Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Mark 8:1-9)
And they ate and were satisfied.
Cu naath mi̱th a cukɛ ria̱ŋ.
Prayer: Lord God, our heavenly Father, enlighten our darkness with the light of your Holy Spirit, so that I may preach well and we all may hear well, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
There are basically two religions in the world. One that believes God created the world, and one that believes that the world is god.
On one hand, we have a religion that believes that God gave life to the world and that all life comes from God, and on the other hand, we have a religion that believe that the only life there is is what we can see now and that it comes from the world and the universe.
There are two religions: Christianity and paganism. Everything that is not Christianity is a form of paganism. You are either a Christian or a pagan.
If you are a pagan, it basically means that you worship nature, the universe, and you put your trust in the world, in nature and in the universe. Often we call this sort of a religion pantheism, which basically means that everything is god. The sun is a god, trees are a god, birds and animals are gods.
So which one are you: A Christian or a pagan? Do you worship God, or do you worship everything else?
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You might think that you can answer this question easily. “Of course, I’m a Christian!” you say. “I don’t worship animals! I don’t worship the earth! I don’t worship the sun or the stars or the moon! I’m not an Aztec or an ancient Egyptian!”
We might think that worshipping nature and the earth and the universe is something that only happened in ancient cultures and ancient times. But it is very much alive today.
If you believe in God, it means that you don’t believe in “chance”. Examine yourself: do you believe that something good or something bad that happened to you ever happened to you “by chance”? If so, you’re not talking like a Christian. “Chance” is for unbelievers: If you want to talk like a Christian, talk about “God’s will”.
In 1 Samuel 6, we read a very interesting story. The Israelites had a war with the Philistines. And in this war, the Israelites did something very wrong. They brought the Ark of the Covenant out of the sanctuary and took it with them into war, a bit like a lucky charm. And the Philistines captured the Ark. The Philistines won the battle. But then the Philistines started to get sick with tumours and die, so they thought that they should send the Ark back to the Israelites. And so they put the Ark on a cart with two milk cows, and let it go back to Israel by itself. We read that they said: “Send [the cart] off and let it go its way and watch. If it goes upon on the way to its own land… then it is [the God of Israel] who has done us this great harm, but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance.”
And what happened? The cart went back to the people of Israel. And so the Philistines knew that it hadn’t happened by chance.
“Chance” is the language of pagans. It is the language of unbelievers. It is the language of people who are outside the church.
If you want to talk like a Christian, talk about “God’s good and gracious will.”
In our society today, in our homes, and in our very own hearts, there is a war going on. It is a war between two trusts: the trust in chance or the trust in God’s will. There is simply no middle ground.
If you believe in chance, then you simply believe that God either didn’t create the world, or he’s not interested in it. But if you do believe that God created the world and formed it and shaped it and gives life to it, and gives life to you, then you know that there is not such thing as chance. There is only such thing as God’s will.
Even the debates between science and religion are not really debates between science and religion at all. It is a debate between two different religions: a religion which believes that the world came into existence by chance and a religion that believes that the world was created by the word of God. And the atheists are promoting the same religion as those who write horoscopes and read palms and tarot cards, because they all believe in one god called “Chance”.
Every time Christianity is perverted and twisted into something else, it is always perverted into something which rejects God’s will and his word, and embraces chance, coincidence, fortune, luck. Christianity is perverted every time it rejects the words of the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary: “Nothing is impossible with God.”
And every Sunday, we as Christians spit in the face of chance, when we say: “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.”
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But what, you ask, does this have to do with our reading today?
In our Gospel today, we read about Jesus feeding the 4000 people. Now this story is not the story about the feeding of the 5000, but the feeding of the 4000. Maybe you didn’t realise that there are actually two different events in the gospels, one where Jesus fed 5000 people and another where he fed 4000.
Today he feeds 4000. And this event happened second. The feeding of the 5000 people happened earlier.
And so it’s funny: just like the earlier story, the feeding of the 5000, Jesus and his disciples are stuck in the middle of nowhere with all these people and no food. And you would have thought that after the first time, that the disciples would have thought that Jesus was able to perform the miracle again.
We read:
In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?”
And this is the point where we learn a great lesson: that Jesus is actually true God! He is a man, a human being, born of the Virgin Mary, and he is also true God, conceived of the Holy Spirit. Take this to heart and think about it. Jesus is not just some great man, some great teacher, like any other moral teacher, like Buddha, or Gandhi, or the Dalai Lama, or even Mystic Meg.
Jesus is truly God. St John says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh.” The Word became flesh – flesh: just like you and me. He became a tiny baby in a stable in Bethlehem and grew up into a man, and learnt a trade, and he lived and he died. But that man is also truly God: he created the world, the rose from the dead, he ascended into the heaven, and he fed 4000 people with 7 loaves of bread.
In our Gospel it says: And his disciples answered [Jesus], “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?”
Ah, you silly disciples! Don’t you know who it is you’re standing there with? Don’t you know that the man you are standing with in the wilderness made the wilderness?
And we read that Jesus says: “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.”
Listen to those words: “I have compassion on the crowd.” Those are the words that uphold the universe. Those are the words that keep the world going and put your daily bread on your kitchen table. The world does not produce grain by itself, and rain does not pour down from the sky by itself, and bread is not made by chance. All of this happens because of the compassion of Jesus Christ. All of this happens because Jesus has compassion on the crowd. That’s how daily bread happens: it happens because Jesus has compassion on the crowd, and by nothing else. If Jesus ceased to have compassion on the crowd, if our heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit stopped pouring out their love upon the world and having mercy on all people, there would be nothing to eat. Everything comes from God. The earth is not a god. God is God, and it’s his job to provide for you, and he does it because he loves you, and he does it because he has compassion on the crowd.
In our times, our greatest temptation is to revert back into paganism, back to a godless life, a life where God doesn’t matter, where it doesn’t matter whether he even exists or not, where everything happens “by chance”.
And so first of all, there is the temptation not to pray. Because we think it will take too much time and that it won’t work. We think that time is better spent doing something productive. We think if we “waste time” praying too much, we’ll go hungry and we’ll end up in the wilderness. But the time you have to do things doesn’t come to you by chance, it comes from the hand of Jesus Christ.
There is the temptation not to go to church. There is the temptation to believe that nothing happens in church. There is the temptation to believe that you don’t actually hear the word of God in the company of the church and amongst fellow believers. There is the temptation to believe that you don’t actually receive the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper. There is the temptation to believe that if I stayed home instead, and slept in, or even worked, that that will be time better spent. But this church is not here by chance. You’re work is not given to you by chance. The forgiveness of sins doesn’t come to you by chance. People say: If I go to church and bludge on my backside for an hour listening to the bible, I’ll lose time, and then I’ll be hungry, I’ll be behind in my work and I’ll end up in the wilderness.
There is an excuse to disobey any of the Ten Commandments all because we think we will end up in the wilderness and have nothing to eat. So, people hate each other because they think it will be too much hard work if they actually make up. “You shall not murder” and “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer” is just too impractical. Men and women don’t get married but just move in and live together instead. “You shall not commit adultery” is just too impractical. Many husbands and wives purposely don’t have children because they think they’ll go hungry if they have too many. “Be fruitful and multiply” is just too impractical. People lie and cheat and steal because if they think they’re honest, they’ll get nowhere. “You shall not steal” and “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour” and “You shall not covet” are all just too impractical! Pastors are the same: It’s easy to preach your own opinions, and life stories all the times, because preaching the word of God is too impractical! If it were all left to chance, it wouldn’t work. But the commandments are calls from God to us to stop worshipping chance, and to trust in our gracious heavenly Father and his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Martin Luther said: “There is indeed no virtue beyond that of obedience, attending to that which is given to a person to do.”
And it’s funny: in our gospel reading, we read three significant things.
1) A whole lot of people got so distracted with their lives listening to Jesus that they ended up in the middle of a wasteland with nothing to eat.
2) Jesus had compassion on the crowd.
3) The punchline, verse 8: They ate and were satisfied.
They ate and were satisfied.
Sometimes when we follow Jesus we do end up in a wilderness. But Jesus does not abandon those he loves. He loves you, and you can be sure he loves you because he made you, he died for you, and he rose again for you. And even in the middle of the church, he forgives you, he washes your sins away in baptism, and he strengthens and nourishes you with the heavenly banquet of his own holy and precious body and blood.
They ate and were satisfied. And Jesus is gentle with you. He forgives you again and again, and sends you on your way. He doesn’t just feed 5000 people once, he does it again with 4000 just to show you that he’s the same Jesus, yesterday, today and forever. He doesn’t deal with you according to your sins, but he forgives your sins, he covers them over, he still gives you your daily bread and he gives you a call to trust in him once again leading you to a desolate place where you’ve never been before, and there he feeds you and he transforms the wilderness into a paradise.
Our whole life as Christians basically is one where we are being poked by the Ten Commandments and receiving the forgiveness of sins. The Ten Commandments are always knocking us on the head and confronting us with new challenges, which say: Do this, and don’t do this. And we say to Jesus: “But Jesus, what you say is so impractical. It won’t work!” It’s the voice of old Adam, the sinful nature, the old self, the corrupt selfish person which says: “God, your commandments are too impractical! It won’t work!”
Well, having 4000 hungry people in a wilderness wouldn’t normally have a practical solution either. That’s why it’s so important for us to believe that the events of the gospels actually happened and were actual historical events. These things didn’t happen by chance. They happened because of the good and gracious will of God. Jesus had compassion on the crowd.
They ate, our text says. They ate. And not only did they eat, but they ate and were satisfied.
So friends, as we stand in the company of heaven today, and in the presence of the living God and our resurrected Lord Jesus in the Divine Service today, eat and be satisfied. Taste and see that the Lord is good! Amen.
I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, husband/wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. This is most certainty true. Amen.
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