He Will Feed You

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

___

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.