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Cast every idol from its throne,
For God is God, and He alone…(Lutheran Service Book #819, stanza 5)
What is more important to you: your own felt needs and wants or that which God ordains for you to be for your good? “Put away from us all hurtful things and…give [to] us those things that are profitable for us…” is what you just prayed by adding your sung “Amen” to the Collect. Do you agree with your “Amen” or not?
All sin and fall short. All go searching for the things of this world that catch the lustful eye and idolatrous heart at the expense of the things that are truly profitable for us, those things that God ordains for our good.
But note that the crowd gathered with Jesus had lost track of time and had ignored their basic necessities for three days. No worldly consideration, not even the most basic one of hunger, was going to get in the way of sitting at Jesus' feet and listening to His saving and life–giving Word.
The feeding of the 4,000 is not the Holy Communion. But it points towards all the saving, eternal gifts that Christ gives. Jesus shows in this meal that He is God on earth, in human flesh, to provide “all things that are profitable for us.” It was a three–day long Divine Service of the preaching of Jesus, with a miracle meal at the end. The pattern looks strangely familiar. Jesus gathers the people to Himself, comes, preaches, blesses, gives the gift, forgives, and sends the people home.
But today, oh for that faith that would not shrink though pressed by many a foe. People today skip Divine Service here and at other congregations — which is to not sit at Jesus' feet and hear His preaching or receive His bread of life — for any number of reasons. Here are some excuses that may hit too close to home, but such is the preaching of the Law:
For baseball and soccer and sporting events the kids are in.
For playing a round of golf with friends.
For taking that family trip to the amusement park or to Grandma's house, that wasn't done on Saturday because of yet other priorities that took that day up too.
Because we got in so late last night from our trip to see Grandma and Grandpa on Saturday.
For the sake of staying up late on Saturday because we hosted this bang–up party the night before, or attended one somewhere else.
For the sake of taking the higher paying, more lucrative shift at work and never, ever coming to the pastor to receive privately what was not received publicly at the Divine Service.
For the sake of not making my teenager mad at me for waking them up on Sunday, and so I'll just stay in bed too, even though the child lives under my roof and I am their God-given parent and authority.
For the sake of attending another church where the Gospel is not rightly preached and the Sacraments are not distributed according to Christ's institution and purpose — which is the exact same as skipping Divine Service altogether — so that my felt needs for those TV preacher styled fast–food/junk–food sermons on the four things I need to do to improve my family, marriage, job, or other worldly need; or I'll attend such a church because I or someone in my family does not get along with some other Christian, and instead of seeking to practice Christian reconciliation and forgiveness, which is hard to do, it is easier just to run away and do the easy thing, and seek after the junk food instead.
Again, I ask: What is more important to you, your own felt needs and wants or that which God ordains for you to be for your good? Do you want the things truly profitable to you or would you rather indulge in the hurtful things? Is the right preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that calls and comforts and gives to you faith in Christ, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, what is best for you, or is it not? Is the right reception each week of the Blessed Sacrament, the Body and Blood of Christ given for your forgiveness, what is best for you, or is it not?
The Word of God clearly says what is best and what is harmful: “Set your minds on things above, and not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2). The end of those things of this world “is death” (Romans 6:21). The wages of sin is death. Continuing to eat of the deadly, sin–filled fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will cause you to die, eternally.
Repent, and sit at the feet of Jesus patiently, and be fed with the things that are truly profitable to you. He who believes and is baptized into Jesus Christ shall be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. The fruit of faith in Christ leads to holiness, and to its end, eternal life, a free gift from God, only to be received with thanksgiving.
Jesus has compassion on the crowd — all the faithful, saints in His sight, but nonetheless sinners at the same time, sheep who go easily astray, and would go astray again in the future. They had done nothing, could do nothing, to earn the gift of Jesus' teaching that leads to eternal life, or the great gift of His compassion for them, or for the gift of bread and fish that He provided for them, or later, the gift that He ultimately would give, His own Body and Blood broken and shed for the life of the world.
Jesus has compassion on you — even when you have made poor decisions, gone astray, set off after the things of this world to the exclusion of the heavenly, eternal things of God. Jesus' priorities are always right. Jesus always seeks the best and most eternally profitable things for you. He lived a perfect life for you. He overcame the temptations of the devil, the world, and our flesh when you could not. He died on the cross and bore the wages of your sin for you. He did that, because He has compassion and love for you.
Now, that compassion comes to you by His Holy Spirit working in the Means of Grace. His Spirit works through the faith in Christ that has been given you in your baptism to keep you at home in the eternal things of Jesus, the “higher things”, the very fruits of His life, death and resurrection for you.
Let's think about the higher, eternal things of Jesus. Did you ever notice that your earthly needs, your daily bread, is the fourth thing that Jesus has you pray for in the prayer He taught and gave to you, the Our Father? It's a surefire, lock tight promise. That's why He has you pray for it, the daily bread. It will be given you as you need it. But it's fourth on the list.
First is that God's Name be hallowed. That His Word be taught in its truth and purity to us, and that we as His children lead holy lives according to it. We pray that God enable us to follow the first, second, and third commandments to have no other gods, to not take His Name in vain, to remember and keep the Sabbath Day by not despising the preaching of God's Word in the Divine Service.
Second is that God's Kingdom comes, which is to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit through the Means of Grace in Gospel preached and Sacraments given. We pray for His Kingdom to come to us so that we believe God's Word by the power of the Spirit, that we believe in Christ, and are led to lead Godly lives now and forever.
Third is that God's will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. That God hinder every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature. That God strengthen and keep us firm in His Word and faith in Christ until we die.
The Our Father is not some sort of wish list, haphazardly put together. God's eternal things — the things of Christ — they are most important. That's why God lists them first. The receiving of God's Name in Holy Baptism, to live as one who is God's child, the coming of His Kingdom in Gospel and Sacraments, the will of God being done so that our enemies are defeated and we live forever in Christ, these are God's priorities for us.
These prayers are answered right here, in the Divine Service, week in and week out. Here is where the true and living bread from heaven is located. Here is the every Word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord, by which we truly live, eternally. Here is the living expression of His never–ending love and compassion for you.
Notice that the crowd that received the miraculous feeding of bread and fish had, indeed, already been receiving these great gifts, these higher things of Christ, before Christ ever fed them the meal. They had listened to Him for three days, and so God's Name had been hallowed among them, God's Kingdom had been proclaimed to them, God's Will had been done to keep them with and in Jesus.
On the third day, they received the great sign that would point to another third–day gift. The miracle of plenteous food in the desert is a sign of the restoration of creation. The ultimate restoration of creation would be the third day Resurrection of our Lord where life sprang forth where before there had only been death.
Now, today, you continue to receive the gift of the new creation in Christ, the preaching of the Resurrection and the Resurrection meal. Here in the desert wilderness of Plano, Texas. Today, Jesus comes among you and forgives your sins and feeds you His own Body and Blood. Here, today, Jesus showers you with His eternal love and compassion, the forgiveness He has earned for you.
“And there were about four thousand people. And He sent them away.” He released them. He freed them to go. The same word is also used in Luke 6:37: “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Jesus fed them a miracle meal, a sign of His forgiveness, His release of us from sin and Satan, and sent them home to live as His children.
Jesus brings you to His Divine Service to show His compassion and love to you — even when and despite the fact that you do not deserve it — to receive the blessings of His cross and resurrection, to forgive you, to send you away back to your homes and daily vocations not forsaken and not alone and not spiritually hungry, but forgiven, restored, fed, comforted, ready to face the world and its temptations in Him, one in His Body, confident of your eternal home that He is most certainly bringing your way at any time, the ultimate and eternal deliverance from evil.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For in Jesus Christ is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
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