Eating From The Hand Of God
John 6:1-15
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
John 6:14 Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ… “The eyes of all look to You, O Lord, and You give them their food at the proper time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.” You should recognize this prayer as the appropriate prayer before meals from Dr. Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. It might be more accurate to say that the eyes of all should look to the Lord (though many do not), because He does indeed provide their daily bread “at the proper time” or as the King James puts it, “in due season.” The Psalmist simply confesses that the Creator God is also the provider and preserver of all things.
Of course, we might be tempted to point out that some people have far more than others (and far more than they really need – and I am not talking about toilet paper!), while others suffer a constant want and hunger, at times even to the point of starvation. Where is the hand of God in that? We find the answer to that question in today’s Gospel. But let’s first begin at the beginning.
St. John writes in v.1, After these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee… What were “these things?” In the previous chapter John has just recorded the strong opposition to our Lord of the Jews in Jerusalem; they opposed Jesus because He had healed a man on the Sabbath and, in their own words, had “…made Himself equal with God.” What follows in the Feeding of the 5,000 is a demonstration – a “sign” for those who believe – that Jesus is indeed equal with God, for He is God. He can and does heal on the Sabbath because He is the Lord of the Sabbath; He is the fulfillment of the Sabbath and all that it signified. By the same token He feeds the people on the mountain as One who is God in the flesh; He invites them to be seated at His Table, to lift up their eyes to Him, and to receive the feast of His bountiful goodness from His divine hand.
There are, in fact, many Old Testament promises regarding the great feast that Messiah would bring for His people. But along with those promises, there are also significant Old Testament events that point forward to the Feast of Christ. Perhaps the most striking parallel to our Gospel is the manna from heaven that God provided for the children of Israel as they wandered in the desert. In fact, Jesus will be speaking more specifically about that event and its significance in the Gospel for next Sunday.
At the very least the people in our text should have recognized – as some of them did – that Jesus was another prophet who spoke and acted with the authority of God Himself. But more than that, the eyes and ears of faith recognize that Jesus is more than a prophet; He is, in fact, the very same God, the Shepherd of Israel, who led the people out of Egypt, who fed the people in the wilderness, and who brought them to the Promised Land.
As it was, great crowds of people were there to be fed by Jesus because they had seen the “signs” that He had worked on those who were sick. It was all very simple in some respects; the people then, like now, had needs and hurts and a certain sense of desperation about their life in this world. They came to Jesus because they saw in Him an answer to their problems; they saw someone who could heal their diseases, someone who could feed their families, someone who could boost their economy, someone who could drive away their enemies… and the list could go on and on.
And we can make our own list too, for we all have needs and hurts and desperation, especially during this current time of fear, anxiety, and worry about the Coronavirus; and we have those things simply because of sin. It is a situation that we, as sinful beings, have brought upon ourselves from the very beginning. We suffer the consequences of our own sin, and the sin of those around us. So instead of blaming God and cursing Him for the predicaments in which we find ourselves, we ought to be lifting up our eyes constantly to Him as the only real solution.
Unfortunately, if there’s one thing we are really good at because of our sin it is our lack of faith in Christ. When all is going well and life is fairly stable, we are more than willing to take credit for ourselves. But when things are not going so well and life seems to be falling apart at the seams, we tend to blame God as though He were out to get us and as though we deserved something better. Then we do not even have the superficial faith of the crowds in our text who go running after Jesus for help, because we do not trust His providential care of our life.
Please remember that when challenges and trials come upon us, the only right thing to do is to draw nearer to God in His Word and Sacraments, for He intends that these things do exactly that – bring us nearer to Him and trust in Him all the more.
But, you must discuss the procedure before the deeprootsmag.org discount levitra purchase treatment with your doctor. Therefore you should avail this solution in order to stay unaffected in concern to the heart usa generic viagra safety and to get your blood pressure at the normal cost for every square foot for doctor’s facility space, these types of establishments are proficiently run and cost effective improvements. On clicking in the appropriate box you get enrolled as a member and now you can buy sildenafil citrate from reliable pharmaceutical stores on the Web, even if you don’t have cialis properien a prescription. Today, erectile dysfunction has been very common health problem in men which have made buy cialis find over here now druggists and chemists to prepare several medications to overcome this problem. The Lord’s response to our doubts and lack of faith is twofold. As He did with Philip and the other disciples, He first puts our faith to the test, and by doing so He exposes our sin. When faced with a crisis in our lives as we are all facing now, do we look to Him and recognize that He is both willing and able to help? Or do we simply throw up our hands in despair and conclude that we are too poor and helpless to do any good?
Of course, the truth of the matter is that we ARE too poor; we ARE too helpless to do any good. We really MUST despair of making it on our own, for that is really the point. Philip and Andrew needed to realize that, apart from Christ, the people were going to go hungry; it was just that simple. It was late; there were too many people; they were out in the boondocks without any food to speak of. So also it is in our lives.
But then the Lord responds. And He does so in spite of our doubts, in spite of our inability to handle things on our own. He takes the matter completely into His own hands and thereby demonstrates that He alone is able to provide for all our wants of body and soul – much as He did in today’s Old Testament Lesson in Exodus when He first allowed the people to go hungry and then fed them with manna from heaven, lest there be any doubt that He alone was feeding them.
And that is what it means to be a Christian – to look to God in any and every situation for all good things with the confidence that He will provide for you in Christ. In short, as Dr. Martin Luther often liked to say, “Let God be God.” In fact, that is precisely what we do every time we pray the Our Father. We look to Him for our “daily bread” and in so doing we acknowledge that He alone is our Maker and Redeemer, that He alone is the Shepherd who feeds us.
But Jesus has much more to offer than simple earthly blessings. Far more important are the blessings He brings for eternity: the forgiveness of your sins along with His life and salvation. When you receive His good gifts of food, clothing, shelter, good health, your families and friends, you should be able to look above and beyond all of these things to the One who has given you Himself in Christ. Even if you suffer the lack of these earthly gifts, you should nevertheless be able to pray and confess, “O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, and His mercy endureth forever.”
Easier said than done, I know; because far too often we misinterpret His physical blessings as being the main things. And when those physical blessings are withheld, we quickly assume that all is lost, that He has forgotten us, or that He no longer loves us, or that He is punishing us for some reason known only to Him. Those are lies from the devil.
The crowd in our Gospel had the same problem. They were drawn to Jesus and impressed by His physical miracles and earthly blessings, but they had no regard for His cross, no regard for His forgiveness, and no regard for His salvation which He had come to bring. It is obvious that by their misplaced values they had misunderstood Christ, something which was abundantly clear by their desire to “take Him by force and make Him their earthly king”.
To what degree are we like those people? Do you and I also neglect the reality of Christ’s eternal blessings? Well, in our sinfulness, we most certainly do. But our dear Lord would lovingly teach us otherwise. He grants to us the eyes of faith, and then He gently guides those eyes to see far more than just a few loaves of bread and some fish. In the poverty of His cross, in the simplicity of His Word, in the humility of water, bread, and wine, He shows to us the blessings that will last forever – the blessings that will carry us from this world of hunger, sickness, fear, and death into the everlasting Promised Land of heaven.
St. John tell us that the events of this chapter take place just before the Passover; therefore, these events are set in the context of and looking forward to the fulfillment of that Passover celebration. The feeding of the 5,000, therefore, points us forward to the Feeding of Christ’s Church as He feeds us in the Sacrament of the Altar. For it is there, from the altar of His cross, that Jesus continues to feed the hungry multitude.
In both great events – the Feeding of the 5,000 and the Lord’s Supper – we are given a preview and a foretaste of the eternal feast to come in heaven, the great heavenly Feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which has no end. Jesus tenderly invites His people – He invites you and me – to be seated at this Table with Him. He is the host and He is the provider of this great and glorious feast in which He is the very food that we are given to eat and to drink. As the Lord Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to His disciples so that they in turn distributed them to the people, so also every time His Supper is served He takes the bread into His hands – the hands of God Himself – and, giving thanks, He distributes His body to His disciples, and His disciples, His pastors, distribute it to you that all may eat from His hand.
As you receive this Bread of Life today, as you take this cup of salvation from the hand of God, do not fear, for “no poison can be in the Cup that my Physician sends me.” Do not fear the Lord’s Body and Blood in the same way that you may fear anything else going on in your life and in the world. Do not fear our gathering together in this place, for being here is good and right. Our Lord comes to us in His Divine Service for our eternal and spiritual good.
And when you continue to enjoy God’s good gifts – both spiritual and according to the First Article, pray these words: “Lord God, heavenly Father, bless us and these Your gifts which we receive from Your bountiful goodness; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
