I learned from a Bible Study published in “Gather,” a publication of the Women of the ELCA, that when Jesus invited the people to sit down on the grass before sharing food the Greek word used in the text is “anaklinos“–to lean back or to recline.
This word was different from the word that might have been used with reference to a servant. Culturally, a servant was expected to sit up straight, always ready to get up quickly if needed to serve. In the story where Jesus invites the crowd in the desert to sit, however, they are treated with the word that was used to address peers or even nobility.
When this observation was shared in our Welcome Church Bible study, folks were thrown deep into thought.
One person said, “That’s what makes us feel so different here—here we are invited to lean back, to relax together.
And another person summed it up by saying, “So the story really wasn’t about the food at all; it was about the relationship we have with Jesus.”
This day, O God
we pray that we might rest with confidence
into your loving hands.
You have called each of us by name;
we are yours.
Bless our rest that upon waking
we might feed one another with the food
of your tender grace.
And walk with us
even as we stumble
to learn your healing ways.
In the amazing hope of the gospel we pray, Amen.
