Matthew 14:13-21 * July 27, 2008 * Pentecost 11 * Pastor Leyrer

Dear Friends in Christ,

Toward the end of a long and full life the great King David wrote these words in Psalm 37: “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread.” David was reflecting on a four word promise God makes to His children time and time again. And that is: The Lord will provide.

The Lord will provide. If life is like a sea that ebbs and flows and swirls with uncertainty, this promise is the life raft that preserves us from going down. It would be hard – in fact impossible – to overestimate the number of believers down through the centuries who have found strength and refuge in that promise.

I know I do. And I’m sure you do as well. I would imagine just about all of us can tell stories about financial or emotional or personal or employment situations we’ve found ourselves in that humanly speaking looked pretty bleak. Maybe you can recall a conversation in your life that began with the statement, “I just don’t know how we’re going to make it this time” or something equivalent to that…

But then the Lord provided.

Maybe it came in the form of an unexpected gift or a door of new opportunity suddenly opening or the kindness of a friend. Or maybe nothing physically changed, but we did through a newfound strength to accept and cope with the present situation. But whatever it was, because of the timing it really couldn’t be relegated to a stroke of luck or a fortunate coincidence. It was the Lord providing what we needed when we needed it.

Today we have before us perhaps the best know miracle of Jesus and the only one that is recorded in all four Gospels. At face value it is a beautiful lesson on the subject of provision; below the surface are additional ones. All of which can be summed up in this simple statement:

JESUS IS THE GREAT PROVIDER

1. The comfort and

2. The caution within this miracle

First, let’s review the story.

Jesus had lots of things to think about. Just a short time before He had sent His disciples out on their first tour of active duty as missionaries. Now they were back, and Jesus wanted to give them the opportunity to decompress and share their stories.

In addition, within the last few months John the Baptist had been beheaded by King Herod. If you don’t remember the details it’s enough to say any story involving an insecure leader with unchecked power, a difficult wife with a personal agenda, and the possibility of losing face with one’s peers will not end well. And this one didn’t.

What’s perhaps most noteworthy is that for a guy who didn’t give evidence of even having one, Herod lived with a guilty conscience. Now word of another great prophet named Jesus had filtered back to him, and Herod was making noises about wanting to see Him, thinking that maybe this was John the Baptist come back from the dead.

All things considered, then, it was a good time for Jesus and His disciples to gather in a “solitary place,” which, in this case, involved a boat ride across the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee. But solitude was not to be.

Jesus was entering the third and final year of His ministry. By this time His reputation as an authoritative teacher and miracle worker had grown. People wanted to see Him. It is not at all surprising, then, that we’re told a large crowd made the trip around the lake on foot and actually beat Him to the other side. So much for privacy. But Jesus was not at all put off. Rather, “he had compassion on them and healed their sick.”

Understandably, the crowd hung around. As the day wore on the disciples got worried. If they didn’t disperse soon food would become an issue. The disciples suggest Jesus dismiss them. They’re caught a bit off guard when Jesus tests them and tells them, no, they can stay – and here’s the plan: you feed them. Which, of course, they couldn’t. All they could come up with was “five loaves of bread and two fish.”

But, so goes the quote, “man’s extremity is God’s opportunity,” and five loaves of bread and two fish are more than enough when it comes to Jesus. So Jesus looks to heaven, prays, and the bread and fish multiply in His hands. The food was distributed by the disciples to the people, and as our text states: “They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketsful of broken pieces that were left over.”

What do you think this miracle said to the people who experienced it? Two things.

First, that Jesus was something special. This was clearly a miracle. Every once in a while you’ll hear someone try to explain this away by saying Jesus moved those who brought their lunch to share with those who didn’t, and that the real miracle was the kindness Jesus worked among the people. The text doesn’t give us that option. This was a miracle and the people knew it. In an immediate and concrete way, Jesus addressed their physical need to eat.

But this miracle spoke to the people in an even deeper way. Old Testament believers knew very well that in the past God had taken care of His children by providing them with “manna,” that is, bread from heaven. There are non-Biblical writings that indicate the Jewish people believed the Messiah would reveal himself by returning this custom.

So when Jesus provides this new form of bread from heaven He was making a powerful statement about who He was and where He came from. He was indeed that long promised Messiah. And later on He would use this occasion as a springboard to tell them that He was the ultimate Bread of Life that came down from heaven. And from there he instructed them on the spiritual life that is ours through the Gospel message. That Gospel message sustains souls in the same way bread sustains bodies.

That’s what it meant to them. But let’s talk about us, now. How does this miracle of Jesus apply to us today? What message is Jesus sending us through this miracle?

Well, the most obvious lesson to be reinforced for us is that just as Jesus had compassion on and provided for the 5000, so He will for us. This miracle of feeding the 5000 is an object lesson on that most basic of promises God gives us throughout His Word: the Lord will provide.

Will He provide for us in the same miraculous way He did back then? Usually not. Nor should we expect Him to. Usually Jesus provides for our bodily needs through natural means. We get bread from the store, which comes from wheat, which is grown and planted by farmers, etc. But behind it all is God’s providing hand. We buy this bread with money that comes to us through employment or other means, but behind all of this is God’s providing hand as well.

So God takes care of our physical needs every day by answering the prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

It is good for us to remember this because it’s easy to forget. Especially if things aren’t happening as quickly or to the degree that we’d like. For example...

Economically things are slowing down in our country. Some more than others, but just about all within this congregation are no doubt feeling the effects of this. Those on a fixed income remain on a fixed income even when the costs for basic necessities go up. Those who are thinking about retirement may wonder if they’re going to have enough to live on, or, given the volatility of investments, if they’re going to get out what they’ve put in all those years. Some may be wondering about the stability of their jobs or have already been served notice to start looking.

Moving away from finances, others are dealing with personal circumstances that have altered the very fabric of their lives and are wondering how things are going to work in this new order of things.

For any and all who may be worried or concerned about how things are going to work out, or if things are going to work out, this is the message of this miracle: The Lord will provide. Jesus is no less God today than He was back then. As He loved and had compassion on the crowd back then, so He loves and has compassion on His children today. We’re in good hands.

Whether it be more, less, or different than it was in the past, we leave to His divine fatherly will. But in this we find comfort. The Lord will provide.

Even more importantly is to remember this: The Lord has provided. And what He has provided us is His Son. Jesus reminds us that “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” God be praised, we understand what has come from the mouth of God. It is this:

Though our sins be like scarlet, we are white as snow in the eyes of God, cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Though we deserve condemnation for disobedience to a just and holy God, we will receive just the opposite, salvation, thanks to the sinless life of Jesus as our substitute, His sacrificial death for our sins, and His glorious resurrection. And while there may be some uncertainty to life on planet earth, there is absolutely no uncertainty as to what happens next. Eternal life awaits us.

And because we know God has provided this, we can be certain He will provide for all our other needs as well. We need only to trust and obey, and leave the rest to Him.

Before we close, there is one last thing we should say about this miracle. We won’t spend a lot of time on it, but there is also a caution here. Let me tell you what happened after this miracle had taken place. We learn this only from John’s Gospel, but it is an important lesson.

After Jesus fed the 5000 we’re told He “withdrew to a mountain by himself” (Jn 6:15). Do you know why? Because the people who had been miraculously fed wanted to come and make Jesus their king by force. It’s not hard to understand their reasoning. If we can have a king who can do miracles on demand, we don’t have to sweat or toil or suffer ever again. We’ll just put in our order and everything will be taken care of.

Herein lies caution in this miracle and in the fact we have a miracle-working and prayer-hearing Savior. It is easy to move from gratefulness to expectation. And from expectation it is easy to move to a sense of entitlement. And from a sense of entitlement it is easy to actually move a point of becoming disappointed with God.

Why? Because we know He can, it is easy to think that He must. And if He doesn’t come through for us in the manner we think He should, it’s not that hard to convince ourselves that He’s really not being fair. After all, aren’t we His children? Don’t I live my life as a Christian? Don’t I pray and contribute and show up for church and all that – and shouldn’t that be worth something? How come Jesus isn’t coming through for me!

The lesson: Beware of seeing Jesus not as our Savior, but as a commodity to be used for gaining our own desires. Remember, God is God nothing less. Man is man, nothing more. And if our prayers and desires are not met to our expectations, that doesn’t mean Jesus has failed us or is holding back on us. It means Jesus knows what is best for us.

This we know: He promises to provide for our every situation. The cross proves that.

So today’s message: The Lord will provide. Physically. Spiritually. Always. This is His promise and this is our confidence. Amen.