Seventh Sunday after Trinity

The Feeding of the Four Thousand is completely at odds with the prosperity gospel which has infected so much of American Christianity. Countless faith teachers and faith healers promise that if you follow Jesus, every need in your life will be met immediately. After all, God exists for no other purpose than to make you happy now. Don’t pray for God’s kingdom to come. The new word from God is: Kingdom now! Do you need a million dollars to be happy now? Name it and claim it. If you have enough faith, God will make a divine deposit into your checking account. Does the ache in your back interfere with happiness? Then command your blessing and declare your healing today in the name of Jesus. Whatever you need: better credit rating, better teeth, better wife: God is there to make it happen—if you have enough faith, and if, of course, you send in a love-gift for the latest book.

This is the crowd that we find in John 6 at the Feeding of the Five Thousand. Jesus said to the Jews, “You seek Me because you ate of the loaves and were filled” (Jn 6:26). They didn’t care for the words of Jesus, in fact, they hated His words. By the end of the chapter all five thousand were offended at His words and forsook Him, but they did love those loaves of bread. In fact, they attempted to take Jesus by force and make Him their bread king.

Many Christians today are of that same Jewish spirit: “Give us bread, Jesus. Fix our owies. Entertain us. Make us happy. But enough with the words. After all, Jesus, doctrine divides, but love builds up. Stop doing and saying the things that you do, and start being the Jesus we want you to be.”

It is true that Jesus fed this crowd. He did fed the five thousand, even though He told them, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:27). But they weren’t interested. They had been conditioned by false teachers to care only about the needs of the body and the concerns of this life. Apart from this, they had no use for a Messiah.

In contrast to the Jewish crowd of five thousand is this Gentile crowd of four thousand men, plus women and children. Jesus fed the Jews in a place with much green grass, but the Gentiles were gathered to Him in a desolate place. The five thousand cared only about filling their bellies. They saw Jesus as a means to that end. But the four thousand were gathered to listen to Jesus’ words. In fact, they never even mentioned food at all. Jesus had to bring it up. And whereas the Jewish crowd had been with Jesus only for a single day, the Gentiles had been with Him for three days, eagerly hearing and receiving His words.

Unbelieving scholars sometimes try to say that these two miraculous feedings are actually the same event, just told with slightly different details. But the two crowds and the circumstances could not be more different. They only thing they have in common is that God gives earthly bread both to believers and unbelievers. He causes the rain to fail on the just and the unjust. But apart from both being recipients of God’s provisional care, the two groups really have nothing else in common.

Let us consider for a moment the wonderful example of these four thousand Gentile men who had been listening to Jesus for three days straight. Nothing about this was convenient for them. The distance wasn’t convenient. Some of them, Jesus said, had come from a great distance. And to where had they come? To the middle of nowhere. Out into the oppressive heat of the Judaean wilderness. Did I mention there was no air conditioning? Far from convenient, it may have, in fact, been dangerous. What about heat stroke? Exhaustion? Wild animals? Bandits? Dehydration? Had they been looking for excuses to stay home, they had them aplenty. And yet, they came to the place where Jesus was.

What did they know about Jesus? Remember, these are mostly Gentiles. They likely hadn’t read the Old Testament. They would have known nothing, or next to nothing, about the promised Messiah and Savior of the world. Yet somehow, they recognized that Jesus had the words of eternal life, and they flocked to hear Him. And not only that, what’s even more commendable is that they carried along their wives and children with them—four thousand men plus women and children. Nothing about this journey was convenient or even particularly safe, and yet they come to the place where Jesus was.

I know that the same is true for many of you sitting here today. Some of you have traveled from another state to be here. Some of you have carried along your young children or perhaps grandchildren. I know how difficult this can be, yet here you are. You came, not for the physical bread, not because you expect some immediate material benefit from being a Christian, but because, like the four thousand, you know that this is the place where Jesus has promised to be. Others here, who perhaps live much closer, may have dragged an aching body, riddled with protesting joints, out of bed to be here. You didn’t come for me, to hear my opinions, to marvel at my great insights. No, you came to receive the gifts of Jesus.

And what has He promised to give? Bodily health? A peaceful retirement? A life without sorrow? No. Our Lord promises none of these things. At least, not in this life. In fact, He says, “In this world you will have tribulation.” Yes, God provides for our physical needs, but don’t forget that Jesus fed the crowd on the third day. They may have been getting pretty hungry by Day 2.

And this is why the false doctrine of the faith teachers and healers is so dangerous to faith. If Jesus promised to make me happy in this life, by the time Day 2 rolls around, it clear that something is wrong—either with me or with Jesus, but it’s not working out. Maybe some of you feel like your whole life has been lived in Day 2. “Lord, what’s the deal? I’ve gone out of my way to listen to Your words, and I’m hungrier now than ever! What about Your promises?”

What about His promises? What Jesus promised to give? He didn’t promise that your life would be peachy. No, you will walk through the valley of the shadow of death. But Jesus has promised to be with you through that valley. And when, on the second day, it seems as though you are living in a wilderness and your physical needs aren’t being met, remember that Jesus is teaching you, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you.”

And this promise our Lord has kept, and He has kept it in full. The earthly bread by which our Lord filled the four thousand is a foreshadowing of the true Bread of Life, that Medicine of Immortality, which He now gives to us in this desolate place. And having received this bread, the language of the feeding of the four thousand is familiar to our ears: that our Lord Jesus Christ, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to disciples, and they set it before the multitude. And all ate and were satisfied.

Had the crowd been seeking what the false prosperity gospel promises, they would have gone away empty and angry, as did the five thousand Jews. But where are those unbelievers now, with their bellies full of earthly bread and ears closed to the words of Jesus? They are long dead and eternally without hope. But everyone who has ever come to Jesus hungering for His words, seeking the bread of immortality that only He gives, has been filled beyond measure with every good thing.

“My words are spirit, and they are life,”Jesus says, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life(Jn 6:63, 54). Are you living in Day 2 of a desolate wilderness? Then take heart, for Jesus has had compassion on you and has abundantly provided for your eternal needs. As surely as you have tasted that Bread of Life upon your tongue, as surely as the risen Christ stepped out of that desolate tomb on the third day, so too shall you be raised. This promise is certain, for Jesus Himself has spoken, “He who believes in me, even though He die, yet shall He live. For I myself will raise him up on the Last Day.” Amen.