began streaming out. Years go by, and the same thing happens. Moses pleaded to God again. God told Moses to only "speak" to the rock, and the water will flow. Moses, however, is frustrated with his complaining entourage. He said to them that God had decided to provide water again. Instead of following God's directions, Moses strikes the rock in anger. He doesn't just hit it once. He's so angry he hammers at the rock a second time. 

The water comes out like before, but God is so angry with Moses that this belligerent act, not the witness God wants, hinders Moses from entering the promised land. Moses exhibited a fit of anger at the Israelites that did not match God's response. It's a big deal. Moses dies some years later on a ridge overlooking the promised land he will not set foot on.

We remember the golden calf made by Aaron in the desert. In our reading from Numbers, we engage a second instance where Jeroboam makes two golden calves. Jeroboam fashions the calves as a worship substitute for the northern Kingdom of Israel. He leveled a firm hand over the north, but he worried about the House of Judah (the Jews), the recently broken-off Southern Kingdom, and their potential takeover of his northern reign. Rather than have his people travel to Jerusalem where the temple resided, which remained an Israeli requirement, Jeroboam's wanted his people separate in all ways from the south. He constructed golden calves and placed them in the northern towns of Bethel and Dan.

The first activity of golden calves took place when Moses was coming down from Sinai with two tablets. Aaron couldn't delay a large group of mutineers impatient for Moses to return. So, he acquiesced and built a golden calf to provide an object for their worship, in effect agreeing that God had abandoned them. 

The second calve-making artistry by Jeroboam was to take control of the religion of the Northern people, initiating another blatant false god for the Northern tribes to worship. The magnitude of Jeroboam's egregious acts against God, well beyond Aaron's attempt to assuage people, is stunning.

Mark reports a similar duality of events, this time by Jesus. And with bread rather than a rock or a golden calf. 

In Chapter 6 of Mark, Jesus feeds 5,000 men (meaning the total number of people, including women and children, probably reached 12,000). Using cooked fish and baked bread, Jesus replicated enough food for everyone with 12 baskets of food leftover. 

In the second bread miracle, recorded in Chapter 8 of Mark, Jesus feeds a community of gentiles — 4,000 people, in total — in the same manner. The leftover food fills 7 baskets. Both of these miracles began with a handful of fish and bread.

What was Jesus up to doing this twice? The primary reason may be to feed Jews first and then later feed Gentiles. The five thousand were served in a "deserted place" near the Sea of Galilee, where the Jews lived. The four thousand were fed somewhere amid the Decapolis cities, a pocket of ten Greek sites east of the Jordan River. Gentiles lived in that region.

Other reasons, according to commentators, reveal the unlimited reach of Jesus' miracles, sealing the importance of the coming Eucharist and the necessity to confirm his power and authority with repeated, unabashed compassion and restoration of creation for its most basic needs.

These three examples of God's actions in similar or repeated situations leave plenty for us to chew on. Bread for Jews, first, and Gentiles, second, at the miraculous hands of Jesus. Judgment upon the calf worshippers of Aaron (he is spared) and the calf worshippers of Jeroboam (he is destroyed). Both of these events are preceded by Moses's striking of the rock. Water is delivered both times, but the entire point of the "rock" being readily available the second time by speaking to it rather than smacking at it is elevated in Moses' errant temper tantrum.

At the base of all of these stories is Jesus. Jesus is the bread of life, and he is broken and fed to both Jew and Gentile. Jesus is the lamb of God, not to be replaced with any false object of sacrifice through handmade means. And, Jesus is the rock. He will avail himself to be struck down to provide sustenance to his people. But his gift of redemption needs to happen only once. We need only speak our pleas to Jesus for our further nourishment.

Dualities are everywhere in scripture: The old and the new testaments; the light and the dark; Adam the first son of God, and Jesus the second person of God becoming the Son of God and man; the physical and spiritual nature of human beings couched as the flesh and the spirit; and, we are the sons and daughters of God, yet Jesus is our brother.

There are innumerable patterns in scripture. None of them are accidental. There are 12 tribes of Israel and 12 apostles. Paul wrote 14 letters placed into the New Testament, or two sets of seven. Other writers wrote another seven letters. Jesus dictated to the Apostle John seven letters to the seven churches, found in Chapter two of Revelation.  

There really is no end to the comparative lineups in scripture. God does this on purpose. Because of the chaotic development of holy scripture, numerical sequences cannot be random. They could not have been manipulated by so many disparate authors. The lineages of Mary and Joseph lead to Jesus' prophesied birth. Seventy authors, and more, contributed to the books we have over a timeline of six thousand years.

So what? The repetition of bread as the symbol of Jesus, that all by itself substantiates God's insistence that we pay attention.

For analysts, God provides revelatory authority over the structure of the bible. For scholars, God provides consistent teaching, behaviors, and an interwoven source of doctrine. For historians, God provides constant discovery of the places noted in scripture, the characters recorded, and the discovery of scripture texts that substantiate their authenticity. 

And for us, God provides his living Word as a sharp lens upon Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Father. We are not urged to worship the texts but to worship whom the Word points to.

These connections amid a matrix of events and proclamations give us chills, firm standing, and active conversation with the God of the universe.

"Show me more," we cry out to God.

And God responds with undeniable details, life-sustaining wisdom, and total access to himself in all three persons. His is our rock, our bread, and we abandon all of our false man-made gods.

God's authority and love from the Father are burned into our souls and minds. His leading and interventions from the Holy Spirit are indwelling in our hearts. Jesus's presence in the Eucharist and the Mystical Body enfolds and feeds our entire being.