Upon This Rock

Here is a sermon I preached on Matthew 16:13-20.

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A minister dies and, resplendent in his clerical collar and colorful robes, waits in line at the Pearly Gates. Just ahead of him is a man dressed in sunglasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket, and jeans.

Saint Peter addresses this man, “Who are you, so that I may know whether or not to admit you to the Kingdom of Heaven?”

The man replies, “I’m Joe Green, taxi-driver, of Noo Yawk City.” Saint Peter consults his list, smiles and says to the taxi-driver, “Take this silken robe and golden staff, and enter into the Kingdom.”

So the taxi-driver enters Heaven with his robe and staff, and the minister is next in line. Without being asked, he proclaims, “I am Pastor O’Connor, head pastor of Saint Mary’s for the last forty-three years.”

Saint Peter consults his list and says, “Take this cotton robe and wooden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

“Just a minute,” says the preacher, “that man was a taxi-driver, and you issued him a silken robe and golden staff. But I get wood and cotton. How can this be?”

“Up here, we go by results,” says Saint Peter. “While you preached, people slept — while he drove, people prayed.”

All of us, I am sure, are familiar with theses kinds of jokes. So and so dies, goes to heaven, and stands before St. Peter for sentencing. The jokes are often funny, but the theology they present is usually horrendous. St. Peter is the gatekeeper of heaven, and entrance is dependant upon any number of arbitrary factors. Often it is simply how nice of a person one was. It is really astonishing, however, how deeply ingrained this mythical view of heaven is in our minds. Don’t many of us, however much we might deny it, expect some such scene upon the moment of our dying? Well, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but this entire mythical scene and all the jokes it has produced is based upon a bad misreading of one biblical text, which happens to be our gospel text this morning.

Jesus says to Peter, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. This was taken to mean that Jesus made Peter the one who would decide who gets into heaven and who stays out, hence, the vision of St. Peter at the pearly gates. Also, the verse before it has been the occasion for lots of interesting interpretation: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. This single biblical verse has been the most commented upon and debated verse in the entire Bible. During the time of the Reformation, Catholics took this verse as Jesus’ inauguration of the first pope. This in turn elicited a flood of commentary by Protestants, trying to show why this wasn’t the case. Both sides, it has to be said, at times engaged in fairly desperate interpretive gymnastics.

So friends, we have a potent text before us this morning, one that has been the source of both theological mythology and deep church division. My goal this morning is to show you that it need not be either. This text is actually wonderful; it is rich and challenging, even dramatic. It is not so much about Peter, as it is about Jesus. So I will simply take us through it and try to get a view from the inside.  

Here at this place in the Gospel we have a major turning point in Jesus’ story. This text marks the end of Jesus’ Galilean ministry and the beginning of his journey to Jerusalem. The text says that Jesus came with his disciples to Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea Philippi was in northern Israel and would have been the northern most point that Jesus went with his disciples. After his visit here, Jesus would make the journey to southern Israel where he would enter Jerusalem to die. Caesarea Philippi, moreover, was a pagan city that worshipped the god Pan. So it is a dramatic place for this crucial episode to take place.

Up to this point in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus has done a number of things. He has taught—recall the sermon on the mount—he has performed a number of healings, he has calmed a raging sea, he has fed thousands miraculously, and he has walked on water, to mention just some of the things he has done. But one thing he has not done is come straight out and explicitly say who he is and what his ministry is accomplishing. Jesus’ prefers to keep things more subtle and elusive. So he teaches in parables. The Kingdom of God is like…And he spends lots of time doing things, like healings, and feeding people. His disciples have slowly begun to catch on, they even at one point exclaim, ‘Truly you are the Son of God,’ but up to this point in the Gospel they are largely in the dark about the full scope of what Jesus is up to.

So before Jesus makes his journey to Jerusalem, before he goes to do what he alone can do, to do the central thing his Father has sent him to do, Jesus pauses and, in uncharacteristically straightforward fashion talks about his own identity: Who do people say that I am? And the disciples replied, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Jesus had created quite a stir in and around Galilee, and it was perfectly reasonable for people to think that a great prophet had once again come to Israel. Jesus’ popular identity was that of a prophet. His teachings and mighty deeds were certainly prophet-like.

But this answer isn’t enough, is it? What the populace can discern about Jesus doesn’t reach his truest identity. Flesh and blood isn’t enough to know who Jesus really is. Jesus isn’t just ‘one of the prophets,’ even though that certainly would be no small thing. So Jesus presses for a deeper answer: But what about you…who do you say that I am? He presses his disciples because if they are to be his true followers, they need to know who he truly is. Jesus is about to set his face to Jerusalem and walk straight into death. To follow him into this, the disciples need more than a popular understanding of Jesus. They need to know what his life is really about, who he really is, or they won’t follow Jesus to the cross.

Peter answers Jesus’ question. Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, Peter is the representative of the disciples. He embodies both their faith and their folly. Peter answers on behalf of the disciples, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Here for the first time in the Gospel of Matthew the title ‘Messiah’ is on the lips of one the characters in the story. Here for the first time, Jesus’ truest identity breaks through. He is not simply a prophet, but the Messiah. He is the long awaited salvation of Israel. He is the one who will bring God’s Kingdom. He is the one on whom all of Israel’s hopes have been set. He is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Here in this man, God’s very life has entered history and is drawing it to its conclusion. Here is what the populace did not understand. Here is Jesus as he really is, in his depth. 

And Jesus responds with what almost seems like surprise: You are surely blessed Peter, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. Knowing that Jesus is the Messiah does not meaning know a fact about him, it means surrendering our whole selves to him, and this not something we do by our own strength or decision. Peter did not ‘figure out’ that Jesus is the Messiah. Nor did he have some moment where God uploaded information into his brain. Peter simply found himself following Jesus in a way that only the Messiah can be followed. He found himself irresistibly drawn to Jesus; he found himself overcome by Jesus’ ‘Come follow me.’ In a very real sense Peter had no choice, for when the Messiah is in front of you, there is no time to choose, you must simply follow. If you think you have time to choose, you are not dealing with the Messiah. And so the confession about Jesus that arises from Peter is a gift from the Father from whom Jesus has been sent.    

Friends, I must pause here, and press this truth upon you. If you are a Christian, if you genuinely follow Jesus and so confess him as the Messiah, the Son of the living God, you must understand that this is not your own doing. Christian faith is not an achievement; it is not a personal decision; it is not a possibility that we possess. To follow Jesus is an act of surrender; it is not a choice we make, but our bowing before a choice already made about us. The follower of Jesus does not say, “Following Jesus seemed like the best option at the time.” No. The follower of Jesus says, “I heard his voice and realized that I must leave everything and follow him. No other option was possible.” If you and I understood this, how differently would we come to church! I think most of us come to church expecting little from God and a lot from ourselves. We sit there and take in the service, or lead it, critiquing this or that, ‘Oh that hymn was bad, oh the sermon was 7 minutes too long, oh that was a nice offertory.’ We do this because there is more unbelief in our hearts than belief, because we set our minds on flesh and blood. Friends, come to church with the expectation that God himself has summoned you, come with the expectation that here you will meet the Messiah before whom you must surrender your self and every human opinion and every human achievement. Come not because you are pious and a religious master, but because Jesus pierces you with his irresistible question, Who do you say that I am? Only then will you be blessed.

And now we can deal with the part of the passage that has caused so much trouble. To Peter’s naming of Jesus, Jesus responds with his own naming of Peter: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Or more literally, you are Petros and on this petra I will my church. There is a word play here on the word ‘rock.’ Peter’s name means ‘rock’ and Jesus says that he will build his church on this rock. Protestants have done everything they can to avoid the reading that the rock on which Jesus will build his church is Peter himself. They have said that the rock is not Peter but his faith, or maybe Jesus, or maybe Caesarea Philippi. But Jesus is clear, he will build his church upon the rock that is Peter with his confession. And as a matter of historical fact, Jesus was right. Peter was the leader of the apostolic church, and through him the foundation of the church was laid. Just read the book of Acts.

The real issue comes in the next verse: I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. What is Jesus saying here? The first thing to say is that Jesus repeats this saying later in the Gospel of Matthew, and he says it to all his disciples. So the meaning is certainly not that Peter or his individual successors have some sort of special authority over against other apostles. What Jesus gives to Peter, he gives to all the apostles. The second thing to be said is that the translation in your pew Bibles is wrong. There it sounds like Jesus is saying, ‘Ok, you call the shots, and whatever you say, that’s how it will be in heaven. Heaven is following you, Peter.’ The right translation is this: I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven. You see, the binding and loosing has already taken place in heaven before Peter or any other of the apostles do anything. The promise Jesus gives to Peter and the apostles is that their own binding and loosing will be guided by God so that God’s decisions in heaven become known on earth. Jesus is not promising endorsement, but guidance.

Now what about this binding and loosing and keys? Most certainly, this is not about a simplistic notion of  “getting into heaven.” The keys are not keys to the pearly gates, they are keys to the storehouses of the Kingdom of God, which are meant to be unleashed upon the earth through the ministry of the church. And as a matter of historical fact this is what the apostles did. They went about the world proclaiming the Kingdom of God, proclaiming the Gospel, and through them, God’s decision for the earth was established. The church and her message emerged. And now we, after the apostles, look back to them to hear their message, because we believe that through them the binding and loosing of heaven became known on earth. That is why we read and preach Holy Scripture.     

And this binding and loosing? It is simply the Gospel, the message that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, that he has come to save us from our sins. Where this message is preached and believed, there the Kingdom of God breaks forth and God’s power is loosed. Where this message is not preached or not believed, there remains the bondage of sin and death.

But here is the most important point, friends. Having the keys to the kingdom of heaven, does not mean that we are in charge, that somehow we do anything less than follow Jesus and point others to him. Jesus has given the church a mighty and important task, but the task is nothing other than telling people about him, relying on his authority and his mercy. Indeed, if you read the rest of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus makes Peter and the other disciples into the foundation of the church, not through their might or wisdom, but through their failure. All of the disciples desert Jesus at the end of his life. They do not follow him to the cross. He alone forges ahead. Peter and the other apostles are indeed the head of the church, but they are so precisely as sinners. They are the head of a body of people who hang only on the mercy and grace of God, only on what Jesus makes of them through the salvation that he alone accomplishes. The first thing Jesus did after he declared Peter the rock of the church was to rebuke him for his lack of understanding and say, “Get behind me, Satan!” And there the church was to remain, behind Jesus, not ahead of him, and nothing but a sinner. So when the apostles founded the church, after the resurrection, it was founded upon the confession of sin, not on some triumphalism. The power of the kingdom of heaven given to these apostles is the power to cry out, “Lord, have mercy,” and invite others to do the same.

Friends, once again let me press this truth upon you. Here we are gathered as the church. Here we are with Bible opened talking about the message of the apostles. It is very easily to think how wonderful we are and how pious we are for doing so. But friends, even though we are given the awesome privilege and responsibility of carrying on the apostles message, let us never forget what the message in fact is. It is not a message about us, about what we do or have done or can do. It is a message about Jesus: You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And this message is not one that we can give to ourselves, it can only be received as the unimaginable and unmanageable gift that it is. Flesh and blood, our flesh and blood, is not competent to handle this message. Church for us cannot be a time where we rest secure in ourselves. We must come, like Peter, to be summoned by Jesus to account, Who do you that I am? And yes, Peter is our rock, but when we stand on him all we can do is answer Jesus. Amen.

Truly the Son of God

Here is a sermon I preached on Matthew 14:22-33.

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Dear friends, our text this morning has a message for us, which you must hear. The message comes at the end of the gospel passage: And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’ This text is interesting in many ways, indeed, it is remarkable—Jesus walking on water, and Peter with him! Maybe you are tempted to ask how this possibly could have occurred. Perhaps this question is valid, but it will not concern us this morning. This morning we will simply let Jesus present himself to us, we will let the text speak to us, we will let it give us its remarkable message—which is this: And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’ No message could be more relevant or urgent, that the Son of God is among us to be worshiped as our Lord and Savior and God. Why have you come to church today? Why come at all? Friends, we come to church not to hear from ourselves, but to hear from God, to hear his Word, which is above every other word. And his Word to us this morning is this: this man, Jesus of Nazareth, the one who walks on water, the one who comes to his disciples in the darkest hour of the night, the one who holds power over all creation and exercises it for us, he is truly the Son of God who alone can rescue us.

First, let me simply rehearse this remarkable story, for it can speak for itself. It was a dark a stormy night, and the disciples had been sent across the lake to reach the other side before Jesus, who had gone up on a mountain to pray.  And as out text says, their boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land for the wind was against them. There they were in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, and as was prone to happen, a storm had swept in and overtaken them. In the middle of the night, out on the water for hours, probably lost, probably terrified, certainly tired and exhausted, the disciples were in trouble. And unlike the last time this happened (Matt. 8:23-27), Jesus was not with them in the boat. They were alone.

Then something happened. Our text says that it was the fourth watch of the night, that is, it was between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. The sea is ominous and terrifying at night, how much more so during the darkest hours of the night? No one wants to be up during the fourth watch of the night, especially if it means battling a storm. And in the midst of the chaos, the disciples saw something, a figure walking toward them on the sea. And they did what any of us would have done at such a site. They cried out in fear and exclaimed, “It is a ghost!” You see, during the fourth watch of the night, when you are tired and not thinking clearly, all the superstitions about the sea become believable. “Oh no! The spirits of those who have died at sea really do live in the sea! And one is coming toward us!”

But as soon as the disciples were overcome with fear at the shadowy figure coming toward them, the figure spoke: “Take heart; it is I; do not be afraid.” It was Jesus, not a ghost! He was the one walking on the water toward them, and because of this the disciples need not have been afraid. Jesus was coming to them not to haunt them, but to do what he alone can do; he was coming to save them. But in the fourth watch of the night with a storm raging, Jesus was not easily recognizable. So Peter shouted from the boat, “Lord, it if is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Jesus replied, “Come on.” And so Peter stepped out of the boat, and, miracle of miracles, he began walking to Jesus! But poor Peter, so easily distracted, took his eyes off Jesus, realizing that the storm was still raging around him. He became afraid and so he started to sink. He turned back to Jesus and cried out, “Lord, save me!” And as soon as the words escaped his mouth, Jesus’ hand had caught Peter, and Jesus said to him, “Hey little-faith, why did you doubt?”

And so they got back into the boat, and as soon as they did, the storm ceased. The wind stopped, the waves stopped, and Jesus stood in front of them. And the disciples did the only thing they could do. They worshipped Jesus, saying to him, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Friends, this text is a proclamation of Jesus Christ, and so a proclamation of the Gospel. It is no cute fable, but a powerful depiction of Jesus Christ our Lord. And this Jesus we encounter in our gospel lesson, he is risen from the dead, and so he is with us today as the one he is in this text, coming to us here as he came to those in the text. This passage is not first and foremost about something we must do, such as muster up more faith than our poor friend Peter. No, friends, you must first let your minds and hearts be drawn to the center of this story, to Jesus himself. Jesus is the one who sends his disciples across the lake, Jesus is the one who comes to them in their distress, Jesus is the one who commands Peter to come out of the boat, Jesus is the one who rescues him from his little faith, Jesus is the one who is worshipped at the end of the story: “Truly you are the Son of God.” This story is meant to tell us about Jesus.

Here in this text, some have said, we have an Easter story before Easter. On Easter, Jesus is revealed to us as the One he is, as the One whose life is the very life of God, as the One who, raised from the dead by the Father, is one God with him, and so the possessor of all authority in heaven and earth. But here in this story we get an Easter revelation before Easter. Here is one of the few times in the gospels where we are told with no qualifications that Jesus’ disciples worshipped him. This must fill us with wonder, for it was Jews who were worshipping Jesus, and the number one rule for any Jew is that God alone is to be worshipped. But we must say they were right to do so. For who but God has authority to command the wind and the waves? Who but God has the authority to say to people in impossible situations, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Who but God uses the sea for his walkway? Listen to a remarkable portion of Psalm 77 with our gospel story in mind:

The waters saw you, God, the waters saw you and writhed; the very depths were convulsed. The clouds poured down water, the heavens resounded with thunder; your arrows flashed back and forth. Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, your lightening lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked. Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen.

And so the disciples fell down and worshipped Jesus, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

So what is it to us that Jesus is the Son of God? What really does that mean? Friends, it means this: that Jesus is the help sent from God. Jesus means help and salvation. When you think of God you must think of Jesus, and so you must know that God comes to you in your distress, you must know that you can call upon God for help and salvation. As I said before, Jesus, even today, comes to us as he came to his disciples amid the raging storm. Friends, what distress are you under? What burdens are you bearing? Perhaps you are laden with guilt this morning, perhaps your heart is cold, perhaps you are suffering some tragedy, or perhaps you are simply dealing with life, which is enough trouble on its own. Know this, Jesus, and so God, comes to you. He has come to you, is coming to you, and will come to you. Look to him, hear and believe his promises, hear and believe what he says to you: “It is I; do not be afraid.” Know that he takes over responsibility for you. Know that he can calm the storms of your life.

But that Jesus is the Son of God also means this: that help and salvation come from God. Friends, it is not we who can help ourselves, however much we might like to. To receive help we must turn away from ourselves, we must drop our pride and fear and acknowledge that help comes from God. We must stop our vain attempts at constructing our own lives. Such attempts are like the disciples in their boat out on the raging sea. We battle furiously but get nowhere. We must stop and turn to Jesus. Also we must realize that our help, because it comes from God, is not to be taken for granted. Grace is not a thing we possess and use at our own control. God’s help comes to us, yes, but it always comes new and fresh and mysteriously, like Jesus walking on the sea at night. One who has truly encountered God’s help in Jesus can only be startled and not a little amazed, just like the disciples for whom Jesus calmed the sea.   

Here is my charge to you this morning: that you turn to Jesus and from the heart confess to him, “Truly you are the Son of God.” And in this confession, surrender to him. Cast your burdens upon him, cast your sins upon him, and ask him to command you to come him. Truly Jesus is the Son of God; he is your help and salvation from God.

Now, finally and lastly, we turn to poor Peter. What can we say about him? The decisive thing seems to be this: Peter began to sink because he became afraid, not the other way around. Peter had no reason to fear; he had no reason to doubt; Jesus was right in front him. But as soon as he took his eyes off of Jesus, he thought he had something to fear; unbelief crept into his heart. Friends, are you doubting this morning, struggling with unbelief in your heart like Peter, and sinking because of it? What I must say to you is this: turn to Jesus and see him in front of you, for he is there. He may be shadowy and blurry from the storm, but he is there. Don’t be unbelieving, you have no reason to. There is a quote by Karl Barth I like very much, and perhaps it may help some of you: “Everyone who has to contend with unbelief should be advised that he ought not to take his own unbelief too seriously. Only faith is to be taken seriously; and if we have faith as a grain of mustard seed, that suffices for the devil to have lost his game.”

But even should you continue to doubt. Even if this morning your heart cannot believe, know this: Jesus will never let you go. He is the help sent from God, and so a help beyond our imaginations and expectations, a help stronger than our fears and weaknesses. Peter was rescued even in the middle of his unbelief. Jesus reached out and grabbed him even as his unbelief was causing him to sink. His faith did not save him, Jesus did. And Jesus saves you. Truly he is the Son of God. Amen.   

He Will Feed You

Here is a sermon I preached on Matthew 14:13-21.

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My dear brothers and sisters, my message to you this morning is simple: Jesus stands ready and willing to feed you; come to him and you will lack nothing. But even though I am the messenger, this is not my message. I can only point you to the one who truly speaks the message. For who I am? I am just like you, a sinner in need of Jesus, a little child with dirty hands who can only open them before the Father and wait to be fed. No, it is not me who speaks to you this message. It is Jesus himself who speaks to you this message. It is Jesus himself who says to you and me, I am ready and willing to feed you; come to me and you will lack nothing. Jesus is closer to you than I am, even as I stand before you and speak these words. His words are more urgent; his invitation more sincere; his love more genuine. And make no mistake, Jesus stands in front of each and every one of us, saying, I am ready and willing to feed you. No one is excluded. Each of us with our sins great and small is invited to be with Jesus. There is a wideness in God’s mercy, as we just sung. But God’s mercy does not mean leniency, we must remember. To be fed by Jesus means that we no longer belong to ourselves. Each of us with our pride and selfishness is called to become humble and receive the Father’s grace. Each of us with our anxiety and doubt is freed to stand up and walk to Jesus to be fed by him. Brothers and sisters, my message is that Another greater than me has a message for you. Hear him!

All of this is clear from our passage this morning. The message of this gospel lesson is plain and simple: Jesus stands ready and willing to feed you; come to him and you will lack nothing. Let’s take each phrase in turn.

Notice how different is the attitude of Jesus from his disciples! A crowd has gathered around Jesus, following his every move. He can hardly get away to be by himself. He returns from a boat trip to meet a swarm of people. And what is his reaction? He saw a great crowd; and his heart went out to them and he cured their sick. What a remarkable thing! All of us are familiar with the image of a celebrity moving through a crowd, eager to get somewhere, pausing only for pictures or an interview. Jesus, however, does not move through the crowd, he comes to them. His heart goes out to them and he cures their sick. He is not concerned with himself, but for them. Here, brothers and sisters, is how you must view Jesus, as one whose heart goes out to you and heals you. Perhaps you think of Jesus as a celebrity, as someone ‘over there’ to talk and sing about, as a ‘personality’ you perhaps admire very much. But this is all wrong! Jesus is not a celebrity or a personality you can admire at a distance. He is your Lord and Savior who comes to you, who singles you out and heals you, who takes over responsibility for your sickness, indeed, who takes over responsibility for your sin! Jesus’ whole existence is a readiness and willingness to come to you.

As I said, how different is this attitude from the disciples. Their reaction to the crowd is one of weariness and incompetence. “Jesus, the hour is late, and all these people are still here. We don’t know what to do, just send them away to take care of themselves!”  You all know this attitude well. It is the attitude with which we treat each other everyday. We would rather not care for our neighbors. We would rather not carry others’ burdens and live our lives for others in obedience the Gospel. All around us are people who are hungry—hungry for food, hungry for companionship, hungry for a kind word, hungry for forgiveness, hungry for prayer, hungry in thousands of ways. And we ourselves too are hungry, each in our own ways. And usually it is our own hungers that preoccupy us. So we often send people away, telling them to take care of themselves. And surely each of us knows the pain of being sent away, being told ‘No, I have nothing for you. Go away.’ We do this even to those we love, to spouses and children and friends. Miserable sinners that we are! What a tragic world we live in where we spend our time sending each other away, because all we have is five loaves and two fishes that we think is not enough to help others.

But Jesus does not comply with the disciples’ request. He does not send the crowd away. He says instead, they need not go away. Brothers and sisters, here is the Gospel! The good news is that our Savior speaks these words in our world, even today, even right now. To each and every one of you, Jesus says, you need not go away. I can and will feed you. About our neighbors and even our enemies, Jesus says they need not go away. I will feed them. If only we could hear these words and believe them! How joyful we would be! How willing we would be to tell the world good news! How much less petty we would be! See how mighty and gracious is our Savior! The Father sent him to feed us, and he is ready and willing to do so.

So Jesus takes the little the disciples have, and as the gospel lesson tells us, taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. What Jesus does here, we must understand, is not simply provide a one-time miraculous evening meal on the fly. Jesus came, you see, not just to feed some but all. He came, as all the gospels say, to announce the Kingdom of God, to do the will of the Father on earth, to hallow the Father’s name, to be for us the entrance into the Father’s new heaven and new earth. This, ultimately, is the food Jesus provides. And so when Jesus does feed some—as in our text—he does it in a way to anticipate his feeding of all, including you and me. This is why the disciples collect twelve baskets full of leftovers. No, they are not leftovers; they are spillovers. This meal with the five thousand is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet in which all creation will feast in the Father’s Kingdom. And so there is more food than the people can eat; the food Jesus provides spills over into all the world. Brothers and sisters, you must understand that even in this episode with the five loaves and two fishes, Jesus is feeding you. In a moment, we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper. The bread you will eat is from these twelve baskets of spillovers. We can eat today only because of Jesus’ miracle.  

See how Jesus stands ready and willing to feed you! See how he has already fed you! This is what you must understand above all, that Jesus has taken over responsibility for your entire life. You are now his, protected by him, loved by him, fed by him. His heart goes out to you, and through him you are the Father’s dear child. Now we can come to the second part of the message: come to him and you will lack nothing.

Come to Jesus, brothers and sisters! What else can you do with such a loving Savior but come to him? To turn away from Jesus is not an option, indeed, it is an impossibility. You must come to Jesus, you must believe in him, you must trust him, you must say to him simply and from your heart, ‘Yes.’ This is the work the Father has given you to do, to believe in his one and only Son. Jesus stands ready and willing to feed you; come to him!

But, brothers and sisters, know this: we can only come to Jesus because he has come all the way to us. We can walk to him because, whether we know it or not, he has already set us on our feet. Our coming to Jesus is nothing but the acknowledgment that he has already come to us and taken over responsibility for us, giving us his righteousness and holiness. The experience of the Christian in church is not that of a great and mighty sojourner who has found his way through much courage and effort. No, week after week the Christian in church knows that she is only a helpless little child, who simply finds herself in the father’s house, sitting on the mother’s lap. Jesus Christ is our older brother in this house, watching over us, taking care of us, leading us. Christian faith is no mighty feat; it is no great accomplishment. It is simply our startled and all too feeble ‘Yes’ to the Father’s overwhelming grace in sending us his Son Jesus. So yes, come to Jesus, but not on your own strength. Come to him because he has already come to you; because he already stands beside you; because he already pleads your case.

And what will happen when you come to Jesus? Our text says, and they all ate and were satisfied. When you come to Jesus he will feed you. You will be satisfied and so you will lack nothing. Do you believe this? Do you believe that Jesus has provided everything for you, that he has taken away your sin and given you everlasting life in the Father’s Kingdom? Do you believe that with Jesus you lack nothing? Why not? Why are we so prone to disbelief? Why do we so often look for satisfaction elsewhere? Why do we so often have gloomy faces and empty stomachs? Brothers and sisters, come to Jesus! There is no reason not to and every reason why you should, why you must. He already holds you in his hands, with him you are a dear child of the Father, in him you have eternal life promised to you. We ought to have bright faces and full stomachs. Come to Jesus, and you will lack nothing. He is the bread of life, and he has been given for you. Come to him. Believe in him. Trust him.

And now in just a little bit we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper. What is it that you think happens when we do this? Maybe for you it is a nice symbol of your faith. Or maybe for you it is a remembrance of something Jesus did for us. Or maybe you have no idea what the Lord’s Supper means. Very simply it means this: Jesus himself feeds us, even today, even right now. Maybe you are sitting there wondering how and where to come to Jesus. Jesus’ answer is, come to this bread, come to this cup. There you will find me; there I will feed you; there you will know that my heart goes out to you. That is what the Lords’ Supper means. 

One more thing must be said. This bread we eat and this cup we drink are not for us alone. The Lord’s Supper is not a private meal. I said before that the bread we eat is the spillover from Jesus’ miracle, spilling over into the whole world. Remember this as you come to Jesus and receive from him. His Supper is a feast for the world; we eat it in anticipation of the Day when all the world will join in the banquet feast of the Father’s Kingdom. And so we do not eat for ourselves alone. We eat also for those who do not yet believe, for those who in one way or another do not yet know that Jesus has given himself for them, for those who do not yet know of the Father’s love for them. And so as we eat we are sent, sent to be bearers of the Gospel. 

Brothers and sisters, Jesus is speaking to us, I am ready and willing to feed you; come to me and you will lack nothing. Amen.         

Father Almighty, we bow before you in startled gratitude. How could our words ever be a match for the goodness you show to us? Simply as your creatures we are miracles of grace. Every day you sustain us in countless ways with gift upon gift. Every day you give us daily bread. Father, we are your creatures and we turn to you in dependence and gratitude. With open hands and humble hearts we turn our faces to you, and you make our faces bright with every good gift that you shower down. But Father, we are not just your creatures. You give us daily bread, but you have also given us the Bread of Life, your dear and one and only Son, Jesus Christ. With him we also are your children. Only because of him can we call you Father. In him, you turn to us and meet our every need, granting us eternal life. We praise you and thank you for Jesus Christ.

Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, you are the Father’s greatest gift, and we worship and adore you. Our hearts well up with thankfulness for all that you are to us. Your self-giving knows no limits; your willingness and readiness to feed us is beyond our expectations and imaginations. Lord Jesus, come! Come to us now in this moment, be among us our strength and song and joy. Show us the Father’s love, do not leave us alone in our unbelief and pride. Overmatch our sin with your self-giving. Come also to the world, Lord Jesus. We know that you gave yourself not just for us, but for all. Show yourself to those who do not yet believe. Teach us how to be your witnesses. We are grateful for your body and blood given for the world. May our gratitude match your giving.

Holy Spirit, breath of the living God, breathe on us and make us more grateful. Even today, this very hour and this afternoon, fill us with a song of thankfulness to the Father for giving us the Son. Do not let us remain cold, do not let us persist in unbelief and doubt and ingratitude. As we come forward to be fed, make the bread and cup the Father’s personal gift to each of us, and make us one body with each other, united in fervent praise and thankfulness. Come Holy Spirit, do not leave us alone.

To you, our triune and bountiful God, we pray. Amen.