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This Week's Sermon The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost 03 August 2008 "The Way of Superabundant Gifts" Matthew 14:13-21 LSB Series A Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

"Five thousand men, besides women and children." How many is that? More than can fit in most public places. The men alone make up a bit more than 8% of the population of Terre Haute. Add the women and children and who knows how many that is. Our Lord filled more than 5,000 stomachs, gave them enough for all to be satisfied, and still had twelve baskets full of leftover bread, more than what the disciples started with. More than enough is how we would describe this incident.

Our Lord, tired as he was from all his work and contemplating the violent death of his forerunner and relative, John the Baptizer, needed to get away by himself, but the crowds would have none of it. While Jesus went away to a desolate place by boat, the crowds followed on foot. When he arrived the crowds had already lined the shore of this desolate place, yet Jesus continued having compassion on them, healing their sick. The clinic could not close as the evening arrived, so his disciples advised him to send the crowds away into the neighboring towns to buy food, but Jesus had other plans.

"But Jesus said, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat."" The disciples are stunned. As they surveyed their meager resources they knew that there was nothing they could do. Precisely! That is why Jesus said, "Bring them here to me." Jesus knew what he would do. He would provide for the crowds and he would teach all of them something very important.

You know what happened here. The fish and the loaves were multiplied miraculously. Such a thing had never happened before. In another context Jesus said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26, ESV)

"You give them something to eat." The feeding of the five thousand men stands as a miracle in its own right. We rightly point to it as proof that God can indeed multiply our resources beyond what we can imagine. Where we see an impossibility God has planned a way, a way that depends completely on him.

This miracle also serves as a metaphor for something more important than feeding our bodies. The Evangelist John is the one who tells us that this crowd never really got over the bread thing, that they wanted to make Jesus king because he provided so superabundantly for all their needs. Think of how a politician could be elected in perpetuity should he or she be able to create and sustain constant affluence.

"You give them something to eat" is a metaphor for the Holy Ministry. While no human being can multiply loaves and fishes the way Jesus did, neither can any human being bring the superabundance of God's gifts by himself. The scene is repeated every Sunday and other days when the people gather to be fed spiritually. Jesus says to the pastor, "You give them something to eat." Any pastor who has an adequate understanding of his own limitations will immediately recognize that he is not able to feed the people as they need to be fed. Yet, there are many who try, and try mightily they do! They preach and teach out of their own resources. This, however, does not satisfy the hungry soul. Preaching "how to" sermons, sermons designed to fix whatever is wrong is your life, is doomed to failure. Teaching you how to live a successful life is not only arrogant, it's not going to work for most people. One must ask if one's life is successful without Christ.

These preachers might mean well but they fail. It's like that little bag of pretzels that the airlines give you because they are not going to give you an in flight meal. It's a snack but really doesn't satisfy. Only One can deliver that which satisfies the hungry heart, and the One is Jesus. "You give them something to eat" seems crazy at first blush. Does Jesus really mean that the disciples can do that? No! He wants them to come to the realization that they themselves cannot do that. Only he can. Back to Jesus. "Only you, Lord, can do that."

What can a pastor give you? He can give you only what Christ himself supplies. What Christ supplies comes from his lips, his hands. Christ himself supplies what you receive here, his Word and his Sacraments. Later on in this episode as recorded by John, the crowds decide to leave Jesus when he points to himself as the Bread of Life. But when Jesus switches to a discussion of himself and forgiveness of sins and eternal life, the crowds lose interest and drift away. When Jesus questions his own disciples if they, too, want to leave, Peter answers for them all,

"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." (John 6:68-69, ESV)

Isn't this exactly what happens every time the pastor speaks the Holy Absolution after you confess your sins? What can I, a human being just like you, possibly say that will change your situation before God? From my own resources I can't give you anything that will change anything, but when I speak in Christ's name and in his place, I can speak his own life-giving words, his words of eternal life. From the Small Catechism you have learned that these words are "just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us himself."

Here in the reading of the Holy Scriptures and in the sermon the treasures of heaven are opened up to you and explained. You are fed with the riches that the Holy Spirit himself brings. It is just what Jesus said in the third parable of last week's Holy Gospel:

"Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old." (Matthew 13:52, ESV)

Especially here in the Sacrament of the Altar the whole metaphor comes together because there is eating and drinking. Here Jesus is both host and victim. Here Jesus gives you to eat of his body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. Instead of sitting you come forward to kneel before the Lord who provides in such superabundance. And there is thanksgiving here, too, just as it was when Jesus looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Here there is thanksgiving for the superabundant gifts Christ gives us. That is why this Sacrament is also called the Eucharist, a Greek word which means "thanksgiving."

Luther teaches us to ask in the Small Catechism:

What is the benefit of this eating and drinking?
These words, "Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins," show us that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.

How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things?
Certainly not just eating and drinking do these things, but the words written here: "Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins." These words, along with the bodily eating and drinking are the main thing in the Sacrament. Whoever believes these words has exactly what they say: "forgiveness of sins."

The words. The words. The words. You receive not the words of a man but the words of Jesus himself, and if Jesus says it, it is true. It happens just as he says. You receive his words along with his true body and blood. He seals it to you. He guarantees it. And you leave the Lord's Table refreshed, satisfied, with the Lord's forgiveness. Now you have all that you need whatever the circumstances of your life. And you can come as often as you need because you can never exhaust the supply of Christ's forgiveness.

Twelve baskets full of leftovers. Five thousand men, not counting women and children. What a Lord! What love! What grace! Come, the table is soon ready and Jesus is here to feed you yet again with forgiveness and eternal life!