` Lent 4 - 2001

Lent 4 - 2001



Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Laetare – Lent 4 (March 25, 2001)
John 6:1-15
TITLE: “Jesus Gives More Than Enough”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text for today is the Gospel lesson just read from John chapter 6, Jesus’ feeding of the 5000.

The Christian life is a journey.  It’s a journey that begins with your Baptism and ends when you are carried home to be with Jesus in heaven.  When you were baptized, your life was linked to Jesus’ life.  His journey is now your journey.  That’s what Lent is all about.  And like any good journey, there is a stopping point along the way to be refreshed.

This Sunday is the halfway point in Lent.  It hardly seems like it, does it?  We began the Journey with Jesus 3 months ago with His birth in Bethlehem.  In fact, in the Christian Church, March 25th is traditionally celebrated as the festival of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that nine months from today she would have a baby, and His name would be Jesus.  So today is a day where we rest with Jesus on the plain, hear his teaching, and look forward to his birth nine months from now, and also look to the final stages of his journey to the cross for our salvation.

 So what is so special about Jesus feeding 5000 men, plus women and children?  In this day and age, 5000 doesn’t seem like much, does it?  We live in a time when God’s gifts and presence in our midst is taken for granted, or even outright denied.  Whether it be cloning sheep or planning a meal for our families, how often do we take time to set back and wonder at God’s great gift of creation?  How often do we reflect that God is the one who created the world, and that He is the one who holds it all together in the palm of His hand.  And furthermore, what does this wonder of God’s creation have to do with Lent, and with the coming death of Jesus Christ for our salvation.

This is the connection.  Jesus in feeding the 5000+ does so first of all to show the multitudes that He is none other than God in the flesh.  Just as Gabriel announced to Mary that she would bear the Son of the Highest in her womb, so also Jesus announces to the world that God’s Son is walking in their midst.  We have seen in the last three Sundays what Jesus work on earth is about: battling Satan and the wicked world for the salvation of souls.  Now today we hear that Jesus is God’s Son, and that He will feed you in the journey of your life.

The people were following Jesus.  They had heard the message of life and salvation in His name, and so they wanted to be with Him.  For where Jesus is, there is life and salvation.  But they were poor planners.  They were so intent on seeing the Son of God that they forgot to bring food for the journey!  Now Jesus’ disciples had an answer: send them away.  Let them deal with their own problems of bad planning and poor stewardship of their resources.  What’s the saying?  “Bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.”  Go away!  We don’t have time for you.

Jesus, however, would have none of it.  He calls to Philip and later to Andrew and Simon Peter, and asks them to feed the people.  What?  How are we supposed to feed 5000 men plus their families?  Do you think we’re supermen?  Do you think that we can just setup a monstrous bakery right here in the desert?  Even the five barley loaves and a couple small fish hardly seem enough to feed so many.

Bu this is the way it is in the world.  When it comes to things of the world, we worry that God won’t provide us with what we need.  How can I feed my family?  How can I take care of all my responsibilities?  So the reaction is either A) Despair because I can’t do it; B) Or pride because I think I can do it by myself.  This is the sin of the disciples as well.  They don’t realize that every good gift is from above, and that it is God Himself that will feed them.  Neither do we by nature.  We in our pride believe that I can get along just fine without God, thank you very much.  God is fine for those tired ones, for the people that can’t get on by themselves.  But I’m not one of them.  I can support myself without God.  But, of course, you can’t.  You can’t take care of yourself anymore than a newborn baby can feed and clothe himself.  The trouble is that your sinfulness blinds you from your need.

But let’s get back to our story.  Jesus bids the people sit down in the green grass.  It sounds almost like Psalm 23, doesn’t it?  He maketh me lie down in green pastures.  He takes bread, gives thanks, and distributes it to the disciples so that they may distribute it to the crowds.

Now this is easy to miss, but very important.  Why did the Son of God have to give thanks for this food?  He’s God, isn’t He?  Jesus is showing Himself to be in the true image of the Father, and He shows us that the Christian, that is, the one in Christ, receives everything from God with thanksgiving.  It is no accident that the word Jesus uses for give thanks is the word “eucharist.”  This is one of the many words in the Bible for the Lord’s Supper.  On the night in which He was betrayed, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and break it, and so forth.

If we are to receive the gift of God’s body and blood with thanksgiving, this changes how we look at everything that God gives us in this life.  Let me explain.  Jesus gives you Himself in the Lord’s Supper: His very body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.  That is strength for our journey of the Christian life like no other.

Now if God will give you His very body and blood for your life and forgiveness, that is proof positive that God provides you with everything that you need for his body and life.  If he’ll take care of your eternal food, is He going to let you starve on the way here?  Of course not.  Jesus is teaching this to His disciples, and so He uses them to distribute the bread and fish by which He fed the multitudes.  Now remember, the disciples were the ones at the very beginning that didn’t believe Jesus could do it.  Jesus now uses those unbelieving disciples to give out the very gifts that God was there to give out.

This speaks to each one of us and how God uses people.  God uses us to give out His gifts, be they big gifts, like forgiveness, or gifts for this earth, like food for my family or clothes.  And like the disciples in our lesson, He uses pastors to give out His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.

Some of you may have noted the sign on the bulletin board regarding Dr. Barry’s death in Christ.  Dr. Al Barry was the president of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod.  He died from liver and kidney failure this past Friday.  This is the first time that a president of synod has ever died in office.  It is appropriate, too, to remember with thanksgiving the man blessings that our Lord showered on our church body through the life and ministry of Dr. Barry.  I’ve had the honor to know him for several years, and a more compassionate or caring pastor could not be found.  Dr. Barry’s life serves as a reminder to us all that God is rich in mercy and abounding in steadfast love.

Notice, too, to get back to our text, how much they had to eat.  When we give out gifts, we think very practically.  How much can I afford?  How much do I like this person?  What would be appropriate to give them?  But when God gives out gifts, He just doesn’t think that way.  When God gives out gifts, they are enough for the whole world.  As the text says, When they were filled.  God gives you so much of His love and forgiveness that there are baskets overflowing.  His forgiveness and mercy comes in so many ways: His Word, preaching, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and Holy Absolution.  We don’t have to compare them to each other or play one off another, as if one gift from God is better than another.  No, God gives generously, of Himself.  That’s all that we could ever want or need.

So it is that this Sunday is called Laetare Sunday.  Laetare is a Latin word from our Introit, and it means rejoice!  In the midst of Lent, as we ponder the coming suffering and death of Jesus Christ, God calls on us to rejoice in Him.  Why?  Because He is good, and His mercy endures forever.  So come to the Table of the Lord, and feast on His body and blood for your life and forgiveness.  It’s more than you could ever hope for.  In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting.  Amen.

Copyright © 2001 by Todd A. Peperkorn.  This sermon may be reproduced freely, as long as the author is properly cited for any reproduction in print.
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