This sermon was preached at St Peter’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am
Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Today we read in our Gospel reading about the wonderful miracle that Jesus performed, where he fed 5000 people.
At the beginning of our reading today we read where it says: After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. This event of the feeding of the 5000 is mentioned in all four Gospels, and in each of these Gospels we gain some information about the background and how this all happened.
In Matthew and Mark particularly, we read that there this event followed just after Jesus and the disciples had all heard that John the Baptist had been killed. In the Gospels, we read that John the Baptist had been arrested by King Herod, and that when he was celebrating his birthday, he promised to his step-daughter anything she wanted. She went asked her mother Herodias what she should ask, and she told her to ask for the head of John the Baptist. And so, this is what happened. And so you can imagine that this news would have come as a terrible sadness to Jesus and the disciples and everyone who knew John.
Also, around this time, Jesus had sent the apostles out on a special mission trip, if you like, where they were healing people and casting out demons, and all kinds of things like this. King Herod became worried that maybe John the Baptist had been raised from the dead, and was going to unleash some revenge on him, or something. So around this time, the apostles returned to Jesus, and gave him a report of what they had done.
And these two things—the fact that the disciples had been busy having a very fruitful and productive time in the work that Jesus gave them to do, and also that Jesus had heard the news of John the Baptist’s death—gave the occasion for Jesus to call his disciples together and have some time out, a retreat, if you like, some quite time away from all the business. In Marks’ Gospel, we read where Jesus says to his disciples: Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest for a while.
So, we can see a few things here: first of all, the apostles here don’t have their own mission, but Jesus gives them their mission, he gives them the work. And also, he gives them rest at the right time too. Sometimes, many times in our lives, we often think that the work that we do is ours, but it is actually given to us by Jesus. For example, even as a pastor, I sometimes fall into the temptation that all the things I need to do, or that I think that I need to do, is all my work. But it’s not—it’s Jesus’ work, and his work to build up and grow the church. In our homes, too, and workplaces, wherever we find ourselves, it is Jesus who gives us the work and the tasks. And so, when we find ourselves in a situation where we don’t know what to do, or we don’t have the strength to do what we think we need to do, then we need to turn to him, and consult him, and ask for his advice. We need to remain very close to him in prayer in all things. In Psalm 27, it says: You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.” In Mark’s Gospel we read that the apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. In the same way, we also should return to Jesus after we have done this or that, and commend what we have done to him. In what we have done well, we ask him to make our work and efforts fruitful. In what we have done wrong, we ask him to forgive.
In everything in our lives, we need to stay close to our Good Shepherd, Jesus. He leads us in all things, he guides us in all things, he has prepared for us our good works that we should walk in them. He gives us each day as a gift, and so often we don’t even notice. But as we learn from Psalm 23, it says: The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake
So, at the beginning of our reading from John today, we read: After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. The disciples and Jesus were going over to other side of the lake, for a rest, for some quiet time. However, we then read: And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.
It’s strange: Jesus takes his disciples to the other side of the lake for a rest, but the little trip on the boat seems to be the only real rest that they receive! Once they come to the other side, there is already a crowd waiting. Mark says, that the crowd got there ahead of them. And just as the disciples had spent so much time healing people on their little mission trip, Jesus now does the same. We read in Matthew: When [Jesus] went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, and healed their sick. Also, in Mark, we read: When Jesus went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.
Just before, I mentioned Psalm 23, the famous psalm that speaks about Jesus as our shepherd. And in this passage about the feeding of the 5000, there are many things that point to the fact that Jesus is our Good Shepherd. In Mark, it says that the people were like sheep without a shepherd. And so, Jesus becomes their shepherd. And what does he do? He began to teach them many things. We should not glance over the fact that Jesus was teaching them on this occasion. We don’t know what he was teaching them, but at the same time, it doesn’t matter, because anything that Jesus has to teach them would have been wonderful. Whatever Jesus has to teach us in his Word, and everything that he has to teach us, is wonderful, and when we listen to His words, we are connected to him as his sheep, listening to him as our Good Shepherd.
We also see that Jesus healed their sick. He laid his hands on people individually and gave to them each according to their needs. We see this also in the Divine Service, in the church service, each Sunday. Jesus teaches us: we read his Word, from different parts of the bible, we preach the Word and hear the Word. As it says in Mark: [Jesus] began to teach them many things. And also, we come to receive the Lord’s Supper, where Jesus feeds us and deals with us each individually, laying his hand on us, healing us each according to our needs. And so, when we come to church, we should keep these things in mind. Many Christians forget these things. We don’t come to church to just go through some empty ritual that doesn’t mean anything. No, not at all. Rather, we enter into the holy presence of our Good Shepherd, we join in worshipping him together with all his apostles, and angels, and saints throughout all time, in reverence and awe. And we listen to our Good Shepherd in his holy word, and feed on it as sheep in his pasture. And we confess our sins to him. We tell him all that we have done, and we ask for the covering over us of his righteousness, we ask him to wash us clean, just as he did in the waters of baptism. And we present to him all our needs in life: our worries, our struggles, our problems, our temptations, our sins, our sicknesses, and we come to him in the Lord’s Supper, to receive his body and blood, and to have him deal with us according to his mercy, and his kindness, and his grace, and also according to his will. He knows exactly what we need for this particular time in our life, and he will give us no less. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
So in our reading today, we read: Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”
Now, there’s a couple of small details here. First of all, Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. In the feeding of the 5000, as we will read soon, there is a real structure to all this. Everything happens in a certain and definite order. So first of all, Jesus goes up this mountain. It reminds us of the Sermon on the Mount, where it says Jesus went up on the side of the mountain. You remember, also Moses, went up Mount Sinai by himself to meet God. But here, Jesus is sitting himself there, because he wants to demonstrate to all the people that are there that it is he, who is going to do something, and it is going to be done by his organising, and by his power, and by his authority. It’s a bit like the way in which Jesus heals a deaf man, and takes him away from the crowd, and puts his fingers in his ears, and all that kind of thing. He wants this man to be certain in his own mind that it is Jesus who is doing this, and it didn’t happen by accident.
And, you remember, also that Jesus had just sent his apostles out on a mission trip. Now, he gathers them together to sit with him. Jesus also shows to the crowd here how he will work through them, and use them. What we have in the Bible, for example, and in the New Testament, is the writings of these apostles, the sermons, the eyewitness accounts, the letters, of these men, whom Jesus called to sit with him. And, all of these writings point to Jesus, and preach him, and bring him to the world, just as Jesus after his resurrection sent the apostles into all the ends of the world. And so, we see here a little foretaste of the fact that it is not the apostles who do this work, but it is Jesus who works through them and guides them and leads them, and who is the one who builds and establishes the church. Even at the end of the Gospel of Mark, we read: And they [the apostles] went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs. Do you see that? Even though Jesus ascended into heaven, he does not abandon his church and his people. Rather, he works with them.
And so, in our Gospel today, we see that Jesus separates himself a little bit from the crowd by going up this mountain with his disciples. But he does this as a little precursor to that time when he will ascend to heaven, and yet is not distant from us, but still feeds us, and works in our midst, doing amazing and marvellous things, through his holy word and sacraments.
Now, also, John writes: Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Why does John mention this? Well, there are all kinds of things that happen at the Passover. In the Book of Exodus, we read about how the Israelites painted their door frames with blood, ate unleavened bread, escaped from Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, and also how God fed them with manna and quail in the wilderness.
In our reading, we also see something similar. First of all, just like at the Passover, we have the Lamb of God there, sitting above them, covering their sins with his righteousness, just like the blood on the doorposts.
But then, we read: Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing the large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” Just as at the Passover, we see that there is a large crowd who are in an impossible situation. In the Old Testament, we read that the Israelites were all being hemmed in and chased by Pharoah and his army on the banks of the Red Sea. What were they to do, and where were they to go? Also, when they reached the other side, and Moses parted the Red Sea, this huge crowd of people found themselves with no food. What were they to do?
And so, in a similar way, we see this crowd, who have come out into a desolate place, following Jesus. They’ve had a wonderful day, listening to him, receiving healing for the sick people, but now, it’s late, and they’re far from home, they don’t have any food, it’s too far for them to walk without getting faint. So what are they to do? It’s an impossible situation. Well, of course, it’s only a humanly impossible situation. The situation is only impossible for us sinners, it is only impossible for the 5000 people. The situation is not impossible for Jesus, and actually, this is whole point of our reading.
So Jesus says to Philip: Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat? He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
Jesus points us to the fact that normally we try to solve these problems by looking to money. Where are we to buy bread? We need money, and we a shop. But of course, here they are, where there is no shop, and so their money, if they have any, is useless. Jesus said this to test him, it says. Sometimes, we also find ourselves in a situation, where we realise that we are in a desperate and maybe impossible situation. But it is not that Jesus is punishing us, or abandoning us. It is just that he is testing us, he is showing to us our need, our desperation, our human helplessness, our uselessness, our weakness, so that he can show us what he is going to do, and so that when he does something, we recognise that it is him who has done it. This is what Jesus is doing here. He shows to Philip, and to everyone there: you have nothing, so what are you going to do?
Philip answered him: Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little. Philip says: even if we did have money, and even if we did have a local shop, which we don’t, we still wouldn’t be able to feed all these people. Even if we did have enough money, we would have to clean out 50 or 100 bakeries of their entire stock!
We read: One of the disciples, 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?” We do have a very small amount, but even so, this is not enough. So, we see here, from all these conversations: do we have money? Maybe, but not enough. Do we have a shop? No, and even if we did, they would not have enough. Do we have any food at all? Yes, but it is still not enough. Not enough, not enough, not enough.
And so, we read: Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. [See how our Good Shepherd makes them lie down in green pastures.] So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
Now, here we see what amazing thing Jesus did here, which kind of speaks for itself. But I’d like to highlight a couple of things.
First of all, in all of the Gospels, it mentions that 5000 men sat down. Why does it mention the men? Even in Matthew, it says there were 5000 men, besides women and children. Let’s remember the Passover again. At that time, it says that every man shall take a lamb according to their father’s houses, a lamb for a household. Here, it mentions that each man had do this thing, because there was one man in each family, in each household. Similarly, when the writers here count the men, what they are doing is counting the families. This shows us that Jesus is our Good Shepherd, and cares for us, not just individually, but he cares for our families too, and for those we are responsible for. So often, when we realise we don’t have enough of something, or are in some kind of need or want, we often feel it most painfully because we are trying to look after other people. And so, really, we should call this miracle: the feeding of the 5000 families.
But another thing about the Passover: As Christians, we don’t celebrate the Passover, because just before Jesus died on Good Friday, he transformed the Passover into something new: the Lord’s Supper, which we celebrate every Sunday and church festival. In 1 Corinthians 5 it says: Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. You can see how St Paul here talks about the Passover and the Lord’s Supper together. And there’s something very special about the way in which this event connects with the Lord’s Supper.
We see the wonderful way in which Jesus is the one who blesses these loaves and fishes and then feeds the large crowd. In the same way, in the Lord’s Supper, Jesus blesses a small amount of bread and wine, but then through these simple everyday things, he feeds us with his body and blood. He gives us not just bread and wine, but life-giving, sustaining food which feeds us in body and soul into eternity. He says: This is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Even in the Lord’s Supper, there is much more that is given to us, than simply the feeding of a large crowd with bread and fish.
But we also see the way in which Jesus is the one who does the work, but he sends his disciples out to distribute it. So also, in the church, after Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples continued to carry out the Lord’s Supper. And even today, we pastors also consecrate the Lord’s Supper with Christ’s words, and also distribute it, and you come and receive it. But it is not our miracle: it is Jesus who does this. It is he who works through us, it is his ministry, it is his Supper, and it is his church, just as we are his people.
So, let’s come to our Good
Shepherd today, repenting of our sin, seeking his forgiveness which he promises
to us, bringing to him all our needs in body and soul, and seeking his guidance
and leading in our lives. He knows what to do, even when he tests us and shows
before our eyes, just so much of what we really don’t have. But of course, we
have Jesus, and when we have Jesus we have everything. May the Holy Spirit come
to us and fill us and enlighten us with his gifts, and strengthen our faith,
that we may turn to Jesus every day, in every need, and seek his face and his
guidance in everything and in every situation. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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