[John 6:35-51] Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 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 him up on the last day…”
When the Whole Family Comes
There was a woman who prepared thanksgiving dinner. Her sons and daughters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, and the grandchildren all came.
As they sat down to eat, the woman began to cry. She said, “There are 8 billion people in the world, and only twelve of them came to my dinner. So few! There must be something wrong with my cooking.”
Said no one ever. That is, of course, a made-up story. Because that’s not how it works. When you count chairs around the dinner table, you don’t count them in comparison to the 8 billion people in the world or the 8 million people in your city.
Instead, when the whole family has come, you say, “Everyone is here!” Everyone is here. In some families, that’s five. In others, it’s thirty-five. In either case, when the whole family has come, everyone is here.
The same is true for the family of God, the family of believers in Jesus Christ. For a congregation. When the whole family has come, everyone is here.
And when some members of the family of Christ are not here, that should be painful and a source of concern for all of us.
The disciples of Jesus, in certain places in the Gospels, sometimes seemed to think like the woman in my made-up story. They would ask Jesus, “Will those who are saved be many or few?”
They were likely perplexed by Jesus’ way of talking, because at one and the same time our Lord says that those who find His kingdom are few but also that there will be a great and lavish harvest of believers —
— That most of the world will refuse faith in Christ. But also that the gathering in heaven will be a great multitude that no one can number, from every tribe, nation, and language.
How can both be true? Because when the whole family is at the feast, everyone is there. It is a great and grand gathering when all the family of heaven comes.
The same is true when the family of Christ gathers here on earth in its congregations. Whether its twenty-five, thirty-five, or a hundred and five. When everyone is present, it feels great.
It makes a difference to the others just that you are here, gathered in Jesus. Your presence encourages one another.
Why do I say all this today? Because our Gospel reading today is a place in Scripture where Jesus promises us that His whole family will be present when He raises us up on the Last Day. None will be missing. All who will ever believe, He will gather; and they will be found with Him there.
Families in this life are formed and defined by birth, or adoption, and by family names. You were born or adopted into a family and received that family name as your name.
But this connection to family by birth and name is not our forever-connection. It belongs to this world and life and passes away with it. Just as the whole human race has fallen in sin, so has family and name.
Your forever-connection is your connection to God’s name and God’s family. Your forever-father is God the Father. Your forever-brother is Jesus His Son.
Our forever-family is not defined by our physical birth – as important as that is – but by our faith in Christ and by our baptism into God’s family. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” [Mark 16:16]
By birth, I became part of a family on earth. By baptism, I became part of the family of heaven, God’s family. The family of Christ is those who live by faith in Jesus and are baptized into His name, the “name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” [Matthew 28:19]
In our Gospel today, Jesus is speaking to descendants of Abraham who are all connected by birth. Yet He tells them, “You have seen Me, but you don’t believe in Me.”
And then Jesus says, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never cast out” – “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me but raise it up on the last day” – “everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him…”
That whole family of those who look to Jesus and believe in Him will be at the feast when Jesus raises up our bodies on the Last Day. He will lose none. He will cast out none who come to Him. His “everyone” will be there. The whole family.
Just as Jesus will gather together all who are His on the Last Day, He also wants all who are His to be gathered in the Church on earth in the meantime – to receive His saving Word and sacraments together.
Therefore, in the meantime – and this is a word of warning – it is a great offense, a sin, when our actions or our words cause some of Jesus’ forever-family to not be here where the congregation gathers. He holds you accountable if your conduct becomes the reason others are away.
Our Epistle reading [Ephesians 4:17 – 5:2] reminds us today not to be “callous” – not to have “hardness of heart” – not to dwell on our anger – not to hold on to bitterness – and not to let any “corrupting talk”, any ungracious words, which only tear others down, come out of our mouths.
Whether in the family of God or in your families at home, if your words – because you spoke callously or made yourself the judge – cause one member to feel unwelcome or uneasy, that is sin.
It is something to repent of, to amend, and to seek Christ’s forgiveness for. Its an area of your life to seek to improve and do better at. And Jesus does forgive. And He does help us do better, by His power.
By His power, we are called to “put on the new self” – to “be renewed in the spirit of our minds” – to speak from our mouths words that are “good for building up” which give “grace to those who hear.”
To “be kind to one another, tenderhearted” – and most importantly – “forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
God already has forgiven all of your sins through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross – even those sins that disrupt His family. Those sins are forgiven in the cross of Jesus. You have His forgiveness.
All sins – the sins you’ve committed – and the sins that have been committed against you – are nailed up on His cross. Therefore, be forgiving and patient toward one another from the start.
Jesus’ promise of forgiveness gives us confidence to seek to do better today what we failed at yesterday. His mercy is new every morning.
And His promise that He will gather all that His Father has given Him – His “everyone” at His feast – gives us confidence to reach out. All His own will be gathered in. Therefore, your effort will not be in vain.
Our right conduct – putting on the new man and walking together in kindness – makes this household of God a place where those who believe in Him can gather so that everyone can always be present.
And our right conduct makes it so new Christians, visitors, and people inquiring about the faith can come to faith in Christ – or grow in their Christian faith – here in our church. The more the love of Christ is cultivated among us the more fruitful it is for God to draw people here. And He does.
There is not a guarantee that everyone we care for or everyone who shares our family name will believe in Christ. None of us are unfamiliar with that heartache. But we are baptized into our forever-family and share the name of God with all believers in Christ.
And we are guaranteed that heaven will be a joy because there we will be completely renewed and will be gathered with our whole baptized family and truest “everyone” around Christ’s table. Amen.
[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.
