Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity
Romans 6:19-23 + Mark 8:1-9
Jesus provides refreshment for the weary, bread for the hungry. That’s the simple summary of today’s Gospel—another timely text for the troubled times in which we live. Who couldn’t use a little refreshment after yet another week full of news that depicts a nation consuming itself, destroying itself from within? Here we sit, hungry for peace, thirsting for righteousness, weary of violence and hatred and lies and distortions of facts. Who will save us from this wretched, sinful world?
I’ll tell you who won’t save us. Politicians. They won’t save us. Angry, vengeful people. They certainly won’t save us. In fact, people won’t save us at all. Only God can. And He will. But He won’t do it by turning our nation or our world into a utopia here on earth. He won’t save us by making America great again. He won’t save us by forcing people to live in peace and harmony with one another. No, we are living in the days before the Great Flood, when the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, and only a remnant of humanity will be rescued, as Noah and his family were kept safe on the ark. God will save us as He saved Noah, by bringing His judgment upon this earth and rescuing us out of it.
In a way, He has already done that for us Christians. He did it through Holy Baptism, where He washed us clean of our sins, forgiving us our sins in the blood of Christ, and has caused us to cross over from death to life through faith in Christ. He has already rescued us from condemnation and from wrath on the Day of Wrath. He has already made us new creatures, after the image of His Son. He has already redeemed us from the slavery of sin and uncleanness and lawlessness. As Jesus said to His disciples, “I chose you out of the world.”
But the Lord God has not yet taken us out of the world. In fact, Jesus once prayed for His Church, saying, Father, I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. So feed on God’s word today. Find refreshment in the goodness and mercy of Christ, and in this way God will keep you from the evil one.
We learn in today’s Gospel, not just that Jesus has the power to do miracles, to multiply bread and fish, to feed lots of people. We learn of His care and compassion, which extend to all men, but we learn here of His special care and compassion for those who have “continued with Him,” for those who have come to Him and believed in Him and left things behind in order to hear Him and learn from Him. Yes, God, in His mercy, provides food for the good and for the bad, for the righteous and for the unrighteous. More than that, God has given His Son into death for all men, so that all might believe and be saved, even though not all will believe and be saved. But we see today the special care Jesus shows for those who believe in Him, His ever-present compassion for His Church in the midst of this wilderness of chaos and despair.
The multitude of the 4,000 in today’s Gospel was different from other multitudes. For example, on a different occasion, Jesus gave bread to 5,000 men, plus women and children, in order to point them to Himself as the true Bread that came down from heaven. That multitude was curious about Jesus. That multitude was infatuated with the miracles Jesus had done and couldn’t get enough of the signs and wonders. They spent a day with Jesus, not far from their homes, not far from their cities. And they proved very quickly that they didn’t really want to hear the words of Jesus, that they didn’t really believe in Jesus or want the eternal life He had to offer.
This multitude, however, in today’s Gospel had followed Jesus a long way out into the wilderness for no other reason than to hear Him, to learn from Him, to receive eternal life from Him.
At the end of three days, they had no food left. Whatever they had brought with them for the journey had been consumed. Jesus looked out at them and said to His disciples, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar.
That’s the care and compassion Jesus has for His people. He knows what they’ve given up to be with Him. He knows what they need. He knows what would happen to them if left on their own. And so He takes care of them.
It’s not as if His people deserved His help. We don’t. Our sins would condemn us just as much as the world’s sins condemn them, if not for the grace of the Lord Jesus, who sent His Spirit in the preaching of the Word and has brought us to repentance and faith in Him.
But now, in His grace, He treats us like friends, like family, like brothers, because He has become our Brother and has made us into children of the heavenly Father. He assures us time and time again that the Father will always have compassion on His dear children who are united to Christ by faith and covered with His righteousness in Holy Baptism.
In the case of this multitude in our Gospel, what they needed at that moment was literally bread, food, which God normally provided through regular channels, like working for wages that can then be used to purchase food, clothes, and house. But, when necessary, God has also promised His people that He will provide in miraculous ways, so that there’s never any reason for us to turn anywhere but to Him for all that we need in this life and for the life to come.
Those needs are summarized well in our Catechism in the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: What is meant by daily bread? Everything that has to do with the nourishment and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothes, shoes, house, yard, land, livestock, money, property, a godly spouse, godly children, godly servants, godly and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.
Jesus teaches us to trust in God and to trust also in Him for all these things.
That doesn’t mean He’ll make us rich in earthly possessions. That doesn’t mean we will not bear a heavy cross in this life. On the contrary Jesus tells His disciples plainly, In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
Even in the midst of earthly tribulation and suffering under the cross, Jesus will not abandon us or leave us to fend for ourselves, just as He refused to abandon the 4,000 who followed Him out into the wilderness and to leave them to fend for themselves on their journey home. He offered them a meal’s worth of bread—not enough refreshment to get them through the rest of their lives, but enough to get them safely home on that day. Again, daily bread.
As we heard earlier, the bread that God’s people need most to get through this life, to be kept from the evil one as we walk through this world to our heavenly home, is the Word of truth, the Bread of Life, Jesus, who feeds on with Himself. What we need most is a constant supply of Word and Sacrament, because that is God’s means of sanctifying us and keeping us separate from the world and safe while we’re still in the world. Through His word, He shows us our sin and brings us to repentance. Through His Word, He shows us Christ crucified for sinners, brings us to faith, and keeps us in the faith. Through His word, He speaks forgiveness and comfort and hope and peace, and He seals it all to us, individually, one by one, as He gives us His own body for bread and His own blood for drink.
And now, as you make your journey home today, refreshed once again by the miraculous food that Jesus has provided in Word and Sacrament, you have all you need to face the world again for another week, to get back to your daily life of faith toward God and loving service toward your neighbor. You have all you need to live another week…as a slave. Not slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness, as St. Paul said in the Epistle. Slaves who live to serve their loving Master, who gave His life on the cross so that we might live. Beloved slaves, who have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
