081306 Pentecost 10
Pentecost 10, August 13, 2006
Let Nothing Be Wasted
Text: John 6:1–15
Other Lessons: Psalm 136:1–9, 23–26; Exodus 24:3–11; Ephesians 4:1–7, 11–16
Goal: That God’s people trust that Jesus, the bread of life, provides for all their needs of life and faith.
Introduction: What kind of a society would you say we are? Maybe, I could give you a clue. The secretary tells me all the time, “recycle,” “recycle,” “recycle.” My mother used to tell me that there were starving kids in the world who would be glad to have the food I didn’t want. I must confess, though, I really wished she would have just sent it to them instead of chastising me about waste.
My point is that we have become what can easily and correctly be called, a “throwaway” society! We have so much, that what we don’t want, we throw away. We throw away bags of waste and refuse. We throw away unwanted paper, aluminum, glass, and plastic, even though these can all be recycled. Our attitudes as a “throw away society,” even reaches into the church. When a congregation decides they don’t like a pastor anymore, a throw away kind of attitude makes it easy for them to want to just throw him out. Sadly, the converse is also true. Pastors with a throw away attitude also find it easy to think how good it would be to just throw it away, when they get tired of a congregation. By the way, I am offering neither a suggestion, nor a warning in saying this.
Wouldn’t it be something if our Lord God had a similar attitude toward us? But He does not! He never wants to throw people out on the garbage heap or give up on them. Instead, He uses every opportunity, every blessing, everything he himself is and has, to benefit us and to ensure our salvation. Today’s gospel reading indicates how Jesus can, and does …
Use Every Resource for Us
I. Jesus uses opportunities to test us (vv 5–7).
A. The feeding of the 5,000 is not new to us. We heard about it in Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, and maybe even at camp. It might even be one of those texts in the Bible that we like as a story, but don’t really think it’s all that important to us. I mean, Jesus has been gone now for about two full millennia. How can this text have any relevance to us in the year 2006? None of us will be like that crowd who followed Jesus, all eager to see and receive the benefits of his healing miracles. Some people among us have probably even dismissed the validity of Jesus’ miracles. After all, we don’t see anything happening like they did in Bible times, do we? At best we might think of some ordinary events in our life as an extraordinary, maybe even, miraculous event. Even then we might feel like we would really like to experience the real thing. You know what, that is exactly what God wants us to do—to yearn for the reality of Jesus, and to desire his activity among us.
B. That is precisely what the crowd of people who gather around Jesus in our text yearn for—the reality of Jesus, and a desire to experience His activity. And you know what? I think we can do just that! It’s like Jesus’ question to Philip. It’s a test. He knows what He is about to do. But He is trying to stir faith in his disciple; not only faith in God’s care and provision for people, but faith in the very identity of Jesus. God often tests us with various difficulties and problems that seem way out of the realm of the possibility of help. A quick look back to Abraham and Isaac gives us a clear picture of how this works. Genesis 22 recounts the history of a most severe test of Abraham’s trust of God when he is told to sacrifice his only son. You see, God’s intention is to strengthen our faith and trust in him in every circumstance of life. This reality is made clear in 1 Pet 1:6–9 where Peter relates this thought “though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials … so that your faith … may be proved genuine.”
C. Please note well that when God tests us, He does not leave us to wonder very long what He will do. Philip is not left to wonder very long about this seeming impossibility. Andrew quickly comes up with a meager sampling of some food with 5 small barley loaves and two fish. I can’t begin to tell you how many people today still try to explain away what really happened next. Everyone should know, after all, that 5,000 people are not going to have enough to eat with what amounts to a mid afternoon snack.
II. So, what Jesus does next is quite surprising. You see, it is nothing for the Creator of all things to have the right kind of blessings to provide for the needs of all those people, and more (vv 8–13).
A. When Jesus asks the people to recline and then begins the distribution with a “eucharist,” a prayer of thanksgiving to God, it is to help the people to see from whom all blessings come. And this is precisely what Jesus wants us to see this very day.
Now, I want you to think about something in this context. In a few moments we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Prior to the distribution we will have a prayer of thanksgiving, a “eucharist.” What do you suppose God wants us to see in that miracle of provision? Let me tell you. He wants us to see His love coming personally to us as we consume the bread and wine. He has more to give us than we can even imagine. But here, He desires to strengthen our faith in the reality of Jesus’ sacrifice for sin—for us—for me, personally.
B. When the loaves, then the fish, are distributed to all those people, everyone is provided all they need. And wonder of wonders, NOTHING IS WASTED, there is still enough of God’s blessings left over to gather for another time. This is the way God daily blesses and cares for all of us—even today. Now imagine what that little boy must have been thinking when his food was taken from him. I can’t help but think that it might have been something like this: “Hey! What am I going to eat?” Though we sometimes care only for ourselves, it is a good thing when what we make available to Him is used to bring even more abundant blessing to us. Think about this. God has withheld nothing from us—not even the blessings and benefits of His own Son—holiness and righteousness and peace with God.
C. God even helps us see His glory for us in the prayer He taught us to say: Give us this day our daily bread. Think again about what that petition of the Lord’s Prayer means: Everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, field, cattle, money, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like. All of that and we haven’t even yet touched on the real purpose for Jesus doing this particular miracle of loaves and fishes. But, here it is …
III. Jesus uses his very life to feed us for eternity (v 51).
A. The multiplication of the loaves and fish and gathering of the leftovers is a sign pointing us to God’s ultimate purpose. God desires that we who have wasted our lives by sin, becoming prisoners of the devil and destined to eternal ruin, should instead partake of the true bread that gives life to the world: Jesus Christ himself! Later on, Jesus will make this startling and mind-bending statement of fact, “I am the bread of life. . . . If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever” (6:35, 51). Here’s the point. God richly provides for our temporary temporal earthbound needs to reveal the real bread from heaven that nourishes the soul and body to eternal life!
B. Not one bit of the bread of life is wasted. There is enough for even more people to feast upon. In Jesus we are given the full measure of His devotion, His life, bruised and bloodied to pay for our sins. Yet, not just for our sin, but for the sin of the whole world. So, today when you partake of the sacrament, remember again what His death is bringing to you. It brings the very Bread of Life.
Conclusion: While our world, marred by sin, is noted for its wastefulness, its throwing away of leftovers, God uses every resource for us in time to reveal the reality of eternity for us. He even gives us Jesus, the bread of life. God forbid that we ever throw that bread away by not daily partaking of him who comes to us again and again in Word and Sacrament! Amen.