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INJ
St Mark 8:1-9
'Daily Bread'
Morning Service
The 7th Sunday after Trinity Sunday | July 26th, 2009
Dear Saints,
In today's Gospel lesson Jesus feeds 4,000 with five loaves and a few fish. This is recorded for us in Mark chapter 8.
With this wonderful miracle we ought to first be comforted with the truth that our Lord Jesus takes care of us. He is not simply interested in taking our souls to heaven; He also takes care of our bodies. Jesus knows that you need to eat. I hope there is some comfort in that. We might be tempted by the devil to think that Jesus is only interested in spiritual stuff, eternal stuff, that there are things too small or ordinary or earthly or mundane for Jesus to trouble with, like what we will eat for lunch, or what we will drink with our dinner, or what clothes we will wear or job we will have, or if we will have a roof over our head. But He does. He cares. He promises to to provide us all that we need for this body and life.
He, after all, created us, and He created this earth so that we might have life. Jesus is the one that taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” And He is the One who answers that prayer.
Give us this day our daily bread.
What does this mean?
God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.
What is meant by daily bread?
Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.
There is nothing too small that it escapes the Lord's loving and fatherly care. Not even a sparrow falls to the ground without our heavenly Father knowing about it. He cares about our mundane life, about our hunger and our health and our homes. He takes care of us.
Now it is important to note how He takes care of us. The Lord has set up distribution systems for His gifts. To distribute the gifts of His cross, the forgiveness of sins and life and salvation the Lord has established His church where the Scriptures are read and heard and preached and believed; where there is Baptism and the Lord's Supper is distributed; where the Absolution is heard and treasured. In and through the church the Lord distributes the forgiveness of sins.
The Lord has different means of distributing daily bread. Through the farmer and the baker and the grocer. God is at work behind all these different vocations, providing for all people all that we need for this body and life. And he is there behind every vocation. Through the government he maintains peace and quite. Through the banks He protects wealth. Through the carpenter He builds a home. Through the doctor He fights illness and preserves life. Through the mailman He brings you a pile of bills. ...
Martin Luther called all the different vocations given in the world “masks of God” because God is there, behind your neighbor, providing you with your daily bread and all that you need to support your body and life. And it is also true that God is at work through you to serve your neighbor and provide for them.
And it is in this wonderful way that the Lord has promised to care for us and all that we need. And even if all this falls short, if our neighbors are not faithful in their vocations and we are in need, the Lord can open the heavens and provide for us. He did in the wilderness when the 40 year journey was sustained with manna from heaven, and He did it in this desolate place where the 4,000 where hungry. So He will do for you.
Jesus knows that you need to eat. He will take care of you. Don't worry.
But here's the trouble. We do worry. We fret. We act as if Jesus doesn't take care of us, as if He had never taught us to pray “Give us this day our daily bread”, as if He had never promised us that He would sustain our lives, as if He had never fed the 4,000 in the wilderness.
We lie away at night wondering if our money will be in our bank account in six months. The doctor tells us that our test results are abnormal, and our heart leaps. You know how it is with your heart. How you know that Jesus will take care of you, while at the same time you doubt it and think that it's all up to you. We are like the man in the Gospel who cried out, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” [Mark 9:24] It is especially for us that Mark has this text, the feeding of the 4,000.
Remember that Jesus had, just a few weeks earlier fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. After the fact the text tells us that the disciples “had not understood about the loaves because their heart was hardened.” [Mark 6:52] The disciples prove their unbelief in today's reading when they ask Jesus, “How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?” [Mark 8:4] Even after this second miracle, after Jesus warns the disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees, that is, their false teaching, they think that He is talking about bread.
Here's the conversation between our Lord and His disciples from Mark 8:15ff, the text that comes right after our Gospel reading:
And he cautioned them, saying, "Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" They said to him, "Twelve." "And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" And they said to him, "Seven." And he said to them, "Do you not yet understand?"
You and I are like the disciples, we forget, our hearts are hard, we know that the Lord provides and takes care of us, but we get distracted, the worries and frets of this life constantly snuff out the simple faith that God gives.
But, and here is the second helping of comfort that this text has for us this morning, just as Jesus bears with the weakness and unbelief and worry and doubt of the disciples, so He bears with you, and with me. He is in the boat with us, even when we forget it. He takes care of us in the wilderness, even when we don't recognize it. He loves us and forgives us and gives us all that we need, even forgiveness for our worry and forgetfulness. Your Jesus provides you will all that you need, in this life, and into life eternal.
To the One who fed the 4,000 in the wilderness and who still takes care of us today, be all glory and honor forevermore. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO
