Mark 8,1-9. 7. Trinity

 Mark 8,1-9                              3922

7. Sn. n. Trinitatis 53   

Joseph of Arimathea

Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, France, ✠ 448 

Volker George, selk pastor, 2011 31. Juli 2022 

 1. ℣ O clap, your hands, all ye people: 

℟ Shout unto God with the voice of triumph. (Psalm 47,1) 

In You, O God, we have all that we should need, for the fountain of Your grace is always full. Let us be eternally in You and You remain eternally in us. (Herr Jesu Christe, mein getreuer Hirte elkg 232,7 2021 Johann Heermann 1630)

 2. »In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them: ²„I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with Me now three days and have nothing to eat. ³And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.“ ⁴And His disciples answered Him: „How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?“ ⁵And He asked them: „How many loaves do you have?“ They said: „Seven.“ ⁶And He directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, He broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. ⁷And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, He said that these also should be set before them. ⁸And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. ⁹And there were about four thousand people. And He sent them away.«  

  3. Jesus had 7 loaves of bread at His disposal to feed 4000. One person would normally eat 1/3 of a loaf at a meal, and 7 loaves would comfortably feed 21 people. To feed 4000 would require a little over 1333 loaves of bread. When the apostles gather the leftovers they fill up 7 baskets which suggests that Jesus miraculously multiplied more than 1300 loaves of bread. Jesus started with very little and abundantly provided for the needs of the people. 

4. In the feeding of the 5000 we see God’s providence in all its glory. Such is the way of God’s grace: there is more than enough for what is needed. When Israel needed food in the wilderness, God abundantly provided for all of them; they had enough bread to eat. Millennia later when the crowd needed food in the wilderness, Jesus miraculously and abundantly provided for each of them. 

5. Jesus teaches us to pray for our daily bread in the Lord’s Prayer. Luther explains this petition in his Small Catechism: 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. Later in His Beatitudes Jesus taught: »Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Yes, you are of more value than the birds« (Matthew 6,25-26). 

6. Jesus also provides food for our spiritual needs. He proclaims in John 6: »I am the Bread of Life; whoever draws near to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise you up on the last day« (John 6,35.40). In the Sacrament of the Altar Jesus gives us this Bread in his body to eat and His blood to drink. Luther says of this in his Small Catechism: These words, Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, show us that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.

7. Jesus is our Bread of Life that satisfies both our physical and spiritual hunger. The Apostle Paul says of this Living Bread from heaven: »Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread« (1. Corinthians 10,17). The holy apostle is speaking about the Holy Communion of the Lord’s Supper. The Church, he says, receives and eats the one bread that is offered to all at the communion table. Jesus’ discourse in John 6, while not specifically saying that it is the Lord’s Supper, certainly causes the Christian hearer to think about the eating and drinking of the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus and His apostles are clear that the bread and wine in the Holy Sacrament are indeed also His true body and blood given to and received by the communicant. The Lord’s Supper gives us Jesus, the Living Bread from heaven, and when we are given Jesus, we are given eternal life.

8. Jesus meets us with hands fully outstretched to give. He does not allow us to leave Him begging or hungry. He gives so that we should take and receive with thanksgiving and and in receiving become happy about it to the praise of God, who fills everything with pleasure, who wants to see a happy crowd around Him and therefore does so well to all the world (Löhe ¶ 7). 

9. May Your abundant, overflowing goodness, Lord Jesus, Your rich, gentle hand, Your pious heart always be admired and honored by me and by all Your people, and may You make all things good and have mercy on all Your works, this is my word in life and in death! (Löhe ¶ 8)

10. O Living Bread from heaven,

How well You feed Your guest!

The gifts that You have given

Have filled my heart with rest.

Oh, wondrous food of blessing,

Oh, cup that heals our woes!

My heart, this gift possessing,

With praises overflows (O Living Bread from Heaven lsb 642,1 Johann Rist 1607-67).

This is most certainly true.

11. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7).  Amen. 

12. Let us pray. O most, Loving Father, on whose bountiful providence we do wholly depend, give us daily at Thy pleasure whatsoever the necessity of this life requireth; but above all feed our souls with spiritual food, with the bread of life from heaven. Amen. (The Week of Trinity 7, Vespers Collect 1. The Daily Office. Copyright © 1965 Concordia Publishing House.)

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

Löhe, Wilhelm. Evangelien-Postille für die Sonn- und Festage des Kirchenjahres. Copyright © 1859 Samuel Gottlieb Liesching. A sermon preached on Mark 8,1-9 for The 7. Sunday after Trinity. The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind, Tr. © 2011.