4th Sunday in Lent

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Passover was at hand. Jesus had crossed the Sea of Galilee. Jesus and his disciples went to a lonely place, a mountain, and sat down by themselves. The crowds followed. Jesus had compassion on them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd. He welcomed them, healed their sick, and was teaching them. It grew late, though. The people were many, 5,000 men. If we add in the women and children, it's probably around 10 to 15,000 at least. Foraging won't feed that many people, even if there was food around. But there wasn't. The grass was fine for sitting, but not for food. Feeding so many is beyond meal planning or just a quick trip to the grocery store. This is an entire division. A lot of logistics is involved in planning to feed so many people. We're talking about supply chains and distribution at this level. The only solution seems to be for the people to be sent away so that they can fend for themselves. Shouldn't Jesus have just sent them away earlier? After all, when he sees the people coming to him, he says, How are we going to get food for so many people? And then he dilly-dallies with all this healing and all this teaching on and on. Didn't he see the sun going down? Didn't he have a sense of time? Is Jesus a poor public speaker and didn't know how or when to wrap it up? The point, of course, is that Jesus did know. He can tell time, and he knew exactly what he was doing. He orchestrated this, he knew what he was going to do. With Passover at hand, Jesus lets the people grow hungry in the wilderness. Their growling stomachs couldn't help but remind these people of what had happened earlier after their slavery, the plagues, and the crossing of the Red Sea. Their forefathers thirsted and were hungry. God provided water from the rock. God gave bread from heaven. This wasn't the first time that there was hunger in the wilderness. No, it wasn't the first time there was hunger in the wilderness. Jesus was hungry in the desert too. The devil tempted our Lord to turn stones into bread, to provide for himself. But Jesus is the incarnate word, and came to provide for others, to sacrifice himself for them. And so in this wilderness Jesus healed them. He preached of his reign. He went on doing this until it was so late and the food was so scarce that he would show them and he would show us that he's our source of every blessing in every situation, no matter how desperate. Authoritatively and calmly, as a shepherd organizes sheep into pastures, the Lord Jesus told his disciples to organize the people into companies of about fifty or so, and have them sit down. Don't tell the people to go away. Make them stay. Make the people rest. And he took the five rolls and two fish, looked up to heaven, blessed them, and then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to give them to the crowds. They all ate. They all were satisfied and full. Jesus had shown himself to be the God of Israel, the Lord who feeds his people in the wilderness. But how was Jesus with logistics? Was he a good meal planner? He asked his disciples to go gather up the fragments so that none may be lost. Is Jesus worried about waste? Making sure you clean your plates. If you're going to take it, you better eat it, right? Doesn't he know about soupy sales of old and the clean plate club? That's only for a select few of you, I think. Congratulations. We look to you for wisdom if you know of soupy sales. But doesn't he know the science about hunger cues? Stop! Don't finish your plates. Just finish when your hunger has been satiated, right? Don't waste things. Of course, Jesus is a good meal planner. That's the point. And the disciples end up gathering twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. Why? Why all the leftovers? So that you would see how God provides for you. His new Israel, twelve baskets full of bread for you, you new twelve tribes. The good shepherd is good to his sheep. He gives over and above what we deserve. He gives over and above what we even need. It's grace, not only just enough grace, but grace upon grace, overflowing like a big, tall stack of pancakes. You can't finish them, can you? That's why they feed them to you, all you can eat. They know that two will fill you up, and they've charged you for more. That's not what we're doing today. Sorry. Sorry. I came off wrong. The good shepherd is good to his sheep. He gives over and above what we deserve, having been given such plenty by God, so we have plenty then to pass along. Take this. I've got enough. I've got more than enough from my God. This is for you too. Think of your life and the fifty or so people that God has placed into your life, your little group, your little platoon. Take your bread. There's plenty broken off for you, and pass it on. Note the disciples' original solution to the problem, though. That's fun. Let these people take care of themselves. The problem, it's just too big for us to solve. We're not going to fix that one. We have no way to. That's a solution that many come up with for our wilderness dilemma. Whether it's our own unsatisfied needs, hunger pains, or our helpless state due to our own sin. We look around and see nothing in this world that can give us true sustenance. It's tempting for us sinners to tell people, and even ourselves, you gotta fend for yourself. Every man for himself. Prep, be that survivalist, fix your own problem, get to it. But how are we sinners going to fix sin? Only Jesus can do that. And note the reaction to Jesus' miracle. The people saw the sign that he had done, they said, This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world. Jesus perceived that they'd make him king by force. The temptation that came to Jesus in the wilderness comes to him in the wilderness all over again. With a brigade of men at the ready, Jesus could march. But the people hadn't really seen the sign so much as they wanted the easy way. They wanted Jesus to be a worldly sort of king, their bread king. Jesus wouldn't provide true food and true thing, true drink, though, through mere bread alone. He wouldn't be that sort of king. Through his word, the Lord Jesus showed you his true kingship. Above the cross, where the true Passover Lamb died, a year after this particular feeding of the five thousand, the sign that read over the cross was this Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Behold your king and his reign. Behold your good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. Only because of Jesus' death on the cross are you going to have lunch this afternoon. Only because of Jesus' death on the cross have you heard the word of absolution today. Only because of Jesus' death on the cross are your sins forgiven. Only because of Jesus will you be fed with the true drink and the true food of his body and blood in with and under the bread and wine. This isn't bread alone, but this is bread with the word that has proceeded from the very mouth of God, the words of institution. Baptized into Christ, your filthy stained robe has been washed pure white in the blood of the Lamb. By faith in Christ Jesus, God has marked you with Jesus' blood, and death passes you over. In this wilderness, your God's beloved child. The devil will tempt you to think otherwise, or to say, I'll become God's child in my own ways, I'll fill my belly and I'll do it. And God may have ordered things for you to be thirsty and hungry enough to despair of your own reason and strength. Yes, God tests those whom He loves. Born a sinner in a fallen world, you're in a wilderness, and you're desperate no matter where you land on the where's your pain from zero to ten scale. We're all hurting. Born a sinner in a fallen world, we need God. So God has brought you here into this congregation and welcomed you to sit down, be healed of your disease of sin, hear his word, and live. It's eternally necessary for you to sit down, to kneel, and to be fed by Jesus. Amen.