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“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” (John 6:9). Andrew was at least willing to put forward the boy's offering. Yet he qualified his enthusiasm — “…as if it will do much good for all of these people.”
Some people today might express a similar sentiment in ways like these:
The Bible claims there is such a great benefit to eating that bread and wine, but I cannot get past that all I see is bread and wine. How can a little morsel of food and drink do me so much good?
You claim that the Bible teaches there is such a great benefit to pouring some water over that baby, but all I see is a person pouring water on a baby. How can a little water sprinkled on that baby do that baby any good?
The Bible tells us that faith comes by hearing the Words of Christ. But don't we have to be able to understand all the information imparted? Why should I bring my children to Divine Services? Becasue everything done is way over their heads intellectually, they probably aren't going to get anything out of it. How can mere Words being preached and sung do these children any good?
I know Jesus taught us to pray “Give us this day our daily bread.” But why is my daily bread today only enough to feed the family a can of tuna fish and macaroni and cheese? Or, why is my daily bread today this IV line and needle stuck in my arm? Why is my lot today pain and suffering? Where is Jesus and His promises today? How is His prayer — how is saying any prayer at all — doing me any good?
We are all tempted to think these things occasionally, probably too often. That is what they are: giving in to temptation. They are all out of Satan's same old playbook: “Did God really say…?” He wants you to use human reasoning, like Andrew and Phillip were expressing to Jesus. “Did God really say that His Holy Communion is His own crucified and resurrected body and blood given for the remission of sins?” “Did God really mean it when He said that He is present in the waters of Holy Baptism to save us eternally from sin and death?” “Did God really mean it that the mere proclamation of His Gospel message builds faith in even unborn children or the smallest of our little lambs?” “Did God really promise you daily bread? Your table looks empty, after all.” “Did God really send, O Andrew, His only begotten Son into the world in human flesh? Isn't this man standing there, asking about the bread and fish really, just another man like everyone else?”
It is a good thing for us that God did not say of us, “There is nothing here to work with.” It is a very good thing for us that God does not look upon us in our sinful, degenerate, mostly ungrateful state, and say, “There is nothing here to work with. They are not smart enough, not mature enough, not wise enough. What is my love and grace for so many lost, stubborn, people?”
Perhaps, in contemplating this miraculous feeding of the 5,000, we need to revisit what a miracle is. A miracle is that we even exist. If not for God creating something out of nothing by the almighty power of His Word, nothing would be that is. Another miracle is that this world continues to spin on its axis, and the sun continues to shine, and the rain continues to water the earth. Plants grow and animals are raised in abundance for our food. Except in grave circumstances, we take our heartbeat and breathing for granted. All of these things that appear to us to be “natural” or “normal” are actually great ongoing miracles. God makes it look so easy each and every day that we begin to take His power and His ongoing sustaining of His creation for granted. What really is something appears to be nothing. And as we know, Satan plays with this in our hearts and minds. He wants us to lose faith in God's Word that God continually does what He promises.
A miracle is that we have been made something in God's sight when we were nothing in our sins. A miracle is that we are given the gift of faith. If not for God creating some faith in us where before there was none, we would have no hope. We would be utterly lost. We would remain simply a non–entity, destined for the nothingness of an eternity without God. Nothing cannot make itself into something, no matter how hard our reasoning, our intellectual capacity, our emotions are marshaled into the best of our human effort. It is all futile without the creative, life giving, living voice of Christ that creates something out of nothing.
There was a little boy there in that crowd who had five loaves of barley bread and two fish. Out of the mouths of babes comes faith in its purest form. He offered them to Andrew not in an attempt to make Andrew or Jesus or anyone feel better. He wasn't offering them as a token that says, “It will be better tomorrow, when we can all go buy bread, but here is something to start out with. Hope you find some more to go with it.” No, the boy gave the gift entirely out of faith. He trusted that his small loaves and fish would be used by God to relieve the hunger of that huge crowd. He did not bother to ask “How?” like Andrew and Phillip. Instead, he simply handed it over. He believed that God could make something out of nothing — or next to nothing.
“Truly, I say to you,” Jesus says, “unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3–4)
We have been blessed with a great family doctor here for our children. We also were blessed similarly during my vicarage year in Terre Haute. One of the members there was a family doctor, and he made it his intention every year to take care of the vicar and his family. He, himself, has a great family; and they all attended Divine Service together each week. The doctor had recently become a proud new grandpa, and at that time Doc carried this growing infant up to the communion rail each week. And each week, the pastor with the hosts and the vicar with the common chalice had to be careful around Doc's grandson. That baby was good at getting loose from Grandpa's grasp and trying to grab what was being offered to Grandpa. Each week, you could see Grandpa trying to prevent the baby from reaching, but it was inevitable when he would be communed, there was the boy's chance. A few times, the little fellow got a good hold on a host or on the bottom of the chalice if we weren't alert.
Each week, after Divine Service, Doc and his family would apologize profusely. And we'd all laugh. But I always said this: “At least he is reaching for the things of God, for the right things! There are worse things a baby could do.” Likewise, when our little Noah was about nine or ten months old, at an Easter Vigil service in Fort Wayne, he got out of my grasp at the Communion rail, and grabbed a hold of the chalice, much to the horror of one of my classmates who was serving the chalice that night. Noah was “communed” that evening quite thoroughly with the blood of our Lord up and down his little left arm.
Did these infants know what they were doing? Could they articulate that in, with, and under the bread and wine is our Lord's true body and blood given for the forgiveness of sins? No, they could not articulate the catechism — but they had faith, a gift from the Holy Spirit. Sure, there was certainly a healthy dose of infant curiosity and a desire to reach for what looks interesting, shiny, or seems to be important. But children can see and hear that something important is happening, and if it is so good for all of these other people, it must be good for us, too. That is faith. I do not know how it works, but I know God is there doing something good. Did the little boy out in the desert lands know that his five loaves were not enough for five thousand or more people? Maybe. Could he articulate that Jesus was true God and true Man, born of the Virgin Mary, the eternally begotten Son of the eternal Father in heaven? Probably not. But, did He have faith that God was there to do something great for His people out of nothing? Yes!
Faith is not “have faith” as in “have courage, things are bound to get better.” Jesus did not answer Andrew as he took up the boy's offering into His holy hands with some emotional pick–me–up. He did not tell Andrew to try harder, and believe a little harder, and go drum up a bit more bread. Rather, Jesus said simply, “Have the people sit down.” Watch this. Jesus has perfect faith in His Father and in His own creative Word. When we could not humble ourselves to believe like the children, He did. He took the bread, gave thanks, broke it…and broke it…and broke it until everyone was totally filled. Later, He believed perfectly that His Father's will and Word was best, even to the point of death on a cross.
Faith — the faith of the little child, and the faith of the Beth [House] -lehem [of bread] Christ–child, is a total reliance upon God for everything, in this life, and in the life to come. Faith means that we humble ourselves and count ourselves as nothing, and that we regard what God has done in His Son Jesus Christ as everything. Faith does not look to itself, but it looks at Christ and says: “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” This is essentially what the little boy was saying: “I can go hungry now, because I believe that one way or another Jesus will feed me what I need and sustain me now and forever.” Faith is not really a thing, a substance that has a quantity that can be measured. Faith is not my personal decision to accept Christ. Faith is God filling my nothingness with Christ in His fullness. God acts to create and give and sustain faith in us and in our children well before we could ever attempt to lay hold of and attain to God on our own.
Faith is valued not by what it is, but by what it believes, and it believes in Christ. Faith believes Christ will feed 5,000 men (and at least double that many women and children) out of five barley loaves and two fish. Faith believes that Christ washes us in His own blood in the baptismal waters to bring us into His body and forgive us for all eternity. Faith believes that Christ speaks His living Word of mercy and forgiveness through the mouths of humble pastors when they preach His Holy Gospel and proclaim His absolution upon you. Faith believes that Christ creates faith by His Word and the power of His Holy Spirit as it is proclaimed in the ears of all sinners, even in the tiniest of our unborn children and the smallest of His little lambs. Faith believes that all God does, normal or extraordinary, is a great miracle that deserves our humble thanksgiving and adoration. Faith believes that the greatest of miracles — God sending His Son to us in the flesh so that He might humble Himself into the nothingness of death on a cross and a cold tomb — was done purely out of God's Fatherly, divine goodness and mercy and love for us, so that we who are nothing would be everything in God's sight and have everything that God can possibly give us.
May our Heavenly Father be praised for His daily miracle of creating something out of nothing, in this world and in each of us. For gathering us in onto the desert hillside of this corrupted world, forgiving us for our lack of faith in His Words and Promises, for creating and building our faith by His Word of life in our ear, and for sustaining us with His bread of life which makes us one in His Son, may we all humbly give thanks, now and eternally.
Feed Thy Children, God most holy; comfort sinners poor and lowly.
O Thou Bread of Life from heaven, bless the food Thou here hast given!
As these gifts the body nourish, may our souls in graces flourish,
Till with saints in heavenly splendor, at Thy feast due thanks we render.(Lutheran Service Book #774)
Amen.
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