Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The text is the Gospel lesson, the feeding of the 5000 from Mark 6.
You’ve probably heard this miraculous
narrative 5000 times, with twelve baskets full of sermons left over from it. It
was important enough in Jesus’ ministry that the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John to all record it, so as a result, we hear it every year in
the middle of the summer, post-Pentecost season.
Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The text is the
Gospel lesson, the feeding of the 5000 from Mark 6.
You’ve probably heard this miraculous
narrative 5000 times, with twelve baskets full of sermons left over from it. It
was important enough in Jesus’ ministry that the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John to all record it, so as a result, we hear it every year in
the middle of the summer, post-Pentecost season.
But there is one detail, and a
major one, that sets Mark apart from the other evangelists because he is the only
one to mention this. If you recall from two weeks ago, Jesus was rejected in His
hometown of Nazareth and He then calls the Twelve and sends them out, two by
two, in mission and in ministry to preach, teach, cast out demons and perform
miracles all in His name. Last week we had a brief interjection about the death
of John the Baptist, and then we return to the story of the ministry adventures
of the Twelve. Mark writes, “The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all
that they had done and taught. And he said to them, “Come away by
yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and
going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away
in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.”
The disciples had been “out
there,” doing the work of Jesus in mission. They had met the devil at work sowing
chaos among God’s people and they spoke words of peace and restoration; they faced
illness and demons in the Lord’s name and they spoke ordered into the chaos;
they faced troubled hearts and consciences and proclaimed sins forgiven in Him;
they performed miracles, demonstrating creation is always subservient to the
Creator’s Name. And, they returned to Jesus telling Him of all that had
happened.
Who among us has volunteered for
Vacation Bible School? It’s a fast and furious five days of laughing, teaching,
preparing, and watching the plans all fall into place. By the end of VBS,
almost every volunteer is happy that the week has been a success, no one was
badly injured, the crafts were complete, the kids liked the music, and the kids
got to hear of the power of Jesus at work in the world and in their lives. But,
by the end of the last night, when the kids are all gone, and the decorations
are knocked down, and the floor has gotten a once-over, what you hear is a
collective “whew” because, as good as it has been, a week of VBS is
exhausting.
That was the disciples. They were
tired from ministry, tired from combatting satan, tired from following in the
footsteps of their Master. Jesus recognizes that they are tired, they didn’t
even have time to eat!, and has compassion on them and takes them to a desolate
place to rest.
This is going to sound a little
hokey, but bear with me for a moment. Do
you know how, when you get to the end of something, you find yourself arriving
at the beginning of seeing something new? Our first summer here, we went to
Cuero for the 4th of July fireworks show. We were following someone
who took us down Thomaston River Road, between 236 and the Cuero highway. If
you’ve never done this before, just this side of the river, you crest what I
discovered was called “End of the World Hill” because when you crest this side
of the hill, it looks like you have come to the end of the road and the rest of
it falls away. But as you top the hill, and relax your grip on the wheel, you
see a new sight of the river bottom below. You have come to the end and begin
to see something new. So, we come to the end of our strength, the end of our
day, the end of our resources, the end of our effort, the end of our “our,”
when we cannot do any more, that is the beginning of realizing that God is the
one who is doing it, who is in charge, who is there.
Jesus takes them into the
wilderness to rest, but their rest is quickly interrupted. The crowds that had
followed along and meet the tired, exhausted disciples and Jesus as they come
ashore. It’s a powerful contrast, isn’t it: the need of the disciples for rest
over and against the need of the people for their ministry, for help, for
healing, for restoration, for His Word. Their desperate hope rests in the One
who can help. So Jesus, filled with compassion, cares for these people as well,
tending them as a shepherd cares for his sheep, giving them spiritual food and
living water and letting them sit down in peaceful rest under His loving care.
Then, there is the end of the
day. Now, the people are weary and need food. The disciples turn to Jesus. They
are tired, the people are tired. Jesus: send the people away so they can go buy
food. I can imagine Jesus doing a slow turn, looking at the twelve with the
thousands as a backdrop behind them, and with a bit of a smile turning their
request into His own instruction: No – you feed them. He’s bringing them to
their very end of their strength, their ability – even their imagination. Even
if we had two hundred denarii, seven months’ wages, we couldn’t feed them all!
They are at their end.
You understand this. You know what
it’s like to be at your end, overburdened, where you have hit your limit and
can’t do anymore, but then someone knocks, calls, texts and expects, demands,
begs, pleads for just a little more. The boss wants one more report, the
teacher wants one more assignment, the IRS wants one more dollar, the spouse
wants one more hour spent alone, the child wants one more story before bed even
as your own eyes are crossing with fatigue. What do you do when you can’t do?
So, Jesus begins. At the end of the
disciple’s exhaustion, their physical, mental and spiritual limits, Jesus
begins. He takes a boy’s lunch – five street taco sized pieces of flatbread and
two hot-dog sized fish – and prays, giving thanks, blessing the food, and
begins to break and share. The work of
God in Christ is not bound by the disciples limitations, or our limits, but by
the overwhelming and overflowing compassion, mercy and grace of God in Christ
Jesus. And there is plenty. And there is abundance. And there is nothing that
the disciples had to do except gather the blessings that runneth over.
I began this by saying we’ve heard
this 5000 times, with a dozen sermons left over. I’ve preached it probably five
loaves times two fish, myself, and yet I’ve never thought of this until this
week: we call this the miraculous feeding of the 5000. That’s a misnomer; that’s
incorrect. I don’t mean that Mark says there were 5000 men, excluding
women and children. No – that’s not it. Think again: Jesus doesn’t feed merely
5000 men; He feeds 5012. He feeds the disciples also, because He still has
compassion and grace and mercy for those men as well. Those men, who have
nothing left in the tank, those who are empty, those who have nothing left in
themselves, Jesus fills them to full and overflowing so that they, too, were
satisfied.
And, come to think of it, we
shouldn’t even call it the miraculous feeding of 5012. It should be the feeding
of the 5013…5014….5015…and on and on and on. He continues to feed you, when you’re
at your end. When life is hard, and family life is anything but Brady-bunch
esque; when relationships are a challenge and work is a burden; when health
fails and when alone or frightened, and you just don’t know how you can take
one more step, Jesus summons you to His side, to the green, grassy hillside of
His church, and he invites you to sit and be fed, to hear His voice, the voice
of the Shepherd who cares and has compassion for His beloved. When you’ve hit
your limit and can’t do it anymore, Jesus comes to you and feeds you His body
and His blood for the forgiveness of sins, the strengthening of faith in Him as
your Savior, and the grace to lead a sanctified life of discipleship this side
of heaven.
This isn’t just a miracle from
2000 years ago. It’s the miracle that continues to give.
5025...5026...5027...and on and on.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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