St. Mark 8:1–9
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
They have been with Jesus now three days and have nothing to eat. If they had brought any food with them into the wilderness, it’s long gone.They’re so hungry that if they try to go back to their homes now they will faint on the way.
Do we have any concept of what that kind of hunger is like? Do you remember when you had to fast for a medical procedure, even something as simple as having blood drawn?And how many times did you think about food? And that was probably only going for 12 hours without food, maybe 24 at the most. Otherwise, for most of us, and for the vast majority of Americans, if we get a little twinge of hunger, we can just walk a few feet to the fridge. We drive a few miles to fast food or a grocery store. We can even eat out multiple times a week.
On the whole, we are wealthier than any other people in the history of the world. We think of “famine” as a Bible word, something that doesn’t happen anymore. Even when certain food prices rise and we start to grumble, the possibility of actual starvation never enters our minds. And yes, there are truly poor people in our country that really do suffer from lack of food (I don’t mean to minimize their hardship). But even for many of them, food is usually just a hand-out away. Because the majority of Americans are so wealthy, even our true poor can assume that there will always be something available for them, and many people learn to have a sense of entitlement about these things.
Obviously, I’m not saying that the wealth that our society and economy have created is necessarily a bad thing. It’s wonderful that so many people enjoy such high standards of living. But what is bad, is that we all take this for granted. We don’t merely survive on the most basic, boring food stuffs because we have to eat something. We have the option of eating the food we want to, the food we enjoy. And it’s very easy for us to think nothing of that.
What I’m trying to impress upon you is the desperate situation that crowd was in, and those people were in for most of their lives. It’s something we can’t really identify with. But coming to grips with this should help us to realize the incredible impact Jesus had on these people when He fed them so miraculously. Only by recognizing the deep and desperate need, can we also recognize the deep and amazing compassion that Jesus demonstrated in this miracle.
Sure, we realize that multiplying seven loaves of bread and a few fish to feed over 4,000 people is an amazing deed. But when going to the store, or the specialty bakery, is almost as easy as what Jesus did, the miracle seems a little less impressive. But these people were living day by day, just getting by, and the threat of famine or starvation or disease was always looming over them. No wonder then that the crowds flocked to Jesus. No wonder that for centuries the vast majority of Christians, struggling to put food in their children’s bellies, have loved to hear about Jesus as the One who gives food, the One who is the Bread of Life. As we try to put ourselves in their shoes, let’s notice that they really recognized something true about Jesus. They came to know that He is the Source, the Giver of everything we have in this life.
By this miracle, Jesus proved He is God. Only the Creator could have such control over His creation. Only the Intelligent One who designed the grain that grows and the fish that swim, and designed them to be capable of supplying nutrients and energy for the human body—only this Divine Person could supply bread and fish in such a way and to nourish thousands. The man called Jesus, who broke these loaves and distributed these fish, He is undoubtedly God.
But this supposes something even more basic: if Jesus is God, then that also means God is real. I bet many of you think that’s obvious. But many people don’t believe God is real. And many other people, even many of you, who assume it’s obvious that God is real, don’t really act like it. Even those of us who confess it with our lips, live as if God does not exist. We easily go through our days without giving Him a second thought. We work and save, pay bills and make plans, have good fun, spend time with friends and family, while not reflecting at all on God and His hand in our lives. Not to mention that we do things we shouldn’t do, without even pausing to think what God has to say about it. The way we think about the world and the way we act in it, makes it look as though when we say God is real, and Jesus is God, we’re really just pretending.
God is real and He is the Giver of all that we have. We owe Him our very life, and we know He wants what is good for us because we know He has compassion on us. “I have compassion on the crowd,” says Jesus. He is the real God in our flesh. He is the God who created grain and fish and the human digestive system. And there He is with His own human digestive system, also eating bread and fish like us. He is God with us—He knows us and our needs better than we do. Let me say that again: God knows you and your needs better than you do.
“I have compassion on the crowd,” says Jesus. He is the real God on the cross. Not only is He with us, but He puts Himself on the line for us. He suffered, bled, and died so that we would not. He was forsaken and damned for all our sin so that we can be forgiven. He rose as a Man, with living flesh and blood, so that we can also rise and live with Him.
“I have compassion on the crowd,” says Jesus. He is the real God who gives His real body and blood to us. He feeds us with Himself so that we share His own life. He gives us food for eternity. So, of course, He also gives us bread and fish, food for right now. Notice, what Jesus did when He fed the crowd: He took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, He broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before the people… And having blessed the fish, He said that these also should be set before the people. He took, gave thanks and blessed, broke and distributed. I don’t think it’s a mere coincidence that in the same way Jesus takes, gives thanks and blesses, breaks and distributes the bread and wine that is His body and blood. God’s gifts of earthly food and spiritual food are not disconnected. They both come from God’s compassion for us who desperately need His gifts.
But just as we take earthly food for granted, so also we take spiritual food for granted. When it comes to God’s grace, love, forgiveness, and compassion, this world is a wilderness—you can’t find these gifts from God just anywhere in nature. These gifts are only given in God’s Word, in the proclamation of the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus the Savior. That means you can only hear about the Gospel through other people.
But unfortunately, you still can’t find the gifts of God’s grace with just any people. This society that we now live in is a wasteland. While you once may have heard or seen God’s Word in every church, every home, every school and city hall (and even then, maybe not the pure Word of God), you definitely don’t see or hear that now. Our society, that was once built upon the Christian religion, is now a crumbling ruin. And only the non-Christians (or some who call themselves Christians but don’t care at all about God’s Word), only these people can go on pretending that we are still living in a great palace. If we can’t come to grips with the reality that there is a real famine of the Word, then we will never know where to go in order to be fed with true food.
We have to recognize what the Christians in the Bible and the early Church recognized: the Church of Jesus is the only place where we can find our Bread of Life. In the empty shell of our culture, hidden in the ruins, there are still Christians gathering together, preaching and hearing God’s Word, and serving those in need.
But we can’t just waltz through life, thinking that we can get our spiritual bread just anywhere, that our government, our schools, just any church, or just any organization of do-gooders, can be a substitute for true religion, as if any of these places can really supply the spiritual bread that is the most necessary thing for real life.
It’s desperately important that we realize we must get fed and forgiven and blessed only in Christ’s Church. The Church is that crowd out in the wilderness of this world, but with Jesus and being fed by Him. So, we need to learn to order our lives with Him at the center. We need to learn how to gather in this community that He has called us into, gathering with our fellow baptized forgiven sinners to receive our God’s compassion and to give Him thanks, to hear and learn His Word together, to eat and drink His feast together. Only this way can we train our eyes to see His hand at work, giving us good things and supporting us in the midst of bad things. In this way we can purposefully hold onto Him and come to Him first, so that everything else finds its place after Him.
Let us praise our God’s great compassion. He gives food to those who love Him and to those who take it for granted, to those who know that everything good comes from Him and to those who think they are self-made men. He is generous, even to selfish unbelievers who are never truly satisfied with what He gives.
But God does not give His spiritual food to those who do not believe in Him. Only faith in Jesus can receive the everlasting food of His Word and His Supper. And those who do trust in this real God, they are fed with this heavenly food, and they are able to find real joy and true satisfaction in God’s earthly gifts as well. By faith in Jesus they do not take His gifts for granted, but instead they realize just how compassionate their God really is.
In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.
