Today we heard the miracle of the feeding of the 5000. Five loaves and two fish in the hands of Jesus feed 5000 men, not counting women and children, with twelve baskets full of leftovers at the end.

Back when Jesus began His earthly ministry, the devil in the wilderness had tempted Jesus to perform a similar miracle. Remember the temptation by Satan was for Jesus to turn stones into bread in order to feed His own empty stomach. But Jesus would not do it, for as He said “man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” You see, it was not the way of Jesus to use His power to serve Himself. He came to be the servant of all and to lay His own life down for others.

Jesus’ way is to multiply, to take one thing and add to it, to create from nothing, or almost nothing and from it make great abundance at blessing. At Cana He turned water into wine overflowing; A few weeks ago, we heard of the Canaanite woman who said that she would be grateful for crumbs of grace and then Jesus gave her the “whole loaf” of healing for her daughter and an affirmation of her great faith. This woman, broken off from the whole, was now gathered into the faithful.
Today He takes five little loaves and two fish and turned them into an abundant feast for five thousand plus with many leftovers, twelve baskets full of leftovers, which Jesus makes sure is gathered together.

According to the gospel of Mark, Jesus and His disciples had actually been trying to get to a place of rest away from the crowds. The disciples had just returned from their mission trip, and Jesus had said, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” He knew that they needed a rest, but these people also needed a rest, and so they followed Him. Jesus could have said, “not now, go away, give us a break”. But He had pity on them and taught them and fed them His Word.

Then He asked Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 

Jesus had been testing the disciples, but they do not seem to understand what Jesus was saying. Philip mentions 200 denarii, that’s the equivalent of two hundred days’ wages, which is pretty large sum, and now they find only five loaves of bread and two fish…sigh, “so little”. It doesn’t seem like the disciples were too confident despite what they had seen Jesus do in the past. But Jesus shows that God feeds and provides physical as well as spiritual needs to support peoples’ body and life.

Taking the meager offering of five little loaves and two fish, Jesus looked up to heaven to His Father, from whom all blessings flow, blessed the bread and fish and began breaking them up, handing the pieces to the Twelve who then fed the people.

Jesus was teaching His Twelve to minister. They would be the church’s first pastors, the foundation of apostolic ministry. He was teaching them how it would go in the future. He would be the source, they would do the feeding. He would work the kitchen, they would be the runners and the waiters, bringing His food to the people. If you are hearing a hint of the Lord’s Supper going on here, you are quite correct. Jesus is the chef as well as the food; His pastors are the waiters and runners. He takes our humble offering of bread and wine and multiplies it, not in quantity but in nutritional value. Making something seemingly insignificant into something more and greater: His own Body and Blood given and shed for your salvation.

There were twelve baskets full of leftovers, one for each of the Twelve. What was Jesus teaching there? Among other things, He was saying to His pastors, that they could trust that there would be leftovers for themselves. That as they preached and fed others, they too would hear and be fed. That His Word preached would find its way into their own ears and have the same killing and making alive effect that it does in their hearers. That His Body and Blood would also be given to them as food and drink to sustain them, even if it was at their own hand.

That’s what is unique about being a pastor. We preach to ourselves. We feed ourselves. And yet we must hear our preaching as God speaking to us through His office. And we often receive the Supper of Christ from our own hand. We even talk to ourselves at the altar and say, “The Body of Christ given for you,” “the Blood of Christ shed for you.” But it’s why I enjoy sitting in the pew now and then. Going to conferences and so on, I get to go away and be fed by another pastor. To be a hearer and receiver and be served.

Receiving is actually a good thing. I think sometimes we take this business of receiving far too lightly. We want to be busy doing. It’s all the rage these days to talk about participation in worship as though receiving was not the most important thing going on, that everyone has to be doing something. Even in receiving there is plenty to do as we are being fed and taught. In response to this feeding and teaching there are hymns to sing and creeds to confess and Amens to end prayers with. We have a liturgy that calls for full participation. Worship is not a spectator sport by any means. But the most important thing is not what comes out of you but what goes into you.

The most important thing that happens is that we sinners are being fed by our Good Shepherd Jesus with His Word and with His Supper for the forgiveness of those sins. Receiving the words and the body and blood of the bread of life. Without receiving there will be no giving.

There are pastors and churches around today who would view church as a marketing scheme and worship as a pep rally for the sales force, to get the sales force pumped up to hit the streets and sell the product. In such a place you’d be challenged to bring in the numbers. How many people did you bring to church this morning? How many people did you evangelize this week? How many lives have you transformed lately? You’d be challenged, and perhaps we like challenges. At least some of us do, until we’re burned out being challenged. You’d be organized and mobilized and put to work building the kingdom. Except it wouldn’t be the kingdom of God you would be building, because man doesn’t build God’s kingdom. Jesus builds, He uses simple means by the power of His incarnation, dying and rising to build the church. He uses Water, Word, bread and wine given for you for the forgiveness of sins, to give life to you and build you and believers individually and together into Himself as you rest and receive.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t all sorts of stuff to do, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be witnessing to your neighbors or inviting people to hear God’s Word of truth in this church, but it is Jesus who multiplies, Jesus who feeds, Jesus who takes what little we have to offer, and gives us back what we could not supply for ourselves. Here we rest, and He takes our sin and gives back His righteousness.

By the way, bread and fish were a messianic sign, the bread recalls manna from heaven given to the children of Israel during their wilderness wanderings. Fish represented Leviathan, the great sea monster, the image of the devil himself, and the feeding upon the fish meant victory over this great enemy. This feeding in the wilderness, as every feeding at the hands of Jesus, is a foretaste of a coming feast, the feast of salvation and life that awaits us at the resurrection.

Did the crowds understand this? Of course not. We heard that the people were going to seize Jesus to make Him a “bread king”. What better king than one who could multiply bread and keep one’s stomach full for free! But Jesus is not that sort of king, nor is His kingdom built on signs and wonders. No, Jesus had pity on the people, even as He had pity on you and you me. He had something greater to do. He had a death to die and a resurrection to rise to take away sins, defeat the great beast, the devil and destroy the power of death. He had a greater food to give, a greater meal to prepare. The one that you receive here in this place.

So, come away from the world and rest awhile. Here is where the Good Shepherd gathers you in the “basket of this congregation” with your fellow crumbs. Here He feeds us with His forgiveness, His Truth and Words of life which come from Himself, the bread from heaven, the bread of life, broken for you and me at the cross. He gives of Himself to knit us together to wholeness each time that we are gathered and reassembled in unity of confession and life to receive from Jesus. A precious commodity is Christ’s Word, His body and blood, His forgiveness and life. Worth far more than 200 denarii, yet He gives it to you freely by grace. Rejoice! The forgiveness of your sins, and the meal of His victory which He delivers to you gives you strength, rest and peace unto eternal life.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas