Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text for our meditation is written in the 6th Chapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 1 - 21:
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3 Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5 When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” 10 Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”
15 When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.
There must be an important message for us in this miracle. I cannot think of another instance where two consecutive Sunday Gospel readings are on the exact same subject. It’s certainly challenging for a sermon writer. In last week’s sermon from Mark 6, I focused on ‘the compassion of Jesus for a people who were like sheep without a shepherd’; now we are listening to John’s version on how Jesus provides. In fact, the ‘feeding of the five thousand’ it is one of only two miracles that appear in all four Gospels. The other is Jesus walking on the water.
You know divine provision it is not exactly a new concept; when I read it, I immediately think of Psalm 145:15-16 “The eyes of all look to You, O Lord, and You give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.” In these words, the Psalmist prays and gives thanks that God would provide the whole world with food. Also, if you think about it, the 430-year exodus of the Israelites from Egypt to the promised land, would have resulted in a pile of dry bones in the desert if the Lord had not fed and watered them on the way.
Jesus Himself teaches us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” These words are easy to overlook. It is easy for us to think of God’s work as the miracle-maker. God is the one who does incredible, amazing things that baffle our minds. But what we often forget is that God is also the one who takes care of all things, both big and little, both important and seemingly unimportant. In asking for ‘Daily bread’ we are in fact, praying for everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as: food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbours, and the like.”
When we confess in the Creed that God is the Creator of heaven and earth, we are confessing that God gives us everything we need to support our bodies. That means that when we receive and enjoy a good meal, it is from God. When you enjoy a sunset or a good sporting event, it is from God. The clothes you wear, the house you live in, your work, the roads, your car, your possessions, everything you have that holds you together as a human being – it is all from God. Those things may seem like ordinary things; they may even seem boring, but all of the things of the earth are from God the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, the one who gives.
St. Augustine, one of the early Church fathers, puts it this way: “Governing the entire universe is a greater miracle than feeding the five thousand people with five loaves of bread, yet no one marvels at it. People marvel at the feeding of the five thousand not because this miracle is greater, but because it is out of the ordinary.”
The people in Jesus’ day were amazed at the miraculous sign that Jesus did by feeding five thousand and more. But that work was simply an overly obvious example of how God takes care of His entire creation every single day.
So, the question for us is this: why it is that we sometimes think that we are left to our own devices? How is it that Satan has convinced us that how we live, what we get, and how we work is all of OUR doing? And why is this important to him? Why does Satan care whether or not we see the food we eat as from God?
The answer is simple: if you do not believe that the little things are from God, then it is an easy leap to no longer believe that the big things are from God. You see, Satan is always trying to eat away at our faith, like termites that have infested a house, and before long it is in shambles………
Generally speaking, we try to instil in our children the hard gained lesson of experience, that whatever they get, they have to work for and earn, our entitlements come only from our efforts. And whilst there is a fundamental truth in this, as Christians, we should be aware that any focus on ‘our efforts’ gives Satan a ‘toe-hold’ to undermine our faith.
Obviously, we want to teach our children that they should work for a living and receive a fair wage for the work they do. Holy Scripture teaches that Mt (10:10) “the labourer is worthy of his hire”. However, even if you have worked for something, even if you have slaved covered in glistening sweat, God is still and finally THE Giver. It is God who has given us our body, and He is the one who has given us the intellect and the ability to do whatever needs to be done. That is why we pray and give thanks for the food that God has given us, even though we have earned the money to buy it. Everything in heaven and on earth is the Lord’s, and so it is that everything we receive, we do so with thanksgiving to God who gave it.
In regard to our entitlements, no matter how hard we work, how diligent our efforts, if we got what we deserved by our own efforts, we would burn in hell for our sins, for THAT IS what we deserve. God in His mercy feeds us anyway, and He gives us whatever we need to support this body and life. It really is quite incredible!
The crowds in our text who were following Jesus and His disciples had nothing to eat and no plan to get anything to eat. Jesus said to His disciples, “Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?” Philip and the others didn’t get it. They could not believe that Jesus would ask them to do this. Even after all they had been through together, they failed to recognise exactly WHO Jesus really was; it was beyond their comprehension that this man was the very God who feeds everyone every day of their lives. This is the God who multiplies the harvest each year; this is the God who makes the crops grow; this is the God who makes the rain come down from heaven to water the earth. They still could not see that Jesus was God! ……. You know, I wonder, is that sometimes the case for us as well?
That is why we should not be too hard on these men, for we do the same thing. How often do we waste our lives away worrying about the future, stressing about things over which we have no control? And yet through it all, God in His mercy keeps caring for us, He keeps looking after us, He continues to send His angels to guard us in all our ways. For that is who God is and that is what God does.
And so in our text Jesus takes care of the people. 5,000 men plus women and children; probably 12,000 to 15,000 people. That’s a lot of people! But it is nothing to the God who holds the earth together. And then we read in our text that the disciples, after everyone had had their fill, picked up twelve baskets full of left-overs. Five loaves, two fish, 15,000 people, and there was plenty leftover! More than they had in the beginning. That is the kind of God who cares for us day after day after day.
God shows His love for them and for us. They did not know what they needed; they did not even really know who Jesus was, but they were hungry. And so Jesus fed them and took care of them, because He loved them. And He does the same for us….
You know, eating and drinking are some of the most normal, basic activities we do. Although culturally, for some, sharing a meal has great social and bonding significance, fundamentally, we eat and we drink in order that we may have the physical fuel to get on to the more important things in life… However, to eat and drink with God, pales all our ‘important’ things into insignificance!
For when you eat and drink with God it is never ordinary. In fact, it is always extraordinary.
We have before us again this day a precious, wonderful, and extraordinary meal in the Sacrament of the Altar – the very “body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, in, with and under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself, for us Christians to eat and to drink.” In this meal we enter into the very presence of God, and we receive, by God-given faith, the forgiveness of our sins, the very forgiveness for which we pray in the Lord’s Prayer.
When we commune at the Lord’s table it is the true body and blood of Christ we are ingesting. Here is where forgiveness is given. Here is where we receive the benefit of Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection which He won for us out of His great love for us. Here is where our Lord and Saviour says to us, “I love you; come to the best Meal in heaven or on earth. You are My son, My daughter. I have washed you clean with My blood, and now I give you My body and blood for your own cleanness, your own forgiveness, your own healing, your own strength, your own lasting peace”
When Jesus saw the people coming to Him, He knew their motives for seeking Him were centered primarily on His ability to heal them, His ability to feed them; they were seeking the miracle worker, not salvation. In fact, they wanted to capture Him and make Him King over their very own ‘Shangri-la’ - where food and healing was ‘laid on’. And yet He had compassion for them. In the same way, when we come before the Lord, our motives are often selfish, our expectations driven by our own desires and yet He opens His arms to us and calls us to His table. (John 6:54-57) “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me”.
The crowd wanted to ‘use’ Jesus – But Jesus calls to us “Bring what you have here to me.” He’ll take us, bless us, break us for his purpose, and then give us to the world for the benefit and salvation of many in both body and soul. With Him, there is always enough to go round. Enough forgiveness, enough healing, enough love, enough peace, enough strength; enough of Jesus for every hungry mouth and heart into eternity. Amen
The love and peace of our Great triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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