Text: Matthew 14:13-21
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The
disciples were faced with a large dilemma.
There were over 5,000 people gathered around Jesus. To be precise, there was probably more like
15,000 people due to the scriptures only counting the men and not the women and
children. These 15,000 people though were
growing hungry as implied by our text today.
You see, the crowds of people were in a desolate place where there was
no food. No vending machines. No concession stands. Furthermore, it was getting dark and once the
darkness of night would fall upon them, it would be difficult for them to be
excused to find shelter and more importantly food. Therefore, the disciples felt a sense of
responsibility to the people and their welfare, which led them to come to Jesus
insisting that the people be excused so that they could make their way into the
villages for food and shelter. Yes, from
a human and commonsense perspective, this indeed makes sense. It would have made sense for Jesus and the
disciples to stand up and say, “That is all there is for today folks. We will see you tomorrow. It is time for you to go home now and get a
bite to eat.” Problem solved. Crisis avoided.
This
all seems like a logical conclusion to dismiss the people; however, the
disciples are faced with yet another dilemma.
That dilemma is that Jesus doesn’t live and operate within the
boundaries of what the sensible thing is to do.
In a word, the disciples’ dilemma of hungry people is met with Jesus’ compassion.
You see, Jesus went out to this deserted
place after He received the news of the death of John the Baptist. This place was desolate; however, in spite of
His best efforts to withdraw by Himself from public activity, the people
followed Jesus out to this desolate place.
Among the people were many sick that were transported to where Jesus
was. Thus, Jesus did not want to dismiss
them for He had compassion on them; His heart was moved at the sight of the
crowd that had followed Him. They need
not go away. They must stay with Jesus,
for the Gospel of Mark states that they were like a sheep without a shepherd.
Yes, they needed to stay with Jesus for He was the good shepherd and they were
needy people who could not help themselves.
Indeed, many of them were physically sick and ‘all’ of them were
spiritually sick. They were
strength-less people who had been transported into this distant uninhabited
place.
What
of their hunger though?
Well,
as you heard, Jesus simply tells the disciples to give them something to
eat.
But what will they eat?
Keep
in mind that they were in an isolated place.
Taco Bell was not open ‘til 11:00 PM and there was not a 24 hour Seven-Eleven.
This said, the disciples did have a few resources at their disposal though. They had two fish and five loaves of
bread. That is approximately two to
three bags worth of groceries; only enough to feed one family and possibly two
if one distributed the food frugally. Therefore,
should the disciples take the scales out, divide the food up into15,000 equal bite
sized portions? Should they just
distribute the food to those that were in real need?
No.
Rather
than the people returning back to their homes to acquire food or going hungry,
Jesus has the means to take care of them Himself. Otherwise stated, He takes what is limited—the
five loaves and two fish—and then tells the crowd to sit on the grass. After blessing the food, Jesus then distributes
the food. Miraculously the food is
multiplied and these helpless, strength-less, and hungry people are fed by a
tremendous bounty of food. They are
filled. The Lord made 15,000 stomachs full
and over 12 baskets of food were left over.
Do
you see what is happening in our Gospel reading? I am sure some of those who ate the meal from
Jesus got it, while others probably didn’t get it until later on. Did you though pick up on what happened? Take a moment and consider what happened at
this miracle. Jesus said that the people
were like a sheep without a shepherd.
They are sitting on green grass next to water. Does not today’s event of Jesus feeding the
5,000 plus people on the green grass, next to still waters, remind you of Psalm
23? “As the 5,000 and more went home,
pondering what had happened, the light was to go on.
‘Hey,
that Jesus, He is something else. Green
pastures, still waters, food when there was none, and us all sitting down in
families around Him just like our forefathers around the tabernacle. He is the one, the Messiah, the Shepherd of
Israel.”[1]
He is the one Messiah who is compassionate to sheep like us, we who don’t have
a shepherd.
Yes,
Jesus was the Good Shepherd that was spoken of in the Old Testament, He was and
is the compassionate Shepherd-Messiah who indeed serves His sheep and suffers
with them. This miracle not only served
the physical needs of the people, but served as an event to reveal, verify, and
testify that He is the Son of God. These
miracles are intended to grant faith to the people of the story and grant faith
to you and me right here and right now in the twenty-first-century.
This
Gospel reading from today clearly shows and reveals to you and me the character
of the Christ by not only showing us that He is the Messiah and that the
miracle points to His divinity, but that He really is compassionate. Yes, we can clearly see that He healed the sick
and filled the stomachs of the hungry because He is compassionate and “through
him the Father shows his compassion.”[2] Truly, the Gospel reading testifies and
reveals to us that Jesus is compassionate towards sinful mankind. However, this compassion is not merely
limited to this story in the New Testament and these specific people in the New
Testament. Rather, this disposition of
compassion is a pattern that emerges in the Gospels and is a disposition that
has lasting and present ramifications for you and me right here and right now. You see, for one to be compassionate or to
have compassion they are moved in the seat of their affections. They are moved in their emotions and actions
because they suffer with another. To be
compassionate is to feel another person’s pain and emotion, and to be filled
with tenderness towards another suffering individual. Otherwise stated, the way that the Messiah,
Jesus Christ, looks at mankind is so much different than the way we look at
creation. Where we see a burden and suffering
people and attempt to dismiss these troubled ones like the disciples saying,
“Please just go home;” Jesus though swells with compassion and reaches out.
There are other times where we do feel compassion for a neighbor who is
strength-less and needy, but then we find that our compassion is limited to
mere sympathetic feelings due to our inability to physically fix or remedy
their predicament. Jesus’ compassion
though for sinful, sick, helpless, and strength-less mankind is so much more
than just a sentimental feeling; rather, His compassion drives Him to do
things. Jesus’ compassion drives Him to
heal, provide, and sustain. This
compassion drives Christ to restore everything that is broken, warped, wrong,
and dying due to sin. This compassion drives Christ to not only feed the
hungry, heal the sick, give sight to the blind, but also go to Calvary for people
like you and me who hunger and thirst for righteousness; people like you and me
who are damned and dying in the desolation of sin. Yes, the same compassion for the people that
drove Jesus to heal and multiply fish and bread is the same compassion that
drove Christ to the cross to redeem mankind from sin, death, and the devil.
This
compassion not only results in the historic events of the life, death, burial
and resurrection of Christ for the whole world, but this compassion extends to
you here in this church, Zion Lutheran Church.
In other words, it is true that at Calvary’s cross Jesus died for the
sins of the world; mankind and creation did not receive what is due, but rather
the words, “It is finished.” Like a
river from Calvary’s Cross, the Lord’s compassion come to you in this
church. Like the endless and multiplying
bread and fish, there is no shortage of forgiveness and grace for you. As Jesus fed the 5,000 plus individuals
through His clueless disciples by having them pass out the bread and fish to
the crowd, Jesus still gives His gifts to sinners so that they may share them
with other sinners. Let me explain. “At the beginning of the service, you confess
your sins before God and each other.
Then, even though I am just as much a sinner as any of you, I still
forgive your sins with the forgiveness that Jesus Christ has given to me. As I stand here in this pulpit, I am simply
one sinner telling other sinners about Christ’s salvation. [I am one beggar pointing other beggars where
the warm bread it. I am one beggar
distributing the warm bread in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus
Christ.] Furthermore, as I consecrate
the bread and the wine of the sacrament, I am a sinner who relies on Christ’s
promise to take up residence in the bread and wine with His body and blood for
the forgiveness of your sins. Just as
the multiplying of the fish and loaves had nothing to do with the disciples who
delivered the meal to the crowds, so also the source of forgiveness, life, and
salvation has nothing to do with the pastor.
Instead, it all depends on Jesus”[3]—for you.
Yes,
this compassion of Christ extended to the people of our Gospel reading and
drove Jesus to the cross. But it still
keeps coming; His compassion extends to you not with bread and fish but with
Water, Words, Bread, and Wine. Like that
unending, limitless, multiplying bread and fish, this grace of God is anew for
you each and every Sunday from this church, your church that you are a baptized
member of.
Baptized
saints, you are washed in the name of the Triune God, absolved by the Word, and
fed by the body and blood of the Lord—for the forgiveness of your sins. Like the multiplying bread and fish, this
grace continually comes to you for the Lord is full of compassion and abounding
in steadfast love to you.
Yes
you are people who are in a desolate place, but take comfort dear sheep, for
the Good Shepherd has compassion on you and for you.
The
peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1]
Norman Nagel, Selected Sermons of Norman
Nagel: From Valparaiso to St. Louis
(St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2004), 192.
[2]
Jeffrey Gibbs, Matthew 11:2-20:34:
Concordia Commentary Series (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House,
2010), 749.
[3]
James T. Batchelor, “Eighth Sunday after Pentecost Sermon at Good Shepherd
Lutheran Church, Hoopeston, IL” http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3843 (2
August 2014).
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