After a big satisfying meal, what everybody really wants is a rock-n-rolling all night sea voyage — right? Okay, maybe not. But we’ve all been at meals when the atmosphere suddenly becomes uncomfortable, when the best-sounding dessert is a quick exit.

This week’s gospel text begins with such a “get-out-of-town-fast” moment. What is unusual about this town-skipping agility, however, is not that it comes about as an attempt to escape a failure, a disappointment, or a disaster. Ironically the ‘skip-the-dessert’ situation that had Jesus send his disciples off so unceremoniously after the miraculous feeding of the five thousand was the classic “nothing-fails-like-success” syndrome.

Matthew’s text does not elaborate on the motive behind Jesus’ emphatic dismissal of his dining companions, the dis…