Sermon for Pentecost 7 (Proper 13)

He Feeds You Forever

Matthew 14:13-21

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (A), 2011

Zion Lutheran Church

Mount Pleasant, Michigan

Pastor Jonathon Bakker

Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and from the Lord, Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our consideration comes from the Gospel of St. Matthew which was just read.

When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities. And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food." But Jesus said to them, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." And they said to Him, "We have here only five loaves and two fish." He said, "Bring them here to Me." Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus’ important work in this Gospel text could be summed up in one word – miraculous! Feeding five thousand men, besides women and children, cannot be seen as anything other than a miracle when you consider that Jesus did so with five ordinary loaves of bread and two ordinary fish. However, when you think of the other miracles Jesus performed during his life and compare them to this miraculous feeding, the other ones seem to be at least a bit more spectacular.

For instance, would it not be more impressive to be healed by Jesus than to be fed by him? Imagine being able to see or hear, for the first time in your life, because Jesus healed you. Wouldn’t that be spectacular? That is not to say that being fed by Jesus isn’t amazing as well, but compared with being able to speak or to walk when you have never been able to do either of those things before, it does seem to fall a bit short. Given the choice, would anyone want a meal instead of a healing from Jesus? If one of you were lying on your deathbed, would you ask that Jesus give you some food or would you want him to make you better? Would you not trade a miraculous meal for a miraculous healing?

Then again, receiving a miracle from Jesus, whether it is in the form of a healing or a meal is not really up to anyone. The feeding of the five thousand may not seem so impressive as a miracle when compared to the other things Jesus did during his life, but remember that it is the only event, besides the events of Jesus’ Passion, that is recorded in every one of the four Gospels. For some reason, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were compelled to include this particular miracle in all of their Gospels.

What makes this even more noteworthy is that this was not a life and death situation. It is not unlike the first miracle Jesus performed during the wedding at Cana, when he turned the water into wine. The wedding guests could have gone without more wine, and these thousands of people with Jesus at this feeding could have gone home hungry. None would have been that much worse for being sent away hungry that night. The reading even says that Jesus had already been, “moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.” Nobody was in danger of starving to death. There must have been a deeper significance to this feeding then, besides simply filling hungry stomachs with food.

When you listen closely to the language Matthew used to describe what Jesus did, that significance becomes clearer. He ‘took’ the bread. He ‘blessed’ it, he ‘broke’ it, and he ‘gave it to the disciples.’ Those words should sound familiar to anyone who has grown up in the Christian Church.

“Our Lord, Jesus Christ, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, ‘Take, eat, this is my body, which is given for you; ...this is my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

Dear Christians, the great significance of this miraculous feeding is that it looks ahead and prepares the way for the greater miracle that Jesus provides when he gives you heavenly food in the Lord’s Supper. He fed five thousand people then from what seemed to be an inadequate supply of bread and fish, just as he continues to feed the whole Christian church throughout the world today with what seems to be ordinary bread and wine. The food that Jesus gave the crowd then was for the sustenance of their earthly lives, but the food that he gives you now is his precious body and blood – heavenly food – that gives you eternal life.

All of a sudden, this miracle of feeding the five thousand is not at all unspectacular, because it proclaims to you that the Lord will feed you forever. The Old Testament reading from Isaiah says the same thing. “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.” The five thousand in the text left the cities and places where they lived to go see Jesus when they heard that he had gone to a deserted place. He healed their sick as he had compassion on them, and he filled their stomachs when they were hungry. The disciples had suggested that the crowd be sent away to buy food for themselves, but Jesus gave them food that they could never have bought. They did not need to buy it, for he provided it from himself.

The very same thing, and even more, could be said of you as you gather here, week in and week out. You come because you know that it is here that Jesus comes to you. This place is all but deserted during the week, but when our Lord speaks his word through the pastor and gives from himself in the Lord’s Supper, you come. You come and you are fed from Jesus himself, just like the multitude in the Gospel reading, only it not just earthly food that he gives you. He also gives you the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and everlasting salvation.

Friends, the food is the miracle, and the feeding is the miracle. The miracle is not that our Lord fed those people one meal; it is that he feeds you every meal. Undeserving though you are, his compassion for you is the same as it was on the crowd from the text. He knows the chronic, terminal ailment of sin from which you all suffer, he heals your sickness of sin, and he still feeds you.

The Psalm appointed for today is the 136th Psalm. Every verse ends with, the mercy of our Lord endures forever. Today you are reminded that his mercy also feeds you forever. The five thousand he fed with the five loaves and the two fish were merely a foretaste of how he would eventually feed all of you in the Lord’s Supper, and how he will one day feed you eternally in heaven. He still feeds you the things you need for this daily life, and he continues to feed you with the food that will carry you to that eternal life. With such a truly magnificent miracle taking place right here every Sunday, you never need to think about trading food from Jesus for anything else, because as you receive the food that is Jesus, you receive it all; everything Jesus has and everything he is is given for you. Nothing could be more spectacular.

To Christ alone be all the glory, forever and forever. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.