We heard in our Gospel lesson today that the mass of over 4,000 people ate the miraculous meal of fish and loaves and were satisfied. This word “satisfied” (kortadzo in the Greek), can have multiple meanings. That word carries with it the meaning of being stuffed, gorged, well filled in being satisfied. In the context of this particular lesson, all these are correct. The masses of people were filled up with an abundance of fish and bread and more, so much so that there were seven baskets left over even after they had their fill. They all had full bellies. Their hunger was satisfied. They obviously enjoyed their divinely-provided meal. It must have been very delicious as well! To say that they were satisfied with their meal is an understatement. And, of course, they were satisfied by the one serving them, Jesus Christ. They were the passive recipients of His undeserved gifts of satisfying mercy and love. They didn’t satisfy themselves. They were satisfied by Him out of His great compassion, mercy, love, and grace.

As true as all this satisfaction was for those particular people in that particular miraculous context, can the same be said for you in your “normal, every-day” context? Do you feel satisfied? Before you answer, think about the many and various ways that your Lord does provide and satisfy you in your daily life. Just think about all the daily bread your Lord blesses you and satisfies you with, even when you don’t ask; even after you fail to say “thank you.”
Think back to your catechism study. “What is daily bread? Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and need of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friend, faithful neighbors, and the like.” “And the like…,” just in case you think something was left out.

Everything you have and everything you are is a gift given you by God’s free and undeserved grace. The only thing you actually deserve; the only thing you have earned… is present and eternal punishment because of your sin. “The wages of sin is death”. “whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” That’s it! That’s your one and only right! You have a right to eternal death as our first father Adam was warned: “On the day you eat of it [the tree of knowledge of good and evil] you shall surely die”! God owes us nothing but the wages of sin, yet He loves you, me, and even unbelievers and provides for our and their body and life and more. Everything we receive for our bodies is a gracious and merciful gift of God and you receive it, it is specifically for you, given specifically to you by Him because of His compassion for you; because He loves you. And He has provided to give you even more in terms of forgiveness, life, and salvation in Jesus Christ.

So…how many of you are satisfied with your daily bread? Based on the fruits we see borne out in our culture today, the number of people satisfied with their daily bread can’t be many. Just look around you. It is socially-acceptable to covet. Politicians run on a platform of coveting, promising that they will fight for your “right” to have whatever it is you think you’re entitled to; whatever it is that will give you the satisfaction you so desire. They will satisfy your wants and desires. And people praise and endorse and rally around such selfish and self-serving covetousness. It seems that no one is happy with the daily bread God provides them. We want more. We want what the other guy has. It’s not fair! To quote the Israelites, “We have no manna, and we hate the manna we have!”

And keep in mind, I know you can all think of people who fit this bill, but what about the person staring back at you from the mirror? Are you truly satisfied with the gracious and undeserved gift that is “daily bread”? Are you thankful for all that God richly and daily provides for your body and life? Is God’s daily bread satisfaction for you adequate, more than adequate, or, in your estimate, is it still lacking? “I’m satisfied, but I could always be more satisfied.” I’ve got news for you. If that’s your mindset, you’re not truly satisfied. God knows the truth.

And here’s the thing: I can’t make you satisfied with your daily bread. I can’t even make myself perfectly satisfied with my daily bread. We should be. God tells me I am satisfied with all that I need for this body and life, and He richly and daily provides it. Unfortunately, our old greedy, sinful Adam works overtime to try to make us never truly satisfied with God’s satisfying gifts. Our flesh always wants just a little bit more. Like Adam and Eve, we’re not content with knowledge of God’s good alone. Since the fall we never feel fully satiated or filled up because of the purity that was lost. An inner-tapeworm of sinfulness tells us that we are starving for more and more stuff that will never truly satisfy; stuff that only rots and rusts away and is destroyed by moths and worms and stolen by thieves. The end of all that “stuff,” like St. Paul says, is death. None of it gives life—true life; life everlasting. None of it can truly satisfy. And yet…in our sinful selfishness, almost like an addict, we want more. If a little won’t satisfy, maybe more will satisfy. It never does. It never will. If you’re honest, we will confess this sinful dissatisfaction.

But God sometimes has to wake us up to understand the only thing that can bring satisfaction. By bringing us to the point of despair in the things of this world. By opening our eyes to see the man or woman in the mirror and what our sins deserve and more.

Then we remember God’s love for us. How it is much more than we deserve. In the same way Jesus had compassion on the people in today’s Gospel lesson, in the same way that God did not destroy Adam and Eve after they fell, God provides for our salvation: from ourselves, from the slavery of disobedience, from these bodies of death, by the body of life in Jesus Christ. In Holy Baptism and in continual repentance we are severed once more from the heritage of death and redeemed by the body of Jesus Christ who was sacrificed for you and me. He fulfilled the Law and in His crucifixion fulfilled the curse of God’s judgement that we deserved. In Baptism and again in Absolution, He freed and frees us to become His own, to be changed from a body enslaved to lawlessness and death according to His righteousness by faith. Paul uses a play on of words in the Epistle lesson by saying that we, in Christ, are able to present ourselves as slaves of righteousness leading to sanctification and life.

Because we have been baptized into Christ, we have put on Christ, including His righteousness. It is foolish to go back to way of death. BE changed. Stop fighting the work of the Holy Spirit, stop entertaining the spirit of this world and our fallen nature. Be still and know that He is God, and instead of lawlessness and a body of death, by faith in Jesus Christ, by delighting in His free gift of salvation, by the forgiveness of our sins, by looking at the cross and the empty tomb, by remembering that in all things we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us, we can be satisfied in the eternal life giving body of Jesus Christ. We can recognize how good it is to be fed by the good food of God’s Word and sacrament. In the Sacrament of the Altar, Jesus gives us an even better, more satisfying, filling to overflowing, delicious, food than was given to the 4000. This meal brings forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation by the very crucified and raised body and blood of your Savior. Think about how amazing a gift that is. This what you truly need for your own body and its eternal life. You need Christ, so receive Him in joy. Be filled with your ears, and with your mouths, so that the emptiness that remains from the fall may be filled by God’s good gifts and grace and His Spirit. Know by His blessing how good it is to live by His Spirit and do good to our neighbor, to live Holy lives as His people, freed from the lusts and desires that would entrap us once more to the cycle of death and dissatisfaction.

I can’t make you satisfied, nor can you…but God can. In fact, He already has and does in Christ. When you leave here with the Body and Blood of Christ in your belly and on your breath, with remembrance of Baptism and to whom you belong, what more do you have to fear or worry about? You have been satisfied in Christ, by Christ.

When this Bread of Life satisfaction truly satisfies you, which through the working of the Holy Spirit will be the case through faith, all His satisfying gifts of daily bread will also begin to satisfy you. You will be satisfied with a fully-satisfying peace that surpasses all human understanding, no matter your circumstance; in good times and in bad, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. Satisfied by Christ and in Christ, you will ever and always be satisfied, giving thanks in all circumstances for all that you have and all that you are in the all-satisfying name of Christ Jesus, AMEN.

Pr. Aaron Kangas