When Jesus crosses the sea, a great crowd follows Him, having seen many of His signs of healing. The people want more without understanding the purpose of the miracles or who Christ is. As Jesus says later in the same chapter of John’s gospel, “I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw [that is, believe] the signs but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” The crowd misconstrued the signs of Christ, that they would be freed from their work, as Jesus performed the miracles.
Yet, the sign of the Lord demonstrates that all we have comes from Him, our food, shelter, income, neighbors, friends, health, body, soul, and much more depends Christ. Jesus is not a prophet who gives us some when we cannot supply for ourselves; instead, He gives all things. Therefore, whatever we have from the Lord, we should not waste, and whatever we want, we should wait for the Lord.
It is a common misconception that we should depend on our Lord only when things are difficult. Only when we have tried all other solutions can we go to the Lord. It’s amazing how much we often put trust in ourselves. We think we somehow earned something on our own. That we have earned our job through our own training. That we have achieved wisdom and insight in our own profession, and that we secure our promotion. Or that there is no one else to thank, since it was all that I could do, but I achieved my goals. Yes, God was there to help us on the way, but it was primarily us doing all the work.
As the people came to Jesus to be fed, they believed they could feed themselves. They come only to Jesus because they do not want to feed themselves. In the end, this is as ridiculous as it sounds. Of course, the people cannot do anything apart from God’s grace. Certainly, those disciples could have spent those 200 denarii to feed as many people as they could, but to say that they somehow received that money without God’s provision is pure foolishness. For they did not earn that money in the money bag, as it came from the generosity of Jesus’ followers. And where did that generosity come from? For generosity is a product of faith that comes from God Himself. And if they did earn that money and bought that bread, the grain and flour did not come from man’s will or expectation. The grain must come from the ground, and who preserves the Earth and gives rain in the due season? Certainly not the farmer himself. That rain that produced the purchase bread would have come from God. Therefore, even if they went to buy the bread, that would have been a miracle also, as God provides through means. Without such means, both we and the disciples would have died if not for God’s grace.
The grace of the Father is exclusively made accessible to us by His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. By the Lord Jesus, all people, those who acknowledge His grace and those who do not, receive all good things. All things we have to support this body and life come from his grace, as Martin Luther explains in the Lord’s Prayer concerning “give us this day our daily bread” that “God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayer, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to recognize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” This is part of God’s universal grace that He extends even to those who will not recognize it.
Yet, for us, we do know God’s grace and mercy, for he has also extended to us faith by the Holy Spirit in His only Son, who has died and risen again for us. By His payment for sins upon the tree of the cross, the blessings of God the Father are made accessible not only for earthly blessings but also for eternal and heavenly ones. Without the Holy Spirit, we would be stuck in the same trap as the people who were fed by Christ. Depending on themselves for their own life. Even such a sentence is so absurd, “depending on ourselves for your life,” for how could you, you don’t even bring yourself into this world?
You are not like them; you acknowledge His grace and goodness. You acknowledge Him by prayer, giving things to Him for all of his benefits, by listening to His word, trusting his promises, and receiving all His gifts for the body and for the soul. Therefore, let us not waste what the Lord has provided. Let us treat our lives, our bodies, and our time with utmost respect. Let not squander anything our Lord has provided against His will and towards sin; not in the fear that He would remove His grace because of disobedience, but for the sake of His grace, appreciating what the Lord has supplied for us.
And so, what do we do when there is something we do not have on the Lord? This text also provides great comfort. When Saint John records that Christ asks Philip where they should buy enough bread to feed the people, Christ Jesus already knows what he is about to do. There is nothing that surprises the Lord. When we have a shortage or we feel the need for something from Him, He already knows. And the Lord also knows how He will fulfill our needs.
This means that we are left to wait for Him. Yet, this waiting on the Lord should not be compared to any other kind of waiting. For the Lord God does not leave us in uncertainty. Instead, our long-suffering Lord has given us the certainty of His promise to answer our prayers according to His good and gracious will. Although we may not see it as beneficial to us, waiting for the Lord is often contrary to our own will. Still, we must remember it is our will that is corrupted and must be changed towards God. As Isaiah says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
So in those circumstances, we ought to give thanks to God that He is the Lord of heaven and earth, and we are not. For what seems good for us in the moment may not be good in the end, for only God alone can see the whole picture and bring us to our final goal. That final goal is salvation in His son Jesus Christ, salvation that is not dependent on us but on Christ alone. So if you are waiting for health or better times, know that you have the Lord Jesus Christ, who is always with you as He waits with you and for you. Where He has suffered all things on the cross and continues to suffer with you. And as He was raised from the dead by the glory of God, the Father, that is what He waited for on the tree of the cross, and it is our final resurrection that Christ and we wait for now together.
Your Lord Jesus has never failed to provide, so why would He forget us now?
St. John's and Grace Evangelical Lutheran Parish 