Eighth Sunday
after Pentecost (Proper 11B)
July 18, 2021
Text: Mark 6:30-44
When
Jesus feeds the five thousand in our Holy Gospel, He is quite literally
fulfilling Psalm 23. Seeking just a
little bit of solitude and solace with His disciples, as He comes ashore in
this desolate place, He sees a great crowd.
They had run ahead of Him on foot.
And when He sees them, He has “compassion on them, because they are
like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34; ESV). And if there is one thing Jesus cannot stand
to see, it is sheep without a shepherd, sheep in disarray, scattered abroad,
lost, exposed to danger and predators, where there is no food, where there is
no drink, wounded and alone. So there by
the waters He gathers the flock together.
He congregates them. And He makes
them to recline on the green grass, to lie down in green pastures. And He restores their souls by speaking…
He teaches them many things. He leads
them in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake, and the Word He speaks
to them is the Word of life, the rod and staff that will guide and comfort the
sheep, and protect them from all evil, even though they walk through the valley
of the shadow of death. And speaking of
shadows… as they lengthen into evening, what does the Lord do but set a Table
before His sheep. Bread and fish. His goodness and mercy overflowing in
abundance. All eat and are satisfied,
and there are twelve baskets full left over.
So there can be no doubt. This
Jesus who miraculously multiplies the loaves and fishes is the Lord, who is our
Shepherd, and we shall not want. He
opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing (Ps. 145:16).
From
this text we are to learn that Jesus cares about our every need, even our
bodily needs, right down to whether we get enough to eat. He cares, and He is able and willing to
provide for us. This is a great comfort
to us in an economy that is anything but certain, in times of political
instability and social unrest. None of
us knows the future, what will happen, but we do know the Good Shepherd who is
leading us through it. We know He can
feed us and comfort us in all the desolate places we find ourselves, that He
can do a lot with a little, that with Jesus, there is always enough, and even
more than we need.
Now,
He may bring us through some lean and scary times. The promise is not that we avoid the valley
of the shadow, but that He will bring us through. Remember, the crowds in our text only knew
their tummies were rumbling and it was getting dark. They had no idea what Jesus would do about
it. The disciples thought they could
avoid the trouble altogether by planning for the future, sending the
crowds off early enough that they could purchase something to eat for
themselves in the villages. In any
case, the disciples did not think there was any possible way the Lord
could provide for all these people here in the middle of nowhere. And we smile, and we laugh at their
littleness of faith, but then we stand on their shoulders, and we know what
happened, because it was written for our learning. The Lord provides. And He does it through the hands of these
very disciples.
And
isn’t that just like our Lord, to bring about something out of nothing, to fill
the hungry with good things, to pour out His gifts upon us, grace upon grace. And if we’re honest, isn’t it just like us to
doubt whether He can do it, or whether He will do it, and like
the disciples, to incredulously present our very reasonable objections, and
suggest to Him a better way to resolve the situation (“Shall we go
and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?”
[Mark 6:37]… “Come on, Jesus! You’re
being ridiculous! Follow our plan for
once. We know what is needed. We know what to do.”) Yet, Jesus delivers anyway, though we doubt,
and though we do not deserve it. He
gives His instructions, and He fills the hands of His disciples, and everyone
walks away satisfied when the Lord hosts the meal. I don’t know about you, but when I think back
over my life and see how the Lord has provided for me, for my family, and for
my loved ones, there are times I couldn’t tell you how He did it. How did those five loaves and two fish feed
the multitude? There were some awful
lean times where by every human standard it shouldn’t have worked out and we
shouldn’t have had enough, but we did, and we survived, and we had plenty. And we had joy. The Lord brought us through. The Lord provides.
But
there is more going on here than simply the assurance that the Lord fills our
bellies. When the Good Shepherd gathers
His sheep into a congregation, what He gives them is the Divine Service. Did you notice the shape of the whole
encounter in our Holy Gospel? Jesus has compassion
on the crowds, who are like sheep without a shepherd, out here in this desolate
place (He literally suffers in His guts for them, that is the meaning of
the Greek word). So He gathers them
together beside the water, and He teaches them, and then He feeds them. Water, teaching, feeding. Do you get it? Baptism, Word, Supper. And so that you don’t miss it, what does He
do with the bread and fish? He takes
them, gives thanks, breaks them, and gives them. Does that sound at all familiar?
Now,
this is not to say, of course, that this is the Lord’s Supper. It is most certainly not. He has not yet instituted the Supper at this
point, and there is no wine, and we don’t have fish in the Sacrament. But what this is, is a foreshadowing
of the Supper, a dry run, if you will.
He is showing us the pattern, what He does for us, how He
cares for us, as the Lord who is our Shepherd, so that we shall not want. He provides.
He feeds us.
Jesus
provides all we need for this body and life.
Our Father gives us each day our daily bread for Jesus’ sake, and that
is not unimportant. But even more, the
Bread we need above all else is Jesus Himself, whom God feeds us here,
when He gathers us together as His Church.
In this desolate place, in this world where nothing is as it should be,
where all is fallen and broken, and we ourselves are broken and snared by the
mortal grip of sin and death, Jesus comes to rescue us. He has compassion, He suffers it in the
guts for us, because apart from Him, we are like sheep without a shepherd. We’re in disarray, scattered abroad, lost,
exposed to danger and predators, where there is no food, where there is no
drink, wounded and alone. Jesus knows
just what we need for that. We need to
hear His Word. That is what restores our
souls. So He teaches us. He calls us together, calls us by name, and
we recognize His voice. He gives us a
place at His Table. He gathers us in
groups, a hundred here, fifty there… in other words, He places us in a
Christian congregation. And He ordains
the disciples He has called and appointed for the purpose, to give out His
gifts, to take what is His and distribute it to the sheep, to you, to feed you,
to make sure you get what you need, and to gather together whatever is
left. Or as Paul says, to be “servants
of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. 4:1).
And
this is to say, whenever you find yourself in a desolate place… wherever the
desolation touches you… when you are sick, when you are sorrowful, when you are
beaten and broken by your enemies, the devil, the world, and your own sinful
nature… when your marriage is troubled, when mom and dad just don’t understand
you, when your job is in jeopardy, or when just can’t seem to make ends meet…
when your mind is in a fog, when you are tired, exhausted… when those you love
are suffering or making bad decisions… when a loved one dies and you find
yourself in the midst of grief… when your sins burden you, when the devil
tempts you, when your body fails you, and when death approaches… wherever the
desolation touches you, what you need is what God gives you here in His Church. Jesus.
You need Jesus. His green
pastures, His still waters, the Bread of Life.
And He will provide it. Here is
Jesus, for you, always, in divine compassion, beside the water, teaching you,
feeding you, healing you, forgiving your sins, making you whole, and giving you
life. You should never say, when you
find yourself in desolation, when you are suffering or in want, “The Church is
not for me… That is not what I need
right now.” “I don’t feel like it,” or
“It’s not safe,” or “I’m not worthy enough or holy enough to go to Church.” Church is precisely where you should be when
you are suffering or worried or oppressed by temptations, or the devil, or the
guilt of your sins, when you know you are unworthy or unclean, when you find
yourself a sheep without a shepherd. For
it is here in the Church, gathered together with those who are just like you,
who have the same problem you do apart from Christ… It is here, in the water and the teaching and
the feeding, where your Good Shepherd Jesus applies the healing balm of His
death and resurrection for your forgiveness, life, and salvation. He teaches you the way you should go, and
strengthens you for the journey with the Bread of Life that is His very Body.
The
feeding of the five thousand was not just a one-off, spectacular miracle designed
to wow you with Jesus’ divine, glorious power.
It was a demonstration of just how your Good Shepherd, Jesus, at this
very moment, cares for you and provides for all your needs of body and soul. We love the 23rd Psalm because we
long for a Lord who cares for us the way the Good Shepherd cares for His
sheep. In Jesus, that is just what you
have. And, by the way, look there at the
altar. Do you see how He is still
multiplying the loaves? It will happen
again in just a moment. You will come,
and you will eat, and you will leave here satisfied, soul restored, forgiven,
healed, and whole. Psalm 23 is
fulfilled. Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow you all the days of your life, and you will dwell in the House of
the Lord forever. In the Name of the
Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment