Trinity 7 2021

Rev. Thomas Van Hemert

St. Mark 8:1-9

Trinity 7

July 18/22, 2021

In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.

There are two miraculous feeding miracles of Jesus recorded in the Gospels. The Feeding of the 5000 is recorded in all four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In fact, it’s the only miracle recorded in each of the Gospels. But the reading today from chapter 8 of Mark’s Gospel records for us the Feeding of the 4000. This miraculous feeding miracle is a separate miracle entirely. The Feeding of the 4000 is only recorded in Matthew and Mark. So the Evangelists, those four men who wrote a Gospel—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—didn’t make a mistake.

We know these miracles are distinct from each other because earlier in Mark, chapter 6, two chapters before the Gospel reading for today, Jesus feeds the 5000. Then He goes and walks on water. After that, He heals the sick near the land at Gennesaret and then admonishes the Pharisees by calling them hypocrites because they honor their own manmade commandments instead of showing mercy to those who need it and adhering to God’s Law. Jesus then goes on His way and exorcises the demon from the Syrophoenician Woman’s daughter and He also heals a deaf man, where it is recorded that Jesus said, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened,” so that this man could now hear the Gospel. He who has ears, let him hear. Faith, comes by hearing. The man who was once deaf now is able to have faith in Jesus and thereby, is saved.

In fact, that’s partly why the great crowds constantly gathered to Jesus throughout the Gospels. They had gathered to hear Him preach. Of course, it’s also possible that they had gathered to Him so that He would also heal their sick and cast out their demons. But they were there to listen to Him, to receive the words from out of His mouth and into their ears. This was a great crowd, great in number. 

The great crowd in today’s Gospel had gathered not just for an 8-15 minute sermon on Sunday morning. They had been following Jesus around for three full days. They were so fixated on His words and His preaching that they had forgotten to eat for three days. No doubt, they were hungry. They needed to eat, lest they faint along the way home. 

And so it is that even we need food, physical food, to sustain our bodies lest we faint, lest we grow weary, lest we grow tired and hungry. For this very reason, God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and to work it. And in that garden God gave the man every tree of the garden to eat so that the man would be satisfied, save of course, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Even in the perfection and bliss of Eden, the man needed food. And what does God do for the man? He provides. God provided even in that perfect and sinless place. And so how much more will He provide for those who find themselves in desolate places? He provides all the more. He makes something out of nothing. Seven bread loaves and a few small fish are nothing. But with God, all things are possible. He is abounding and steadfast love and mercy. He has compassion. And so does He do what He does best. In that desolate place, with the crowds following Him, He gives them what they need the most. He loves them. He does not hold out on them. He loves them in their souls and in their bodies.

Jesus has compassion on the crowds. He not only cares about their souls but also their bodies, and thus the reason why He came into the world by taking on a body. He came into the world so that He might forgive the sins of the whole world, that He might forgive your sins. Jesus cares about you as a whole person. If God did not care about your body and your physical needs, He would have created you without a body. But He didn’t. His love for you is full.

This is, in part, why the Resurrection of the Body is a focus of our funeral services. Because we as Christians actually believe that the person who has died, this dead person who lies in the coffin will be raised bodily on the last day. So also do we believe that the bodies of all who have gone before us with the sign of faith will be joined to their souls, which are currently waiting in the eternal and comforting presence of God in heaven.  So then when we ourselves are resurrected, we will see all Christians who have ever lived and will be able to recognize them and speak to them with our own voices and see them as they are with our own eyeballs. The only difference, is there will be no sin. There won’t be any debilitating disease—nothing that will be a hindrance. We will live together in perfection, in the new Eden because that’s where God will be. In this, is how we know that God in Christ Jesus cares for us, not only spiritually, but also bodily.

Thus, the miracle of the Feeding of the 4000 teaches us and shows us how God has compassion. He has compassion even on you. He is not holding out on you. He loves you.

Now all Scripture is intertwined in its teaching and themes. The Bible reveals to us who God is. The Bible also reveals to us the sacred acts of God, such as that God loves the world in the person of Christ Jesus so much that He was willing to suffer and die for it. God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. This act of dying for all people, this atoning sacrifice was a sacred act. It was a sacred sacrifice—a once-and-for-all atonement—that is, a covering of our sins by Jesus’ blood. This was an eternal, holy, sacred sacrifice that Jesus offered to His Father. All of Holy Scripture testifies and foreshadows this.

The various parables, miracles, and events recorded for us in the Bible are also what we call sacramental. This means they foreshadow, point us to, and remind us of holy things—holy and sacred acts of God. For example, in John chapter 3, in speaking with Nicodemus, Jesus never mentions the words “Holy Baptism.” Jesus never says, “You must be baptized.” But it’s quite obvious that Jesus is talking about Holy Baptism because He says, “Truly, Truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” What else could this be, if not a reference to Holy Baptism. This is a sacramental saying. It points toward the sacrament.

So also is the Feeding of the 4000 sacramental. To be sure, the miraculous Feeding of the 4000 is not the Lord’s Supper. It’s not the sacrament. Jesus didn’t take the seven bread loaves and say while He broke them, “This is My Body.” This isn’t the Lord’s Supper because the Lord’s Supper was instituted a few chapters later in Mark 14. But this miraculous Feeding of the 4000 is sacramental. It directs us and points us to the Sacrament of the Altar. Because at the altar, during the communion liturgy, in a very personal and loving way, Jesus has compassion on us by giving us heavenly bread, which is His very Body to strengthen and sustain us while we carry on in the desolate place of this life. And we must see it. We must understand this—that all of the Bible is interwoven with its teachings and everything is interrelated. God has compassion on His people.

And so Jesus, in His mercy, has compassion on the crowds and provides for them in the way that they needed it the most: “He directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, He broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd.” He feeds them, lest they faint along the way.

So also does He have compassion on you. He provides for you in the way that you need the most. You, like the crowds, have been with Jesus. Except you have been with Him longer than 3 days. You have been baptized. You have been with Him your entire life and you are tired. You have endured much, suffered much. You think the crowds were tired, being in that desolate place, but you know deep down in your heart, in your very feeling and consciousness that you are tired and weary of all the disappointments and sadness you suffer in this life.

But to sustain you, to give you the strength to carry on, Jesus has compassion on you. You know struggle. You know hardship. You know loss. You know what it’s like to feel lonely. Perhaps you also know the feeling of being forsaken by friends and abandoned by loved ones. So does Jesus. He endured it all and more. But you are not alone in this. He is right there, suffering with you. He loves you. As a sign and testament of His love, He takes bread. He blesses it and breaks it. He places it into your mouth. Here, at this altar within this desolate place, outside the Garden of Eden, He feeds you with heavenly food.

You are on a journey. It’s a journey, in which you must carry on through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. But have no fear. Jesus is with you in this desolate place. He is leading you back into green pastures and to still waters, all the while, He is restoring your soul. This food He gives, this living bread from heaven supports and strengthens you until you reach your journey’s end, lest you faint along the way.

In +Jesus’ name.