Lent4 (Laetare) - John 6.1-5 - March 15, 2015
Order of Service - Pg. 15
Opening Hymn - 369 All Mankind Fell in Adam's Fall
Sermon Hymn - 347 Jesus Priceless Treasure
Closing Hymn - 151 Christ, the Life of All the Living
1) Jesus
looks out and sees a great multitude swarming around Him and His disciples.
Before He teaches the multitude, and even before any miraculous sign of His divinity
will happen, Jesus tests His disciples. He turns to Philip, someone whom we
don’t hear much about in the Gospels, and asks, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” Jesus already knows
how He is going to provide food for these five thousand. So why does He ask
Philip this? St. John writes, “But this
He said to test him.” Specifically Jesus wants to exercise Philip’s faith,
to see if Philip will look to Christ and His Word in this test or whether He
will look to another source to provide. Philip answers, “Too hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that
every one of them may have a little.” Remember the parable of the workers
in the vineyard. A denarius is a day’s wage. Two hundred day’s wages would not
be enough to provide for this crowd so that they had even a tiny amount. Jesus
had asked Philip where they could buy bread to feed the multitude and Philip
responded that they didn’t have the money to buy that much bread. Andrew chimes
in and says, “There is a lad here who
has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?”
The disciples are looking for an answer to this test. And in their search for
an answer they do what any of us would do in a similar situation. In fact, they
are a picture what humanity often does when the Lord puts us to the test. We
look at every earthly option. We weigh all the pros and cons. We do the
calculations and the “what ifs?” Often we do all of these things before we look
to Jesus and His Word.
2) Jesus
responds to their answers by telling them to have the crowd sit down. He will
show them what they are to do in this situation. It’s as if Jesus said, “Where
shall we buy bread that these may eat? I will show you. There is no need for
you to buy bread. I will give them bread.” Then Jesus goes on to do something
so miraculous that it is recorded in all four Gospels. He takes five loaves of
bread, blesses them, and then through His disciples, distributes them. Human
understanding compares five loaves of bread to five thousand men and sees
nothing but inadequacy. And we all know how far two small fish will go among so
great a number. But as the loaves and fish are distributed they increase. This
small amount is increased so much that everyone had “as much as they wanted.” At the end of the meal the disciples are
told to gather up the leftovers. Leftovers from five loaves and two small fish
distributed among five thousand men! They are to gather up the remains so that
nothing is lost, for Jesus teaches frugality, and they fill up twelve baskets,
one basket for each disciple! Jesus proves Himself trustworthy in this test.
The miracle speaks for Jesus, “Look to Me when your faith is tested, dear
disciples! Remember that I can do all things and am able to give far more abundantly
than you could ever ask!”
3) Too
often we think of the test of faith as an academic test that is graded as pass
or fail, as if the test is only a measuring stick for God to judge our faith
and leave it in its current state. If we think of Jesus testing our faith as an
academic test in school then we turn Jesus into something He’s not and we turn
our faith into something it’s not. Faith is a gift from God, not something man
works in himself by an act of the will or conscious decision, so that we can gauge
it or grow it on our own volition. Nor is Jesus only a teacher who wants to
measure our reaction to His Word to judge it adequate or lacking so that we can
try harder next time. When Jesus tests His disciples it is to work their faith,
to exercise their God-given faith through trial so that their faith clings all
the more firmly to Jesus and His Word. His test is not a temptation to doubt
His goodness and promises, nor is it temptation to sin, for God tempts no one,
though we often turn God’s tests into temptations to sin. Christ tests our
faith so He may continually drive it back to Him and His Word.
4) Consider
what St. James writes in the first chapter of his epistle: “My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith
produces patience. But let patience have its
perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:2-4) The Lord tests our
faith through trials so that our faith may cling all the more firmly to Jesus’
promises. Through trials Jesus produces patience in you. This word can also be
translated as endurance, steadfastness, or perseverance. Testing of faith isn’t
so that God can grade your faith as adequate or lacking. Testing of faith
exercises it to increase your endurance and perseverance under the cross and
trials. This is why St. James writes that we ought to “count it all joy” when
various trials come upon us. We don’t rejoice in our sufferings because we are
masochists and enjoy suffering but because we know the reason, that Christ is
exercising our faith and perseverance in the faith because these are His most
precious gifts, much more precious than a one meal. Thus St. Peter writes, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for
a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the
genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that
perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory
at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:6-7) God tests your faith so that He might prove Himself
and His Word to you yet again so that your God-given faith is strengthened,
confirmed, and established.
5) Consider Abraham. The author of Hebrews writes, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had
received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was
said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called," concluding that God was
able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received
him in a figurative sense.” (Hebrews
11:17-19) Like Philip’s testing in today’s Gospel lesson, Abraham’s
testing made no sense to human reason and understanding. God had promised that
Abraham would be a great nation and that this son Isaac was to be the first
step toward making that promise happen. But then Abraham, having believed and
rejoiced in the promised child, is commanded to sacrifice him. But Abraham does
not falter at the test, but rather He increases in endurance and perseverance
in the faith. What does He reason, according to Hebrews? “God has promised to
make me into a great nation through Isaac, not Ishmael. God wants me now to
kill the child of His promise? I will do so because I know that God who gave me
this child in my old age is able to raise this child from the dead. God is
faithful to His Word of promise and I believe this firmly and will not doubt.” So
Abraham shows us how we are to stand up under testing and trial. We are to look
to Jesus with confidence, trusting in the Words He has given us in the pages of
Holy Scripture and in the preached Word and Sacraments.
6) God works our faith through trials so that He may call it forth to deeper
trust and confidence in His Christ and His Word. Consider your own life. What
trials have you experienced in the past? What trials are you experiencing now?
These are not signs of divine disfavor. Nor are they signs that God has entered
into judgment with you for your sins. Consider what St. James and St. Peter
write. These trials are for the strengthening of your faith in Christ. These
trials are to exercise your faith so that in these trials you draw closer to Christ.
Are you assailed by doubt that God will provide for all your needs in this life?
Do not fear but consider the great promises Christ gives you in the Scripture
and consider the twelve leftover baskets of today’s miracle. Are you assailed
by unquenchable remorse over past sins? Do not let Satan terrorize your
conscience but cling all the more tightly to the Word of Forgiveness spoken by
God Himself to you through His called servant, for Christ has said of the
Office of the Ministry, “He who hears
you hears Me.” (Luke 10:16)
Are you ill and afflicted in body? Remember the prayer of faith from David in
Psalm 73, “My flesh and my heart
faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.”
For every affliction, for every trial, there is a divine promise which will not
fail, for the “Scriptures cannot be
broken.” (John 5:29) Are you suffering temptation from the Devil, the
world, or your own sinful nature? Of course you are. Do not despair that the
Devil and your flesh does not relent in tempting you, either. For as a brother
pastor recently reminded me, even these temptations are used by God for our
good and the building up of our faith.
7) As you suffer trials of
diverse kinds remember the words of Jesus to Philip. Christ tests His disciple
so that He may strengthen His trust in Christ and thereby learn to despise what
He sees with his eyes and experiences in his own heart. He wanted to teach
Philip not to look at the crowd and be assailed by the great number of mouths
to feed or to look to inadequacy of a boy’s small lunch of five loaves and two
small fish. Christ exercised Philip’s faith so that after this testing Philip
would say, “I am incapable of feeding all these people. But you, O Lord, are
able to do it abundantly with one word. So I will wait on you and trust your
mercy.” This is the intended outcome of every trial and testing the Lord allows
to come upon you as well, that you cling to Christ’s love, Christ’s work, and
Christ’s promises given to you more and more. Just as He provides bread in that
wilderness, He will provide faith for you in this wilderness and that faith
will overcome all trials and temptations, all sorrows and crosses, because the
faith He gives is faith in Jesus. Amen.