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Sermon for Trinity 7
Mark 8:1-9 + Genesis 2:7-17 + Romans 6:19-23
The feeding of the four thousand? I’m sure most of you are familiar with that account from the Gospels. I wonder if a few of you, though, wanted to correct me every time I said “four thousand” in the service today. “Um, Pastor, it’s the feeding of the five thousand, remember?” Of course it is. And it’s also the feeding of the four thousand. In the Three Year Lectionary that we had been using here at Emmanuel for many, many years, only the feeding of the five thousand comes up. But in the historic lectionary that we’ve been following since last December, both miraculous feedings are included, and for good reason. Two different times Jesus fed the multitudes before him, two different miracles that are similar in many ways, but also very different, each one performed by Jesus with different purposes in mind.
We’re going to spend some time comparing these two miracles of Jesus today, the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000, and as we do, the purpose of the miracle before us in today’s Gospel will become clearer for us. God sets before us today a very simple, but important truth: Jesus provides for his people.
The feeding of the 5,000 happened first, about halfway through Jesus’ three-year ministry. Like the feeding of the 4,000, it happened near the Sea of Galilee, after a long day of Jesus preaching and teaching and healing the sick. In both cases, the compassion of Jesus is mentioned as that which led him to provide food for his followers. In the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus took five loaves of bread and two fish from his disciples, as opposed to seven loaves of bread and “a few” fish in the feeding of the 4,000. In both cases, Jesus, in his state of humiliation, humbly submitted to his Father and gave thanks to his Father for this food. But at the same time, Jesus didn’t need to ask for his Father’s help to perform the miracle. Jesus himself displayed his almighty power as Creator, the same Creator and Provider who provided food and all things for Adam and Eve at the beginning of time. And a few loaves of bread and a few fish were miraculously multiplied in the hands of Jesus’ disciples as he used them to hand out his blessings, to feed thousands and thousands of people.
The two miracles have those things in common. But there are some differences, too. The feeding of the 5,000 took place after the people had been with Jesus for one day. They could’ve easily returned to their homes or to the nearby villages and found some food, as Jesus’ disciples suggested they should do. But our Gospel takes places after the people had been with Jesus out in a remote place for three whole days. Some of them had come a very long way and hadn’t brought any extra provisions for the journey. They had gone out to hear the Word of God, to listen to Jesus and be healed by him, and hadn’t given any thought to their need for food.
The other important difference is this: The 5,000 were superficial followers of Jesus. They were looking for signs from him, but they weren’t looking for their Savior from sin in him. In John 6, we find Jesus performing the miracle of feeding the 5,000 as a sign for the people, to encourage them to seek him as the Christ, that he who provided bread from heaven for them was himself the Living Bread that came down from heaven, that they should put their faith in him to care for their souls. But they didn’t want soul-care. In fact, most of the 5,000, when they found out Jesus hadn’t come to be their bread king, turned away from him and stopped following him.
But the 4,000 – they followed him because they wanted more than bread. They followed Jesus because they believed that he was the One sent from God to speak the Word of God to them, to be their Savior from sin. Bread was not what their hearts longed for. Jesus, the Christ – he was the one their hearts longed for. And so when Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fish for them, it wasn’t to encourage them to seek him as the Christ. It was because they had already recognized him as the Christ – and as his believing followers, he had compassion on them and wasn’t about to let them go hungry or faint on their way home. Earlier in his ministry, Jesus had said, “Don’t worry about what you will eat or drink or wear. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” The 4,000 had sought first God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness by setting their physical needs aside to hear the Word of Jesus in the desert for three days. Now it was time for Jesus to fulfill his promise and provide for their physical needs as well.
If you want to summarize the lessons Jesus taught with the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000, you might put it this way:
In the feeding of the 5,000, the main lesson was from the lesser to the greater: If Jesus can satisfy your temporal need for bread for this life, then he is also the One who will fill your eternal need for the forgiveness of sins, for eternal life. Look to him for forgiveness, not just bread!
In the feeding of the 4,000 the lesson was from the greater to the lesser: If Jesus cares for sinners so much that he will save you from your sins and grant you eternal life, then he will not neglect you or fail to provide you with food and with all your needs for this earthly life. Since you look to him for forgiveness, count on him also for bread!
The care and compassion and providence that Jesus shows in our Gospel for his followers, for those who cling to his Word, reveal to us a God of love who has compassion on his whole creation, but who has made a special commitment to care for those who are his children through faith in Christ Jesus.
And why not? See what God has already provided! As you heard Paul talk about in Romans 6 today, you used to be slaves to sin, to wickedness and to death. You had no right and no reason to know God as a gracious and compassionate God, but rather as the Judge who punishes sinners and makes them receive the wages of sin, which is death – both physical and eternal. But still God looked with compassion even on you, who were his enemies, and provided the Sacrifice who received sin’s wages for you and reconciles you to God, so that, in Christ Jesus and there alone you may know the compassion of God who gives the gift of forgiveness and eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Now, Paul says, He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not, along with him, graciously give us all things? That’s what we learn in the feeding of the 4,000! You who already possess the treasure of the Means of Grace, the treasure of the Gospel in Word and Sacrament that cause you to know and receive Christ, the treasure of being baptized into Christ, of being God’s children – God looks on you with such compassion and commitment that he wouldn’t think of defaulting on his promise to provide you with daily bread. He’s concerned with your soul and with your eternal life with him in heaven, but that means he’s also concerned about your body and with your eternal life on this side of heaven.
So look first to Christ to satisfy your spiritual needs. Cling to his Word, and then as you do, trust in him also to have compassion on you and to provide everything else you need, too. Jesus will always provide you with what you need, if you trust in him and not in your own reason and strength. It’s Jesus who places people around in your life, at just the right moment, in just the right place to provide you with what you need: whether it’s money or food, counsel or help, encouragement or company. They may be believers who help you in willing service to God; they may be unbelievers whom God puts in place to help you even though they hate the Lord Jesus. But you are to see Jesus there, having compassion on you, providing for his people – even miraculously if that’s what it takes. That’s faith – to see nothing with the eyes of reason, no way God could possibly sustain you, and yet to trust that he must, somehow, some way, because you are his child and he will not abandon his children. We learn faith from today’s Gospel.
We also learn love from the feeding of the 4,000. The love of Jesus for his people – that’s the kind of love he calls on you to show to one another, to your brothers and sisters in Christ who are also his people. Yes, show love, show mercy, help and provide for everyone, no matter who they are, just as God shows mercy to all. But, just as God shows special compassion and commitment for his people, so he calls on us, too, to show special compassion and readiness to help those who belong to the family of believers, whether here in our church, or, through our synod, to churches around the world.
Jesus said to his disciples on the night he was betrayed, “Love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Learn that kind of love from Jesus in today’s Gospel, who looked out at 4,000 men, plus women and children, who had nothing to offer him, nothing to give him. They had come only to receive from him. Those were the people Jesus was so eager to help, people like you, who have nothing to offer him, nothing to give him. You have come here today, not to give something to Jesus, but to receive from him – forgiveness of sins, words of life, because you know him as the Christ, you know him as your Savior. He doesn’t need your compassion or your service, but as we’ve been seeing, especially in the last few weeks, your neighbor does. Your neighbor needs your compassion and your service. But even more than that, your brothers and sisters in Christ, your family of believers needs your compassion and your service. Your family of believers needs your kind words, your patience, your obedience, your Christian example, your interest, your counsel, your loving rebuke, your forgiveness, your time and maybe also some of your bread. Jesus will take the little you have and multiply it as many times as necessary. It’s always Jesus, providing for his people. He has provided all things for you for free. May he also, through you, provide for the rest of his family of believers. Amen.
