Bible Passage: “They All Ate and Were Filled”
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: August 6, 2023

Bulletin August 6, 2023

Solus Christus

August 6, 2023
Pentecost 10
Matthew 14:13-21

They All Ate and Were Filled

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

I spent this past week at Michigan Lutheran Seminary in Saginaw, Michigan at the 67th biennial convention of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. It’s always an honor and privilege to attend as a delegate. One of the comments that delegates frequently make about convention is how well they feed us. And that is no small thing! Each meal, 400+ delegates walk like driven cattle to the cafeteria. According to my calculations, between Monday evening and Thursday lunch, they served nine meals to the 400 delegates. That is 3600 meals to 400 grown men. That’s a lot of food! And we all ate and were filled.

Jesus did something more impressive. He single-handedly fed a crowd 13, 14, 15 times as large. And Jesus fed them all at one time. And Jesus fed them using an impossibly small amount of bread and fish. And Jesus fed them so that They All Ate and were Filled.

Our text begins with a little detail we should not miss. When Jesus heard this…(v. 13) Heard what? John the Baptist’s disciples had just reported to Jesus that John was dead, beheaded by Herod. That helps us understand why Jesus does what he does. We are told he got into a boat to go to the far side of the Sea of Galilee. And who can blame him? We have all received news that sort of sucks the wind out of your sails. You just want to be alone.

That is why the next detail is striking. The crowds catch wind of Jesus’ plans and they hustle around the lake on foot and are waiting for Jesus when he puts ashore. And here’s the striking detail: When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. (v. 14) Remember, Jesus wanted to be alone. But these people were sick and hurting. They needed him! Back to work. Jesus always had time for people!

At supper time, the disciples are getting jittery. This is a remote place and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food. (v. 15) Seems like a perfectly reasonable suggestion. Jesus’ answer is not. You give them something to eat. (v. 16) He tells them to feed the people! Did he do this to impress upon them the utter desperateness of their situation? The Lord’s work shines brilliantly against man’s desperation!

They find a little feller who has with him five little loaves of barley bread and two, small fish. We feel like what they say to Jesus might be prefaced by saying, “This might be a dumb thing to say but…we have five loaves of bread and two fish.” Jesus says, Bring them here to me. (v. 18) Now, this meager provision will be touched by Jesus and blessed by his Father.

I have always wondered what this miracle looked like to the crowd. Magicians put things in boxes and cover things with satin cloths so the crowd cannot see the “magic.”. Jesus was no illusionist or magician. He really multiplied bread and fish before the eyes of the people! According to one on-line food calculator, you would need 1,500 pounds of fish and 500 loaves of bread to feed a crowd of 5000. Of course, 5000 is a conservative number. It doesn’t take into account the women and children. They ate and were filled. (v. 20)

At this point we can observe a Jesus who is compassionate and caring and who provides for the bodily needs of people. And in seeing this we rightly say, “Thank you, Jesus! Thank you for caring that I get hungry! Thank you for bread, and fish, and all that tastes so good!” But if that is all we take away, we will be just like the people who ate and were filled on that day. What I mean is this, this was a popular miracle! People liked a Jesus who could fill their bellies! After this event, they want to make Jesus their king by force!

If Jesus came to be a bread king, then we might as well have a big wooden loaf of bread on our wall in front of church. But a loaf of bread is not the symbol of our faith. The cross is. This miracle, and really all of Jesus’ miracles, proclaim to people, “Pay attention to this man from Nazareth! Consider carefully what you see. Who is able to hold bread and fish in his hands and multiply the molecules so that it fills and satisfies thousands? Only the one who also holds the moon and the stars in his hand! Only God!” Yes, this Jesus is God in flesh!

And he has come to fill and satisfy not merely your hungry tummy, but to fill and satisfy your hungry soul. In his sermon on the mount, Jesus said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. (Matthew 5:6) Do you hunger for righteousness? Do you have this pang inside you that is desperate to know that you got what it takes to get into Heaven? This is a hunger for righteousness!

And there is only one thing that can fill you. It is not what the world offers. The world will say, “We have here bread and fish! Come to our university and be filled! Read this book and be filled!” Nothing this world offers will fill and satisfy. Worldly “bread” only leaves people “hangry.” Hungry and angry! But there is Bread that fills. Pay attention to this man from Nazareth! He comes to us in our desperateness, and feeds us. His holy life and his death on the cross will fill that gaping “hole” in your life where there is supposed to be righteousness. You’ve “got what it takes” to enter heaven, because you’ve got Jesus! And that deepest hunger, that hunger to know you are right with God, is filled.

Michigan Lutheran Seminary did a fine job of feeding 400 delegates. Jesus did a miraculous job of feeding the 5000. But the greatest food, and the greatest feeding, is found at cross and empty tomb. Of those who eat there, it is said: They ate and were filled. Amen.