[Read Mark 6:30-44]
“You Give Them Something to Eat”
“Jesus had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd” — And He told His disciples, “You give them something to eat.”
Sheep without a shepherd are harassed by predators. And sheep without a shepherd cannot find for themselves proper nutrition. They wander and fall into many dangers.
A crowd ran from the towns on foot and gathered at the shore where Jesus and His disciples were about to dock. When Jesus saw these masses of people, He felt gut-wrenching compassion for them.
The masses were like sheep with no Shepherd – they were not feeding on what was best; they were harassed by the enemy; and their lives were wandering and straying from the truth.
So, Jesus shepherds them – “He began to teach them many things.” He tends to them by gently teaching and preaching His Word.
The crowds listen to the words of Jesus so late into the day that dinner is approaching, or is even past. They must eat. They’re in a desolate place. It’s like I-76 in Pennsylvania, there’s nowhere to stop for food.
And the disciples of Jesus say, “We have too little to offer here. The needs they have we can’t meet. Send them somewhere else.”
“This is a desolate place,” they remind Jesus, “and the hour is now late. Send them away…” Send them to the surrounding villages to “buy for themselves something to eat.”
The disciples only had at their disposal five loaves of bread and two fish. What were these among five thousand men plus their wives and children? [Matthew 14:21]
Nevertheless, Jesus tells the disciples, “You give them something to eat.” Don’t send them elsewhere for their bread. You give them something to eat.
The crowds sit down in groups on the green grass, by hundreds and fifties. Jesus takes the five loaves and two fish, looks up to heaven and says a blessing, breaks the bread, and the disciples distribute the food. The crowds eat until they are fully satisfied.
When the disciples considered what they had to offer for this crowd, they counted the five loaves and two fish, but they didn’t take into account that the very Bread of Life was with them.
No matter how desolate that wilderness was – no matter how sparse their resources – no matter how little from themselves they had to offer – nevertheless, the masses of lost sheep had more in the wilderness with Jesus and His disciples than what all the world could offer.
The disciples underestimated what they had to offer. They thought only in an earthly way.
The church too, when we think in earthly terms, says, “Not enough.” The needs are too great – the needs are too new, things we don’t understand. Our resources, our numbers, our talents and abilities, are all too few. “What can we really do for so many? Not enough.”
In effect, we send people elsewhere when we stop believing strongly in what we have to offer. When we lose confidence.
As individuals, in your daily lives – and as a congregation here in Scarsdale, NY – what you have to offer is the Bread of Life Himself, the Savior of the World, Jesus.
There are many individuals and organizations that abound in talent, charisma, money, and resources. Some for their own benefit. Others to do many good things in the world.
But only one organization has the Word of Truth, the Author of Life, Christ crucified and risen, the Savior and the Mediator between man and God – the Bread of Life, Jesus.
And that one organization is not an organization but the mystical body of Christ, the Church, the assembly of baptized believers in Christ.
Jesus is received here in Word and Sacrament. And you who receive Him are also those who now have Him to offer to others, as their true loaves and fish.
Whether it’s an attempted assassination, or ongoing poverty, or the emptiness of riches – or something else – the root of desolation in this world is man and woman’s separation from God because of sin.
The human race is a fallen race – which is made clear by the wrongs we each do, the good we fail to do, and by the wrongs in the world.
The world, with its abundance of resources and money and talent and education and increasing knowledge – so much of which is so good – nevertheless it cannot forgive sins and return man back to God.
But that one small person or that one small assembly gathered in the name of Jesus – having little in earthly terms – has an abundance more to offer than the whole world. They have the Savior Jesus to offer who does solve man’s deepest problems.
Jesus said of Himself, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” — “And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” [John 6:35,51]. He gave Himself on the cross.
Jesus saw the whole world and had compassion and laid down His life on the cross to be the sacrifice for sin – to forgive sins by dying for your sins, thereby redeeming you back to God.
Jesus made Himself the “Good Shepherd” who “lays down His life for the sheep” [John 10:11] – so that fallen people no longer have to be like sheep without a Shepherd.
This great act of the Savior was a very small event by earthly standards when it happened. He was crucified among a small group of criminals in a small corner of the world. But that small thing was the greatest thing God has ever done.
Among us, we each have different talents and abilities, some less and some more – and different deficiencies, some less and some more. But each of you has this Bread of Life and Good Shepherd to offer your neighbor.
The church always has more than much to offer. Through the church – which is always small by earthly measurements – God gives Jesus, the Savior, into the world.
In short, brothers and sisters, when the individuals in your life are troubled or dismayed by events in the world – or when they are wandering like sheep without a shepherd – Jesus is telling you, “You give them something to eat.”
You each have the greatest thing to give. Give the Bread of Life by speaking about who and what Jesus has been for you – by showing it in your life – and by inviting others to the feast of His Word preached.
Trust with confidence that what Jesus gives will be sufficient for every need. Amen.
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