Trinity 7 (Historic)
Mark 8:1-9
Vicar David Wurdeman
Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father and our Lord and
savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Blessings” -- it's a word that comes up pretty commonly in everyday
conversation. Some people use it to describe their lives on social
media, tagging a Facebook status with “blessed” at the end, as a sort
of way of giving thanks or even giving credit to God where credit is
due. More immediately, we will hear it spoken at the end of this
Divine service. In the Benedicamus, pastor says, “Let us bless the
Lord” to which we respond “Thanks be to God.” Then, in the Aaronic
Benedication which we take from Numbers, we hear the ever familiar
blessing “The Lord bless you and keep you, The Lord make His face
shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with favor
and give you peace.” So in just the very end of our service we use
“bless” both to refer to our thanksgiving of God's compassion towards
us, as well as a promise that God is to remain with us as we carry out
our lives between now and next Sunday.
Our Gospel text, the feeding of the 4000, is certainly one of blessing
and one that many Christians are familiar with, as well as those
outside the faith. But the blessings Christ offers in this chapter of
God's Word are much more than just feeding some fish and bread to
weary travelers. No, beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, the heart
of this text is that CHRIST OUR LORD HAS DIVINE COMPASSION ON US AND
BLESSES US CONTINUALLY.
Our text begins in the wilderness. Jesus and his discples had been
busy going through the lands of Galilee. Jesus was establishing His
ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing. This included but was
not limitted to His sermons, parables, and miracles. Now, these were
all part of Christ's larger mission on Earth. That is to say, they
were all moving towards His death on the cross. Before He was
crucified, Christ first went out and spread His Good News to Jews and
Gentiles alike. Recently in His ministry He had cast out the demon
from the Syrophoenician woman's daughter, He had healed a blind man,
and He had also just fed a large crowd--the 5000--in very similar, but
yet distinctly separate event.
Now it's no surprise that by this time Jesus' Word and deeds had
attracted a large crowd. People followed Him eagerly because they
hungered to hear His Word. There were 4000 men in this crowd. And this
number “4000” doesn't include the women and children, so the total
following was significantly larger. They all clung to Christ's
ministry, for they were like sheep without a shephered. They were
lost, with God's Word obscured through their own priests' failings,
false teachings, and unfaithful hearts. The 4000 followed Jesus even
into the wilderness, despite not having enough food. Now they were
hungry with a long and difficult journey to get back home. They were
stranded in desolation.
But immediately upon seeing this, Jesus speaks to His disciples: “I
have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three
days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their
homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far
away.” Here Christ is moved with immense compassion. This specific
word for “compassion” is uniquely used in Scripture to describe God's
divine compassion for humanity. A compassion so deep we cannot fully
grasp it. This word, put mroe literally, is a “gut-wrenching”
compassion, that God has for us. Jesus seeks to feed His sheep because
God's very nature is merciful.
However, the disciples were all too ready to point out their
problematic situation: “How can one feed these people with bread here
in this desolate place?” Lord, what can we even do for these people?
Here, God's children were powerless and this is a clear parallel to
their sinful nature, as well as our own. The 4000 had no hope for
finding any bread to eat― they were miles and miles from the nearest
ancient Jewish Safeway (or local grocery store)! Likewise, we too are
completely helpless in our sin. We cannot hope to justify ourselves
through our “good” works and deeds, because we are condemned by our
sin, and our fallen nature has the inclination to return to sin time
and time again. Any and all “good” works we do apart from Christ are
tainted with sin. The 4000 were in need of God's help physically and
spiritually just as we are today. When we rely on ourselves instead of
Christ, we will surely “faint along the way” like weary sojourners.
Without Christ, we are weak and powerless against the devil, indeed,
we are dead in our trespasses.
But Christ feeds his sheep. He asked how many loaves His discples had,
then gave thanks, broke the bread, and gave it to His children to eat.
He also fed them fish, and moreover He fed His people until they were
full. There was so much breat that after their meal the disciples
gathered up seven baskets full of uneaten bread! Truly this is a
miracle from the hands of God, and not some mere lesson about people
putting aside selfish intentions and deciding to share. Often critics
of Scriptural authority will say that everybody had just been holding
out, that for some reason everybody had had an abundance of food
stashes away, but were reluctant to eat it. BUT once Jesus and the
disciples started to share, everybody else decided to paid it forward
as well. Voila! When people just stop sinning, the world is a pretty
great place! But this is not what Scripture tells us. We know that
mankind has fallen and needs God's compassion. We know that the LORD
miraculously provided in abundance and excess, creating food to save
His followers, despite their sin. And He gave them more than they
needed.
You may ask, “Okay, great, we've analyzed the Bible story, but so
what? What does this part of Christ's ministry have to do with us here
and now? It's all supposed to be working to the cross, but what of
it?” And that's a fair question, and immediately we can learn several
things from this text: first off, we know that Christ has a unique
goodness and mercy for His people. This compassion is so profound that
we cannot fully understand it. Second, we know that God provides for
us in abundance. He is the source of our first article gifts, that is
to say God feeds us and provides for us in this life. He gives us our
bodies and soul, our reason and all our senses, clothing and shoes,
food and drink, wife and children, land, animals, and all we have.
Third, we see Christ's divinity as He provides a miracle that only God
could manage. To put these all together more succinctly: Chirst, the
Son of God, has divine compassion for us and blesses us.
As I just mentioned, it is very tempting to think of this story merely
as a nice object lesson about sharing, or even to take it as a
prosperity gospel: that Christ is generous and gives wealth and
abundance to His followers. Or at least to those who have a sincere
enough heart, to those who pray hard enough, live life wholly in the
Word, and so on. These secular interpretations are unfortunately
common and they bring a particular hymn to my mind. It's not in our
hymnal, but the basic jist of it is: when you live in a fallen world
full of hatred, murder, and civil unrest; when you feel anxious, lost,
and alone as evil, sin, death, and despair come crashing down around
you...simply count your blessings! (Clear throat and sing first two
lines) “Couuunt your many blessings, name them one by one / Annd it
will surprise you what the LORD has done.” Just count your blessings
and you'll soon realize that life's not that bad! Christ loves you!
Just look at what He's given you. After all, if you're here today in
church, odds are you have a family, food and drink, and shelter. Sure,
We would all like a bit more, perhaps a more successful or fulfilling
career, but you don't really need that. You don't need to have a
bigger house. Just be satisfied in what the Lord has already given
you! And who knows--if you're a faithful Christian, He'll keep on
giving you blessings. Maybe He's already giving them to you and you
just don't know where to look. After all, look at the blessings Jesus
gave to His followers who trusted and believed in Him enough to follow
Him into the wilderness.
Now on the surface level this is certainly a cheery and common
sentiment, but we cannot and must not reduce Christ's miracles to such
secular simplicity. Christ's miracles are always done within the
larger and more important context of His Earthly ministry. Everything
Christ did on Earth had a purpose. Everything He did was in
preparation for the cross, for His death and resurrection so that we
may have eternal life.
We cannot merely “count our blessings” if we want to understand God's
compassion for us. We cannot just look to our earthly, first article
gifts to measure God's love. For instance, how well does it work, when
we are facing earnest doubts of faith or are in a time of real
despair, to just go around and look at all of our stuff we have? Has a
really nice furniture set ever cured deep depression? Does a bit of
extra cash in the bank account ever soothe the anguish we face after
losing a spouse, parent, or -God forbid- a child? How many people on
their deathbed take consolation in all of their stuff that they're
about to leave behind? Money can and will keep you comfortable in this
life to a certain extent, but when it comes to life's end--to death,
money cannot give you peace.
And for that matter: what of Job? What of His suffering, and what of
those who suffer like him today? The poor and the starving and those
who cannot count clothing, shoes, shelter, family, or friends among
their blessings? If we measure God's love only in His worldly gifts to
us, we risk losing our faith. For what loving God lets people starve?
Indeed, if we make wordly possessions the proof of God's love, we will
inevitably become jealous of our neighbor who has more and we will
inevitably doubt if God loves humanity much at all.
Yet, we rejoice because God has a divine compassion for His people
that is unequalled in all of creation. It far exceeds any and all
first article gifts we receive. In God's benevolence and mercy towards
us, He sent His son to die for us on the cross. Christ humbled Himself
to take on human flesh. And God's divine compassion is unique in
Christ's passion: His death of pure agony. He took all of our sins,
all of hell, and complete separation from the Father upon Himself, so
that we would be free from this sin, death, and agony which we
merited. THIS is the greatest blessing we have ever received.
On our deathbeds we can now look to Christ in peace and know our sins
are forgiven and that we have eternal life. When we are suffering
physically, mentally, or financially we know that Christ suffered for
us, and with us. We know that though this fallen creation may be
wrought with sorrows, that we will live forever with Christ in heaven,
in perfect bliss. The ultimate victory against death is already won.
We are blessed.
But we don't even need to look all the way to the end of our lives to
see the effects of God's divine compassion for us. God, in His
infinite love for us, continues to be with us in this sinful world.
Just as Christ did not feed the 4000 a little snack and then send them
out on their way with unlikely odds of ever making it home, God does
not leave us to our own sinful devices on Earth. Christ fed the 4000,
but more importantly He fed them His Word as they hungered for His
truth. His Word of promise and peace, preparing them for His death on
the cross. And God continues to give us His Word today. Through the
preached Word and the waters of Baptism, we are given faith. With this
God-given faith, we have been given the power to overcome the devil
and His wiles. And as we hear God's Word our faith is fortified. This
is why violating the third commandment is so foolhardy謡hen we skip
church we are starving ourselves of God's Word and its wonderful
benefits! It's as if we were to walk away from Jesus' miraculous
feeding into the wilderness, trusting ourselves to not faint on the
way. Church is where we receive the forgiveness of sins, it is where
our faith is strengthened. It is where we are blessed and where we are
reminded of the peace Christ gave us. Truly, it is where heaven meets
Earth. Here in church today, we are further blessed to receive the
Sacrament of the Altar. In addition to giving us His Word, God has
compassion on us and feeds us with His very body and blood for the
forgiveness of sins. This blessing far outweighs any wordly gift we
can receive. We can take true comfort in Christ's real and physical
presence, and His clear, compassionate forgivess of our sins. Christ,
the bread of life, comes to us here in Church. We are blessed beyond
measure.
And so, when we hear of Christ's miraculous feeding of the 4000, we
know that we are blessed. We do not just use this text as a reminder
to count our physical blessings which God has graciously provided
us--although it is certainly appropriate to enjoy these gifts and to
fervently give thanks for them. But furthermore we are reminded of
Christ's complete and divine compassion for us. We are reminded that
Christ loves His children deeply, despite our total sinfulness,
unworthiness, and helplessness without Him. We are reminded that
Christ feeds His people with bread and worldy gifts, but more
importantly with His Word and Sacraments. We are reminded that God has
given us faith and that in the ultimate act of compassion Christ died
for us on the cross, so that we live eternally. So! Let us now count
our blessings, let us name them: we are fed, we are forgiven, we are
redeemed. We have eternal life in Christ Jesus. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard and
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Mark 8:1-9
Vicar David Wurdeman
Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father and our Lord and
savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Blessings” -- it's a word that comes up pretty commonly in everyday
conversation. Some people use it to describe their lives on social
media, tagging a Facebook status with “blessed” at the end, as a sort
of way of giving thanks or even giving credit to God where credit is
due. More immediately, we will hear it spoken at the end of this
Divine service. In the Benedicamus, pastor says, “Let us bless the
Lord” to which we respond “Thanks be to God.” Then, in the Aaronic
Benedication which we take from Numbers, we hear the ever familiar
blessing “The Lord bless you and keep you, The Lord make His face
shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with favor
and give you peace.” So in just the very end of our service we use
“bless” both to refer to our thanksgiving of God's compassion towards
us, as well as a promise that God is to remain with us as we carry out
our lives between now and next Sunday.
Our Gospel text, the feeding of the 4000, is certainly one of blessing
and one that many Christians are familiar with, as well as those
outside the faith. But the blessings Christ offers in this chapter of
God's Word are much more than just feeding some fish and bread to
weary travelers. No, beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, the heart
of this text is that CHRIST OUR LORD HAS DIVINE COMPASSION ON US AND
BLESSES US CONTINUALLY.
Our text begins in the wilderness. Jesus and his discples had been
busy going through the lands of Galilee. Jesus was establishing His
ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing. This included but was
not limitted to His sermons, parables, and miracles. Now, these were
all part of Christ's larger mission on Earth. That is to say, they
were all moving towards His death on the cross. Before He was
crucified, Christ first went out and spread His Good News to Jews and
Gentiles alike. Recently in His ministry He had cast out the demon
from the Syrophoenician woman's daughter, He had healed a blind man,
and He had also just fed a large crowd--the 5000--in very similar, but
yet distinctly separate event.
Now it's no surprise that by this time Jesus' Word and deeds had
attracted a large crowd. People followed Him eagerly because they
hungered to hear His Word. There were 4000 men in this crowd. And this
number “4000” doesn't include the women and children, so the total
following was significantly larger. They all clung to Christ's
ministry, for they were like sheep without a shephered. They were
lost, with God's Word obscured through their own priests' failings,
false teachings, and unfaithful hearts. The 4000 followed Jesus even
into the wilderness, despite not having enough food. Now they were
hungry with a long and difficult journey to get back home. They were
stranded in desolation.
But immediately upon seeing this, Jesus speaks to His disciples: “I
have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three
days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their
homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far
away.” Here Christ is moved with immense compassion. This specific
word for “compassion” is uniquely used in Scripture to describe God's
divine compassion for humanity. A compassion so deep we cannot fully
grasp it. This word, put mroe literally, is a “gut-wrenching”
compassion, that God has for us. Jesus seeks to feed His sheep because
God's very nature is merciful.
However, the disciples were all too ready to point out their
problematic situation: “How can one feed these people with bread here
in this desolate place?” Lord, what can we even do for these people?
Here, God's children were powerless and this is a clear parallel to
their sinful nature, as well as our own. The 4000 had no hope for
finding any bread to eat― they were miles and miles from the nearest
ancient Jewish Safeway (or local grocery store)! Likewise, we too are
completely helpless in our sin. We cannot hope to justify ourselves
through our “good” works and deeds, because we are condemned by our
sin, and our fallen nature has the inclination to return to sin time
and time again. Any and all “good” works we do apart from Christ are
tainted with sin. The 4000 were in need of God's help physically and
spiritually just as we are today. When we rely on ourselves instead of
Christ, we will surely “faint along the way” like weary sojourners.
Without Christ, we are weak and powerless against the devil, indeed,
we are dead in our trespasses.
But Christ feeds his sheep. He asked how many loaves His discples had,
then gave thanks, broke the bread, and gave it to His children to eat.
He also fed them fish, and moreover He fed His people until they were
full. There was so much breat that after their meal the disciples
gathered up seven baskets full of uneaten bread! Truly this is a
miracle from the hands of God, and not some mere lesson about people
putting aside selfish intentions and deciding to share. Often critics
of Scriptural authority will say that everybody had just been holding
out, that for some reason everybody had had an abundance of food
stashes away, but were reluctant to eat it. BUT once Jesus and the
disciples started to share, everybody else decided to paid it forward
as well. Voila! When people just stop sinning, the world is a pretty
great place! But this is not what Scripture tells us. We know that
mankind has fallen and needs God's compassion. We know that the LORD
miraculously provided in abundance and excess, creating food to save
His followers, despite their sin. And He gave them more than they
needed.
You may ask, “Okay, great, we've analyzed the Bible story, but so
what? What does this part of Christ's ministry have to do with us here
and now? It's all supposed to be working to the cross, but what of
it?” And that's a fair question, and immediately we can learn several
things from this text: first off, we know that Christ has a unique
goodness and mercy for His people. This compassion is so profound that
we cannot fully understand it. Second, we know that God provides for
us in abundance. He is the source of our first article gifts, that is
to say God feeds us and provides for us in this life. He gives us our
bodies and soul, our reason and all our senses, clothing and shoes,
food and drink, wife and children, land, animals, and all we have.
Third, we see Christ's divinity as He provides a miracle that only God
could manage. To put these all together more succinctly: Chirst, the
Son of God, has divine compassion for us and blesses us.
As I just mentioned, it is very tempting to think of this story merely
as a nice object lesson about sharing, or even to take it as a
prosperity gospel: that Christ is generous and gives wealth and
abundance to His followers. Or at least to those who have a sincere
enough heart, to those who pray hard enough, live life wholly in the
Word, and so on. These secular interpretations are unfortunately
common and they bring a particular hymn to my mind. It's not in our
hymnal, but the basic jist of it is: when you live in a fallen world
full of hatred, murder, and civil unrest; when you feel anxious, lost,
and alone as evil, sin, death, and despair come crashing down around
you...simply count your blessings! (Clear throat and sing first two
lines) “Couuunt your many blessings, name them one by one / Annd it
will surprise you what the LORD has done.” Just count your blessings
and you'll soon realize that life's not that bad! Christ loves you!
Just look at what He's given you. After all, if you're here today in
church, odds are you have a family, food and drink, and shelter. Sure,
We would all like a bit more, perhaps a more successful or fulfilling
career, but you don't really need that. You don't need to have a
bigger house. Just be satisfied in what the Lord has already given
you! And who knows--if you're a faithful Christian, He'll keep on
giving you blessings. Maybe He's already giving them to you and you
just don't know where to look. After all, look at the blessings Jesus
gave to His followers who trusted and believed in Him enough to follow
Him into the wilderness.
Now on the surface level this is certainly a cheery and common
sentiment, but we cannot and must not reduce Christ's miracles to such
secular simplicity. Christ's miracles are always done within the
larger and more important context of His Earthly ministry. Everything
Christ did on Earth had a purpose. Everything He did was in
preparation for the cross, for His death and resurrection so that we
may have eternal life.
We cannot merely “count our blessings” if we want to understand God's
compassion for us. We cannot just look to our earthly, first article
gifts to measure God's love. For instance, how well does it work, when
we are facing earnest doubts of faith or are in a time of real
despair, to just go around and look at all of our stuff we have? Has a
really nice furniture set ever cured deep depression? Does a bit of
extra cash in the bank account ever soothe the anguish we face after
losing a spouse, parent, or -God forbid- a child? How many people on
their deathbed take consolation in all of their stuff that they're
about to leave behind? Money can and will keep you comfortable in this
life to a certain extent, but when it comes to life's end--to death,
money cannot give you peace.
And for that matter: what of Job? What of His suffering, and what of
those who suffer like him today? The poor and the starving and those
who cannot count clothing, shoes, shelter, family, or friends among
their blessings? If we measure God's love only in His worldly gifts to
us, we risk losing our faith. For what loving God lets people starve?
Indeed, if we make wordly possessions the proof of God's love, we will
inevitably become jealous of our neighbor who has more and we will
inevitably doubt if God loves humanity much at all.
Yet, we rejoice because God has a divine compassion for His people
that is unequalled in all of creation. It far exceeds any and all
first article gifts we receive. In God's benevolence and mercy towards
us, He sent His son to die for us on the cross. Christ humbled Himself
to take on human flesh. And God's divine compassion is unique in
Christ's passion: His death of pure agony. He took all of our sins,
all of hell, and complete separation from the Father upon Himself, so
that we would be free from this sin, death, and agony which we
merited. THIS is the greatest blessing we have ever received.
On our deathbeds we can now look to Christ in peace and know our sins
are forgiven and that we have eternal life. When we are suffering
physically, mentally, or financially we know that Christ suffered for
us, and with us. We know that though this fallen creation may be
wrought with sorrows, that we will live forever with Christ in heaven,
in perfect bliss. The ultimate victory against death is already won.
We are blessed.
But we don't even need to look all the way to the end of our lives to
see the effects of God's divine compassion for us. God, in His
infinite love for us, continues to be with us in this sinful world.
Just as Christ did not feed the 4000 a little snack and then send them
out on their way with unlikely odds of ever making it home, God does
not leave us to our own sinful devices on Earth. Christ fed the 4000,
but more importantly He fed them His Word as they hungered for His
truth. His Word of promise and peace, preparing them for His death on
the cross. And God continues to give us His Word today. Through the
preached Word and the waters of Baptism, we are given faith. With this
God-given faith, we have been given the power to overcome the devil
and His wiles. And as we hear God's Word our faith is fortified. This
is why violating the third commandment is so foolhardy謡hen we skip
church we are starving ourselves of God's Word and its wonderful
benefits! It's as if we were to walk away from Jesus' miraculous
feeding into the wilderness, trusting ourselves to not faint on the
way. Church is where we receive the forgiveness of sins, it is where
our faith is strengthened. It is where we are blessed and where we are
reminded of the peace Christ gave us. Truly, it is where heaven meets
Earth. Here in church today, we are further blessed to receive the
Sacrament of the Altar. In addition to giving us His Word, God has
compassion on us and feeds us with His very body and blood for the
forgiveness of sins. This blessing far outweighs any wordly gift we
can receive. We can take true comfort in Christ's real and physical
presence, and His clear, compassionate forgivess of our sins. Christ,
the bread of life, comes to us here in Church. We are blessed beyond
measure.
And so, when we hear of Christ's miraculous feeding of the 4000, we
know that we are blessed. We do not just use this text as a reminder
to count our physical blessings which God has graciously provided
us--although it is certainly appropriate to enjoy these gifts and to
fervently give thanks for them. But furthermore we are reminded of
Christ's complete and divine compassion for us. We are reminded that
Christ loves His children deeply, despite our total sinfulness,
unworthiness, and helplessness without Him. We are reminded that
Christ feeds His people with bread and worldy gifts, but more
importantly with His Word and Sacraments. We are reminded that God has
given us faith and that in the ultimate act of compassion Christ died
for us on the cross, so that we live eternally. So! Let us now count
our blessings, let us name them: we are fed, we are forgiven, we are
redeemed. We have eternal life in Christ Jesus. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard and
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
