|
|
|
Posted At: 1:28am by Brent Kuhlman
|
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost Trinity Lutheran Church
13 August 2006 Murdock, NE
+ Jesu Juva +
St. John 6:1-15
The Feeding of the Five Thousand. A pivotal story. It’s the only miracle reported in all four of the Gospels. That’s rare. So it must be very important. And it is. The end of the story gives it away. But we’ll get to that later.
First, it’s the end of a long day. The Passover is near. Passover always recalled the Exodus. God’s saving of Israel. You remember don’t you? The Passover lamb sacrificed. It’s blood smeared on the door posts. And death passed over the Israelites. And shortly thereafter freedom from their slavery. The Exodus from Egypt. Salvation.
So when John writes that Passover is near it’s a clue to us that Lamb of God Jesus who takes away the sin of the world is doing His salvation stuff. Just like in the OT. And fulfilling it. The one and only salvation job.
The Lord’s being hounded by huge crowds. They’ve seen Him at work. Miraculous signs on the sick they’ve seen. He looks for all the world like a kind of walking-talking cafeteria table of power from which people can serve themselves. What a Prophet! Jesus takes a seat on the mountain side. Mountain. Big things happen on mountains in the Bible. So too here. It’s late and he has a hungry crowd on His hands.
What kind of Prophet do people think He is? What kind of Prophet do you think Jesus is? Let’s see. Jesus tests Philip.
He tests you too with the big question: “How are we going to feed all these people?” Philip complains that they don’t have enough money. Then he gives Jesus the low down of a caterer’s estimate of the cost. “We could work for eight months and never have enough to feed all these people!”
And then Andrew pipes in. “All we’ve got is this little boy’s lunch. Five dinner rolls and two small fish. It’s hopeless.” Can’t seem to trust Jesus for a meal, can they? Not enough money. And only a little bit of bread for a couple of filet of fish sandwiches.
The rest of course is history. Everyone sits down on the grass. 5,ooo men not counting the women and children. No hocus pocus. No long prayers. No holy exhortations. Jesus simply give thanks, breaks it up, and passes it out. The bread probably reaches the back row of the crowd before the first row figures out what is happening.
And the crowds do finally figure it out. No doubt when the disciples picked up all the leftovers and filled an additional 12 baskets full.
“What a magnificent messianic cafeteria counter! What a miracle! Astounding. Breathtaking. Prophet Moses never did anything like this! There’s more bread here than all the manna Moses could ever provide. Here’s a Prophet we like. A Prophet that will really take care of us. If He can do so much with five loaves and two fish, imagine what He could do with a booming wheat and fish harvest. World hunger ended. Poverty eliminated. Wars ended. Oh, the utopia. What a Shangri-la! Behold the kingdom of God!” The crowds will buy this kind of Messiah. Even make Him their king. How about you?
But you and the crowds forgot to ask Jesus didn’t you. What does He think about being that kind of Messiah King?
“Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make Him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.” He will not be Prophet Messiah King in the way you and the crowds want Him to be. Quietly and strangely He slips away. Off to a mountain all by Himself! Away from everyone. He’ll have none of this.
Jesus has a much firmer grip on the truth than the mobs and us. He knows that the world will not be saved by miraculous Band-Aid interventions. A storm calmed here. A crowd fed there. A mother-in-law cured here. A leper made whole there. Instead, the world is going to be saved by means of something much more deeper. Much more darker. The deep dark mystery centered in another event of His life.
Do you know what that is? It’s His Lamb of God Passover death. The power of Jesus is that in His death all have died. That in His death the world is reconciled to God. Completely. Fully.
Dead on the Cross Jesus is where He’s King the most. Where as Prophet He prays: “Father, forgive them.”
God in Christ died forgiving. In, with and under the dead Body of Messiah King Jesus, God wedged the door open between Himself and the world and said: “There! You’re all forgiven. Yes, I said all of you. Don’t try and make me take that back!”
Now at this altar Prophet King Messiah Jesus feeds you. He takes bread. Breaks it. Passes it out. It is His Body for you to eat. The wine is His Blood. His Passover Lamb Body and Blood that was offered on the Cross. Nothing is wasted. All sins forgiven.
You are baptized. Buried with Christ in His death through Baptism. Raised with Jesus in the likeness of His resurrection.
So now there’s the miraculous sign of His death on the Cross. The reconciliation of all things in heaven and on earth to God in His Body. There’s the eating and drinking in the Sacrament of the Altar. The new testament in His Blood which cleanses you from all sin. Here King Jesus reigns for you. Lording His death and resurrection over you against all your sin.
In Jesus’ Name. Amen
|
Comment on entry entitled "Tenth Sunday after Pentecost"
You may use BBCode within your posts, a reference is available here.
|
|
|
