Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

For three weeks we have seen Jesus have victory over Satan and His demons. On the first Sunday of Lent we heard how Jesus withstood all of the temptations that Satan threw at Him directly (Matthew 4:1-11), temptations of hunger for bread, the glory of a miraculous sign of God’s approval, and the power of ruling over all kingdoms of the earth. For the next two Sundays, we heard of Jesus rescuing others from the oppression of the devil, including the Canaanite woman’s plea for her daughter (Matthew 15:21-28) and the mute man rescued from the strong Satan by the stronger man, Jesus (Luke 11:14-28). In today’s Gospel reading we see Jesus begin to do the very things He resisted doing when tempted after forty days in the wilderness.

 

Again, Jesus is in a desolate place, far from any source of food. Instead of declining to use His divine power to bring forth bread from stones, Jesus multiplies five barley loaves into enough bread to more than fill a crowd with five thousand men. And instead of declining the opportunity to display a sign from heaven such as the angels bearing Him up as He leaps off of the pinnacle of the temple, Jesus giving bread to the multitude is an obvious sign from heaven, mirroring the manna given to the children of Israel after the exodus from Egypt (Exodus 16), and verifying Jesus as God’s chosen mediator between Himself and His people.

 

Yes, the very things that Jesus resisted doing under the temptation of the devil in the wilderness, we find Him doing in today’s Gospel reading. Has He given up the resistance? Has He found Himself as we often do, able to stand up under direct and obvious temptation, but giving in when the devil does not make his attack so obvious; when it is not a face to face, one on one battle, but when Satan hides himself in the midst of a crowd of people and we have entirely forgotten that the devil is still there and active?

 

When we are down in the dumps alone, it is often easy to recognize the attacks of the Satan. They are obvious then, and resisted by the Word of God and prayer. But when we are caught up in the hype of a great moment we don’t always see his machinations:

Someone might make an announcement of the great glad news of a baby on the way, and we immediately join the happy crowd in celebration before we remember that the couple is not yet married and they shouldn’t have been sleeping with their partner in the first place.

Or we get excited about an upcoming marriage. We are so happy for the one who has been on their own for so long, that we don’t give a thought to the fact that they had previously promised their divorced spouse that they would forsake all others until death do them part.

We can also get excited about a new family who wishes to join our church and be so taken with the prospect that we neglect their denial of God’s regenerating work in Baptism and the bodily presence of Christ in His Supper.

We are tempted to overlook the Word of God in His commandments in order to rejoice in the glory of the moment and join the crowd in rapturous celebration.

 

Is this the kind of thing that happened to Jesus as He eagerly multiplied the five barley loaves for five thousand people, in contrast to when He declined to turn stones into bread for Himself; when He gladly called forth this obvious sign from heaven, in contrast to not wanting to put God to the test?

 

Whereas our sinful nature easily embraces the joyous celebration while overlooking the sinful temptation, that is not the way that it is with the sinless and holy Son of God. He did not give into a devilish temptation to multiply the loaves of bread for any self-serving purpose, to alleviate His own hunger and the suffering into which the Holy Spirit had thrust Him. Rather, He gave into a divine compassion for a crowd who had come to Him and whose members did not have any means of feeding themselves.

 

Before they could even complain of hunger or grumble for food, Jesus went into action in order to feed them. And to show that their only hope was to rely on the grace of God, Philip was asked if there was any place nearby that could have supplied food for such a multitude. When it was clear that no other option was available, even after investigating what resources were available among the people themselves, then Jesus compassionately filled the need with His divine power.

 

As God out of grace and mercy fed the grumbling children of Israel who had come out of Egypt, giving them manna from heaven, so Jesus purely out of divine grace and mercy fed the crowd who had followed Him to this desolate place. As the children of Israel had nothing to offer to God in exchange for His gracious visitation, so Jesus was not looking for anything for Himself when He fed them to the full. He was merely being compassionate as the heavenly Father is compassionate.

 

Jesus did not bring forth the bread in order to fill His own hunger, as the devil had tempted Him to do in the wilderness. He did not exercise His divine power for His own benefit. He did it all for the sake of those who had followed Him, so that they might live not only by the Word of God, but also by the bread that He supplies.

 

Even though the crowd had gathered and followed because they had seen Jesus perform miraculous and divine signs, that was not the purpose of Jesus’ miracle in feeding them. He did not call upon the heavenly Father to send angels carrying baskets of bread, as if He would have jumped off of a cliff to have the angels carry Him and gently set Him upon the ground. That was the devil’s second temptation in the wilderness.

 

Rather, the miracle with the loaves is rather plainly stated, seemingly without much fanfare or drawing of attention. Jesus simply gave thanks and distributed the bread. The same things that we do at every meal. The whole episode would have appeared unremarkable until word had spread about how meagre were the supplies upon which God’s wonders were performed. It was not until after the institution of the Lord’s Supper that the action of taking bread, giving thanks, breaking it and giving it to the disciples, became the sacred words of His most holy meal.

 

So, it was not for glory that Jesus multiplied the loaves. Rather, He humbly gave thanks to God before distributing them to the people. It was not primarily for a sign or a proof that God had sent Him, although it is most certainly that, too. He did not require it for His legitimacy. Rather, we find that the crowd soon after asks for another sign from heaven (John 6:30). Feeding to the full on the loaves and fishes did not satisfy their skepticism of Jesus’ identity, but it did fulfill His heart of compassion.

 

Most of all we know that this was not a slipping into temptation of Jesus to those trials thrown at Him alone in the wilderness, because of the third temptation. The devil had taken Him up on a high mountain and shown Him all the kingdoms of the world, saying that they would all belong to Jesus if He would fall down and worship Satan. Of course, Jesus resisted that, but He quite blatantly resists it here in today’s Gospel as well.

 

After the crowd had eaten their full on this mountain, they wanted to make a king of Him, but knowing this, He withdrew by Himself alone. He would not let the devil be the source of His kingship, and neither would He let the crowd be the source of His sovereignty.

 

Well, guess what. He will not allow you to be the one who bestows the crown upon Him either. You cannot have Jesus as your King according to your desires. He will not be your King in order to get anything out of it for Himself. He will not be your King in order to prove anything to you. He will not be your King in order to do whatever it is you think you need Him to do for you.

 

He will only be your King out of the great mercy and compassion of His holy and divine heart. So Jesus did not accept the coronation from the crowd whom He had fed with five loaves and two fish. For He had twelve baskets of fragments still to distribute. Those twelve baskets signify that He will only be a King for all nations, not for any one particular people and certainly not for one particular person, namely you.

 

Twelve baskets of fragments signify that there is a new Israel to be fed. The twelve tribes that ate the manna as they were delivered from Egypt have given way to a people receiving the teaching of the twelve apostles whom Jesus sent out to distribute, not bread alone but every Word that proceeds from the mouth of Jesus. Jesus is King of the Church comprised of people from every language, nation and people.

 

His coronation was not when He satisfied the crowd of five thousand men with five loaves and two fish. It was when He satisfied the LORD’s justice in paying the redemption price for the sins of the world. He only accept the acclamation when He rode into Jerusalem the Sunday before His crucifixion and they were crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” (John 12:13). The King of the new Israel.

 

When the Roman Governor questioned Him that Friday morning he asked, “Are You the King of the Jews?” (John 18:33). Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world... For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world” (18:36, 37). And it was as that King for all that out of His mercy and compassion Jesus received the taunts of the soldiers, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” (19:3). Yet when Pilate presented Him to the Jews saying, “Behold, your King!”, they replied, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!” (19:14, 15). And so Jesus was lifted up upon the cross wearing a crown of thorns, with the inscription over His head, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (19:19).

 

He gave His body into death in order to be the King of Jews, the King of all nations, your King. He is the King whose body became the living bread from heaven sent to give life to the world. Through the sacrifice of His Person in His body on the cross, we have forgiveness for falling for the temptations that He so steadfastly resisted. He makes us His holy subjects, redeemed and delivered from the slavery of Satan to be led through to our promised land of paradise.

 

As the King who conquers all of our enemies, He triumphed over death and emerged from the tomb, showing Himself alive to many, including seven of the disciples who had decided to go fishing one day. He appeared to them on the shore of the same Sea of Tiberius and fed them again with bread and fish, not because He was hungry and not in any show of power, but to satisfy their hunger to see Him and to receive His forgiveness for each of their sins against Him and His subjects (John 21). It is a good thing that Jesus had leftover fragments.

 

I am not saying that the bread and fish He fed the disciples that day were left over from the feeding of the five thousand, but the leftovers from the five thousands showed that this King would always have an abundant supply for all of those in His kingdom.

 

We eat of those fragments too. Jesus continues to give to us the living bread of heaven, His own body given into death, raised from the tomb, and ascended to His throne in heaven. As He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, so He does for all who are in His kingdom saying, “This is My body, given for you for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26). The King still feeds us all that we need, not bread alone, but the bread that is the Word of God in the flesh. It satisfies our every need and prepares us to live in paradise, preserving us in body and soul to life everlasting.