Matthew 14:13-21
Trinity Lutheran – Kearney, Missouri
August 2, 2020 – Ninth Sunday After Pentecost
✝ ✝ ✝ ✝ ✝ ✝ ✝

In the name of the Father, and of ✝ the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In last week’s Epistle lesson St. Paul laid out a couple of situations all of us are quite familiar with – namely, tribulation with its accompanying distress. These two words graphically describe the inner struggles and trials you and I often find ourselves having to endure, because sadly, living in this fallen world as fallen sinners, we’ve all managed to gain for ourselves more than our fair share of these emotions. Now, in this morning’s Gospel text, we see how this tribulation and distress are oftentimes played out. Here we find multitudes of people who had been following after Jesus and experiencing the tribulation and distress of “going without” – specifically “going without” food and having nowhere to get any. So the people were hungry. The people were in dire need – even as you and I might be during such times as when we find ourselves lacking in financial resources, physical health, or emotional well-being.

In a way then, what we see in this crowd are the same things we see in ourselves. Do you not suffer personal anxiety during those times when you feel you might be “doing without?” And isn’t having to “do without” what prompts each of us to ask, “Why?” “Why do I have to endure this tribulation?” “Why must I simply ‘make do?'” “Why can’t the Lord send down a miracle like the one in today’s Gospel?” “I don’t want much. All I want is to live peaceably and comfortably. All I want is just enough so that I don’t have to be in constant pain, endure persistent anxiety, or scrimp from week to week.” Is that asking too much? Well, may I suggest that it’s not a case of not asking too much, but rather of not asking enough!

Why should you stop with asking God for material gain, or relief from mental or physical anguish? Why not just go all the way and ask God to give you a perfect life? I mean, after all, was it not our Lord Jesus Himself who once said: “Ask for anything in My name … and you shall receive it?” Well, here in this text, God is allowing you to catch a shortened glimpse of what a transcendent, perfect, everlasting life will look like, but you and I, we’re too busy fretting about how we might be able to have a better life here in this world. While God wants you to look at your tribulations and troubles from a heavenly perspective, we would usually prefer beginning with the bad, and then allowing it to influence the way we see the good.

There are some important lessons to be learned here in this text, but the most important thing we can take away is that we somehow must begin to recognize that on our own – without Christ – we have nothing of value to offer God. Just look at the multitude here in this reading who had been following after Jesus. They had nothing – and I don’t mean simply in terms of food. I mean they had nothing in and of themselves which would cause God to love them. They were just like us. Do you remember why Jesus was out there in the wilderness in the first place? It was because He had just received news that his dear friend and cousin, John the Baptist, had been beheaded by King Herod – a horrible thing to consider. But, lest we find ourselves sitting in judgment of this ghastly act, we instead have to remember that according to Holy Scripture you and I are also murderers – for it was our Lord Christ Himself who said that hating someone is the same as murder in God’s sight – just like failing to help and befriend a neighbor in bodily need. So, like King Herod, each of us sinners are murderers too. There’s nothing in us that would invoke God’s love or cause Him to treat us with anything but righteous contempt.

So like us, the crowd which had pursued Jesus as He retreated into the wilderness also had no redeeming qualities. Yet we’re told that Christ’s heart went out to them, and He was moved with compassion for them. Hence, without reason, without logic, and without any just cause, our Lord Jesus determined to fed them much as someone might feed a stray, starving animal. And more than that, He went beyond this loving gesture to the point that He was even willing to sacrifice His own life on the cross for them, for us, and indeed, for the entire world of sinners.

Here we are, sinners who are caught up with greedily amassing the table-scraps of temporal things for ourselves and our loved ones, while God’s only desire is to bless you with a virtual banquet. Here we are, busily trying to lay our hands on the five loaves of bread and two fish, even though Christ has already secured for us that heavenly food which will satisfy our greatest need – food which will bestow on us everlasting life – the meal of His very own body and blood given and shed for us sinners to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith.

And that’s precisely what the words of today’s Gospel imply. Did you notice anything familiar here in this Feeding of the Five Thousand? Well, first, the people reclined. Then, Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to His disciples. Does that sound familiar? It ought to. It can’t be an accident that these are the very same Words Jesus used when instituting the Lord’s Supper on the night He was betrayed. And did you notice what happened after all the people had eaten? There were twelve baskets left over. I don’t think that it can be a coincidence that there were twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Patriarchs, and finally twelve Apostles – twelve men and followers of Jesus, the first pastors, who would carry on the office of Christ and distribute His gifts to His people and Church – just as the pastors of Christ’s Church have continued doing right up until the present day in the stead and by the command of their Lord.

In Christ, dear friends, you have already been given everything you need – the forgiveness of sins, spiritual life, salvation, and the promise of an eternal home in heaven. Nothing is lacking in your life. Nothing can supersede or replace what God has already given you in Christ Jesus through His Word, His Spirit, and through His Church. That’s why St. Paul wrote in last Sunday’s Epistle that even in the midst of tribulation, distress and persecution, you are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us! But, why do we have to go through tribulations? Why do we have to put up with heartache? Why doesn’t God simply give us deliverance from the pain of this world? Well, according to Scripture, it is precisely because you are God’s elect, chosen for eternal life, that He allows these things to happen.

Certainly, we’re all familiar with the words of St. Paul where he spoke of all things working together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Well, you’ve been called to faith, dear Christian, so that you might partake of eternal salvation. And the “things which work together for good,” are what was described in last week’s Epistle reading: “tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword.” God allows His chosen ones to experience such things. Why? Because in the midst of it all you have no other choice but to place your faith in God alone for all things. In our own limited wisdom and understanding you could never fathom how any of this could possibly be for your good or benefit. Hence you simply have to take God at His Word and believe His promise.

Does that mean we have a God who is indifferent or uncompassionate toward us? Not at all! We have a God of such great love and compassion that He was willing to give up His own Son for the guilt of our sin – and all so that He might grant us the full assurance, that already in this life – through the Gospel-Word-and-Sacrament ministry of His Church, that nothing – “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I suspect most people are enamored with this morning’s Gospel text because it’s so easy to see their own life pictured here – lost in and swallowed up by the life of Jesus Christ. By faith, His life belongs to you just as much as you belong to Him. In Him, as Paul reminds us, you live, and move, and have your being. So, if your life is in Jesus, what then are you lacking? You lack nothing. And what do you have to be anxious or worry about? To be sure, you have no reason to be anxious about anything. And what do you have to look forward to? Absolutely everything good – everything in Jesus – both now and forevermore – and all for His sake – and in His most Holy name. Amen.

And now that peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in that one true faith in Christ Jesus, unto life everlasting. Amen.

Pr. Drew Newman

Bulletin:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/mychurchwebsite/c1922/bulletin_8-2-2020.pdf