Trinity 7 – August 3, 2025Psalm 47; Isaiah 62:6-12; Romans 6:19-23St. Mark 8:1-9
In the Name of the Father, and of the +
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Twice during our Lord’s ministry, He
feeds a multitude with a few loaves and a few fish. On the occasion before us
this morning, it is a multitude of 4,000 Gentile men, plus women and children. This
multitude had followed Christ out into the wilderness for three days and seem
to have given no mind as to where they would find food or even how they would
get home. We might be tempted to accuse the multitude of poor planning, of
single-mindedness, or even of being so heavenly minded that they are of now
earthly good.
While there might be some truth to
those accusations, they should be tempered by the fact that this crowd is
paying no attention to their earthly provision for the sake of following
Christ. Even this motivation is peppered with impurity. I’m sure there were
some who followed Christ for the spectacle; others who followed just because
there was a crowd following him and they didn’t want to be left out; and still
others who were following in greedy expectation of receiving something.
But even if their motives were not
perfectly pure, they were in the right place and following the right Man. They
trusted Him enough to hear and consider His words. They even, it seems, trusted
that He would take care of the physical needs that they had forgotten about in
the excitement of following Jesus into the wilderness. In this, they are to be
commended.
And the miracle itself shows us that
Christ is not just the Lord of our souls but the Lord over creation, the Lord
of body and soul. He has concern both for our spiritual welfare and our
physical being. It should not be surprising that the homeless and destitute
often come to churches to ask for aid. What is even more revealing is that when
offered prayer or biblical admonition, they flee. These would have been among
the multitude on the first day but when Christ didn’t provide miraculous food,
immediately they departed. If He would not provide on their terms, they would
seek help somewhere else.
Imagine a world wherein all men sought
first spiritual refreshment and then found temporal blessings that followed,
rather than insisting on having their temporal needs met first and only then
considering the eternal. Instead, we see mankind dissatisfied with the
Providence of God (what He provides for life) and contempt for His divine
authority and restraints against corrupt morality. This craving for personal
taste and laws of our own making bring true unhappiness and grief – even if we
can convince ourselves that it is happiness and joy.
What we see in Scripture and throughout
history is that some men suffer in this world for their devotion to the next.
They suffer hunger, lack, homelessness, persecution, and even death for their
faith. The extreme forms of this suffering are not common but, in some measure,
all Christians experience this suffering. And when they do, we see that they
always receive the refreshment of God, the rejuvenation of their souls. Maybe
not quickly. Maybe not in the way they would have it, but always in God’s good
time and pleasure.
In the case of the 4,000, there was no
temporal solution to their predicament. No amount of money, no expertise, no extraordinary
effort was going to save their bodies. They were in a dire circumstance. Maybe
some of them could have made it home but on the whole and for the most part,
they would have died on their journey home. And this situation inspires
compassion in our Lord.
Now that word compassion is important.
It is what moves Christ to feed both multitudes, the four and the five
thousand. It is not just pity or an emotion. This compassion is a literal
movement in the guts,[1]
a sense of mercy so deep it is felt in your body. Think of how intense you
might feel when your “heart sinks” or your “stomach turns.” It is so strong
that it affects the body, stirs the blood, and agitates the whole being such as
to draw out an active desire to see the suffering relieved. That is how intense
our Lord is reacting to the situation of the multitude. He is moved with such
extremity for these people’s physical wellbeing, as well as for the wellbeing
of their souls. He is touched by our aches and pains as well as our emotional,
mental, and spiritual ills.
This compassion is all the more intense
because this crowd has endured with Him over three days. They have sought Him
out and remained with Him for three days with little or no provision. They have
come with at least some measure of zeal to hear Him preach—to see Him, hear
Him, and be near Him. Their zeal for His Word has led them to disregard their bodies.
What they have disregarded, He has noticed. What they have forgotten, He has
remembered. They have truly sought first the kingdom of God and now it is time
for all these things to be added to them.[2]
This compassion within Christ did not
end with a deep movement of His heart but showed itself in deed. He did not just
sympathize with their weakness but acted to fill it. He is the Savior of bodies
as much as He is the Savior of souls. Your body is important to Christ. He will
raise it up on the last day. Note that the multitude was with Him three days.
This is no accident. It was on the third day that Christ rose from the dead,
and it is on the third day that He will make provision to raise this multitude
from the grips of death. He gave Himself into death that these people, and you,
would be rescued from it. He shed His blood that you would be fed on the bread
of Life and your thirst for righteousness would be satisfied by His blood.
By virtue of your Baptism, you are made a temple of the Holy Spirit. Again, that is not just a spiritual truth. It also applies to your physical body. How you care for your body and how you use your body are important to Christ because it reveals what you believe about Him, about the resurrection of the flesh, and about His love for you. Confessing Christ with your lips but using your body as a tool of sin is inconsistent; the type of inconsistency that is the result of hypocritical faith. It is the result of saying the right words but not actually believing what they mean. The moral precepts of Scripture are given such that your body would confess the same truth your soul receives, making you a complete man; conforming you to the image of Christ.[3]
Lest we reduce the miracle of Christ’s
provision to only a physical miracle, we must recognize that every act of
Christ is also addressing the inner, spiritual man. This feeding of the 4,000
does not only satisfy their bellies but communicates Christ’s provision for
their souls. We see this first in that He commands the multitude to sit on the
ground. He gives them a direction before giving them the food. A man can eat
while standing, walking, or any number of ways, but He commands them to sit
upon the ground. At that time, the multitude was free to disobey, but in so doing,
they would have forfeited their participation in the blessing.
In the same way, there are commands
that must be observed to receive the bread of Life. There must be a sitting
down in the dust at the Lord’s feet, a humbly rejection of the self and
submission to the words and commands of Christ. It is common to hear people
say, “I can worship God in the field, on the golf course, or the duck blind,
just as well as I can in Church;” or “One church is a good as another, they are
all the same;” or “Membership in a congregation is up to me, not the
congregation, elders, pastor, or even God.” Such attitudes reject the Lordship
of Christ and His word. They place the self above the Words of Christ. He has
said not to neglect the gathering of the saints.[4]
He has said that he who rejects you, rejects Him;[5]
and where two or three are gathered in Him name, there He is.[6]
If a man operates only on his pride and self-confidence, there is little hope
that he will be saved.
At the same time, the command to sit is
quite simple. It is not a monumental task to follow the command and, it is even
a command to do something pleasant. How delightful it is to sit in a field and
enjoy the presence of Christ. How wonderful it is to embody your faith, to be
given an opportunity to put your body into the service of Christ and His Word
by simply following what He has said. And even if sitting in the dust at
Christ’s feet is offensive to your sensibilities, how wonderful an opportunity
to train your hardened heart through an action of your body. You may not feel
like hugging your wife, but you still have control over your arms. Doing the outward
movement, taking the physical action will affect your heart, your inner being. Do
it for the sake of those around you. Sit in the dirt at Jesus’ feet and your
soul will receive the benefit.
Secondly, Christ does not conjure food from nothing. He takes what is available and amplifies it through His Divine providence. The elements of water, bread, and wine are commonly available. There is nothing particularly special about them. Yet these are exactly what Christ takes and turns into Divine treasures. He imbues the mundane with His Divine Word to impart to you eternal blessings.
In the same way, He uses what you
already have to bless you temporally. It isn’t always apparent. While raising
children is difficult, it is also a curb against your own sin. When you have
other mouths to feed, you work harder to provide. When you have friends to care
for, it is harder to hoard your own money and possessions. Even that person who
annoys you, gets under your skin, provides you an opportunity to humble
yourself, to learn the virtue of patience. Every type of affliction in this
world is an opportunity to see that Christ is at work in bringing you closer to
Him, if only you will humble yourself enough to see it. Christ Himself was born
of a lowly virgin that you would know that He raises the lowly and brings His
divinity through the mundane things of this world.
Finally, we must notice that the food
of this miracle is distributed through the hands of the Apostles. Christ does
not distribute the loaves and fishes. He directs the Apostles to feed the
multitude. He has established the Office of the Holy Ministry for the same
purpose. He has established an Office into which men are ordained for the
distribution of His most precious gifts. Pastors are servants, stewards over
the gifts of Christ. Their Master is God and His Word. They are given to take
what is given by God and distribute it to those in need of it.
These are the ambassadors of God, set
to minister to us the bread of Life and if people will not hear and deal with
them, if people refuse to hear and deal with them, there is no other remedy. If
one of the multitude refused to receive bread from Andrew, then he went unfed.
He did not get to run to another portion of the field and receive from the hand
of Peter, let alone insist Christ feed him directly.
Beloved in the Lord, mark well this
miracle of Christ. After both feeding miracles, the Apostles are shown not to
understand their significance. Mark well the compassion of Christ for sinful
man, both in body and soul. Think on His great love for you that He would care
even for your hunger, let alone your soul. Consider His humility in descending
from the Father into your flesh, that He would carry the burden of your sin and
the weakness of your flesh in His own. Be mindful of His great sacrifice,
spending three days in the bowels of the earth that you would be spared the
depths of hell.
And then rejoice in His glorious
resurrection; that He would proceed you in life so that you would know what it
is you have to look forward to. You are the Holy People, the Redeemed of the
Lord and He has sought you out in the wilderness of this world.[7]
Proceed in this righteousness of both body and soul, having full confidence of your
own glorious resurrection. “Having been set free from sin, and having become
slaves of God, you 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.”[8]
In + Jesus’
name. Amen.
[1]
Σπλαγχνίζομαι – an onomatopoeia
for the sound of a sacrificial animal’s entrails hitting the altar. It is used
metaphorically of the seat of emotions and a forceful movement within. Within
Christian usage, it comes to mean a deep movement of mercy and pity, such as
would cause a physical reaction within one’s body.
[2]
St. Matthew 6:33.
[3]
Romans 6:19; 8:29.
[4]
Hebrews 10:25.
[5]
St. Luke 10:16.
[6]
St. Matthew 18:20.
[7]
Isaiah 62:12.
[8]
Romans 6:22-23.
