Lent 4 - Laetare (Be Happy! Rejoice!) March 27, 2022
John 6:1-15
Holy Math!
v.5 Lifting up His eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward Him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?"
Dear friends in Christ, how are you at math? Maybe like me, you're not that bad. You can do simple multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, even basic algebra, without having to pull your hair out! Others, may struggle with math and grow frustrated with it on a daily basis. Still others, those rare few, may just LOVE math (nobody really likes these people do they?)--they love the numbers, the logical sense that finely balanced equations bring to the world. But I don't know that anyone has ever described math as holy. Yet, in our text for today, we are reminded of a most beautiful and holy equation--that God brings abundance from nothing--and cancels the debt of sinners through the blood of Jesus on the cross!
In our text for this morning we see Jesus being followed by large crowds. Why? "Because they saw the signs that He was doing on the sick." You see, in Jesus' day, approximately only 1/3 of people lived well into adulthood because of sickness and disease. Things that we can cure today with antibiotics, like Strep throat, could have proved deadly in the ancient world. Therefore, when the people saw that Jesus had power and authority to heal, they quickly chased after Him, seeking this healing--this extension of life from His gracious hand.
Exhausted, Jesus withdraws to the mountain with His disciples. However, as He looked upon the large crowd that had followed Him into the wilderness, He had compassion on them. Knowing they would soon be hungry, Jesus turns to Philip and asks him, "Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?" There is no food close at hand--especially for a group that probably numbered in the tens of thousands (including men, women, and children). There is no Super-Walmart over the next hill, no Safeway or County Market close at hand where the people may purchase dinner. What are they to do?
Philip looks to the crowd and is overwhelmed by the mathematical problem that Jesus has set before him. He runs the numbers in his head and quickly calculates that 200 denarii (that is over six months of an average salary) would not buy enough bread "for each of them to get a little." He is stumped. There is not enough money in the bank for them to help so large a crowd. He has made the mistake of taking his eyes off of Jesus and seeing only the mathematical problem at hand.
Enter Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, the one who had brought Peter to Jesus. He has found a small boy with a sack lunch, packed by a loving mother. He has five small barley loaves and two fish, "but what are they for so many?" This lunch is fine for a small boy, but looking, once again, at the size of the crowd, Andrew wonders how far this is going to stretch among so many. Andrew, too, has taken his eyes off Jesus and sees only the problem at hand. The numbers don't add up. Five loaves and two fish among more than 5000 men, women, and children? It's impossible!
Jesus, however, cares nothing for numbers--for mathematical problems that confuse and confound us--with what is possible or impossible. He is the Lord of Creation. He is God Almighty in the flesh! And He cares only for the welfare of His beloved people. In the face of incredible odds--of cold, hard, math--Jesus does what no one else could do. He provides. He takes the little boy's lunch, gives thanks--eucharists it--and the end result is a superabundance that no one saw coming. In fact, He pointedly provides more than enough for the gathered people--so much in fact that there is a basket of leftovers for each disciple!
Jesus instructs us here to focus not on our problems at hand, but on His bountiful goodness. We keep our eyes on Jesus in time of need, whatever that may be. By grace, we are led by the Holy Spirit to look only to Christ for our every good. Jesus draws your attention to Himself and His gifts that He gives to you in His Word and Sacraments.
The devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh, would seek to starve you of your faith. They want you to look at your life--your sin--and be so overwhelmed at the magnitude of it--that you despair. It is easy for us to fall into this trap. We have problems and we try to solve them by ourselves. We are tempted to face sickness, trials and death looking only to man, to ourselves, and the created things of this world, when we should be looking to Christ and His merciful hand.
For all this and so much more, we are called to repent. Repent. Confess our great sin of thought, word, and deed--our acts of evil--our lack of devotion to God--and turn to Jesus. In our Lutheran Confessions in the Book of Concord, there is a document titled "The Apology to the Augsburg Confession," written by Luther's right hand man, Philip Melanchthon. Paragraph 42 of Article XII, which deals with Repentance, states, "So faith is conceived and strengthened through Absolution, through the hearing of the Gospel, through the use of the Sacraments, so that it may not give in to the terrors of sin and death while it struggles."
Beloved, we all struggle with the math of sin and death. Add up your sin, your guilt, your shame--your sin of thought, word, and deed. See the magnitude of it shining clearly under the light of God's holy Law. Now multiply that sin of yours by every person in this church, in this town, country, the world. Now multiply that sin by every person that has ever lived in the past (all the way back to Adam and Eve), every person that is now living, and will ever live! Do you have a number in your head? A picture of the enormity of the sin of mankind? It is difficult for our feeble minds to grasp, isn't it, no matter how good you are at math!
And yet, no matter how gigantic the sin of the world, or even your own personal sin, when weighed on the divine scale of God's justice against the blood of Jesus--it amounts to nothing! Gone! Forever removed! A single drop of the holy and precious blood of Christ is more than enough to cancel out the sin of the whole world for all time--yet in love, Jesus shed it all. And in return you are actually given a superabundance of the "leftovers." For Christ's righteousness and holiness is credited to your account.
Your guilt? Your shame? Nothing in the light of Christ's mercy. You receive by faith only forgiveness and love. Your sin-sick body and soul? Completely healed by the power of Christ's Word and His body and blood given to you in bread and wine. Your death? Completely overwhelmed by the life of Jesus who died and rose again for you! The great magnitude of our problems in this life--the enormity of our sin--is all undone by the blood of Jesus--by faith keeping our eyes on Him. As the writer to the Hebrews notes, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
This is why, beloved, we continue the tradition of the early church as we heard in the book of Acts this morning, who "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." We follow the teaching of the Apostles as given us in the Word of God--the Holy Gospel of Jesus. We break bread together in the Holy Eucharist, rejoicing in the soul-strengthening food of Jesus' body and blood given for sinners that nourishes us unto eternal life. We celebrate the prayers--the divine service and liturgy--that ever keeps our eyes on Jesus--not on men--not on our problems--not on our sin and death and guilt and shame--not on our adversaries--the world and the devil--but only on Christ Jesus and His wondrous gifts given to you and me and all people--to be received humbly by faith.
Beloved, remember that with a word Jesus broke bread and fed a multitude of people--against all mathematical reasoning and logic! Today, with a Word, Jesus breaks bread with you and all the saints--joining you together with Him and with one another--through the communion of His holy body and blood given in bread and wine. Whatever your need--whatever your problem--you have all that you need and more in Jesus Christ's broken body on the cross. He who was given into death for your sin so that you may have life and have it to the full! What a superabundant, salutary gift! What blessed and holy math! Thanks be to God in Christ Jesus. Amen.
John 6:1-15
Holy Math!
v.5 Lifting up His eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward Him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?"
Dear friends in Christ, how are you at math? Maybe like me, you're not that bad. You can do simple multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, even basic algebra, without having to pull your hair out! Others, may struggle with math and grow frustrated with it on a daily basis. Still others, those rare few, may just LOVE math (nobody really likes these people do they?)--they love the numbers, the logical sense that finely balanced equations bring to the world. But I don't know that anyone has ever described math as holy. Yet, in our text for today, we are reminded of a most beautiful and holy equation--that God brings abundance from nothing--and cancels the debt of sinners through the blood of Jesus on the cross!
In our text for this morning we see Jesus being followed by large crowds. Why? "Because they saw the signs that He was doing on the sick." You see, in Jesus' day, approximately only 1/3 of people lived well into adulthood because of sickness and disease. Things that we can cure today with antibiotics, like Strep throat, could have proved deadly in the ancient world. Therefore, when the people saw that Jesus had power and authority to heal, they quickly chased after Him, seeking this healing--this extension of life from His gracious hand.
Exhausted, Jesus withdraws to the mountain with His disciples. However, as He looked upon the large crowd that had followed Him into the wilderness, He had compassion on them. Knowing they would soon be hungry, Jesus turns to Philip and asks him, "Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?" There is no food close at hand--especially for a group that probably numbered in the tens of thousands (including men, women, and children). There is no Super-Walmart over the next hill, no Safeway or County Market close at hand where the people may purchase dinner. What are they to do?
Philip looks to the crowd and is overwhelmed by the mathematical problem that Jesus has set before him. He runs the numbers in his head and quickly calculates that 200 denarii (that is over six months of an average salary) would not buy enough bread "for each of them to get a little." He is stumped. There is not enough money in the bank for them to help so large a crowd. He has made the mistake of taking his eyes off of Jesus and seeing only the mathematical problem at hand.
Enter Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, the one who had brought Peter to Jesus. He has found a small boy with a sack lunch, packed by a loving mother. He has five small barley loaves and two fish, "but what are they for so many?" This lunch is fine for a small boy, but looking, once again, at the size of the crowd, Andrew wonders how far this is going to stretch among so many. Andrew, too, has taken his eyes off Jesus and sees only the problem at hand. The numbers don't add up. Five loaves and two fish among more than 5000 men, women, and children? It's impossible!
Jesus, however, cares nothing for numbers--for mathematical problems that confuse and confound us--with what is possible or impossible. He is the Lord of Creation. He is God Almighty in the flesh! And He cares only for the welfare of His beloved people. In the face of incredible odds--of cold, hard, math--Jesus does what no one else could do. He provides. He takes the little boy's lunch, gives thanks--eucharists it--and the end result is a superabundance that no one saw coming. In fact, He pointedly provides more than enough for the gathered people--so much in fact that there is a basket of leftovers for each disciple!
Jesus instructs us here to focus not on our problems at hand, but on His bountiful goodness. We keep our eyes on Jesus in time of need, whatever that may be. By grace, we are led by the Holy Spirit to look only to Christ for our every good. Jesus draws your attention to Himself and His gifts that He gives to you in His Word and Sacraments.
The devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh, would seek to starve you of your faith. They want you to look at your life--your sin--and be so overwhelmed at the magnitude of it--that you despair. It is easy for us to fall into this trap. We have problems and we try to solve them by ourselves. We are tempted to face sickness, trials and death looking only to man, to ourselves, and the created things of this world, when we should be looking to Christ and His merciful hand.
For all this and so much more, we are called to repent. Repent. Confess our great sin of thought, word, and deed--our acts of evil--our lack of devotion to God--and turn to Jesus. In our Lutheran Confessions in the Book of Concord, there is a document titled "The Apology to the Augsburg Confession," written by Luther's right hand man, Philip Melanchthon. Paragraph 42 of Article XII, which deals with Repentance, states, "So faith is conceived and strengthened through Absolution, through the hearing of the Gospel, through the use of the Sacraments, so that it may not give in to the terrors of sin and death while it struggles."
Beloved, we all struggle with the math of sin and death. Add up your sin, your guilt, your shame--your sin of thought, word, and deed. See the magnitude of it shining clearly under the light of God's holy Law. Now multiply that sin of yours by every person in this church, in this town, country, the world. Now multiply that sin by every person that has ever lived in the past (all the way back to Adam and Eve), every person that is now living, and will ever live! Do you have a number in your head? A picture of the enormity of the sin of mankind? It is difficult for our feeble minds to grasp, isn't it, no matter how good you are at math!
And yet, no matter how gigantic the sin of the world, or even your own personal sin, when weighed on the divine scale of God's justice against the blood of Jesus--it amounts to nothing! Gone! Forever removed! A single drop of the holy and precious blood of Christ is more than enough to cancel out the sin of the whole world for all time--yet in love, Jesus shed it all. And in return you are actually given a superabundance of the "leftovers." For Christ's righteousness and holiness is credited to your account.
Your guilt? Your shame? Nothing in the light of Christ's mercy. You receive by faith only forgiveness and love. Your sin-sick body and soul? Completely healed by the power of Christ's Word and His body and blood given to you in bread and wine. Your death? Completely overwhelmed by the life of Jesus who died and rose again for you! The great magnitude of our problems in this life--the enormity of our sin--is all undone by the blood of Jesus--by faith keeping our eyes on Him. As the writer to the Hebrews notes, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
This is why, beloved, we continue the tradition of the early church as we heard in the book of Acts this morning, who "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." We follow the teaching of the Apostles as given us in the Word of God--the Holy Gospel of Jesus. We break bread together in the Holy Eucharist, rejoicing in the soul-strengthening food of Jesus' body and blood given for sinners that nourishes us unto eternal life. We celebrate the prayers--the divine service and liturgy--that ever keeps our eyes on Jesus--not on men--not on our problems--not on our sin and death and guilt and shame--not on our adversaries--the world and the devil--but only on Christ Jesus and His wondrous gifts given to you and me and all people--to be received humbly by faith.
Beloved, remember that with a word Jesus broke bread and fed a multitude of people--against all mathematical reasoning and logic! Today, with a Word, Jesus breaks bread with you and all the saints--joining you together with Him and with one another--through the communion of His holy body and blood given in bread and wine. Whatever your need--whatever your problem--you have all that you need and more in Jesus Christ's broken body on the cross. He who was given into death for your sin so that you may have life and have it to the full! What a superabundant, salutary gift! What blessed and holy math! Thanks be to God in Christ Jesus. Amen.