Trinity 7 The Sunday of the Feeding of the 4,000 July 15, 2018
Trinity 7 The Sunday of the Feeding of the 4,000
Mark 8:1-9
July 15, 2018
“Food for Your Body—Food for Your Soul”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I highly doubt that any of you will be skipping lunch today. Or skipping dinner. You’ve gotta eat, right? Of course. We’ve all gotta eat. But today’s message is simple. Not only does your body need food. But your soul does as well. God gives the food for both of them. He gives food for your body. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And every snack in between. And He gives food for your soul—His Word. Your soul needs it. You absolutely need it.
Food, if you give it more than a passing thought, is really mysterious. What a mystery that the things you and I put into our mouths somehow gets broken down into things our bodies can actually use. Just think of it. Maybe you eat a donut for breakfast today. A cheeseburger and fries for lunch. And some pizza for supper. Yikes. Somehow your body breaks all that stuff down into something usable for good? Of course, you might eat healthier than that. But still how does your body take an apple or a banana or a salad and turn that into energy? This is some really impressive factory we’ve got down here inside our bodies. It’s all God’s design. We eat food and our bodies are energized.
Just take bread in particular. Jesus uses bread to feed thousands of people in the Gospel reading today. God gives a little seed of wheat. And He takes that little seed of wheat and uses it to eventually give bread that you eat in your mouth and receive carbohydrates. What a mystery. That one little seed that God gives is planted in the ground, grows, and produces more seeds. Those seeds are ground into flour. Flour is mixed with yeast and water and baked into bread. And you eat it and your body is given energy. It’s in your donut, your cheeseburger bun, and in your pizza crust. What a mystery.
And your body absolutely needs food. That’s God’s design. If your body doesn’t get the food it needs, what happens? Evil things happen. For one, of course, if we don’t get food for long enough we will die. But other evil things happen before that. You ever seen hungry people? What are they like? They become evil. We get impatient, angry, rude, unreasonable.
I was doing some thinking with Valerie the other day and it seems to me that there are definitely two indisputable times in life that bring out the worst in us—when we’re hungry and when we’re tired. That’s when you’ll see some really mean and grouchy people. Just watch how people are when they’re waiting in line somewhere for food—hungry and tired. Our bodies need food. Else evil things start to happen.
Well, as I said, the message today is simple. But important. The same God who, on the one hand, gives this mysterious food for our bodies that feeds us and makes us healthy and happy also gives us equally mysterious food for our soul. He gives us His Word. Just like the food we put into our mouths is mysterious as it’s broken down into all kinds of things inside our body—so also the Word of God works in our souls in a mysterious way. It enters into our hearts and gives us “energy”, so to speak. Spiritual energy. It gives us faith in Jesus Christ.
And just like food for our bodies, if we don’t have the Word of God feedings our souls, what things happen in us? Evil things. When we don’t get our donut and cheeseburger and pizza, we get impatient and angry and unreasonable. When we don’t have the Word of God feeding our souls, then we become prideful, arrogant, selfish, immoral, hateful, and a thousand other evils.
You and I know well enough that we need to eat food. But where we time and time again fail to understand is that we need to be digesting God’s Word every single day. Sunday morning is not enough. It’s a fine start and it breaks my heart as a pastor to see anyone skipping even that one day a week. Sunday morning is a must. But eating only one day a week isn’t going to cut it. Can we go six days without food? Spiritual food? Six days without God’s Word? Not without harm to our soul. One day a week isn’t a good diet for God’s Word.
Here we have then these two foods—food for our bodies (donuts, cheeseburgers, and pizza) and food for our souls (the Word of God). Which is more important? Which is more important? Judging by our intake, the fact that we eat food every single day and usually three times a day and the fact that we often go many, many days without taking in any of God’s Word, I’d say the bodily food looks much more important to us. And you might say, “Well, if we don’t eat food we’ll die.”
But take in mind now two different accounts with Jesus where bodily food and spiritual food were both involved. When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, he had fasted for forty days. He was hungry. He needed bodily food. No doubt His body was very weak. Now Satan comes and says, “If you’re the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.” Here’s Jesus’ chance. Perfect. He can prove He’s the Son of God and, at the same time, get something to eat. But what does He give up? He gives up the spiritual food—the Word of God. He would have to exchange it for the devil’s lie. So here is, very directly and very pointedly, a case where Jesus has to choose between which food is more important—bodily food or spiritual food (the Word of God). And which does He choose? Jesus says, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Which is more important? Bread or Word of God? Word of God.
Another case. Our Gospel reading today. Jesus feeds thousands of people with bread and fish. And that’s where all our attention goes. To the bodily food. The bread. Because that’s the most important, right? But what had Jesus been doing for them for three whole days before this? Did you catch that in the reading? Three whole days Jesus had been already feeding them. Feeding them with what? Feeding them with the Word of God. Spiritual food. So while the fish and chips may get all the attention, the much more important food was the Word of God that He taught them for three days before.
Yes, it’s a mystery how Jesus fed four thousand people with only seven loaves and a few fish. But His Word is an even greater mystery. It enters into our ears and works the mystery of faith in Jesus Christ. I’ve been finally reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. I’ve wanted to read it for some time but just now getting to it. I’ve really enjoyed it and one thing I love in the book is the magical food. For instance, the elves have a mysterious bread they call lembas. Just a bit of it magically fills you up and invigorates you like no other food. The Ents also have a drink called Ent-draught that has similar properties. After drinking some of it, you’re magically filled with new life and vigor. You feel it all through your bones and joints and you even grow taller.
It’s fun to think of that. But, of course, Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic and admitted in a letter that lembas had religious significance. Because we Christians, of course, have another mysterious bread that gives us new life. We have the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ, and the bread that He gives us in the Sacrament.
And it truly is miraculous the way in which the Word of God works in our hearts and souls to give new life through faith in Jesus Christ. When we are hearing the Word of God here in Church and Bible Study, when we are singing the Word of God in our hymns, when we are reading the Word of God at home in our devotions, when we are using God’s Word in prayer—it works. It works humility in our hearts, it works repentance, it works patience, it works forgiveness, it works kindness and compassion. When we’re receiving the Word of God in the Lord’s Supper every week, that spiritual food works. Just like eating three good, healthy meals a day make a big difference for your body—eating plenty of God’s Word makes a big difference in your soul.
Now, on the other hand, if you’re eating all junk food all the time—ice cream, candy, pop, fried food—then your body will feel it. In the same way, if you’re filling up your soul with junk, as Paul says in the Epistle today from Romans 6, then the fruit of those things is death. What fruit do you really get from those things that you’re ashamed of? What fruit truly comes from filling up on gossip, binging on social media, filling up with politics, with celebrity culture, with evils like gambling, pornography, and crude joking? They lead to a miserable and evil life.
You’ve gotta eat, friends, and your soul needs the pure and healthy food of God’s Word. I’ve been thinking a little more lately about how our congregation can be of better service in this area. I’ve got a few ideas but I need to work them out a little more. But the ideal for every member of our congregation—what I want and what we should all want for each other—the ideal is that we would all have a habit in place where we hear God’s Word and pray every day. That might be using Portals of Prayer every day. That might be using a Bible reading app on your phone. That might be doing one Bible Story a day with your children from a Bible Story book. That might be more Bible Study here at Church.
Whatever the case, we all need more than just donuts and pizza. We need the Word of God. The precious food of our souls. And Jesus gives it. He gives it to you here in the Word and sermon. In the Lord’s Supper. And anywhere else that you receive God’s Word. Don’t miss out on it. In Jesus’ name. Amen.