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Pentecost 12, Matthew 14:13-21, August 3, 2008
*“When Your Best Just Isn’t Good Enough”*
Introduction: I had almost no money.
I had no home.
I was living out of my car with a ¼ of a tank of gas left.
And I was hungry.
I went to the nearest food store.
There, I carefully selected the cheapest loaf of bread…27 cents.
I went to the check out where the clerk rang up my purchase.
With tax the number that came up was 32 cents.
I only had 31, one penny short.
Well, I walked out of the store, left the bread behind, and took my hunger with me. 1 penny, that’s all I needed. 1 penny short, all I had wasn’t good enough.
To this day, I remember that loaf of bread and I remember that penny.
And I don’t know about you, but when I see a penny laying on the ground I still pick it up.
Some people say that pennies aren’t real money any more.
They are when you are short one penny and that’s what stands between you and a loaf of bread.
We have all come up short at one time or another.
Haven’t we? Oh, it doesn’t have to be about money does it?
We have all had times when all we had wasn’t enough, when our best wasn’t just good enough.
We have all had times when we have come to the end of our ropes, where it seems that no matter what we do, we just ain’t got enough to see us through.
We have all come to points in our lives where we thought that we were just going to break.
You know, when we have used our last nerve and there are no nerves left.
We all feel it.
Maybe not all the time, but enough times.
The feeling comes to us like a wave that crashes onto the shore.
Teenager know the feeling.
There is always the constant pressure to measure up, be part of the crowd, be cool… or just to be liked for who we really are.
But then there is always that nagging feeling that we aren’t accepted anyway, not appreciated for who we are.
Parents feel it.
Our children are giving us trouble and we don’t know what to do.
We lay awake drowning in sleepless nights as we struggle in relationships, in marriage and in family life.
We walk through life short of breath, wondering how we are going to make things work.
We suffer under the weight of physical and emotional ills.
Sometimes we just don’t know how we will make it through another day.
These are the times when we feel, and not just feel, but know, that we are coming up short, times when all we have is just not good enough.
Most of the time we suffer alone, this is normal.
We keep things to ourselves and with foolish pride we just try to bear it out.
I think that it was foolish pride, or maybe just stupid innocence that kept me from asking somebody for a penny for that loaf of bread.
But I sure know the result.
I went away hungry.
This brings us to today’s gospel lesson.
It is a very familiar text.
It is the story of the feeding of the 5 thousand.
This is the only miracle, besides the resurrection, recorded in all four gospels.
It was the spring time of the year just prior to the Jewish Passover and a year before Jesus was crucified.
Jesus had just spent a considerable amount of time teaching the people.
His disciples had just come back from a mission trip.
(Pause) Jesus, then hears the news that His cousin John the Baptists has been killed, beheaded by King Herod.
Jesus then decided to take some private time in the desolate area near Bethsaida located on the eastern shore of the Jordan River and north of the Sea of Galilee.
However, He wouldn’t get His time alone, the crowds followed him.
They came from the surrounding towns, walking as much as eight miles.
They followed Jesus Christ into what is described as a deserted barren land.
They came with their sick.
They came carrying the weight of all there needs and cares on their shoulders.
They came hungering for peace of mind and spirit.
They were hungry and they were coming up short in life.
Why else would a human being follow a man in to a desert?
These people had heard about Jesus and know they came to hear Him for themselves.
They were wondering - “is this the Messiah”?
Is this the one that can and will save us from the madness of the world.
They didn’t know it yet, but it was true.
He was the one.
He came for them.
It was for these people that he came into the world.
He came for the hungry, the lost, the oppressed, the sick and dying.
He came for those at the end of their rope, on their last nerve, those coming up short in so many ways.
He knew what their needs were, just as He knows what our needs are now.
He didn’t just come for them.
He came for you!
The Bible says, “Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself.
But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.
When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them…” I love these words, He had compassion on them.”
Jesus had compassion on them.
I don’t know how you picture God.
Some people see Him as a benevolent Father.
Some people think of Him as a God of judgment, checking off His list of no no’s as humans fail in their every day lives to do what pleases Him.
Some people see God as unapproachable, like the great and powerful OZ, and tremble at His majesty and might.
Some people just see God as being out there, but not involved very much in the lives of people.
Here in this text, I see my God.
I see Your God.
I see our God that is intimately involved in human lives, whether we believe in Him or not.
He is compassionate.
I don’t know about you, but I cannot carry the weight of God’s judgment or wrath, I am tired and beaten down.
I do not want to face a great and powerful Oz like God.
What I desperately want what I desperately need is what Jesus gives me, gives you…His compassion.
And not only that but His desire and ability to take care of all of our needs.
That is what Jesus Christ does!
Our text continues, “Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves."
But Jesus said, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat."
They said to him, "We have only five loaves here and two fish."
And he said, "Bring them here to me." Bring them here to me!
We know what He did with them.
He fed the five thousand.
It is true, as we look at the big picture, that the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand is a reminder, a pointer, a marker that we all need to take notice of.
With it we see that Jesus is more than a man.
He is the Messiah.
He is the Savior.
He is God in human flesh.
We see that He is able to, and does control all things and is able to meet the needs of all creation just as He met the needs of the five thousand.
He is the one that fulfills the words of Isaiah, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
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