The Lord Provides
St. John 6:1-15
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. John 6:11 And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… In one of the prayers of the Church, God’s people ask that the Lord would protect them from “despair of His mercy.” Now, that may seem like a strange turn of a phrase. Why would anyone ever fall into despair in the light of God’s endless mercy and tremendously plenteous grace?
But that is exactly what Philip and Andrew fell into in today’s Gospel reading in John 6. Right after Jesus tested Philip by asking him, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?”, Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.” You can almost sense Philip’s anxiety; he is at best doubtful that Jesus’ request can be granted.
And Andrew? Well, he didn’t fare any better when he said, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?” “Seriously, Jesus? Five loaves and two fish? Don’t you see all these people? Why, that little bit of food won’t even feed more than a few small families, let alone the rest of this large crowd!”
And the children of Israel lost it too; they fell into despair in today’s Old Testament lesson when they grumbled against Yahweh and completely forgot how He had taken care of them to that point. “Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” God, you just don’t get it. We’re doomed!
The problem with Andrew’s and Philip’s questions, and the problem with Israel’s whiny little pity party is that they simply didn’t believe that God was there for them. Theirs was the very voice of despair. It is the voice that says that the Lord’s mercy has come to an end, and God is no longer interested in my welfare or life.
It sure is fun to laugh at Philip and Andrew and the Israelites, isn’t it? It sure is easy to point out their lack of trust. I mean, really! How could they possibly have anything to complain about? Philip and Andrew had been with Jesus, and had seen and heard marvelous things – healings, people raised from the dead, miracles. They had no excuse! And the Israelites seem to have completely forgotten how miraculously Yahweh had marched them right out of Egypt untouched and fully stocked with possessions and provisions, not to mention saving their sorry hides by walking them through the dry bed of the Red Sea and destroying Pharoah’s entire army right in front of their eyes!
You have probably heard the saying, “When you point your finger at someone, there are three other fingers pointing back at you.” Well, it’s time to check out those other three fingers. Can you not see yourself in Philip’s or Andrew’s shoes, or those of the Israelites? Have you never cried out like they did? “Why have I lost my job?” Why can’t I find a job? Why did God let me get sick or weak or frail? Why did God let my car break down? How am I ever going to make ends meet? Why doesn’t God love me? Why, O Lord, has this happened to me? O Lord, Your mercy has run out. You have forgotten me.”
Repent, dear fellow redeemed. Repent. Not one sparrow falls to the ground without your heavenly Father’s notice – and you are worth much more to Him than they. Repent. He knows what you need and He has arranged for it before you even ask. He is not just merciful; He is Mercy itself.
Philip failed the test even after he had seen so many miracles from Jesus; he despaired of the Lord’s mercy. The Israelites failed the test even after they had seen so many miracles from the Lord through the hand of Moses; they despaired of the Lord’s mercy. And God would have had every right to punish them all so severely that they would have regretted their whining. And don’t deny that you may have wanted God to do that to them.
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Rejoice, dear Christian, that the Lord does this for you too. Rejoice that your needs are met, even if you cannot see it and in spite of the fact that you don’t appreciate it. Rejoice that the Lord cares for you, even if you don’t feel it. Don’t be like the people in today’s Gospel lesson now do. They misunderstood the Lord’s gift and saw it as an end in itself. He multiplied bread for them and all they saw was a meal ticket: “let’s make this man king and we’ll never have to work another day in our lives! He can just feed us with His miraculous power!”
That, of course, misses the point of the miracle. Our Lord’s miracles are never ends in themselves; they are only signs. A sign is not the thing itself; a sign points to the thing. That Jesus provided earthly food for these people was not the thing to focus on – it was rather a sign that this Jesus is the one who can provide true spiritual sustenance and nourishment. The people missed this, and so they sought to make Jesus their earthly Bread King.
But Jesus would have none of it. He hid Himself from them. They did not want Him; they wanted a free lunch every day for the rest of their lives. They hadn’t thought about what would happen after that. But the “after that” is what Jesus was there for. He Himself is the Bread from Heaven which gives eternal life. The earthly bread is but a sign of this.
And so it is with you, dear Christian. Rejoice when the Lord heals your disease, or mends your marriage, or saves you from the car accident, or provides you with a new job. Look to Him for these and all other good things. But do not mistake these signs of the Lord’s favor for the thing itself. They are but signs that are meant to point you to the real thing – which is eternal salvation in Christ.
You see, no matter how easy your earthly life is – even if the Lord should rain down a million dollars a day into your living room – you will still die. Even if the Lord pays off your mortgage, you will still die. Even if the Lord heals the disease that afflicts you today, someday you will still die. And what then? What about after that? Thus, the Lord uses the hardships and sufferings of this life – the ruinous results of rebellious sin – to draw you closer to Him. He does not delight in seeing you suffer. He takes no sadistic pleasure in the hardships that you face.
But He does use these hardships for your good. Every difficulty in life – whatever it is – is meant by God to draw you deeper into His loving arms and to trust in Him all the more. He uses these things to get you to stop focusing on yourself and your problems which, of yourself, you can’t do anything about anyway. He uses these things to show you the one thing needful. You come to Him with a problem and He seeks to show you the truest answer.
Sometimes that answer will not make sense to you because you are still weak or too young. It is like a child who cries out to her father that she is afraid of the monsters who live in her closet. Her anxiety and fear about the monsters is real. But the father knows that this is not her real problem. It is a shadow problem, the significance of it is of her own devising. If she is preoccupied with these monsters, the rest of her life, her real life, will suffer.
So what does the father do? He goes about providing for his daughter’s real needs: he clothes her, feeds her, and provides a roof over her head. If she should ever say to her father, “Dad, thanks for the food and all, and the clothes are nice, and I really like this warm house: but when are you going to take care of the monsters in the closet?”, the father would respond by saying, “Trust me, honey, if you eat your supper and look both ways when you cross the street, the monsters won’t bother you. They cannot really hurt you.”
You come to God with your monsters: the mortgage is late, your love life is a mess, your job is gone, your body aches, you get sick – and whatever other monsters there are. And your blessed Savior gives you an response that perhaps you didn’t expect. You ask about the mortgage and the job and the love life, and He says to you: “I died for you on the cross. My suffering covers yours. I forgive you your sins. I love you. Cling to Me and these monsters will never be able to hurt you.”
Jesus faced the biggest, scariest, most terrifying monster of all: He took the hellish torture of crucifixion which was the punishment for all of your sins. And then He stared down Death and the Grave, and defeated them for you by His own substitutionary death and utterly victorious resurrection. And in His death and resurrection He secured full payment for all your sins. And in the preached Word and blessed Sacraments, He continually distributes that forgiveness to all who in God-given faith know and understand their need and desire to receive it.
The Lord provides. He provides the most important thing you will ever need – His forgiveness, His strength, His peace. And He provides this in super-abundance. These things may look to the unbelieving world around us like measly and insignificant things… “What are these among so many? It’s only a little wine and a bite of bread. It’s only a little water and some words.” But to you, Child of God, they are everything, for they are Christ for you and in you and with you.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
