The Bread of Life for the Disciples of Christ Jesus

With food and clothing let us be content, the Scriptures teach us.  But, depending on the climate, you can survive with little or no clothing far longer than you can get by without food.  Once you are born into this world, your life depends upon breathing and eating and drinking.  Breathing is more constant, to be sure, but food and drink on a regular basis are just as necessary to survival.

Spiritual life is very much the same.  As you are born of Christ Jesus in Holy Baptism and clothed in His Righteousness, so do you breathe His Word and Spirit by faith in His forgiveness of sins, and so do you eat and drink His Body and His Blood, which are your Meat and Drink indeed.

Now, as mothers are uniquely equipped to feed their babies, so is the Church equipped to nurture the children of God.  But no Mom can feed her nursing infant if she herself is not also being fed.  She cannot give what she does not receive.  Thus, both Mother and Child wait upon the Lord, who alone provides all that is needed, who opens His hand to satisfy the hunger of every living thing.

The Apostles of the Lord must likewise rely on Him and receive His good gifts, if they are to do and give anything in His Name.  They cannot speak, except as they have heard.  They cannot teach, except what they have been taught.  They cannot forgive sins, except by the Holy Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, which He breathes upon them by His Word.  They cannot heal the people or care for the crowds, except they find their Sabbath Rest in Him and eat and drink from His open hand.

As it is, at this point in the Holy Gospel, they have been doing and teaching a lot for a great many people, and they are consequently spent, exhausted, and hungry.  St. Mark makes a point of saying that “they did not even have time to eat.”  Most of you know how that goes and what that’s like.  You get caught up in your duties, in caring for others and meeting their demands, and, before you know it, mealtime has come and gone, you’ve missed your break, and you can feel yourself slowing down and starting to fade.  Same deal when you’ve been too busy to get enough sleep.  Whether you’re a cook or a waitress, a retail store manager, a doctor or nurse, a cop or an EMT on the night shift, adrenaline may carry you for awhile, and you may have reserves to draw upon, but eventually you’re going to crash.  You need to rest, to eat and drink, to be refreshed and restored.

So it is that Jesus gathers the Apostles to Himself and, with tender compassion, care, and concern for these men whom He loves, He calls them away from the madding crowds to a secluded place, to rest their weary minds and bodies, and to eat.  They follow Him to that place of peace and rest “in the boat,” that is, aboard the “Holy Ark of the Christian Church.”  It is within the Church that you also find Peace and Sabbath Rest in Jesus Christ and eat and drink from His wide open hand.

But the crowds are hungry, too, for life and health and daily bread.  So they follow after Jesus and the Apostles.  Or, rather, they race around the water on foot and wait on the other side.  They don’t get there in the boat, for they are not yet in the Church; they are like sheep without a shepherd.

And Jesus has compassion on them.  He is moved by divine mercy, from the very depths of His being, to help them.  This is the same compassion with which He goes to the Cross, like a Lamb to the slaughter, to lay down His life for the sheep.  Thus does He become their Good Shepherd.  Which is to say that He guards and protects them and rescues them from danger; that He defeats and drives away all the enemies who prey upon them; and that He leads and guides them in safety, sustaining them with food and drink in His green pastures, alongside streams of living water.

But what it means for the Lord Jesus to be their Shepherd, first of all, is that He begins to teach them many things.  He catechizes them by and with His Word.  He makes disciples of them by the preaching of repentance unto faith in His forgiveness of sins.  For He preaches peace to those who are near and to those who are far off.  Thus does He begin to shepherd them and meet their needs.

Still, it is a desolate place, and bodies do need food.  Presumably, the Apostles have not yet eaten, either, but have been listening to Jesus.  You can put yourself in their shoes and imagine how antsy they may have been.  Were their bellies beginning to rumble and growl embarrassingly?  Were they fighting to keep their eyes open?  In any event, it was already quite late when they finally came to Jesus with concern for the crowds of people — and perhaps for their own hunger, as well.  “Send them away,” they urged.  “Let them go and buy themselves something to eat.”  And then, at last, the disciples would also be able to rest and eat, to share their few loaves and fishes between them.

So you can also imagine their surprise and befuddlement when Jesus responds to their suggestion with an entirely different plan: “You,” He says, “give the crowds of people something to eat.”

Jesus is going to feed the five thousand, you already know that.  But He pointedly does so by the hands of His disciples.  That’s just how He works.  That’s how He feeds His Church and shepherds the sheep of His pasture.  He gives to His disciples to give to all His people what they need.

He puts them on the spot, at first, in telling them to do this thing.  They know they don’t have it in them to get it done.  They simply cannot do it.  Where or how would they begin?  It doesn’t even occur to them to consider their own uneaten lunch, because, really, what’s the point?  Five loaves of bread and a couple fish might be fine for twelve hungry men, but it obviously isn’t enough to fill up or satisfy the bellies of five hundred times that many people.  Not. Even. Close.

If the Apostles have been tempted to think that all of their doing and teaching were somehow by their own power and abilities, by their own resources and skills, they certainly know better in this present situation.  In truth, they have nothing but what they first of all receive from the Lord.  They have nothing to give but what they have been given.  In this respect, their preaching and healing are really no different than feeding five thousand people.

So, now, as He has been with them in their doing and teaching, He takes what little they do have — the five loaves and two fish they have already received — and He opens His hand to provide for everything that is needed.  He takes the bread, He blesses, He breaks, and He keeps on giving it to the disciples to set before the people.  So it is that everyone eats, and everyone is satisfied.

This, too, is how He shepherds His sheep.  The food accompanies the teaching of His Word, and now His Word accompanies and sanctifies the food; and both the teaching and the feeding are caught up in the compassion of His own Sacrifice.  In this way He who gives Himself as a ransom for the many also gives Himself to them as real Food and Drink for body and soul.

He likewise allows you to get hungry, as He let the crowds and His disciples to grow hungry; and then He feeds you, one and all, with a miraculous Bread — which none of you have known before, and none of you could ever have gotten for yourself — that you might learn to be and to live as His disciple, that is, to live by faith in His Word.  In such faith you wait upon Him, knowing that He will provide for you.  And in such faith you receive His Bread from His hand with thanksgiving.

For He is your great Good Shepherd King — the new and greater David — who is the Lord, your Righteousness, in the flesh.  He does and accomplishes everything for you in Himself.  He justifies you and reconciles you to God, His Father, by His Cross and Resurrection.  He bears all your sins, all your frailties and weaknesses, all your griefs and sorrows, in His own Body unto death.  And He sheds His own Blood for you, to make Atonement for you, and to redeem you from the bondage of sin and death, unto Life everlasting.  Having done all this, He also comes and preaches peace to you, that is, the forgiveness of all your sins by His Gospel.  He calls and gathers you to Himself, and He cares for you by His Word and Spirit.  He brings you to His God and Father, not simply as a guest or a visitor, but as a beloved child and heir.  Thus, you have a home, that is, a place where you really belong, where you eat and sleep in the fellowship of the Holy Triune God.

No longer are you lost or missing or scattered.  You shall not be destroyed but dwell securely, for the Lord Himself has sought you out and found you.  He has gathered you to Himself, taken you into His arms, and brought you home rejoicing.  Do not be afraid, for He is your Good Shepherd.

He cares for you now, in all these ways, through those shepherds He provides for His flock on earth, that is, through the pastors who preach and teach and administer His Gospel in His Name.  As the whole Church is built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, so does the Church in each place live by the Ministry of such preaching and teaching, by the administration of the Holy Sacraments.  Pastors do and teach these things, they give these gifts of God, not by their own reason or strength, but by the Word of Christ Jesus, handing over what He Himself provides.

What I receive from the Lord, I also deliver to you: The confession of Christ, crucified and risen, and His Body and His Blood, given and poured out for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins.

I could no more do any of this by myself than the disciples could feed five thousand men, plus women and children, with their lunch.  But Christ Jesus does it all; and even by my mouth and by my hand, He is the One who gives you the Fruits of His Passion here in the Liturgy of His Gospel.

So does He also continue to give His gifts from here.  Consider those twelve baskets full of broken pieces, and how they were gathered up.  Likewise, as the loaves and fishes were multiplied, so are His people fruitful and multiplied in loving and serving, feeding and caring for their neighbors.

What, then?  Are you going to protest that you do not have enough?  That you are hard pressed already, taking care of yourself and your own family?  That you can’t afford to feed your neighbor, besides?  That he or she does nothing for you, anyway, but only takes without returning the favor?

Brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ, you are reconciled to one another in Him, and you belong to one another as members of one Body in Him.  You are one household and family, with one God and Father who daily and richly provides you with all that you need for now and forever.

Do not imagine or pretend that you have nothing to do or to give, nor that you do not have enough to go around.  Instead, do what you are given to do, and give what you receive.  After all, what do you have that you have not received from the Lord by His grace?  All that is needed is provided, and more than enough.  The Lord is generous, and even the young ravens know that all good things come from Him.  Yet, He now desires to serve your neighbor through you, as He also serves you through your neighbor.  He does not give this task without also supplying the bread to fulfill it.

Do not be afraid.  The Lord will not let you starve.  Nor will He work you to death.  It is His work and His death that give you life, and even now He feeds you with Himself.  So, it’s not as though everything depends upon you.  But neither is it true that your work is pointless or inconsequential.  Your calling is not a lark.  Your office and station in life are not for nothing.  Your labors in the Lord are not in vain.  You’re part of His Family, you live in His House; so, just do your own part.

Do your chores and fulfill your duties, whatever you are given to do, in the confidence that Christ is the Cornerstone; that His own crucified and risen Body is the Building, the true Temple of God, in which you live and move and have your being; and that all things are accomplished in Him.

You are not a stranger, nor an outcast, but you belong to Jesus Christ, and so you are a friend and a fellow citizen with all His saints.  Whether you live or die, you are His, and so you shall remain.

If you are tired, hungry, discouraged, anxious, or afraid; if you are spent, exhausted, and ready to expire — take heart, and do not despair.  Your Lord has compassion on you, and He cares for you.

Come here now, and rest awhile in His Peace.  Eat and drink what He so freely gives.  Be refreshed by the Lord who opens wide His hand to feed you.  For you also are baptized — that is the new and better “Circumcision” made without human hands — by which you belong to the fellowship of the new and better Israel, which is the Body and Bride of Christ, His Holy Church.  You are God’s own child.  You are a sheep of the Good Shepherd.  And as such, He satisfies you with Life itself by His Word; which is to say that your body and your soul are fed with the Lord Himself.

Here at His Table in His House you are brought near by His holy and precious Blood, and through the veil of His crucified and risen Body you have access to His God and Father in the Holy Spirit.  He is your Meat and Drink indeed, so that, even in death, you also rise and live in Him forever.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Living, Loving, Dying, and Rising in the Hope of the Resurrection

Whatever grief and mourning filled their hearts and minds, and whatever threat of hopeless despair assaulted them, they came for his body and laid it to rest in the hope of the Resurrection.

That was the hope he had preached, in which he had baptized them and many others — the hope in which he lived, in which he died and was buried — and that hope has not been disappointed.

For he was a Prophet, and more than a Prophet.  He came in the spirit and power of Elijah to make ready the way of the Lord.  He was the Forerunner of the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed; thus did he proclaim the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  To fulfill all righteousness he baptized that same Lamb, Jesus, in the Jordan River; and then he saw Him emerge and arise from those waters to an opened heaven, the blessing of the Father, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

That is the hope of the Resurrection for all who believe and are baptized into Christ Jesus.  And that is the hope that St. John the Baptist preached.  In that same hope, he also continued to preach the Word of the Lord even when his beautiful feet were shut up in prison — even unto his death.

That is your hope, also.  Not suffering and death per se; but that your life is hidden with Christ in God.  You have already been crucified, put to death, and buried with Him by your Holy Baptism in His Name; and so it is that you are also raised from the dead, in and with Him, to live with Him in body and soul, even now by faith, and hereafter in the Resurrection unto the Life everlasting.

Do not be afraid.  Do not let suffering, sickness, pain, or death perplex you.  Do not despair, and do not grow weary of doing good.  For your true and lasting life — your real life in body, soul, and spirit — is safe and secure in the Body of Christ Jesus, crucified and risen from the dead.  He will not disappoint you.  Baptized in His Name, you live in and with Him, and He lives in you.

For St. John the Baptist, his life in Christ meant preaching, imprisonment, and finally decapitation.  But what are your own vocations and stations in life?  What has the Lord your God called you to be and to do in His Name?  Where and how would He have you live in faith, hope, and love?

If you are a husband and father, serve your wife and children faithfully and wisely, with patience and gentleness, with compassion and forgiveness, in the way that Christ serves and cares for His Bride, the Church.  Give your body and life for those whom the Lord has entrusted to your care.

If you are a wife, submit to your own husband in the hope of Christ, your heavenly Bridegroom.  And if you are a mother, then care for your own children with mercy and kindness, in much the same way the Church shelters and protects the children of God.  Feed them and clothe them, teach them the Gospel in word and deed, and love them in the spirit and the truth of God’s Holy Word.

Whether you are married and have children or not, cherish and serve your own father and mother as long as you are able.  Love and care for your church family, your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, and for your neighbors in the world.  Do your job carefully and conscientiously, honorably, gladly, and well.  Be content with what you have and where you are, even as you continue to work and grow, to study and learn, and as you look for new ways to benefit the people around you.

It is especially within your callings and stations in life that you bear the Cross of Christ for your neighbor.  And it may well be that you suffer hardship, pain, or difficulty within your vocations, sometimes precisely because of your faithfulness.  That is how it was for St. John the Baptist, and for your Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  To live in your vocations according to the Word of God, under the Cross, is to live already now by faith in the Resurrection of that same Lord Jesus Christ.

Your God-given stations in life may at times feel like a prison, in which you languish and die a little bit more each day.  Your commitments, obligations, and responsibilities tie you down and hold you back, like a heavy ball and chain around your neck.  And you may feel yourself forgotten, neglected, overlooked, unfairly treated.  So many demands and duties, so little freedom, it seems.

But lift up your head, your heart, and your hands in the hope of the Resurrection.  You have not been abandoned, nor shall you ever be forsaken.  Fulfill your callings and bear your afflictions patiently.  The Lord knows where you are.  He does know how it is.  And He knows what is good and best for you.  He has not turned away from you.  He has not withdrawn His gracious hand.  No, His strong arms are still stretched out in love for you, to strengthen and uphold you even in death.

Your dear God and Father in heaven is actually pleased with you.  He rejoices and delights in you.  For you are righteous and holy in Christ Jesus, the beloved Son.  Your suffering for His Name’s sake does not negate any of that; it rather confirms the truth by His own Cross.  Which means that His Resurrection and the power of His indestructible Life are yours also, and they shall not be taken from you, because you are His, and He is yours forever — signed, sealed, and delivered.

As your body shall be raised from death to the Life everlasting in Paradise — like unto His own glorious Body — it is also in your body now, under the Cross, that you already live with Christ Jesus by grace through faith in His Gospel, which is your redemption, the forgiveness of your sins.

So, then, do not give your body over to unrighteousness and impurity.  That which is not lawful is not the way of life, it is the way of death and destruction.  To disobey the Lord your God, to disregard His holy Word, brings death to both body and soul, both now and forever.  So does sin bring fear and sorrow and bitter regret, resentment and anxiety, doubt, confusion, and madness.

One sin leads to another, and grief upon grief, further and further away from your faith and life.

To give your body over to sin is to live as though there were no the Resurrection of the body.  And yet, apart from the hope of the Resurrection your life in the world is perplexing and precarious.

If what you see in this world is all you get, and if what you feel and experience in your body and life on earth is all there is to it — if there is no Resurrection of your body to the Life everlasting — then you are left to be driven to and fro and tossed about by the covetous lust and selfish greed and dark despair within your heart and mind, by your anger and dread, frustration and jealousy.  And as such, you never would find or have any true or lasting peace or joy or rest, not at all.

Such denials of the Resurrection are why you manipulate, use, and abuse your neighbors, even your own family and friends.  You entice and seduce, you trick or treat, you blackmail and bargain.  Everything becomes a terrible game, a strategy, a con job, designed to relieve your unquenchable thirst, to feed your insatiable hunger, to quell your restless appetites and persistent cravings.

For all of that, for all your desperate efforts, it is never sufficient or enough.  It never satisfies, and none of it will last forever or for long.  None of it can keep you safe, and none of it will save you.

Apart from the hope of the Resurrection, you never will have what you want, but you will always want more and more and more.  Your sin becomes increasingly desperate, reckless and wild, going from bad to increasingly worse, until it finally brings you fully into death and eternal damnation.

Tragically, all of your pointless and detrimental striving draws you further and further away from what you really need — all the while that is being freely given to be freely received in the Gospel.

The world holds out promises to you that it cannot keep or fulfill.  Sex for power, and power for sex, and a thousand other trade-offs, one sin for another.  Do not chase after those things.  Do not try to take what is not yours.  Do not trade the Resurrection of your body to the everlasting Life for the momentary gratification of your flesh.  Do not fall for that enticing but deadly deception.

When it comes right down to it, this fallen and perishing world has nothing to offer but a tomb, and even that will be emptied in the final judgment.  On the last day you and all the dead will be raised from the dust of the earth, to be judged according to your life in the body, the righteous unto Life everlasting, the wicked unto the neverending punishment prepared for the devil and his demons.

Where, then, are your righteousness and life to be found?  The Lord has granted sure and certain promises to you — all of which He has kept and fulfilled, for you and for all people, from before the foundation of the world — in the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, the Incarnate Son.  That is what is true for you, even under the hardship, weight, and suffering of the Cross.  That is what is true for you, even in the face of your sins and the fierce judgment of the Law against you.

Herod was not the first king of Israel to commit adultery and murder; nor was he the first to be confronted by a Prophet of the Lord.  Even such wicked sins and heinous crimes do not undo the Word and work of God in Christ Jesus.  And so, St. John continues preaching repentance to Herod, the man who had thrown him into prison.  He preaches repentance for the same purpose he has always preached, for faith and life in the forgiveness of sins.  That is what and why John preaches.

And King Herod listens with interest to St. John, though he refuses to hear and heed his preaching.  He is perplexed and he is intrigued by what John says, but he finds more pleasure in the dancing body of his niece than in the Word of the Lord.  So what Herod trades for his lust is ultimately far more than half of his kingdom.  He forfeits his soul by shutting the mouth of the Lord’s Prophet.

Do not do the same.  Do not shut the mouth of the Lord’s messenger of repentance by shutting your ears or closing your heart to his preaching of the Cross.  Rather, repent of your sins, and believe the Gospel, because the Kingdom of God is here at hand.  The righteousness and holiness of God, which are proclaimed to you by and with and in this Word, are not only the condemnation of your sins by the Law, but so also the forgiveness of your sins in the Name and stead of Jesus Christ.

Do not be afraid of men or their maneuvers.  Do not fear their power, nor crave their praises.  But fear God, and love and trust in Him.  Cling to His Word and promises.  Rely on His gracious gifts.  Hope in the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus.  Live and love in that hope and confidence.

If your body suffers and dies, do not despair; yet shall you live.  If your body is healthy and well, use it to serve faithfully.  Do whatever the Lord has called you and given you to do, wherever He has stationed you on earth, in the hope of the Resurrection.  Receive whatever He gives you with thanksgiving, and use whatever you have in love, because your life is safe with God in Christ.

The surety and guarantee of that good life is already granted to you, by and with the Holy Spirit, in your Holy Baptism, in the free forgiveness of all your sins, and here in the Holy Communion, in the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, crucified and risen from the dead, given and poured out for you and for the many, for the forgiveness of all your sins and for Life and Salvation in Him.

This same Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord’s Anointed, the true King of Israel, great David’s greater Son, has willingly suffered arrest and execution and all the punishment for his father David’s sins, for Herod’s sins, for all of your sins, and for the sins of the whole world.  He has willingly done so — in holy faith and perfect love — in order to prepare this great Banquet for you and for all people, in which He serves you, His guest, with Himself, His own Body and Life.  He pleases you with His grace, mercy, and peace.  He gives you the fulness of the Kingdom of His God and Father.  He covers your nakedness and shame, and He clothes you with His own perfect righteousness, with His own divine holiness.  He raises you from death to life in both body and soul, now and forever.

The suffering and death of St. John the Baptist — like his preaching and Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins — proclaim the Cross and Passion of your dear Lord Jesus Christ, who is indeed the Head of His Body and Bride, the Church, who has risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity, your merciful and great High Priest in all things pertaining to God, in whom you and all His members rise and live.  For your sins are all forgiven.  Therefore, your body also shall rest in peace, and so shall it be raised in glory at the last to live with God forever and ever.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.