Bread of Death, Bread of Life
Mark 8:1-9
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Mark 8:6 And He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and they set them before the multitude.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… Jesus said, “Man does not live on bread alone…” and I, as a bread lover, have often been quoted as saying in response, “Yes, but I sure would like to give it a try.” Bread, of course, is one of the most common foods there is; it is a basic staple of our life. We used to go through a lot of bread in our house. One way or another, bread found its way into our meal plan.
And yet, as people of God we sometimes forget that the eating of bread – as enjoyable as that is – is a result of the fall into sin. Remember the curse which God spoke to Adam and to all his descendants in Genesis 3: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life . . . In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.”
Before the Fall Adam and Eve could eat freely from any tree in the Garden except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Without any work on their part, God provided everything they needed to sustain their lives. Food was given to them in abundance as a gracious gift.
But through the temptation of the devil and Adam and Eve giving in to that temptation, everything changed. Adam and Eve rebelled against God by reaching out for food which was not given them to eat by the Lord. They wanted to do things their own way, they wanted to be in charge of their own lives, they wanted to be their own god. The devil promised them great things, but that promise turned out to be a lie. Instead of gaining something, they ended up losing their status before God and forfeited the life He had given them.
Dear friends, the devil also tempts each of you to reach for and take any number of things that the world has to offer, things that God has not given you. Satan wants your spiritual dining to consist of satisfying your own desires; he wants your spiritual dining to focus not on the Lord and His words but on whatever it is that you think will make you happy. To appease your spiritual hunger, the devil tries to sell you junk food; he wants to make you a consumer of the pleasures and power of this world. He hisses at you, “Go ahead, get more things, gain more possessions. Take in all the entertainment, all the recreation, all the worldly pleasures and wisdom you can. Then you will be in charge; then you will be content.”
But the devil is a liar. Jesus calls him the father of lies. He offers nothing of substance, he offers nothing that lasts. No matter how much stuff you may acquire in this world, you will always end up empty, you will always end up unsatisfied. You are in the same boat as Adam and Eve, for you, too, have consumed forbidden fruit.
The curse of sin now weighs heavy on us and this world in which we live. Unlike the perfection and abundance of the Garden of Eden, now thorns and thistles infest the ground. Daily bread comes only with much effort and much labor – planting and tilling and harvesting and grinding and baking. Children are brought forth in pain. There is sickness and hardship, harsh weather and earthquakes.
Romans 8 says that all creation groans under this curse and is in bondage to decay. We can sometimes come up with temporary solutions to these problems with technology or medical advancements, but in the end, these words of God catch up with us all: “Dust you are and to dust you shall return.” And, “The wages of sin is death” – which is separation from God forever. And bread is a sign of that death; be it a dinner roll or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, we hear from God in Genesis 3, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.”
However, into this world breaks the very Son of God Himself to save you. Where is Jesus in today’s Gospel? He is in the wilderness with a multitude of people who have nothing to eat. He is with those who are feeling the effects of the curse of the Fall very intently. You see, Christ took on your human flesh and blood and put Himself smack dab into the middle of this fallen world in order to rescue you and raise you up. The sin of man turned paradise into a bleak and harsh place; so Jesus entered into that bleak and harsh place as a true man in order that He might undo the curse and provide the only way to restore you and all of creation.
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In today’s Gospel Jesus told His disciples, “I have compassion on the multitude.” That word “compassion” literally means “pain in the inward parts.” It’s a gut ache resulting from seeing someone suffer and wanting to fix or relieve the suffering. Jesus demonstrated His compassion by coming down from heaven and making Himself a part of your blood and sweat and tears – to suffer with you, and to redeem you from the fall. Jesus said in John 4, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” The work that the Father gave Jesus to finish was to destroy the devil’s work and deliver you from the power of sin. The food that Christ consumed and that consumed Him was to free you from the ultimate wages of sin which is eternal death.
And you can begin to see that taking place in this miracle of the feeding of the 4000. What food does Jesus multiply? Bread! Jesus takes a food of judgment and turns it into a miraculous food of blessing. He takes the bread of death and makes it the bread of life! He reverses the curse and produces bread in abundance apart from any sweat or labor. In this moment He restores the bounty of the Garden of Eden where food is received in overflowing measure from the gracious hand of God. In this miracle you see the Son of God beginning to break the curse of decay and death and overcome the fall into sin. You see a small glimpse of paradise that Jesus was working to renew and restore for us forever.
The multitude had been with Jesus for three days and they had nothing to eat. Jesus feared that if He sent them away hungry to their houses, they would faint on the way, for some had come a far distance. So when He heard that the disciples had seven loaves of bread, Jesus had the multitude sit down. Then He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples. And the disciples gave the bread to the multitude along with a few small fish that Jesus blessed.
Amazingly, miraculously, there was enough food for everyone. No matter how much the disciples distributed, by Christ’s creating power there was always more and more to be given out. Everyone ate; everyone was thoroughly satisfied. And when it was all over and the bread was seemingly exhausted, the disciples took up seven baskets full of the fragments that remained.
Dear friends, Jesus continues today to take bread, give thanks, break it, and give it to His disciples to distribute to the multitudes. But He gives you not only ordinary bread, but the Bread of Life, His own self, His own flesh and blood. Jesus said, “I am the Living Bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
Jesus offered up His own flesh and blood for you on the cross. He sacrificed His body to free you from the bondage of death and the devil. To those of us who would faint along the way and perish under the power of the curse, the Scriptures declare, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” (Gal 3:13). The wages of sin have been canceled out by the ransom price of Christ’s precious blood, and by that blood you have been restored to life with God through Him who is alive forevermore. As it is written, “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23).
Indeed, Jesus is that promised descendant of Eve who has bruised and crushed Satan’s head by His work on the cross. Christ has delivered you from the tempter’s hellish power by His bodily resurrection from the grave. It was through eating that the devil overcame man; and now it is through eating that the devil is overcome – your eating of the Bread of Life. For to believe by God-given faith and trust in Christ and His words is to partake of that living bread from heaven, which one may eat of and not die. Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger; and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (Jn 6:35).
The Lord now constantly invites you to come to Him at His altar, that the hungering and thirsting of your souls may be fully satisfied. For in this Sacrament Christ takes a food of death, namely bread, and by the power of His own death He makes it a bread of life for you. Even as Jesus was together with the multitude for three days, so also He who rose bodily from the grave on the third day is truly and literally present with you in Holy Communion.
Under bread and wine He gives into your mouths His living body and blood, that you may share fully in His life. And since Christ has been raised from the dead, He who is in you cannot die any more. Therefore, His life that He gives you and that you have within you is eternal and unconquerable. In Christ, who is the Bread of Life, the curse of death no longer has dominion over you.
In Christ, there is no sweating to work your way into God’s favor. In Christ there are no wages or merits to be earned from the Father. No, in Christ there are only gifts gladly to be received from His gracious hand – the gifts of abounding forgiveness, indestructible life, and everlasting salvation. As you regularly receive this living bread that came down from heaven, you are being given a foretaste of paradise. For heaven is where Christ is, and Christ is here for you. “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trust in Him” (Ps 34:8).
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
