Recent sermons
September 1, 2024 - Mark 7:14-23
If you were born before 1952, perhaps you can remember how your parents were very concerned about Polio. Polio could strike a family and a community without any warning. One day a person was perfectly fine and the next a person was terrifyingly sick. As is the case for many diseases, doctors worked feverously to try to find the source of the disease. How is it spread? Where does it come from? How do you avoid getting it? Can we find a cure? Polio seemed to peak during the summer. And because Franklin Roosevelt seemed to contract the disease after a swim, people began to theorize the source was water. In actuality, chlorine killed the virus, but because of the uncertainty at the time, pools all across the country were closed and drained. It was similar in the 1980’s when people began hearing about Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. And everyone wanted to know it’s source, how you get, how to not get… can we find a cure. It’s been 70 years since Polio was first discovered, 50 years after AIDS was first discovered, not that much has changed, has it? Anytime a new disease is discovered try to find the source, how is it spread, where does it come from? How do we avoid getting it. Can we find a cure? In Mark Chapter 7, the sickness in question is sin. And just as we seek to understand the source of a virus, how it spreads, can it be avoided, can we find a cure… the Scribes and Pharisees were asking the same questions. What is the best way to prevent sin sickness? Even in our day, if you want to avoid getting sick, one of the best things you can do is maintain a cleanliness routine. How many of you walk around with hand sanitizer in your pocket? The Pharisees routine was strict. They had added literally hundreds of man-made rules to God’s law. To be fair, they did that because they took God’s law seriously. And perhaps their intentions were good… to eliminate any source of uncleanness from their lives. That’s not a bad thing goal. Notice Jesus does not say in Mark Chapter 7 “Stop talking about cleanliness. Stop caring about it. It doesn’t matter.” He does not say that at all. But what he does say is: you are completely wrong about what you think makes a person unclean. What you think you have discovered as the source of uncleanness is not the source of uncleanness. Jesus called the crowd to himself and said “Hear me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of the person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it entered not his heart but his stomach and is expelled? In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean. One commentator stated, “this passage is the most revolutionary passage in the New Testament.” Remember what started it all. The pharisees back in the beginning of the chapter 7, saw some of the disciples eating with hands that were unwashed. Mark had said, “for the pharisees and all the jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the traditions of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash, and they do many other traditions, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.” This is not the same kind of washing that our moms instructed us to do before we ate. These are ceremonial washing. And recall how I said last week, these were not required in the Bible. There were ceremonial washings required for the priests in the temple, but they were not for everybody in every context. However, the pharisees were saying if they are good for the priests they are good for us too. I watched a rabbi on Youtube explain how to do a ceremonial hand washing. He had a big bowl with warm water and a matching double handed pitcher. Makes sense, that way after you have washed your hand you would grab the clean handle to wash the other hand. Interestingly enough, he talked about washing the filth of the world off, and then how that was spiritually connected to cleansing our hearts. The idea is dirt is dirty… but the moment physical cleanliness becomes equated to moral or spiritual cleanliness that is when Jesus stepped in to say “this teaching is counter to the gospel”. Those washings don’t actually make you clean before a holy God. Here was their assumption: unwashed hands contaminate the food and therefore defile the one who is eating it. They were saying defilement starts out there. And it works from the outside in. In verse 18 Jesus said to the disciples “Are you too without understanding?” That same word gets translated in other places in the ESV as “foolish”. Are you too so foolish? The NIV translated the word as “dull”. “Are you so dull?” No one asked me to be on a translation committee. But I think the NIV gets the point across. The word carries more force than to say, “are you without understanding”. I understand the Pharisee don’t get this, and I understand the common people don’t get this, but you are my disciples. How do you not get this? The belief that defilement comes from the outside, comes from the presupposition that we are basically good on the inside. And we need to keep ourselves from being defiled by what is out there… The problem is out there. But on the basis of this text, and others, we believe the opposite. We believe in total depravity. We believe have been totally and completely affected by the fall into sin. We are rendered spiritually dead and incapable of being good on our own. They believed we are basically good people and unfortunately, a lot of Christians have also fallen into the same trap. The Pharisees taught that sin was an outside job and if you avoid the bad places and bad people, and if you go to all the right places and put yourself around the right people that you can avoid sin. In Mark 7 Jesus is saying the complete opposite. He is saying that sin is an inside job and that it comes straight from the heart. Now, this is not to suggest that sin cannot or does not have external influences. This is simply to argue that the defect, the defilement, the corruption, it cannot be brushed off, because it is a part of you. I remember seeing a news clip in the aftermath of a church burning. The church had been set on fire by an arson. With the smoldering ashes in the background, I remember the pastor saying in the interview “this does not change my core belief that most people are good.” Where is he getting his theology? Perhaps from the radio. Luke Brian sings a song with the title “Most People Are Good”. It is pretty typical of what most people believe. Here’s the chorus: “I believe most people are good. Most mommas ought to qualify for sainthood. I believe most Friday nights look better under stadium lights (pretty typical for country but a little off topic), then he says, I believe you love who you love and there ain’t nothing you should be ashamed of. I believe this world ain’t half as bad as it looks. I believe most people are good.” I’ll let you know right now. I hate that song. And I’ll straight up turn it off. “I believe this world ain’t half as bad as it looks.” … To quote Jesus, “Are you so dull?” In the Book of Matthew, Jesus called the Scribes and Pharisees “White washed tombs”. Which means they looked better on the outside than they do on the inside. An honest look at ourselves will confirms the deviant world also resides within us as well. Our hearts are full of: evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. Our hearts simply poses too big a problem… no doubt too big a problem for us. They defile us. In the university system “Ds” can make doctors, but in Christianity anything less than perfect leaves you with a D that stands for “defiled,” “defeated,”… and it will leave you “dead.” “Defiled,” I am not fit to come to the alter before my God. “Defeated,” I have no place in the company of the righteous. Dead,” I have no place in the communion of saints. If the issue was external, one might say, we can fix this: the solution might be we need better education. We need better government, better law enforcement…. We need a rigorous application of law. The problem is too many people were raised with hard upbringing or circumstances that made achieving too difficult. Those explanations are all external. It is all a blame game. Aleksandr Solzhenitsynt, the Russian novelist and political critic of soviet Russia, he said, “the line between good and evil passes not though nations, not between classes, not even between political parties, but right through every human heart.” He got it right. The law points to us and our personal desperate depravity, but luckily it also it point us to the one who could keep it perfectly for us. Jesus did not offer us a book on how to have a “pure thought life.” He does not suggest we implement seven key steps to beat down out pride. He does not say make a covenant with your tongue to speak without deceit or slander. What he does is offer himself. Because the problem cannot be remedied by personal self-discipline but ironically by something outside of us. Jeremiah asked the question “Can a leopard change his spots?” The obvious answer is no. Jeremiah goes on to say “the human heart is deceitful in all things. Who can cure it?” Answer. We cannot, but God can. As David was steeped in sin, he cried out, “create in me a clean heart oh Lord and renew a right spirit within me.” So at the point one might only conclude that we have no hope and that God should want no part of us, for we have broken and diseased hearts… and they defile us; God says through the Prophet Ezekiel “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you a heart of stone and I will you a heart of flesh. Then I will put my spirit on you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to follow my laws.” The first verse was regeneration (your heart of stone will become a heart of flesh) and the second verse was sanctification (I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees). What a picture… what an antidote. It is the only antidote to sin is Jesus. In the next section, Mark tells us that Jesus heads off to the city of Tyre. Tyre of all places? You mean He finds a woman of great faith in Tyre? In the Gospel of Mark, it is true that faith is found in the most unlikely of places. As we see from the following section, the critical teaching Jesus is presenting to his disciples, and us, is one of faith. It is not about your works that make us holy. It is not about remaining true to tradition. Tradition does not make us holy because it is man-made. Holiness is about who you cling to. Are you going to cling to the Pharisees, who have their traditions and their man made laws? Are you going to cling to the Lutheran church that has all manner of its own traditions? I hope you are going to cling to Jesus, because Jesus is the only one that can restore your heart. Why would Jesus do this for us? Well we have already seen in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus was willing to save those who were defiled and unclean. Jesus cleansed the defiled leapers. Jesus cast out demons from the defiled man. Jesus healed the defiled woman with a flow of blood. He raised a defiled girl from the dead. Those are a beautiful picture of the radical change Jesus makes to people who are defiled like us. But more than that, it is a beautiful picture of the character of our God; that he is willing to do what it takes to save us, to go even to the cross, to give his life for ours, all so that we can so with confidence to the altar of God, so that can be part of the community of saints, and we can await with confidence for the kingdom of God to arrive. So let us pray, “Lord, give us this day a new heart.” And let us await the day when we will receive that heart complete with a new body, a new tongue, a new stomach, and new hands. On that day we will be made whole, removed from sin in glorified bodies– bodies like the body of the risen Christ. Come Lord Jesus. Come quickly! The grace of God that surpasses all understanding, Keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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August 25, 2024 - Mark 6:1-13
Grace mercy and peace be to you… from Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen. At the end of John Chapter 6, we learned that on the account of His sayings “many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.” So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” and, Simon Peter answered Him “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy one of God.”’ John Chapter 6 is an amazing and profound chapter, but it is time to move on. Chronologically, we find ourselves back in the Gospel of Mark, Mark Chapter 7. It begins where John Chapter 6 ends. Therefore, we should not be surprised by the fact that our text begins with an accusation against Jesus. After hearing the reading, no one should be surprised by the hymn choice “Chief of sinners Though I be, Jesus shed His blood for me”. Also, as Janet so beautifully sang, “What can wash away my sins?” Answer? Not the law… “Nothing but the blood of Jesus”. Sadly, so often even those of us that name that truth, fall into the trap that something else can make us acceptable and clean. Our hearts move toward self-cleaning. Our hearts go toward pride and away from need. We get more concerned about what we appear to be than what we really are. May we seek correction. And may the Lord speak to us today and instill in us His truth. What used to be only a practice at international airports, for a while during the height of Covid, it is common place at all government building, every doctor’s office, dentist, even daycare and school, Helen Gaehle’s nursing home had one of these… When you walk into these places, they have fever scanners. It is a good goal. That people enter your country healthy. A good goal that people enter your place of work healthy. And that Children attend school healthy. The goal of the fever scanner is to reveal what? Sickness. It would be foolishness for anyone to believe the fever scanner heals the sick. It only reveals the sickness. The fever scanner is meant to reveal not to heal. I think that is a very good analogy of what the law is meant to do. But let me add the law is not just meant to reveal sin. It is also meant to reveal the holiness of God. Above all, the law was given to reveal our sin and God’s holiness, but it cannot heal us. It cannot raise us to the level of God. Yet the pharisees were using the law in hopes of healing. Think further on the fever scanners. Critics say there are flaws in the system. You could load up on Tylenol 45 minutes before your screening. You could also douse yourself with cold water in the restroom and the evaporative cooling effects could temporarily lower your surface temp enough to sail through the screening even through you have an internal temp. Point being, there are ways to externally disguise what is happening internally. And that is the dilemma of the text. That is a misuse of the law and it does not help anyone. Especially, because the scanner is God, even if we use the law to disguise our sin from everyone around us, and we might even fool ourselves into thinking we are good people. But we cannot fool God. Jesus’ words in Mark 7 cut right through our facades and go directly to the human heart. Jesus did not come to bring further support to a system that masked internal sickness. He came to reveal the sickness… furthermore, He came to heal the sickness by cleansing it Himself. This chapter reveals when we misuse God’s law we miss God’s grace. How do we misuse the law? We misuse the law when we promote self and demote others. The pharisees and other teachers of the law had gathered for an espionage mission to catch Jesus. They have heard about Jesus and what he had been doing in Galilee, so to be sure, they had come with the intention to put a stop to Him. They have come to find fault with Him, and fault they found, or at least they thought they’d found it. On this occasions, they catch some of his disciples eating with hands being unwashed. Speaking personally, and I know I cannot speak for you, but personally, sometimes when I read passages like this, where they declare Corban or discuss the traditions of the elders, and ceremonial hand washing, sometimes I feel like I’ve just turned on the TV to watch curling and I think to myself… what are they doing and why? I want to make sure that you see we have more in common with the pharisees than you might think. I grant they are doing it spiritually, but here is how it happens in everyday life. A little child is sitting on the living room floor eyeing a ball that he knows belongs to his little sister. The little child seeing the ball lifts his desire for the ball from a want to a need and says “mine”. I realize he may not do it consciously but “give me that ball, or thou shall know my wrath.” “I shall scream until your ears bleed.” That little child has just written a law in his heart and expects everyone else to follow it. And then he becomes an adult. We have a lot of wants and we lift them to the level of needs and then we codify them with laws/rights. I know it is not all conscious and not always spiritual. But it happens, because I must be liked. I must be successful. I want people to be more like me. Consider this example. I always want to be on time. Have you ever been in the car with some one who lives by that law? What normally happens when that person get behind a Sunday driver or in a traffic jam. “Thou shall not be late, or you will know my wrath.” And here’s the other side of the coin, when you live by that law, what do you expect of everyone else? That they too must be on time. In mark 7 the Pharisees and the Scribes have come down from Jerusalem and catch the disciples… which they did, not red handed but dirty handed. What they find is bothersome, because what they see, at least to them, is a seeming indifference to the tradition of the elders and an indifference to moral holiness. To the Pharisees and Scribes, the disciples not taking the cleaning laws seriously shows this band of men care nothing about morality and holiness. Mark clarifies some of what you might be asking: what are all these rituals. Mark, who is not writing to a Jewish audience, explains what is happening. He says the pharisees and all the Jews, don’t eat unless they ceremonially wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders. They observe many other traditions such as the washing of cups and kettles. These are traditions meaning they are in addition to God’s law. They were likely made with honest intention to honor God and seek holiness in daily routine but the minute you add to God’s law you actually subtract from it… you reduce it… you compromise it. What do I mean? There are Biblical cleaning laws but they were applied to the priesthood. They were to serve as a revelation that God is holy and our uncleanness is serious and it must be dealt with before they could go anywhere near to him. But their cleanliness laws were now getting applied to everyone and everything. Why? Because if they add to God’s law by making it more specific, it actually made it less specific. And as it now pertained to everything, perhaps it is now easier to obtain. (Like I said it was originally intended for a practice among the priests in the temple. And they knew better than anyone else that they could not obtain holiness before God and they had to rely on his grace and mercy. But now as it pertains to utensils and clean hands before you eat… that can be achieved thereby raising yourself up to the level of “I can do it”. and all those who don’t are beneath me.- can you see the problem?) So they are using the traditions to raise-up themselves and demote others, when the original purpose of the cleanliness laws was simply to say: your uncleanness will kill you. The pharisees were saying this, “our cleanliness program will protect you.” And that is not the purpose of the law at all. Paul says the law kills, only the Spirit gives life. Jesus addresses this in the Sermon on the Mount when he says, “you have heard it said but I say to you… You have heard it said thou shall not murder but I say to you if you have ever hated anyone you are liable for judgement. You have heard it said thou shall not commit adultery but I say to you, if you have ever lusted. You have broken the commandment.” To give you another example, the Old Testament law says your offering should be 10 percent. If you are doing that, you might say well I’ve done what has been asked, and I feel pretty good about it. But you have missed the height of the law. Because the height of the law is actually the cross of Christ. It is not 10 percent but full and complete self-sacrifice of everything you have including your very life. And in that way you will always find yourself lacking and in need of mercy. We are always lowering the bar. Even the 10 percent… is that pretax or post tax? Can I give less if I serve in other ways? That is just an example. But Jesus says in verse 13, “and you do many things like that.” We add to the law… we lower the law. Ultimately, the point is this: sin is internal, not just external and therefore we cannot simply curb it with external behavior. How do you complete this sentence, “to be just I must…”? be orderly, be timely, give to anyone that asks me for money on the street. What are your laws? Understand, humans were made for law. Laws were given even back in the garden. And even there the fall into sin was a law rewrite. And ever since we have been rewriting our own self-functional ten commandments. I’ve found it is a helpful technique in marital counseling, to make couples discuss several areas that could cause tension later down the road, things like money, success, work, sex. Sometimes it is the small things that cause the biggest issues. Not putting the cap back on the toothpaste, not putting the garbage bag back into the trash can. It is pretty much always the case that you will marry someone that does not respect your decalogue and that is where conflict happens. Jesus says “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” Now this is not to say that there is anything necessarily wrong with tradition. The Lutheran Church is full of tradition and if anything I think Christianity at large does not take Church tradition seriously enough. Traditions can be a powerful and healthy tool when used in the right way. The core of the problem is anything and everything we do is done with dirty hands, and more specifically, a dirty heart. So, the heart of the matter is that the heart is the problem. Notice that Jesus quoted from Isaiah Chapter 29 when he said, “The people honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me.” The prophet Joel said, “Render you hearts not your garments.” The prophet Jeremiah said, “O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil, that you may be saved.” And a thousand years before Jeremiah, and Isaiah, and Joel, the book of Deuteronomy said this: “Know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.” How often do we try to use the law to fool the scanner… but Jesus is saying you cannot fool me. So, how should we relate to God laws? As Jesus says, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Jesus says a right relationship with Him should fuse the internal with the external. And it begins by saying “I am unclean, undeserving, unmeriting, and desperate for cleansing, and nothing but the blood of Jesus can save me.” If there is anything that should be above the law it is this: your raw faith in Jesus as your savior. Jesus is the only one that can make you clean. More than that, He did on the cross. When that is your identity, there is no more hiding, no more need to fool people or yourself, no more need to prove anything to anyone, to yourself, to God. There is freedom in Christ. And it is in that freedom, that faithfulness can arise. Why? How? Because you have been justified. And being just in Him, you can now, relate to the “must” in the law, with freedom and power. In the movie Creed, Rocky Balboa is coaching Apollo Creed’s son Adonis. Adonis is getting beat-up in the ring and Rocky wants to throw the towel in and Adonis says No!!! I got to prove it. Rocky says “Prove… prove what?” Adonis said, “That I’m not a mistake.” Do you know how often that narrative is going on inside of our hearts? I’ve got to prove myself worthy… that I’m not a mistake. It is that narrative that makes us relate to the law wrongly. We add to it. We lower it so that somehow we can prove we are just. But that was never the purpose of the law. The law shows us our mistakes. But the law also points us to Jesus who says I have taken your mistakes. And I have redeemed you. Therefore a right relationship with law draws our hearts to God. As we seek to obey the laws and even human tradition, let us first say, I want to know the one who cleanses my sin. I want to know Jesus. So that I can do what I was made to do… reflect Him. I’ll close with a thought from everyone’s dear neighborhood friend Mr. Rogers. Mr. Rogers was a ordained pastor in the Presbyterian church. He saw his calling to serve children and families through television. One Sunday he gave an interview and he recounted this, “years ago my wife and I were attending a little church on vacation with friends. I was in the middle of my preaching course at the time. During the sermon I was ticking off ever mistake I thought the preacher was making. When the seemingly miserable sermon ended, I turned to my friend intending to say something critical, when I stopped myself because I saw tears running down her face. And she said, “He said just what I need to hear.” Mr. Rogers said, “I realized at that moment I was judging. She was needing.” That is how we relate to God’s law, out of deep need and out of Gospel grace. May He, in his grace, draw our hearts toward Him. In the grace of God which surpasses all understanding, trust your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus Amen.
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August 19, 2024 - John 6: 51-69
In today’s text we find ourselves yet again in the Gospel of John and we find ourselves yet again immersed in the words of the ‘bread of life’ discourse of John Chapter 6. What is being discussed today, and what has been discussed in prior weeks, is so important that the Common Christian Lectionary spends three weeks in the Bread of Life Discourse of John 6. “The bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Dear brothers and sisters of our Lord, our God is a God of bread and flesh. “The bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh”, declares Jesus. First it was Moses who offered up bread and flesh. That is to say, Manna and quail. Then it was Jesus who offered up bread and flesh, that is to say, five barely loaves and 2 fish. That is not to say that Jesus was to be just a second Moses, or that Israel was to relive the past. But that Israel would be directed to the future… pointing us to what Jesus had not yet done but was going to do for them. “The bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Does the imagine on the front of your bulletin make you hungry? If might just be true that it is good publicity for Panera. In general, the image of Jesus discussing food to the crowd and telling them “everyone will eat to their fill and be satisfied” brings imagines of something less refined as Panera and something more like an all you can eat buffet. As soon as you walk in and get your utensils, right in front of you is a 30 foot long salad bar. But don’t eat your fill on the first thing you see, because next is another island that has the side-dishes of potatoes and corn and Mac and cheese. Along the wall is the coffee machines and the soda. There is a whole other island with the sundays and deserts…. Right in the middle, like an altar is the meat. The primerib, the steak, the fish, the ribs, and the turkey, and the chicken. Anything you want. As much as you want. All right there for the taking. Oh how I love country style buffets… they are the Home Depot of fine dining. It is so American. Take as much as you want, whatever you want, because there is so much more than you could possibly need. What are you looking for this morning? Why did you get out of bed and come here? Are you hungry for bread and flesh? I find it interesting how much food is in the Gospel of John. The first miracle of Jesus took place at a wedding feast and Jesus turns water into wine. In chapter 4 Jesus sends his disciples off into a town to buy food and then he offers a special kind of food to the woman at the well. In Chapter 13, the one who dips the bread with Jesus is the one who would betray him. In chapter 21 the resurrected Jesus offers the disciples broiled fish. Out of all those chapters, chapter 6 is the most likely to make you hungry. At the beginning of the chapter, 5000 hungry people stood before Jesus. Jesus told Philip to give them something to eat from the five loaves and two fish. The chapter records: the sitting, the thanksgiving, the breaking, the distributing, the eating, and the gathering of the left overs. It was a profound demonstration of Jesus’ power. But was is really satisfying? All those people fed but did they really get what Jesus was trying to offer them? I would maintain they did not get it… at least at first. But by the end of John 6 the problem is no longer that they don’t understand, but rather, it is that they don’t like what Jesus is saying. In fact, even after being fed, they were still hungry. They were hungry to make Jesus king. And more than that, they wanted their hunger for barley and yeast and sugar and salt to be satisfied not just that once but everyday and all the time. This was not what Jesus was offering and so he dismissed them and disappeared. But the people found him. And they said, “feed us again… we don’t care what you call it… manna, bread of life whatever. As long as our stomachs are full, we will listen to what you have to say.” But it is in the Bread of Life discourse that Jesus lays down the problem: “Do not work for the food which perishes but for the food which endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give to you.” Does that sound familiar? That is almost exactly what Isaiah asked the people of his day. “Why do you send money for that which is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy.” Why are you hungering for these things? It was a great question in the 7th century BC. A great question in the 1st century and still a great question in the 21st century. What are you hungry for?... Oh we have so many things to be hungry for. Today there are TVs that allow you to watch a football game and search the web at the same time. You can buy TVs with 8k resolution, that’s better than the human eye can differentiate. I saw on a commercial a 100in TV with amazon TV and voice recognition. Alexa turn the TV on. Alexa change the channel. Alexa turn TV off. So many unnecessary things but the amazing thing is, we get hungry for it. The people in Jesus’ day were not being tempted by TVs, but a man who could feed 5000 people with five loaves and 2 fish, a man who can give us free food when we did not sow or reap or fish, they were hungry for that… But not hungry for the bread Jesus was offering. What was He offering? Himself. “The bread that came down from heaven” was himself. It was what they needed, but it was not what they wanted. And so they grumbled… even the disciples. Grumbled is a great word in Greek “goggunzo”. It could be translated they began to grumble, continued to grumble, kept on grumbling. “goggunzo” a fun word to say, but also a very biblical word for what people do when people don’t like something God is doing. In Exodus 15, 16, and 17 the people grumbled 7 times. When they did not get water when they wanted it, or bread when they wanted it. And then when they got bread they grumbled because it was not meat. In the book of numbers, they grumble seven more times. Because there are giants in the promise land and we don’t like how God is saying they would have to take it over. They grumble in Deuteronomy. They grumble in the prophets. Finally, Psalm 105 says, “do not do like you used to do when you grumbled against the Lord.” Grumbling happens whenever people don’t like the way God intends to deliver them. We are stuck starving but we don’t want your manna. Here’s the promise land but we don’t want to take it this way. You say, “I am the bread of life who has come down from heaven” “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him”….we don’t want that kind of food. It is no surprise that when Jesus said eat my body and drink my blood that we hear the words of the Lord’s supper. But for a moment, let’s place ourselves alongside the original audience. To first century Jews that knew the Old Testament, it was very provocative language because it seemed to go against clear biblical teaching in Leviticus 17. “No person among you shall eat blood, nor shall any alien who resides among you eat blood. And anyone of the people of Israel, or of the aliens who reside among them, who hunts down an animal or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth. For the life of every creature—its blood is its life; therefore I have said to the people of Israel: You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.” It should also not be lost on us that Jesus said these things at the time of the Passover which recalled the moment when the Israelites spread the blood of a lamb on their door posts and the angel of death passed over. In other words, what stood between them and the judgement of God was timbers of wood soaked in the blood of the lamb. Ultimately, what is being said, is that blood constitutes life and holiness. It is not something dirty or something to be avoided. In fact, it’s something they needed. They need the blood of the true lamb in order to have eternal life. And let me tell you this; you cannot live without it and you cannot have it any other way but through Jesus! And it is precisely on this point that Jesus does not allow concessions. How many times does He repeat himself in this text? I am the bread of life. No one comes to me unless the father draws him. I will raise him. Everyone who hears comes to Me. This is the bread. I am the living bread. Eat this bread… it is my flesh. There is no other bread that satisfies. Why did he have to say it so many times? Because they were hungering for something other than Him. So the question comes again? What are you hungry for? Because even here, even though we can look above the altar and see the Lord’s Supper under a cross. Even though the Lord’s Supper, Jesus’ very body and blood awaits us, even here grumbling happens. The grumbling only comes to end in the person and work of Jesus, when Jesus gave His own flesh for the life of the world. And that is how we have life, not because of what we have given up or accomplished. Not because we are spiritual super men or women. But because we have been drawn by the Father to Jesus. Taken from being sinners who know not God to people pulled by the power of the Holy Spirit into his kingdom. By His own power we are gifted the bread of life. By His own will He gives His life as the ransom for many. By His own desire, that we would receive it… Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in Me, and I in Him. Much has already been said on the Bread of Life discourse, last week and the previous week, this morning I’d like to leave you with just one more idea that I hope will bring some focused perspective into the importance of the communion meal that Jesus is alluding to here in our text. You see the Scriptures teach us that the whole of the universe collapsed on account of an abused meal in Genesis and the whole of the universe will be restored at the banquet feast of the lamb in Revelation. Understand this, between those two meals our Lord brings us to His table, He gives us His body and His blood, and He says this is just a bit of the foretaste of the feast to come. So in just a minute come… come to the table and you will receive bread and wine and you will also receive body and blood, and most importantly, you will receive life. That is, His life, His work, given for you for the forgiveness of all your sins. What are you hungry for?
August 4, 2024 - John 6:22-35
A couple weeks ago, my family and I went to the Foundry in downtown St. Louis. I ordered from the street Indian food vender. I ordered a couple street chicken dishes and a mango lassi, which is an Indian version of a smoothy. And I said, “kids, you have got to taste this.” “You too got to taste this.” We have probably all heard that phrase before, straight from the mouths of our mother and grandmothers, as they thrust lima beans onto our plates “You’ve got to taste this.” Of course that pales in comparison to the taste test from one gourmet chef. She took dog food and thrust it into the mouth of unsuspecting guests. It happened at an elegant reception near Denver, CO. The dog food was placed on small imported crackers with a wedge of imported cheese and a little bit of bacon and a pimento and olive on top. The hostess had just graduated from a gourmet cooking class and she decided to put her skills to the ultimate test. After doctoring up these miserable morsels, and putting them on silver platters, she stepped back and with a sly grin she watched the guests eat them all up. Apparently there was a man that just could not get enough. He kept going back for more and more. I don’t know how they broke the news to him but when they did he probably barked and bit the hostess on the leg. If you recall, last week we discussed how the disciples were caught in a strong headwind unable to make progress. Jesus walked out to them on the water. They became terrified and Jesus immediately said “take courage. It is I.” Ego Emi. Literally, “I Am.” Mark Chapter 6 states, “They did not understand the significance of the loaves and the fish”. “Their hearts were hardened.” And I’d add to that, they didn’t understand the significance of the phrase Ego Emi. To help us understand the significance of what took place, our lectionary takes us to the Gospel of John where Jesus gives us further explanation. If you recall, I had said last week Jesus calling himself the “Emo emi” was to make a reference back to Exodus 3. God tells Moses he will lead the Israelites out of Egypt. And Moses asked God who are you? What is your name? And God famously said “I am who I am”. God is the great I am… and so is Jesus. Jesus does not just speak for God or represent God. Jesus is God. Jesus is the great I am. The Gospel of John records seven times where Jesus speaks an “I am” statement. John records Jesus saying I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world, I am the door, I am the good shepherd, I am the resurrection and the life, I am the way the truth and the life and I am the vine. Seven times: the perfect number in the Bible, that is John’s way of saying Jesus is giving us a perfect portrait of Himself. Here He says, “I am the bread of life.” He is offering us a relationship with Himself and He is saying you have got to taste this. Why? Why pay any attention to this bread or what Jesus has to offer? Before Jesus preached this sermon, also called the bread of life discourse, Jesus had fed at least 5000 men from five loaves and two fish. The next day those who had been given a free lunch, came back looking for another free lunch. After all, Moses feed the people in the wilderness not once but every day for 40 years. Jesus makes the case, this bread is different… this bread is new. “Your forefathers ate bread in the wilderness yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a person may eat and not die.” What is new? The bread Jesus gives is bread that brings forgiveness and delivers eternal life. That is what God promises you. You will not die… not spiritually. I know this will come as a shock, but there is something worse than physical death. What is it? Spiritual death. That is when you don’t have Jesus, no Holy Spirit, no connection to the Gospel, no savior from your sins… that is spiritual death which leads to eternal death. But Jesus says partake of my supper that I have delivered to you and you will never be without God’s mercy and grace and love and forgiveness… that’s is what Jesus is saying. “This bread comes down from heaven which a person may eat and not die.” Or in other words, “Do not be overly focused on earthly things that pass away.” Example, back in my seminary days, when I spent a year in the UK, I traveled a lot. But I didn’t have that much money, and it was not always easy to figure out the connection between US dollars and Pounds and Euros and how much it would purchase until you got there. On one occasion I was trying to save money, before I got onto the train I bought some crackers and cheese, and that would be my lunch and dinner on the train. A couple hours into it, I was so hungry I had to get something. So I counted up my remaining euros. I went to the dining car and to my shock and surprise everything had already been paid for in the price of my ticket. It was all free… it had all been paid for. So why mess around with cheese and crackers! There are a lot of people messing around with cheese and crackers… and they’re spiritually dead because of it. They live in the dark and wonder why life never makes sense. We don’t need cheese and crackers because Jesus gives us the bread of life freely. It has all been paid for. 9 times in the bread of life discourse Jesus uses the verb “give”. This bread is new, it is for you, and it has been paid for. It has been given… “You got to taste this.” Many of you are aware the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all record the Words of Institution: “Take eat this is my body. Take drink this is my blood.” John does not do that. John does not record the giving of the Lord’s Supper. Instead, John records these words of Jesus explaining the Lord’s Supper before He instituted it. “This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Jesus as “the bread of life” He is both satisfying and fulfilling. All other breads, including the Manna in the wilderness, left a sense of dissatisfaction because as we know earthy food does not satisfy for long. Jesus says all who come to Him will be satisfied for good. I think this opens a very serious question at least for me. We know that Jesus is supposed to be fulfilling and satisfying. We know that he claims that He will satisfy our deepest needs. But what do I do when my experience it not that? Have you ever felt that way? Or have you ever not felt the way you thought you should? We know Jesus is supposed to be satisfying and we know He promises to be fulfilling but your own experience of Him is not that all the time. So what do you do? A theologian by the name of Arthur Pink once wrote on this topic and he said, “Jesus was speaking of the perfect fulfillment that is in himself and not talking about our imperfect apprehension of it.” What he is saying is that just because your experience of Jesus is not fulfilling and or satisfying that does not mean that He is not fulfilling and satisfying. So what do you do with what I have said… The reality is that your experience of Jesus will not be perfect, but that does not make Jesus any less perfect… There will be times in your life when you grasp the message of Jesus and you really and truly get it, but there will be times when you don’t. I want you to know that it is in those times especially that you need to remember that your perception of Jesus at any given time in your life may not be so much a reflection of Jesus but rather a reflection of our sinfulness and our empty condition. Things are not the way they are supposed to be. One thing that I’d like to point out is it is not wrong to ask things of Jesus just like the crowd did. It is not wrong to petition God, you have healed me once, would you heal me again. Or You have fed me on multiple occasions, would you feed me again. But the important thing is that you cling to the right hope that Jesus is Lord and Savior and He comes down to us. Therefore, with a great twist of irony we can take the words of the clueless crowd and pray to Him who fulfills our every need. Jesus brings us “life”. That is the point of John 6 and John’s Gospel in general. In fact, in the Synoptics gospels, Matthew Mark and Luke, they use the word “life” and the verb “live” and total of 34 times. In the Gospel of John he uses the word “life” and the verb “live” 54 times. So if John’s Gospel is about anything, it is about life. That “God so loved the world that He sent his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 20:31 “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you many have life in his name.” That means not just into eternity but also now. That Jesus makes your life worth living. How did the crowd react to this sermon? They began to grumble. It is the same word used in Exodus 16 when God provided food in the wilderness and the people grumbled and called it manna, Hebrew for “what is it”. Manna is not a compliment. And now they are grumbling again because Jesus said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” Isn’t there something tastier with a little more pizzaz? Here is how it often works, you go on a diet, for breakfast you have half a grapefruit, one piece of whole-wheat toast, and 8 ounces of skim milk. For lunch, 4 ounces of boiled chicken breast, 1 cup of broccoli, and one Oreo cookie. And then for snack, the rest of the package of Oreo cookies and a quart of chocolate ice cream. And then for dinner you go to Fitz’s and order an extra-large extra greasy burger with a huge milkshake with whip cream. We try… don’t we? We try to stay on the diet that offers the bread of life. But then we slip. One Oreo cookie… one little crumb of grumbling, one bite of bitterness, one sip of slander, one slice of sarcasm, one piece of pride. And then the rest of the package of the Oreo cookies and an entire pizza… It gets worse, the enemy puts his miserable morsels on silver trays and watches slyly as we gobble it all up. The enemy thrusts dog food into our mouths convincing us that is really good stuff, not powdered meat and spay on nutrition. And we become so full on coveting, and pride, and sloth, endlessly scrolling through Facebook wanting things that aren’t ours and feeding our addictions and creating more false expectations and devouring false truth. And then we can look at John 6, the bread of life discourse and conclude who needs it? I see this attitude everywhere. Who needs the Lord’s Supper… who needs church… who need the Bible. I’ve got tastier things in my pantry at home. Here is the good news, the Gospel: although our appetite is unfocused. Jesus’ appetite was singular. Hebrews 2:9 says “By the grace of God Jesus tasted death for everyone.” Talk about a taste test. What would that taste like? Jesus tasted death. It tasted like the soldiers spit. Cheap vinegar-wine. His own blood and sweat. But there more. Remember Jesus said, “Father take the cup from me.” But He did not take the cup… and what’s in the cup? The Father’s judgement on the sins of the world. Jesus took the cup for us and drank it. He tasted death, judgement, He took our sins, and He also rose again. That is why He could make the stunning claim in John 6:39, 40, 44, and 54 Jesus says, “and I will raise you up on the last day.” But again, this bread is now. Jesus said I am the bread of life. Not I was. Not I will be. I am. Ego Emi. This bread is present. He is here. It is for you. It is not far away. Not distant, not removed, not abstract. It is here for you. Receive it! And He invites everyone. “Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” That’s from Matthew’s Gospel. In John Chapter 6 Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” May the Lord give us this bread always.
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July 28, 2024 - Mark 6:45-56
Can anyone tell me what this is? A map. Can you remember having to use one of these? Having to fold one of these. First you have to figure out where you are on the map and then where you want to be and then you follow the lines and approximate the milage according to the little scale in the corner. After doing all of that, then you have to figure out how to fold it back up. It is the rubic’s cube of my generation. And I can solve a rubic’s cube, but I’ll be honest, I have never been good at using a map. Why? Because ever since I’ve been driving, the GPS has been invented. The summer before I left for college, my mom bought me a Garmin. You suction cup it to the window where it stays for about an hour before falling off and scaring you to death while driving. The device works pretty well, as long as you update it. If you don’t update the maps regularly it’ll be like this one… when you get onto the 44 heading towards St. Louis, it thinks you are driving through a field and it keeps saying get back on the highway, get back on the highway, recalculating. But to be far, the device is pretty handy and it has gotten be from point A to B multiple times. But then the smart phone with the Google maps was invented. Google maps offers not just a street views, but satellite views, and panoramic views. It also knows real-time traffic reports. And it will plan your route for you, and if you don’t like it you can drag the route to something else. Even mid-driving it will tell you reroute options. Up ahead there is construction or a wreck, this new route will save you 15 minutes, would you like to reroute? Yes. Back in the map days you could only know where you were going and you expected to hit traffic and hardship. Now with Google maps we expect to avoid it. Take us around anything unpleasant. Reroute! I promise there is a point to this. I think this is also how many people relate to their Christian life. Prosperity theology has kept in even among us. And we believe that rerouting should be an option when following Jesus. Somehow, we believe that following Jesus shouldn’t be so hard. And perhaps, if we followed Jesus to the tee and did everything right, things would get easier for us. We believe Jesus is fully God and fully man. Being fully God, He has omniscience. Meaning, He knows what is out ahead of us. He loves us so much that He went to the cross for us. Doesn’t that mean He would also desire to reroute our lives if He knew trouble and hardship and suffering lied ahead? I’m sorry to be the one to inform you, but on the basis of Mark Chapter 6 (and on the basis of the rest of Scripture), more often than not the opposite is true. In Mark 6 Jesus routes His disciples not away from troubles, not around trouble, but directly into it. What might that mean in your life? Of course, understand just because it is a hardship does not mean it is not a blessing. Stephanie and I were given twins during COVID. They are a double portion of blessing; but don’t kid yourself, there is nothing easy about twins. The message throughout Scripture is be faithful because hardship lies ahead. God called Moses and said, go to Pharaoh. Pharoah is not going to listen to you but I will be with you. God called Abraham to leave everything, his family and friends, his life and belongings and go to a new land and start over. Yes, there was promise attached to it, but God never said to Abraham the people is the land would receive him, or he would become a great nation in his lifetime. When Jesus sent the disciples out to do missionary work, He told them in the Gospel of Matthew, “I’m sending you like sheep among wolves.” Say what? We gave up our lives and lively-hood to follow You. And You are going to send us out not to be wolves among sheep but to be sheep among wolves? Let that sink in. What does Jesus intend to teach these slow-to-learn disciples? And notice, Jesus’ does it “immediately”. Mark likes the word “Immediately” in his Gospel but it is not often that the word “immediately” is used to describe Jesus. When the word immediately is used to describe someone as wise and poised and calculated as Jesus it should catch our attention. And what did He quickly do? This is equally astonishing. He sent them quickly from Himself. It says, He made them go ahead of him to Bethsaida. And after leaving them He went into the hills to pray. How did Mark know He went on his own to pray. Maybe someone had said, “Rabbi you’re not going with us?” And maybe He said, “no I need to hang back and pray.” Do you think any of the disciples noticed how often Jesus prayed? Have any of you recognized that Jesus prays a lot? Have any of you notice we don’t pray nearly as much. Don’t you think if He is praying a lot, we ought to learn something from that? “Nah...” Listen, when the one who knows God better than you, prays more than you, that should shape you. When we realize Jesus, who is the son of God, prays to his Father. And that we, in our Baptism are adopted children of God, we too in the words of Paul can cry out Abba Father. And that will shape you. Jesus sent the disciples away and Jesus also dismissed the crowd. I do not know what He said to the crowd in his dismissal. But the act of dismissal is important because John’s account tells us Jesus knew the crowd had intentions of making Him king by force. Therefore, He is intentionally sending the disciples away from a crowd who intentionally intends to do something by force. Even with the best of intentions, this does not sound good. At minimum we could say He is protecting them by sending them away, but I think He is saying more than that. He is also saying, my Kingdom is not something you can acquire by force or on your own. So He is teaching and shaping them in the very act of sending. (It should not be lost on us that this is the first time the word apostle is used for the disciples, meaning the sent ones.) Now notice where he sent them. 47 Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. 48 He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them.” “He saw the disciples straining.” He could have stopped the wind just like he did back in Chapter 4. He could have treated it like a puppy and commanded it to sit and it would have listened. Did he do that? No. Why…? It is because Jesus shapes His disciples by strong head winds. Mark says the wind of against them. The word could also mean hostile or opposed to them. In Matthew’s Gospel he says the winds were hammering and bombarding the boat. So He made them get into the boat and sent them into a boat slamming head wind around the time of dusk. It is not until the fourth watch of the night between 3-6 AM that Jesus walks out to them. Jesus had IMMEDIATELY sent them into the boat but then INTENTIONALLY waits to rescue them. Paraphrase, Jesus will send us where we never would have went on our own in order to accomplish for you and in you what you could never have accomplished without Him. Jesus sends us to a place where we cannot achieve with all our human effort. But here is the important point, no one belonging to Christ goes through the headwind alone. You might say, ok that’s fine for them but what does that mean for us. Did you know that where you are sitting right now is a place architecturally called the nave? Nave is a latin word for Boat. And if you turned this church upside-down it would like of look like a boat… hence the name. So, here we are this morning in a boat. We have all faced headwinds this past week. My car was broken so I took it to get fixed. After paying $400 the engine light turned back on. Then after paying another $400, the engine light turned back on. I’m in the boat. Sharron, broke her arm on the 4th of July. It could have been a lot worse… She’s in the boat. We have several people on the prayer list… they are in the boat. Consider how you are in the boat this morning. Headwinds are a part of life… welcome you’re in the boat. Jesus will send you into things you cannot accomplish on your own. More than that, you know what a muscle straining, wind shattering, wave slamming life can also be called… grace. God may not deliver you, or rescue you, but none the less it is grace. Why? How? It takes a grace filled Gospel centered God to come to us even when we are heart-hardened and not turning to him. If you are asking yourself right now where is the grace of God in my life… Mark 6 says (here’s the boat)… and you’re in it. Most importantly, the head wind is not proof of God’s desertion. Far from it. Verse 48 says, he saw them in the boat. And He went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, 50 because they all saw him and were terrified. (again) Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” What a great narration. The disciples saw Jesus and gave a blood curdling cry. And immediately He said to them take courage. It is I. In Greek He said “ego emi.” “I am”. In the passage I will preach on next week, Jesus will give us another I am statement. He will say I am the bread of life. Here He just ways I am. None the less, it recalls when Moses asked God what is your name. Who should I tell them sent me? God said, Yahweh. “I am who I am.” Then Jesus climbed into the boat and the wind died down. This is an important point, because the wind doesn’t always die down… and yet this is still true… that the presence of Jesus in the wind is far more needed by us than the removal of the wind. I’m not saying I don’t struggle with that. I’m sure we all do. But, as we consider the contrast between our apparent chaos, our apparent unpredictability, our frailty, our mortality, men screaming… and Jesus just calmly walking in the midst of it. It is like Jesus saying, “I’m in control. Trust me”. Your comfort is less connected to deliverance and more connected to my presence. I can hardly remember ever praying “Lord, you don’t need to remove the wind just let me know your presence”. I hear people say all the time when trials come: “God does not love me. God has turned his back on me. God doesn’t care.” But the opposite it true. And maybe the problem is our own hardness of heart. As C. S. Lewis points out, “it is hard, if not impossible, for the lifeguard to save someone that wont stop kicking and screaming.” Unfortunately, that all too often happens. Even when the disciples saw Jesus walking on the lake… can you believe they didn’t sing praise choruses. They did not say, YES, He is here! The Jesus that feed the 5000. The Jesus that raised a girl from the dead. The Jesus that healed a woman that no one else would heal. He is here! Here is what we learn. Our hearts can be so hard we can be looking right at the grace of God and conclude it is the exact opposite. That is how much we need Him. But here comes the Grace. While the winds are howling and the disciples are screaming, Jesus gets into the boat and does not say “you sorry bunch of fools.” “You are the sorriest group of men.” “You’ll never get it, will you?” “How much do I have to teach you!” “How much do you have to see before you get it!” “Get out of the boat. Swim back. I’m done with you.” “You can die out here for all I care.” As they are in mid-scream, or I could say, mid-sin, what does Jesus say? He said Immediately, “don’t be afraid. I am.” I hope you understand this Gospel reading, although recorded for your sake, is not about you. It is not even about the disciples. Rather, it is about Jesus, who came to the disciples on his own terms, in the “fullness of” his own time, and in his own miraculous way. In Matthew’s account it then turns to Peter. Peter wants a piece of the action; to be like Jesus. Of course, he can’t be like Jesus nor can he do what Jesus does. Thanks be to God, even in Matthew’s account, the story is not about Peter nor about us. This story is about Jesus. And Jesus says “I am. Do not be afraid.” Jesus’ words closely recall the words of God that are recorded in the book of Isaiah chapter 41. There God said, “Don’t be afraid, I am your God and I have come to save you.” That is grace. The gospel is not in your ability. The Gospel is not in your strength to achieve. The Gospel is not in your brilliance to grasp it. The Gospel is Jesus. The next time you find yourself in a headwind, which is all too often a human experience, may you not cling just to your deliverance as a show of God’s favor, but may your story be narrated like this…. The winds may be against me, but I am not alone. Jesus, my savior, my redeemer, my helper, is with me. In the grace of God, which surpasses all understanding, trust your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus Amen.
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July 21, 2024 - Mark 6:33-44
Our Gospel reading for today is the very well-known miracle of the feeding of the Five Thousand. The feeding of the five thousand is quite possibly the most profound miracle Jesus ever preformed. I realize that this is quite a bold statement. And I realize that all of Jesus’ miracles were profound. But I think there is something to be said about the fact that this is the only miracle, other than the resurrection, that was recorded in all four Gospels. This fact, in and of itself, should cause us to be at least somewhat curious and to wonder what makes this miracle so special. It is important for us to recognize this miracle, this banquet, comes after Herod’s banquet. Remember last week, that haunting banquet… where John the Baptist lost his life and his head was served up on a platter? The feeding of the five thousand is a contrast to that. What many people fail to notice is the Good Shepherd imagery in the Bible is an image of royalty. And so what Mark is doing in Chapter 6 is contrasting and comparing royalty using two banquets. Herod’s banquet is in the palace. He invites only the important. And serves the sensual. Jesus’ banquet gathers all the wanderers and the seekers. His banquet is in a pasture. May we, even today, see our shepherd king. Have you ever seen the show Man Vs. Food? Perhaps you have seen the show. The host, Adam Richmond, explores the big food offerings in various cities. And he takes on the various big food challenges. In Tuscumbia, AL there was a place called Rattle Snake Saloon that had been featured on Man Vs. Food. It was a restaurant in the mouth of a cave and it sold a 2 lbs. beef patty on a gigantic bun with 1 lb of fries and 1 lb of onion rings. Consume it in under 45 minutes and the $45 platter is free. I got it once and it served three people. Adam Richmond enters these contests. I’ll try not to make you nocuous, but one time he ate 15 dozen oysters in a sitting. That’s a 180 oysters. He also ate 16 chili dogs in an hour and he ate a 12 egg complete with cheese and sour cream and brisket. Contrast Man vs Food with Jesus. The contrast is this: one man eats food that will feed many and he is leaves unsatisfied at the end of every episode. Now contrast that to the banquet in a pasture… One man feeds many with a portion of a little and everyone leaves satisfied. That is the banquet we step into where one man, Jesus, feeding a host with little portion. First, consider the context. The recent chapters of Mark have been erratic and wild. On multiple occasions they went from one side of the lake to the other only to be meet by another great needy crowd. There was need after need… sickness, possession, bleeding, death, storms. They had sleepless nights and on several occasions Jesus and the disciples had no time to eat. The disciples had just been sent out 2 by 2. Here, they have come back to report all they had done and taught. The Gospel of Matthew lets us know that it was on this day that Jesus became aware that John the Baptist had been killed. John’s murder may have taken place several weeks ago, but because it happened in private, Jesus was just now finding out about it. Matthew records that because of John’s death Jesus was at an emotional low. He was devastated and He wanted to retire to a private place to grieve. One thing we learn about Jesus is, your shepherd king, understands your limits. He knows your weariness because He entered your human frame. Please do not assume the false assumption that Jesus was neither tired nor hungry nor sad because He was the Son of God. Jesus shared your weariness and more than that He was grieving the death of his cousin, John the Baptist. He had desired to cut across the lake to find a desolate place to rest and pray and recharge. How often do you journey away to find rest, to pray, and recharge? One truth of your shepherd king is he welcomes you into that and says come away with me. Of course as we consider the rest of the passage… yeah but…. There is always an interruption when we try to get away to be with Jesus. In this case the crowd followed Him. At my house, it is the sound of little feet coming up behind me wanting to play or be fed or the sound of crying. Interruption after interruption… the incredible need always follows us to the other side. What do you do in these moments? We learn another thing about our Good Shepherd King, He has such compassion for his helpless sheep that He puts on hold his own needs. One commentator noted even the imagery should not be lost on us. For as the boat was making its way to the shore, Mark tells us the grass was green. That means it was in the rainy season. The Gospel of John tells us it was around the time of the Passover, meaning it was in early spring. The color of clothing in those days was often white-ish, and the crowd would have looked much like sheep in a field. The text says there were five thousand men, therefore, the implication is that there are thousands and thousands more because there are men, woman, and children at the scene. As Jesus sees the crowd looking like sheep without a shepherd, He is moved to compassion. He sees them as needy, helpless, wandering, hungry. And that means, your shepherd king has compassionate eyes that sees need not nuisance. What if we, with the eyes of Jesus ran to the need, ran to the helpless, and brought the good news there? Perhaps, with time, we would begin to see bigger crowds gathering around us too. What is being modeled for us is to see and identify the need. Jesus calls them “sheep without a shepherd”…. Which is a powerful metaphor, but not a compliment. I’m not sure how familiar you are with sheep but sheep are the ultimate domesticated animal. They are completely incapable of living without human intervention. Without a shepherd sheep will literally starve to death because they are unable to find food and water for themselves. Let us assume for a second that they were to come across food, well they don’t know when to stop eating so they could literally eat themselves to death. Let us assume for a second that they were to come across water. Well, that can be equally as dangerous because they all too often fall right into the water source and their wet cloaks make them too heavy to swim and they drown. This is the metaphor of a sheep without a shepherd. They can’t find food so they die… and if they do find food, well, they still die. They are a hopeless cause, and worst of all, they are oblivious to how very dependent they are. Like it or not, Jesus has chosen this metaphor for us, and not just here, in Luke 15 Jesus told a parable about a lost sheep. In John 10 he says “I am the good shepherd and I lay my life down for the sheep.” Everywhere Jesus looks He sees people who are not self-sufficient and even if they think they are and they try to be, they will die anyhow. He sees people in need of protection, care, and provision. He sees people who are foolish when left to themselves. He sees people who are helpless and must be protected and cared for. The question is this: do you see yourself as Jesus sees you? Do we really see yourselves as sheep? That our self-sufficiency will destroy us. We cannot feed ourselves, protect ourselves, save ourselves. We are starving if not for our shepherd. Do you see what Jesus sees? Perhaps, I should also ask, do you see Jesus? To understand the “Shepherd King metaphor” we need to understand where it comes from. It comes from the Old Testament and there it is a lot more than a shepherd in a pasture with some sheep. One of the most famous passages is Psalm 23, and Psalm 23 lets us know the Shepherd imagery is royal. “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He restores my soul. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil your rod and your staff they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. You anoint my head with oil my cup runs over.” That Psalm was written by king David and it is full of majestic royal imagery. When the transition happened from Moses to Joshua, Moses said, “may the Lord, the God of the spirits of all mankind appoint a man over this community to go out and come in before them one who will lead them out and bring them in so they will not be sheep without a shepherd.” That prayer was answered in the transition of Moses to Joshua and Joshua was a military leader. When Jesus calls the people sheep without a shepherd, He sees them without a king. Why? Because the King, is not being much of a king. He is only for himself and he leaves the sheep to waste away. Jesus is the King the sheep need. He is the better Joshua. Jesus proceeds to give to them exactly what they need. This is very important… notice what it was. The text said He proceeded to teach them. That’s right… He did not feed them… not yet. First He taught them (all day long). You mean to suggest that this was their greatest need... teaching? Yes! Absolutely!!! What did He teach them?… He taught the same thing He always taught. He taught them the Scriptures. He taught them to repent of their sins and that there was no salvation apart from Him. This is John 3:16 type of stuff and that there is nothing more important in the world. I think this is very important because throughout the week I take calls from people asking our congregation for assistance. It grieves me that they are like sheep without a shepherd… They call the church and yet they are oblivious about their spiritual starvation. They are literally a phone’s length away from the answers… yet they ask all the wrong questions and they are searching for answers to all the wrong problems… They are unable to find the right food and it is slowly killing them. The thing we must get right lest we misinterpret the feeding of the five thousand, is that the people’s physical needs are only symptomatic of a much greater problem. It is symptomatic of their spiritual void. In the Book of Ezekiel, the people are described “sheep that are scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They are scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.” Finally, God intervened and said, “But I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered.” Do you make the connection! Jesus, the Son of God, is the good shepherd king. What they needed was Jesus and He knew that! It is after He taught them, it is now getting late, and instead of sending them away, He feed them. Not allegorical food but physical food --literally filling of their bellies with bread and fish. The disciples had said, we don’t have that kind of money. Are we to spend 8 months salary just on bread to feed these people. They said, send them away… but Jesus said how much do you have. Five loaves and two fish is short hand for not much. But what do they really have? Answer… They have Jesus. Jesus takes your little to nothing and He can multiply it. The disciples think it is impossible, Jesus says it is possible. The disciples say send them away, Jesus says what do you have. Jesus directs everyone to sit down in groups on the green grass. And taking the five loaves and the two fish He gave thanks and broke the loaves and it was divided amongst them all. The text says that they never ran out of food and that the crowd was thoroughly fed. I wonder if they remembered the feeding of the 5000 later in the Gospels as Jesus broke bread and gave thanks once again at another Passover meal. On that occasion Jesus made perfectly clear He would not just be their shepherd king but also the lamb to be sacrificed. But once again, all who participate in this meal will be satisfied. Your sins are forgiven. Don’t miss the final command to the disciples. After everyone was feed, Jesus commanded his disciples to collect the leftover food. The disciples now return with exactly twelve baskets of food, one for each of them. All things considered, this was a profound miracle that tells us who Jesus is and what He has come to do. And ultimately, it points to what He would go on to do on the cross for us. Let us not be like Adam Richmond who has eaten much but is never satisfied. Let us stop looking everywhere else for our sustenance. Let us feast upon Jesus. Let us receive His forgiveness. And then go and do likewise… Because the final detail is important. The disciples were the ones to tell Jesus that the crowd was hungry and Jesus said, “You feed them.” And the disciples’ response at that time was, “How are we going to feed them?” At the end, it is now obvious Jesus means to continue the feeding through them. Each one of them now has a basket filled with food. They asked “How?” but “How” was the wrong question! All Jesus wanted from them was that they trust Him and He was going to do it through them. The reality is that we are all sheep and the Word of God is what we most need. Know that we are not promised endless food, not on this side of paradise. But thanks be to God that He does give us what we need, that is, Himself. He also gives us His teachings and His word, and He assures us that He is the Good Shepherd. Now, all that He asks of us is that we trust in Him alone.
WAYS YOU CAN DONATE
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955 Highway 109
Wildwood, MO 63038
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636-273-6239