St Mark 8:1-9/Genesis 2:7-17/Romans 6:19-23
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
They had been following Jesus for three days. They had been so absorbed by His teaching that they had failed to provide their own needs. They had walked out into the wilderness, hanging on His every Word, until they had gone too far. Now they were in a desolate place. A place where there was no way to obtain provisions; no shelter or safety. In this place they were in danger of starvation, of death. The place is described in the same manner as where our Lord was tempted by Satan after His baptism: a desolate wilderness. And He did not arrive there by accident, but was driven by the Holy Spirit. The multitude did not get to this point by accident, either.
Now most of us have probably been caught up at work or a game and forgotten to eat lunch at some point. But how long did it take until your stomach reminded you? A never make it more than a few hours. If we have gone 24 hours without any food we think we are starving, even though we are not.
How did these people get distracted for three days? How did 4000 people all fail to realize they were going into the wilderness without provisions? This only happens, men only forget about their stomachs, when the Lord is at work on them. Like the pied piper, our Lord led them out there, on purpose. He strung them along with the joy and peace that His Word gives. Its not as if they had nothing at all to eat – He fed them with good theology. This is the real food of the Garden as Eden as well. Even though Adam was surrounded by the lush bounty of God’s good creation, his real food was the Word of the Lord.
Anyway, it was Jesus who led the masses into the wilderness. He set up the miracle. He could have sent them home before it was too late. He could have sent some of them for provisions along the way. Instead, He preached the Kingdom. The people who followed Him, they left this world for the Kingdom. They forgot themselves. They set aside those things we think are so important, and realized they didn’t really need them. They were simply caught up in the beauty of the creative Word of Christ. They lost sight of the wilderness and were deaf to their grumbling stomachs. They only had eyes and ears for Jesus. Nothing else mattered.
Then they were caught. They were in the wilderness without provisions. But they didn’t grumble, unlike Israel of old who complained in the desert; or Adam who chose the one thing that led to death amongst all that which was life. Or even us who complain and fret over our food and bodies and the littlest things. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves. The Father has given us the most important thing, will He neglect to give us the small things? Man does not live by bread alone. That way leads to death.
We prayed in the collect this morning, “O God, whose never-failing providence orders all things in heaven and on earth, we humbly implore You to put away from us all hurtful things and to give us those things that are profitable for us.” Our compassionate Father knows that we need daily bread. He provides. Jesus knew the needs of the crowd better than they did. First He fed them. Now He was going to feed them. Soul and body.
Jesus had compassion on the crowd, because they had been with Him now three days and have nothing to eat. And it is significant, this ‘three days.’ For St Mark notes this elsewhere only when Jesus foretells His death and resurrection. This will come back again.
So our Lord’s compassion moves Him to act on behalf of the crowd. The disciples ask, How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place? It is a rhetorical question. They didn’t expect an answer. Its like asking, “How can one end world hunger? “ Or, “How can one stop teenage pregnancy?” It is impossible. These people can’t all be fed. They will starve.
Our Lord doesn’t answer the question. He doesn’t explain. He simply gathers the provisions they do have, seven loaves – the number of the Sabbath and the days of creation. He has them sit on the ground, the very dust from which they were taken. The Word is going to work again. But this time He does not create out of nothing. Ever since the beginning of creation, God continues to create and work. Only now He uses means. He uses the stuff of His creation.
So our Lord Jesus Christ, on the same night in which He was preaching the kingdom in the wilderness, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and have it to the disciples and said, “Give this to them. This bread satisfies those in the wilderness.” In the same way also He took a few small fish, and when He had given thanks, He gave them to them saying, “Give this to them.” So they did. The servants of the Lord took the bread and fish, blessed by Christ the Lord, and they gave them, piece by piece, to the 4000.
And like Elijah’s flour, it never ran out. Every time their basket was empty they returned to the Lord, from whom more was given. He was in the midst of the bounty. And there was plenty of bread and fish, enough for everyone, for 4000 to eat and be satisfied in the wilderness. The disciples were instructed to gather up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. For we ought not squander the gifts of God, great or small; but deal carefully with them and save what is left over. And note this: in the wilderness, Israel had nothing left in the morning; each had what he needed without abundance. Now, with Jesus, there is abundance, for men cannot contain the bounty of the Lord. His mercy and compassion are far greater than our actual needs, even as His love is fare greater than our sins.
Then our Lord lifts His hands over them and says, “Depart in peace.” Having fed them in soul and body, He sends them away, back to the world, back to home and neighbor. And Jesus continues on the road prepared for Him in the wilderness by His camels’ hair-covered, locust eating cousin. He goes from wild place to wild place, with no place to lay His head, until He lays it down outside the gates of Jerusalem. No one will provide for Him. But He will give Himself as Bread that satisfies the souls of men.
He will be skewered on the Cross, baked over Hell’s coals, stoked by the Father, give up the Spirit, until the fire burns itself out and death meets its own demise. For Christ destroys the devil by his own work, that of the wicked Cross. He who once overcame by a tree, is now, by a Tree overcome. And this is the most glorious kind of victory. He pierces the adversary with His own weapon and slays him with his own sword. In the death of His Son, the Man of Sorrows, God completes His work. And by the wisdom of the Cross, God forces the devil to work through death life itself. Surely on the day Christ died, you were given life. For Christ swallowed up death in His own death. Taking its poison into Himself, into His flesh. By His victorious resurrection from the dead, His flesh is now the antidote to death. With it He brings life.
Thus is order brought out of chaos. And the wild place becomes the door to the new Eden. The place of the skull is the new Zion, the place of God’s abiding mercy, His compassion. For this Hill now orders our devotion and directs our attention. This is the Hill from which cometh our Help. And out of Christ the new Man flows a river to water all men, here in this desolate place. It divides and becomes two – water and blood – though it is really one. Water from Christ’s own heart to fill the baptismal font, though which the Spirit breathes the breath of life in you. Blood to fill the cup which you drink, which forgives all your sins. These are the fruit of the Tree of Life, from which you are given to eat, even while you are in the wilderness of this life.
And that is the point of the miraculous feeding in the wilderness. The Lord led the multitude into the desolate place in order to pull back a corner of the curtain and expose the closeness of death. None of us is ever more than a missed heart beat away from death. We can’t live without a beating heart, functioning lungs or brain or kidneys or a host of other things. Any of them can fail for thousands of reasons and without warning, because of genetics or a slip on the stairs or something in the water. We can be undone in a matter of seconds. We are as fragile and fleeting as butterflies, prone to violence and disease. Yet we survive, even prosper by the providence and grace of our Lord. But we are mostly unaware of this. We think of our health often, for we are obsessed with our bodies. But rarely do we recognize how frail we are or that it is the mercy and compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ who sustains us. Repent.
The Lord provides more than just beating hearts and functioning kidneys, more than merely bread for the day. He gives His Body as food for your salvation. How can one satisfy these people in this wilderness? How can we minister to those who are divorced or abused, afraid or lonely, to those struggling against perversions in their minds and bodies, whose wills have been broken, who are dying of cancer, who wake in the night in terror or rage, apathy or exhaustion? Was there ever a generation with more mental illness, with more addictions, with more broken families, or more debt than ours? How can these people be satisfied?
The Lord doesn’t answer. He simply takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it, and says, Take, eat, this is My Body, which is given for you. And when you have been fed and then fed, He sends you away, back to the world, to family and friends and neighbors, with the words, “Depart in peace.” That is, “Do not be afraid. I will not leave you or forsake you. I will sustain you. Continue to return to Me, for My bounty never ends. And if you should faint on the way, fear not. For My Name is upon you. I will provide for you. I will bring you home.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
They had been following Jesus for three days. They had been so absorbed by His teaching that they had failed to provide their own needs. They had walked out into the wilderness, hanging on His every Word, until they had gone too far. Now they were in a desolate place. A place where there was no way to obtain provisions; no shelter or safety. In this place they were in danger of starvation, of death. The place is described in the same manner as where our Lord was tempted by Satan after His baptism: a desolate wilderness. And He did not arrive there by accident, but was driven by the Holy Spirit. The multitude did not get to this point by accident, either.
Now most of us have probably been caught up at work or a game and forgotten to eat lunch at some point. But how long did it take until your stomach reminded you? A never make it more than a few hours. If we have gone 24 hours without any food we think we are starving, even though we are not.
How did these people get distracted for three days? How did 4000 people all fail to realize they were going into the wilderness without provisions? This only happens, men only forget about their stomachs, when the Lord is at work on them. Like the pied piper, our Lord led them out there, on purpose. He strung them along with the joy and peace that His Word gives. Its not as if they had nothing at all to eat – He fed them with good theology. This is the real food of the Garden as Eden as well. Even though Adam was surrounded by the lush bounty of God’s good creation, his real food was the Word of the Lord.
Anyway, it was Jesus who led the masses into the wilderness. He set up the miracle. He could have sent them home before it was too late. He could have sent some of them for provisions along the way. Instead, He preached the Kingdom. The people who followed Him, they left this world for the Kingdom. They forgot themselves. They set aside those things we think are so important, and realized they didn’t really need them. They were simply caught up in the beauty of the creative Word of Christ. They lost sight of the wilderness and were deaf to their grumbling stomachs. They only had eyes and ears for Jesus. Nothing else mattered.
Then they were caught. They were in the wilderness without provisions. But they didn’t grumble, unlike Israel of old who complained in the desert; or Adam who chose the one thing that led to death amongst all that which was life. Or even us who complain and fret over our food and bodies and the littlest things. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves. The Father has given us the most important thing, will He neglect to give us the small things? Man does not live by bread alone. That way leads to death.
We prayed in the collect this morning, “O God, whose never-failing providence orders all things in heaven and on earth, we humbly implore You to put away from us all hurtful things and to give us those things that are profitable for us.” Our compassionate Father knows that we need daily bread. He provides. Jesus knew the needs of the crowd better than they did. First He fed them. Now He was going to feed them. Soul and body.
Jesus had compassion on the crowd, because they had been with Him now three days and have nothing to eat. And it is significant, this ‘three days.’ For St Mark notes this elsewhere only when Jesus foretells His death and resurrection. This will come back again.
So our Lord’s compassion moves Him to act on behalf of the crowd. The disciples ask, How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place? It is a rhetorical question. They didn’t expect an answer. Its like asking, “How can one end world hunger? “ Or, “How can one stop teenage pregnancy?” It is impossible. These people can’t all be fed. They will starve.
Our Lord doesn’t answer the question. He doesn’t explain. He simply gathers the provisions they do have, seven loaves – the number of the Sabbath and the days of creation. He has them sit on the ground, the very dust from which they were taken. The Word is going to work again. But this time He does not create out of nothing. Ever since the beginning of creation, God continues to create and work. Only now He uses means. He uses the stuff of His creation.
So our Lord Jesus Christ, on the same night in which He was preaching the kingdom in the wilderness, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and have it to the disciples and said, “Give this to them. This bread satisfies those in the wilderness.” In the same way also He took a few small fish, and when He had given thanks, He gave them to them saying, “Give this to them.” So they did. The servants of the Lord took the bread and fish, blessed by Christ the Lord, and they gave them, piece by piece, to the 4000.
And like Elijah’s flour, it never ran out. Every time their basket was empty they returned to the Lord, from whom more was given. He was in the midst of the bounty. And there was plenty of bread and fish, enough for everyone, for 4000 to eat and be satisfied in the wilderness. The disciples were instructed to gather up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. For we ought not squander the gifts of God, great or small; but deal carefully with them and save what is left over. And note this: in the wilderness, Israel had nothing left in the morning; each had what he needed without abundance. Now, with Jesus, there is abundance, for men cannot contain the bounty of the Lord. His mercy and compassion are far greater than our actual needs, even as His love is fare greater than our sins.
Then our Lord lifts His hands over them and says, “Depart in peace.” Having fed them in soul and body, He sends them away, back to the world, back to home and neighbor. And Jesus continues on the road prepared for Him in the wilderness by His camels’ hair-covered, locust eating cousin. He goes from wild place to wild place, with no place to lay His head, until He lays it down outside the gates of Jerusalem. No one will provide for Him. But He will give Himself as Bread that satisfies the souls of men.
He will be skewered on the Cross, baked over Hell’s coals, stoked by the Father, give up the Spirit, until the fire burns itself out and death meets its own demise. For Christ destroys the devil by his own work, that of the wicked Cross. He who once overcame by a tree, is now, by a Tree overcome. And this is the most glorious kind of victory. He pierces the adversary with His own weapon and slays him with his own sword. In the death of His Son, the Man of Sorrows, God completes His work. And by the wisdom of the Cross, God forces the devil to work through death life itself. Surely on the day Christ died, you were given life. For Christ swallowed up death in His own death. Taking its poison into Himself, into His flesh. By His victorious resurrection from the dead, His flesh is now the antidote to death. With it He brings life.
Thus is order brought out of chaos. And the wild place becomes the door to the new Eden. The place of the skull is the new Zion, the place of God’s abiding mercy, His compassion. For this Hill now orders our devotion and directs our attention. This is the Hill from which cometh our Help. And out of Christ the new Man flows a river to water all men, here in this desolate place. It divides and becomes two – water and blood – though it is really one. Water from Christ’s own heart to fill the baptismal font, though which the Spirit breathes the breath of life in you. Blood to fill the cup which you drink, which forgives all your sins. These are the fruit of the Tree of Life, from which you are given to eat, even while you are in the wilderness of this life.
And that is the point of the miraculous feeding in the wilderness. The Lord led the multitude into the desolate place in order to pull back a corner of the curtain and expose the closeness of death. None of us is ever more than a missed heart beat away from death. We can’t live without a beating heart, functioning lungs or brain or kidneys or a host of other things. Any of them can fail for thousands of reasons and without warning, because of genetics or a slip on the stairs or something in the water. We can be undone in a matter of seconds. We are as fragile and fleeting as butterflies, prone to violence and disease. Yet we survive, even prosper by the providence and grace of our Lord. But we are mostly unaware of this. We think of our health often, for we are obsessed with our bodies. But rarely do we recognize how frail we are or that it is the mercy and compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ who sustains us. Repent.
The Lord provides more than just beating hearts and functioning kidneys, more than merely bread for the day. He gives His Body as food for your salvation. How can one satisfy these people in this wilderness? How can we minister to those who are divorced or abused, afraid or lonely, to those struggling against perversions in their minds and bodies, whose wills have been broken, who are dying of cancer, who wake in the night in terror or rage, apathy or exhaustion? Was there ever a generation with more mental illness, with more addictions, with more broken families, or more debt than ours? How can these people be satisfied?
The Lord doesn’t answer. He simply takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it, and says, Take, eat, this is My Body, which is given for you. And when you have been fed and then fed, He sends you away, back to the world, to family and friends and neighbors, with the words, “Depart in peace.” That is, “Do not be afraid. I will not leave you or forsake you. I will sustain you. Continue to return to Me, for My bounty never ends. And if you should faint on the way, fear not. For My Name is upon you. I will provide for you. I will bring you home.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
RSS Feed