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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Sunday Next before Advent |
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November 25, 2007 John 6:5-14 God, and Bread of Life It is a scene we have all imagined many times. A large crowd has followed Jesus to the shores of the Sea of Galilee. It is said there were 5,00 men, and Matthew 14:21 tells us there were women and children too, so this was a sizable crowd of people. And the reason they followed Him is significant. John 6:2 tells us they followed Him because of His miracles. There were at least three kinds of people in this crowd. First there were the thrill seekers. These people didn’t care much about Jesus, but they did enjoy the show. There wasn’t much entertainment available to poor people in those days, and they took their fun where they could find it. There was a time in our own country when the tent revival or traveling salvation show could draw great crowds, because it was the only show in town, and some people went just for the show, just for the entertainment, if for nothing else. That kind of people followed Jesus too. Second there were the needy people, These were the sick, the lame, the suffering and dying. They knew Jesus was a healer and they were there to “receive their miracle.” They wanted healing. Now, a major point of this passage is that we are all needy people before God. Our bodies may not be in particularly ill health at the moment, but our souls are always needy before God. I hope there were some in that crowd who realized that and followed Jesus because they hungered after God in their souls. Third were the zealots, who had come to believe Jesus was the long awaited Messiah, but whose understanding of the Messiah was that of a warrior king come to deliver Israel from the Roman oppressors and make the Jews into an independent people who could take the world in military conquest and establish themselves in peace and prosperity on earth. They followed Him, waiting to hear Him call them to arms. They were like the disciples, who, even on the day of His ascension, wanted Jesus to “restore the kingdom to Israel” (Acts 1:6). There may have been other kinds of people there. I hope there were, but these were there, we know that. As the day wore on, the people became hungry. But the only food available was the fish and bread of a small boy’s lunch. Hardly enough to feed him, let alone so vast a multitude. But it did. The details are not recorded, so we don’t know how the event unfolded. We don’t know whether Christ Himself broke the bread and fish, multiplying it as He gave it to the disciples to give to the people, or if He gave pieces to the disciples, where it multiplied as they gave them to the people. All we know is that He blessed the food, and somehow, apparently in the sight of the people, for they knew what had happened, a small boy’s lunch miraculously fed thousands of people. There are many lessons we can draw from this passage. There is the lesson of the compassion of Christ who heals the sick and feeds the hungry. There is the lesson of the power of Christ, who multiplies resources and turns scarcity into abundance. There is the lesson of the sufficiency of the Gospel, which, though seemingly small and foolish in the eyes of the world, is actually the power of God unto salvation to those who believe. There is the lesson of the apparent smallness of Christ, born in a barn, executed on a cross, and buried in a borrowed grave, yet who is nothing less than the God of all creation paying the debt of sin we owe. We could dwell on this passage for several weeks looking at these and other lessons. But today we will look at just two of them, perhaps the most important ones. First, let us call it, “Behold your God.” The second we will call, “The Bread of Life Eternal.” Behold your God. The main point of this passage, to the Apostle John who wrote it, was, behold your God. All through his Gospel, John presents the words and actions of Christ as evidence for the conclusion of his book. That conclusion is expressed well in the words of Thomas; Thomas, the disciple, doubting Thomas, Apostle Thomas, who, upon seeing the resurrected Lord, fell to his knees and cried out, “My Lord, and my God.” That is what John wants us to see in his Gospel, and in the Feeding of the Five Thousand. Who has power to multiply resources in this way? God alone. Who can heal the sick and raise the dead? God alone. Who has power on earth to forgive our sins against God? God alone. The people who saw this miracle said among themselves that this Miracle Worker must indeed be “that prophet that should come into the world.” (Jn. 5:14). “That prophet” is the prophet foretold by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15; “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet
from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me,” That prophet is the Messiah. That prophet is Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is not just a prophet, He is THAT PROPHET, or, THE PROPHET. A prophet is a human being. A prophet is finite, and limited, even a sinner like the rest of us. A prophet spoke to the people of God as one of them, looking forward to the arrival of The Prophet. Jesus is The Prophet. He is that One who is the fulfillment of all prophecy. He is that One who is the summation and perfection of the entire office of the prophet. When Christ asked the disciples who people said He was, they replied, John the Baptist, or Elijah, or a prophet. But Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” He is indeed God in flesh. That is the main point of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. All other “Lessons” drawn from this passage are dependent upon this first Lesson, Christ is God. He is the bread of life. The food He gave to these hungry Galileans was but a symbol of Himself. He came not to feed our bodies, but to feed our souls. The Jews ate manna in the wilderness and died, He said. But He is the bread of eternal life. The Jews ate manna in the wilderness and were hungry again the next day. But those who eat Christ, the Bread of Life will never hunger again, for He is the Bread that satisfies the soul. This is a point that is made over and over in the Bible. “Man does not live by bread alone.” Why? Because man is a soul, and our souls need to be nourished and cared for as much as our bodies. And, just as our bodies hunger for nourishment, so do our souls. Do you know people will do the most ridiculous things to satisfy that hunger? Cults, meditation, drugs. We won’t ask how many of us sat in circles, crossed our legs, and went “ooomm” in days gone past. For some people that was more of a social statement than a spiritual search. It was a way of rejecting tradition, especially Christianity. It was a way of saying, “I’m cool. I’m in the ‘in crowd.’” But for others, thinking the traditions of Western culture, based upon Christianity, had crumbled because Christianity was a myth and God is dead, it was an attempt to feed their hungry and empty souls. But it didn’t work. There is a story about a certain plant that, eaten in large quantities will make a person grow fat. In certain cultures, fat is considered a sign of wealth and authority, and people have made this plant the staple of their diet. But the plant lacks the real nourishment the body needs, and while getting fat on it, these people were actually starving inside. The story says people have died of hunger while getting fat on this plant. I don’t know if that’s true or not. It’s just a story I’ve heard. But I know this, it is true in spiritual things. People are stuffing themselves on the world and the cults and the emotionalism and cultural/religious relativism that is so prevalent in the world and the church today, and some think they appear, outwardly, to grow fat and to prosper. But inwardly they are starving to death. Their souls are dying within them, because their “diet” lacks the basic nutrition their souls need. It lacks Jesus Christ. There is only one Bread of Life. There is only one Son of God. There is only one food that can satisfy the great hunger in our souls. That food is Jesus Christ. God help us to feed on Him in our hearts by faith. Amen. The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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