Bloghardt's Reflector

But, when times get a bit lean, when things get tough, when the economy is tight, when the budget shows a negative and not a positive, more red than black, when there is uncertainty at work, when we feel like we are going to lose our job, when we actually do, when we are stuck with Dad and Mom’s not around, we start to doubt.

It’s not that we won’t eat, it’s other things - where we gonna live? What we gonna do?  How are we going to get by?  How am I going to provide for my family? What about insurance?

The Lord’s Passover was almost at hand.   The celebration of the Lord’s bringing His people out of Egypt.   The people had followed him up the mountain because of the wonderful signs that He had done - healing the sick, raising the dead. 

All those people, how would they eat?  How would they make it back home?  There were no McDonalds on the way home.  Who could afford that anyway?  How could Jesus not feed God’s people?  How could He not celebrate His Father’s salvation?

So, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”

Philip didn’t know.  It’d take 200 days of wages to feed these people.  Andrew observed that there was a kid with five barley loaves and two fish.  But, how could so little feed so many?

Jesus already knew what He was going to do.  God always tends to His people.  In the wilderness - manna from bread and quail for meat.  Despite their unbelief.  Despite their unfaithfulness.  He fed them.  He cared for them.  He saved them.

“Have the people sit down.”  So, the five thousand men sat down.  Then, Jesus took the bread, and when He had given thanks, he distributed to those who were sitting.  The same happened with the fish.

And just as the Lord fed the children of Israel in the wilderness, so He fed them that day on the mountainside.  Everyone ate.   Five thousand men ate.  That’s 25 times the number of people at St. Mark on any given Sunday.  

And they didn’t just get a snack or a bite.  No, they all, all of them, all five thousand of them, ate to and were filled.  Stuffed.  From five loaves and two fish!

And leftovers?  There were more leftovers that they originally started with!  Twelve basketfuls of leftovers from five loaves and two fish.  

The Lord feeds His people.  He feeds them with Passover near and so points them to the fulfillment of the Passover’s fulfillment.  

Jesus is the Lamb slain for the sins of the world.  The Paschal lamb, the Passover Lamb, whose blood saves you from all that would harm us!

He takes upon Himself the your unbelief and dies.  He takes your unfaithfulness and is crucified for it.  He takes your transgressions and redeems them.  His blood spilled for you on the Cross and splashed onto us in the waters of our baptism delivers to you the forgiveness of all your sins.

We receive life and salvation in the forgiveness of all your sins.  His blood on the doorpost of our lives causes God to passover sending us to hell.  No, instead, the Lamb is sacrificed in your place.

God passes over your sins.  He passes over judgment.  He passes punishment.  He passes over causing you suffering.  He passes over hell.  He passes over your death.  His blood cleanses you from all your sins.  

Back to my sons and their faith.  They have a heavenly Father who is going to tend to them - even if without Mom or Dad there.  They are baptized, clothed, washed with the very blood of the Paschal Lamb.  

In every need, in every situation, the Lord feeds you - His Words, His gifts, His bread, His blood enliven you to trust, to believe that you have a Heavenly Father who is going to care for you, feed you,  tend to your needs, and forgive you.

When things are good, He tends to you.  He cares for you.  He feeds you.  

When things are not good, when everything seems like one big giant deficit and nothing is going the way you intended and planned it to be, He’s right there, with His gifts, feeding you salvation and forgiveness.

Sustaining you - through riches and poverty, through plenty and through want, through happiness and through sadness that is so deep that you can’t make it another, He feeds us with His gifts.  He enlivens to make it one more day, one more hour, one more minute, one more second - each moment forgiven by the death of His Son.

Christianity isn’t a religion where everything goes your way or that if you just believe you get what you want.  That’s the false religions of the world.  

No, the Christian proclaims the simple truth:  What you have done is forgiven by the death of Christ.  Every failure, every success, every thing you gave up for Lent, every job you have, every job you lose, every bill you pay, every bill that they are calling you on the phone to try to get money from you, everything you did, everything you didn’t, everything that’s you is forgiven. 

Rejoice.  Be glad.  Take comfort.  Today the Lord takes bread, breaks it with you.  Take eat, His Body.  Take drink, His Blood.  Receive food that doesn’t spoil.  Receive food that gives eternal life at His Supper.  

A blessed Laetare Sunday.  Rejoice Sunday. Jesus feeds five thousand - what joy.  He feeds us too - His Body and Blood for the remission of all our sins.  Do we really need anything else?  In the name of Jesus. Amen.