FOOD FOR THE JOURNEY
MARK 6: 30-44
The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. [31] 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. [32] And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. [33] Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. [34] When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. [35] And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, "This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. [36] Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat." [37] But he answered them, "You give them something to eat." And they said to him, "Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?" [38] And he said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go and see." And when they had found out, they said, "Five, and two fish." [39] Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. [40] So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. [41] And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. [42] And they all ate and were satisfied. [43] And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. [44] And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.
In the name of Jesus:
Have you ever considered how the word breakfast came into being? Many of us eat breakfast everyday, but have you considered why breakfast is called breakfast? Breakfast is the joining together of two words, break and fast. Everyone goes to sleep for 6 to 8 hours a night. The first meal of the day is the most important because it gives fuel and energy to accomplish what lies ahead. So, the first meal of the day is called breakfast because you are literally breaking a fast, breaking a period of not having anything to eat when you are asleep, when you have breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day because it is food to start out the day, food for the journey.
FOOD FOR THE JOURNEY
Each day is a journey. We wake up and face the challenges of another day. If you are a teenager, the breakfast of choice is either a can of Mountain Dew or a candy bar. If you are an adult on the run, perhaps you have time to pull through and get a donut and a cup of coffee on the way to work. While these things may be satisfying for a brief moment, they wind up being less than filling. Over the long haul, it is food that doesn’t last, certainly not for long, but also doesn’t last forever.
Our lives are a journey, a pilgrimage if you will, following Christ along the way. The human condition, being what it is, likes to feed on spiritual junk food. Human nature likes to think that it is self sufficient, that the human mind, the human thought and experience can rise above any and all circumstances. However, there are countless examples which show that the human initiative, that the ability for human beings to choose something which is healthy for the soul and for the journey of life, falls far short.
Just look at the prophet Jeremiah. He continually, day after day and year after year, pointed sinners to the help which only comes from the Lord. Jeremiah pleaded with the people of God to turn to God for help in their times of need. Sadly, that didn’t happen. The kings and priests of the day and age thought that their ways, their understanding, their intuition, was better than what God had to offer. Kings like Amaziah instructed God’s people to actually turn away from God, to trust in works and power of human beings. Forsake God and His ways for they are old fashioned, they said, for we, the enlightened, can lead ourselves in the journey of life.
And what happened? The gods that the people trusted in, which despised God, were of no help. There was no love for one another, no justice found in the nation or for their fellow citizens. God’s people were exiled because they had forsaken God. They chose the popular wisdom, the conventional wisdom, instead of God’s way revealed in His Word. They had forsaken God, so God had forsaken His people.
Look at what happens today, God still speaks in His Word, but are people listening? Is the world hearing and heeding what God actually has to say? Just even a casual glance at what is happening today says no. Churches are giving in to the culture and popular opinion of the day, by acquiescing to the pressure of self interest groups which seek to push their own agenda instead of God’s. Note what happened at the Episcopalian National Church Convention in California this past week. The Episcopalian Church has turned away from the teachings of Scripture and now allows homosexuals to serve as bishops in the Episcopalian Church. In spite of pleas from the Anglican Union, the American Anglican Church has turned away from Christ on this issue and has capitulated to the peer pressure today.
This past week I received an email from President Kieshnick, President of the LCMS, which encourages congregations in the Synod to contact their congressman. Why? Because recently hate crimes legislation leaves open the door of pastors being persecuted for hate crimes if they preach that homosexuality is a sin.
Our culture has despised God and His Word. We are born and conceived in sin and the appetites of sinful people crave that which is sinful. Our wills are turned inward, away from God and towards our sinful selves. The paths we choose for the journey of life leads us in circles, away from God and everlasting life. We like to think that if we had more money, were more popular, or have more stuff that our lives would be better and easier, but that is not the case. The paths we choose lead to death and hell. What seems right in the sinners’ eyes only leads to death. God promises to punish sin and will punish sin, He WILL NOT BE MOCKED.
There is, however, something that we need for this journey in life.
The real food we need: Jesus, the Bread of life. Jesus reveals Himself to be the Food we need on this journey of life. In our text we see that Jesus looks out upon those traveling and following Him. They are tired and hungry. Jesus instructs His disciples to give the crowd, which numbers well over 5000 not counting women and children, something to eat. The disciples look at their means and discover that there is absolutely no way that they can feed the masses. They don’t have the money nor do they have the means to do so, they are INCAPABLE of supplying what sojourners need to feed upon for strength on their journey. So Jesus provides, in an orderly manner, taking that which the people had, a few fish and loaves of bread. He then gives thanks and feeds the masses. This is what Jesus does, this is what God does, God always feeds His people, whether it is manna and quail for His people in the Old Testament as they traveled to the Promised Land, or whether it is modern day disciples traveling throughout their lives following Jesus. God always provides food for the journey, for God truly knows what we need to support this body and life.
That is why He sent Jesus to be our Savior. God knew that the greatest burden that we would have would be the need to have our sins forgiven so that we would have a right relationship with Him. To that end, in His wisdom God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, to be our Savior and the Savior of the world from sin, Satan, and death. By Jesus’ perfect led life, His innocent death on the cross all sin is paid for. The Lord is our righteousness for God was in Christ making friends with the world. He gave His one and only Son so that by believing in Him we might have life, now, and eternal life forever.
Jesus calls Himself the Bread of Life. Listen to what Jesus says: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
Jesus gives Himself in the Sacrament which we call the Lord’s Supper. Here Jesus offers real food for the journey of life. Here Jesus offers Himself, in, with and under the bread and wine for your forgiveness. Here Jesus strengthens your faith as you travel on the journey which God has called you to travel. Here Jesus refreshes your spirits and revives your soul. And it is given to you freely, without cost on your part. It is God’s free gift in Christ. Faith receives God’s gifts and faith partakes of His food. This heavenly Food is given to you in love, the love God has for you in Jesus Christ. Just as we look forward to those times when we gather as family, whether it be Thanksgiving, the 4th of July, for family feasts and festivities, so too we look forward each Sunday to the Feast which Jesus offers in, with, and under the bread and wine.
The Lord’s Supper has always been in Christian history a high point of congregational life. This is why Lutheran congregations have constructed their chancel areas on higher ground so that the altar was at the highest place in the congregation, as if the congregational members were climbing a high mountain to meet God and be fed by God. God’s people come to church to ask God for mercy, forgiveness, and strength and God provides all this and more in the heavenly food called Holy Communion. Here in the Lord’s Supper God opens heaven to His people, so that His Church partakes of one bread and one cup for this is the Food which God provides for our journey. And then, once fed, we come down from the mountain, remembering Paul’s words and reliving Paul’s words: “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
And once fed we go in peace, to serve the Lord with joy. Here is God’s Feast. Here is Jesus in this Sacrament. This is what we need. This is the most important meal of our lives; it is food for our journey, strength for our pilgrimage. And for that we give thanks to God!
Amen
|