WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 So, whenever our kids have a birthday, we sort of have a tradition where one of the things 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:14.000 ! I'll ask them, whatever you want for dinner that night, within reason, if it's possible, I'll make 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:19.000 it for you. Right? So I sort of throw the door open, which is a risky proposition, right? Kids our age, highly 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:28.000 creative thinkers. On Friday, our daughter turned nine, and so I said, anything you want me to make? 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:36.820 And do you know what she said? Baby back ribs and mac and cheese. And if you know anything about me, 00:00:36.899 --> 00:00:42.240 you know that that filled my heart almost to the point of tears with joy. And I thought, we've raised 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:48.200 her right. You know, our job as parents is pretty much done, and I know what I need to know about 00:00:48.200 --> 00:00:55.760 the heart of this girl. And so, we feasted on ribs and mac, and it was awesome. And, you know, but I 00:00:55.759 --> 00:01:01.079 love, and some of you are like this, we've talked about it, I love cooking for people because it's 00:01:01.079 --> 00:01:05.400 a way, I feel like when you cook for somebody, it's a way of showing them that you love them. 00:01:05.980 --> 00:01:11.340 You know, it's kind of a love language. And I think that's true for people in general. I think when 00:01:11.340 --> 00:01:17.000 somebody makes you food or provides you a meal, you feel loved by that. I mean, I certainly do, 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:24.280 right? It works both ways. And what we're looking at this morning in Matthew 14 is really a story about 00:01:24.280 --> 00:01:31.079 that. It's about how making food for people is a way of showing love. God actually calls his people 00:01:31.079 --> 00:01:35.340 to do this. Jesus, in this encounter, this story that we're going to read this morning, 00:01:36.359 --> 00:01:42.640 calls his disciples to make dinner for a crowd, right? But it's a little bit bigger than making 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:47.040 dinner for your family or even maybe the biggest dinner party you've ever hosted. In this case, 00:01:47.079 --> 00:01:52.700 it's thousands of people. And the other twist is that they have no supplies whatsoever. 00:01:53.659 --> 00:02:00.480 So, we're going to look at this, and what it really shows us is how Jesus responds to people in need. 00:02:01.180 --> 00:02:08.680 How does Jesus respond to a world that is hungry? Not just physically, but spiritually. 00:02:08.680 --> 00:02:15.140 And how does Jesus call us to do the same? And what we're going to see is that he responds to a world 00:02:15.140 --> 00:02:23.900 in need with compassion and calling and provision. Let's pray. Lord, Heavenly Father, we thank you 00:02:23.900 --> 00:02:31.980 for your word. And Lord, as good as it is to be able to eat things like ribs or macaroni and cheese, 00:02:31.979 --> 00:02:40.539 Lord, what we most need is to feast on you, to feast on word, to feast on through the sacraments, 00:02:41.500 --> 00:02:47.819 to feast on your presence, Lord. We need to be filled by it. And Lord, that's why we're here. I pray that 00:02:47.819 --> 00:02:54.639 you would open our hearts, that if anything in us is…any part of our hearts is hard or resistant, 00:02:54.819 --> 00:03:01.239 that you would soften our hearts, that we would be receptive to your word and spirit. We pray this 00:03:01.240 --> 00:03:08.260 in Jesus' name. Amen. So, first of all, we're going to just sort of set the scene here. The first thing 00:03:08.260 --> 00:03:15.939 that we see is this example of the compassion of Jesus for people in need. Imagine losing someone 00:03:15.939 --> 00:03:19.920 that you love. And some of you, that's happened recently. You don't have to think too long about 00:03:19.920 --> 00:03:24.879 that. So, imagine you've lost somebody you love. And imagine that as a part of your grieving, 00:03:25.300 --> 00:03:29.600 you've done, you know, you've been around friends and family. You've gone through the, 00:03:29.599 --> 00:03:34.680 you know, the funeral and all of that and you're exhausted and you just need some time to be alone. 00:03:35.620 --> 00:03:40.359 And so, imagine you find an Airbnb and it's out in a remote place. It's on the edge of a beautiful 00:03:40.359 --> 00:03:46.120 lake and you just can't wait to go and spend the weekend at this lakeside cabin just to get some time 00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:51.979 to pray and to reflect and to think, to not have to be on for all of the people that are trying to 00:03:51.979 --> 00:03:56.459 wish you well and comfort you. And so, you get excited and you pack your bags and you load up your car 00:03:56.460 --> 00:04:03.300 and you drive way out into the country. And imagine, unbeknownst to you, somebody has found out the 00:04:03.300 --> 00:04:11.580 address of the Airbnb that you rented. And they have put it online. They've publicly put it online. And so, 00:04:11.659 --> 00:04:18.860 imagine when you're coming up that hill to that lakeside cabin, you see cars lining the street on both 00:04:18.860 --> 00:04:24.920 sides. There's nowhere for you to park. Imagine as you get closer, there are just crowds of people and they're not 00:04:24.920 --> 00:04:29.480 only in the driveway, they're filling the yard and they're all, and you look down to your right and 00:04:29.480 --> 00:04:35.960 you look down to your left and there's just people everywhere. Imagine that for just one minute. And 00:04:35.960 --> 00:04:40.300 imagine that you realize very quickly, they're not there to comfort you or help you. They're there 00:04:40.300 --> 00:04:45.700 because they've brought their hunger. They've brought their grief. They've brought their brokenness. 00:04:45.780 --> 00:04:50.400 They've brought their unanswered questions and unfulfilled longings. And they're all waiting and 00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:57.239 expecting for you to meet those needs. Right? Imagine how you would feel. This is what happens to Jesus 00:04:57.239 --> 00:05:06.779 in this story. Right? Jesus is, he's just received news that his cousin and dear friend John was murdered. 00:05:07.659 --> 00:05:14.079 And he was murdered because he had the courage to speak truth to power. He confronted the local ruler, 00:05:14.299 --> 00:05:19.839 Herod, for his immorality and marrying his brother's wife. And power responds as power often does. 00:05:19.839 --> 00:05:25.279 He was thrown in prison. And then later he was executed. He was violently beheaded. 00:05:26.279 --> 00:05:33.539 And this news has come to Jesus and he is grieving. Right? He's grieving the loss of his dear friend. 00:05:33.819 --> 00:05:41.319 He's grieving the injustice that led to such a death. And he just wants to be alone. And I just want to, 00:05:41.399 --> 00:05:47.539 this isn't the point here of the sermon, but wanting to be alone is a profoundly human response to grief. 00:05:47.540 --> 00:05:55.300 If any of you have ever grieved, and I know you have, sometimes you just need to be alone to process and to pray 00:05:55.300 --> 00:06:02.160 and to sort out your feelings and to not have to be on. So this is what Jesus wants. He goes away to be alone, 00:06:02.520 --> 00:06:08.600 but the crowds don't get the memo. And when he lands on the shore of the lake, there are thousands of people 00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:16.439 waiting for him. Now, what I want you to see is his response. He very easily could have remained in the boat. 00:06:16.740 --> 00:06:21.260 Honestly, that's probably what I would have done. I would have seen it and I would have, you know, 00:06:21.740 --> 00:06:27.580 and I would have started, you know, that would have been my response, you know. Probably many of you the 00:06:27.580 --> 00:06:32.100 same. Or some of us might have gotten angry, right? And nobody could have blamed Jesus for saying, 00:06:32.100 --> 00:06:38.660 hey, I'm going to take a day off, you know. Nobody would have blamed him. But Jesus' response to their 00:06:38.660 --> 00:06:48.920 need in verse 14 is this. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed 00:06:48.920 --> 00:06:56.260 their sick. And that word compassion describes something that you feel deep inside. It describes 00:06:56.259 --> 00:07:03.620 something that moves you in the core of your being. It's a word that describes what happens when you 00:07:03.620 --> 00:07:12.079 see someone else in suffering or in need and you allow that in to touch your heart. You allow their 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:18.939 pain to connect with you on a heart level and you respond with a deep move of your soul. That's 00:07:18.939 --> 00:07:25.719 compassion. And this compassion that moves Jesus, moves him to respond and to take 00:07:25.720 --> 00:07:32.060 action. And so he begins to care for them and he begins to heal their sick and to meet their needs. 00:07:34.280 --> 00:07:41.900 The point of this is not teaching that we should never take a break. The point, and I think sometimes 00:07:41.900 --> 00:07:48.640 it has been misapplied that way. We need to be more like Jesus. And it doesn't matter if you're tired. 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:54.740 It doesn't matter if you're overwhelmed. The point is not, I believe, to teach us that we should never rest 00:07:54.740 --> 00:08:02.400 or take time to grieve. Jesus' desire for solitude was completely legitimate. And there are times when 00:08:02.400 --> 00:08:11.879 we need that. The point of this is to show us why Jesus is so remarkable. It's to show us why we need 00:08:11.879 --> 00:08:19.000 him and why there's something in him that can't be found anywhere else. Because listen, we do get 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:30.860 overwhelmed. We do get exhausted. We do get compassion fatigue. We reach our limit because we are finite 00:08:30.860 --> 00:08:37.799 creatures. And especially, I think, in the internet age, we are constantly exposed through the internet 00:08:37.799 --> 00:08:46.039 to horrific, overwhelming tragedy all around the world all the time. And so the minute something 00:08:46.039 --> 00:08:52.039 catastrophic happens on the other side of the planet, we all know about it. And we are reading the grisly details. 00:08:53.079 --> 00:08:58.480 And what happens in a world like that is that very often you find your brain shutting down and there's this 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:06.120 voice in your head that says, I know I should care, but I just can't. I'm too tired. I just want to watch 00:09:06.120 --> 00:09:16.240 something on Netflix and go to bed. The point is, Jesus is not like us in that way. When it comes to 00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:26.860 Jesus, his compassion is inexhaustible. And his capacity is unlimited. All right, so the next time we feel 00:09:26.860 --> 00:09:35.000 overwhelmed, I would encourage you to resist that urge and to resist that voice in you that tries to 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:44.419 shame you or guilt trip you for feeling overwhelmed. Instead, let that remind you, this is why I need a 00:09:44.419 --> 00:09:53.539 Savior. And this is why I can't be a Savior. It reminds us, next time we feel overwhelmed, whatever it is, 00:09:53.539 --> 00:10:00.939 whatever the need might be, we can come to Jesus. And Jesus can handle it. And if you're ever tempted 00:10:00.939 --> 00:10:06.839 to think, if you're ever tempted to think things like, well, surely God must be sick of me praying 00:10:06.839 --> 00:10:12.240 the same prayer again and again and again. And just imagine God rolling his eyes. Jesus saying, I can't 00:10:12.240 --> 00:10:19.719 believe you're saying it again. Remember, in this way, Jesus is not like us. His compassion is 00:10:19.720 --> 00:10:25.200 inexhaustible. His capacity is unlimited. The next time that you're tempted to think that God couldn't 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:31.639 possibly care about my needs, surely there are real big needs in the world. Surely he can't care about 00:10:31.639 --> 00:10:38.160 my little need, like whether or not I do well on the test tomorrow or whether or not I'm going to be 00:10:38.160 --> 00:10:42.920 late for that interview, right? Surely God cares about the big stuff, but not stuff like this. 00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:51.199 Jesus, I want you to remember, his compassion is inexhaustible. His capacity is unlimited. Any and 00:10:51.199 --> 00:10:59.319 every time we come to Jesus with our need, he responds this way with compassion. And maybe some 00:10:59.319 --> 00:11:03.620 of you need to hear this. I don't know. Not for everybody, but maybe some of you need to hear this. 00:11:04.699 --> 00:11:12.620 If Jesus has such compassion for you, should you not have the same compassion for yourself? 00:11:12.919 --> 00:11:19.779 I think there's some of us here who one of the biggest challenges is our lack of compassion for 00:11:19.779 --> 00:11:28.019 ourselves. There's this kind of relentlessness, this voice in us that is driving us and driving us 00:11:28.019 --> 00:11:32.039 and driving us. And I don't know where that voice got in. I don't know whose voice it was when you 00:11:32.039 --> 00:11:39.899 first heard it and you internalized it. If Jesus has this compassion for you, should you not have the 00:11:39.899 --> 00:11:48.980 same compassion for yourself? Otherwise, take it up with Jesus. So, Jesus is able to handle what we 00:11:48.980 --> 00:11:55.959 cannot. He's got an unlimited capacity. Now, having said that, when it comes to all the needs of the 00:11:55.959 --> 00:12:03.439 world, we do have a part to play, right? It's also not an option for us to simply turn our back, 00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:09.199 walk away, and say that's somebody else's problem. So, what is our role in responding to the needs of the 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:15.080 world? We see this in verses 15 and 16. It starts to get late. The disciples notice a need. They realize 00:12:15.080 --> 00:12:22.020 as they look around, hey, it's getting late. Most of these people, probably word spread where Jesus 00:12:22.020 --> 00:12:26.020 was going to the kind of far side of the lake and word got around. And most people just grabbed their 00:12:26.020 --> 00:12:30.400 people and grabbed what was right. And they just took off because, oh, he's going to be there. Let's get 00:12:30.400 --> 00:12:37.340 there before he does. And then maybe he'll heal, you know, my uncle or my son. And so, they've rushed. 00:12:37.340 --> 00:12:40.960 And so, they haven't brought any provisions. And so, the disciples are, so, really, it's getting late. 00:12:41.040 --> 00:12:45.160 It's time for the evening meal. And nobody brought any provisions. There's no plan to take care of 00:12:45.160 --> 00:12:51.100 these people. And so, they come to Jesus with what they think is a good idea. Master, it's getting 00:12:51.100 --> 00:12:55.160 late. Why don't you send these people into the villages? If they start walking now, they can make 00:12:55.160 --> 00:13:00.080 it before it gets too dark and too late. And they can buy or procure food for themselves in the villages 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:05.660 so we don't have a big mess on our hands. Jesus replies, they don't need to go away. 00:13:07.020 --> 00:13:13.520 And you can imagine the disciples are like, okay, you know, what's your plan? And then Jesus says, 00:13:13.820 --> 00:13:20.139 you give them something to eat. And right away, we know Jesus is about to do something. 00:13:20.620 --> 00:13:25.100 The tone shifts, right? Tells everybody to sit down. We know Jesus is about to teach us something. 00:13:25.100 --> 00:13:31.040 But I want to pause and just recognize they come to Jesus with a need. And then Jesus turns it around 00:13:31.040 --> 00:13:35.960 and gives it back to them. And he says, you do something. But that something means doing something 00:13:35.960 --> 00:13:41.360 utterly impossible, right? And I don't know if you've ever felt that way, sort of faced with something 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:46.620 that feels utterly impossible. That's exactly how they felt. Now, we're going to get to the impossible 00:13:46.620 --> 00:13:52.759 bit in a second. I want to make a point here, though. This is very often how vocation works. 00:13:52.759 --> 00:14:00.159 What do I mean by vocation? A lot of times, especially in D.C., when we talk about vocation, 00:14:00.439 --> 00:14:04.480 people think we're talking about career, how I get paid, my kind of career path. That's part of 00:14:04.480 --> 00:14:09.340 your vocation. But your vocation is a lot bigger than that. Vocation simply means your calling, 00:14:09.759 --> 00:14:17.580 right? And it's a lot bigger than your occupation or your career. Your vocation is God's call for you 00:14:17.580 --> 00:14:26.340 to use who you are and what you have to serve him and to serve others and to share in the healing of 00:14:26.340 --> 00:14:32.280 the world. Your vocation is God's call for you to use who you are and what you have to serve him, 00:14:32.379 --> 00:14:38.980 to serve others, and to share in the healing of the world. That's your vocation. So vocation often 00:14:38.980 --> 00:14:45.440 begins, right? You can take the Myers-Briggs and you can do your Enneagram type and you can figure all 00:14:45.440 --> 00:14:52.060 those things out. Helpful, great input, great data, grist for the mill. Your vocation often begins when 00:14:52.060 --> 00:14:59.039 you notice a need. You notice something. You notice someone is suffering and nobody seems to be paying 00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:05.180 attention. You notice a gap. There's something missing here. This is a problem that nobody's trying to solve. 00:15:05.179 --> 00:15:09.899 Or you notice an opportunity. This is a resource that could be used in this way, but nobody seems 00:15:09.899 --> 00:15:15.659 to be doing it, right? You notice something. And then you keep thinking about it. And this is the 00:15:15.659 --> 00:15:19.819 thing, right? Certain things you notice and you're like, yeah, and it doesn't really, but other things 00:15:19.819 --> 00:15:25.539 you kind of notice it. And then as you're walking away, it keeps kind of, it keeps working at you. 00:15:25.639 --> 00:15:29.639 It's like nagging and like needling you, you know, and you go to bed and you're trying to sleep and 00:15:29.639 --> 00:15:33.779 you're laying there and you just kind of keep thinking about it, you know? It's just kind of won't leave you 00:15:33.779 --> 00:15:39.699 alone. And so in prayer, you bring it to Jesus, you know? And sometimes you bring it to Jesus and 00:15:39.699 --> 00:15:44.360 he takes it and you go on your way. But sometimes you bring it to Jesus and it's almost as though 00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:50.500 Jesus responds to you by saying, yeah, this is a need. Why don't you do something about it? 00:15:52.199 --> 00:15:59.799 He says, why don't you take action? I'm in process of meeting this need. I'm inviting you to join me in 00:15:59.799 --> 00:16:07.899 that. So John Van Hengel was volunteering at a soup kitchen and he was giving food out and he talked to 00:16:07.899 --> 00:16:14.219 a mom and she mentioned that she had been digging through the dumpsters behind this business building 00:16:14.219 --> 00:16:20.519 looking for food to feed her kids. He's heartbroken by this, but he also realizes, hey, businesses, 00:16:21.439 --> 00:16:25.620 there's a lot of waste. Businesses tend to throw away a lot of food that doesn't get eaten. 00:16:25.620 --> 00:16:31.279 And so he cobbles together the money that he can, which is about $3,000. He gets a church to donate 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:35.779 an abandoned building that's not being used for anything else. And he has this crazy idea where 00:16:35.779 --> 00:16:41.980 he says, why don't the businesses start coming and they can deposit the food that they're not eating 00:16:41.980 --> 00:16:45.679 instead of throwing it away, they can deposit it here. And then people who are hungry and in need 00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:50.320 can come and they can withdraw that food to feed themselves and their families. So he says, 00:16:50.320 --> 00:16:56.180 it's kind of like a bank. It's kind of like a food bank, right? And so that becomes St. Mary's 00:16:56.180 --> 00:17:00.879 food bank, which is the first of its kind, the birth of the food bank movement, right? 00:17:01.940 --> 00:17:06.380 You have Cicely Saunders, who's a physician. She's caring for people who are terminally ill and dying. 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:11.059 And she begins to realize, you know, these people need a lot more than just physical care. 00:17:12.059 --> 00:17:16.840 They need somebody to manage their pain. They need somebody to help them manage their 00:17:16.839 --> 00:17:22.599 relationships with their friends and family. They need somebody to help them with the emotional 00:17:22.599 --> 00:17:27.439 and spiritual dimensions of death and dying. Sometimes they just need somebody to sit next 00:17:27.439 --> 00:17:34.679 to them and hold their hand. And so she establishes St. Christopher's Hospice in London, which was the 00:17:34.679 --> 00:17:41.559 first hospice, the first of its kind, right? Now, not everybody's vocation leads them to start a 00:17:41.559 --> 00:17:46.779 non-profit or movement, obviously. The point is that all of these people started the same 00:17:46.779 --> 00:17:49.639 way. They're just going along in their normal life, and they just kind of notice a need. 00:17:50.359 --> 00:17:54.740 And they look around, and nobody else seems to be noticing it. And then it sticks with them. 00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:58.200 And that Jesus at some point says, yeah, why don't you do something about that? 00:17:59.099 --> 00:18:04.200 Right? So I think of Brian Bakke, who lived in this neighborhood for years and years and just 00:18:04.200 --> 00:18:09.579 noticed there's a lot of trash on the street. And it just kind of kept staying with him. And so he 00:18:09.579 --> 00:18:13.819 starts going out and pushing a shopping cart around and gathering up trash. And he just begins to do 00:18:13.819 --> 00:18:17.460 that year after year after year. And neighbors start to get to know this guy who's cleaning up 00:18:17.460 --> 00:18:20.939 our neighborhood, right? I think of a couple in our church. There's actually been a lot of people 00:18:20.939 --> 00:18:25.039 like this. There's a couple in our church who they just tuned into the fact that some people, 00:18:25.539 --> 00:18:29.159 even in the best churches, have a harder time connecting and making friends. There are just 00:18:29.159 --> 00:18:34.019 always going to be people on the fringes, on the periphery. And so this couple just decided, 00:18:34.200 --> 00:18:37.579 hey, one of the things that we're going to do, and there was no name for it. There was no 00:18:37.579 --> 00:18:42.299 501c3, right? This is just a couple who said, on certain nights of the week, 00:18:42.299 --> 00:18:46.379 we're going to open our home and we're going to intentionally invite people and try to help them 00:18:46.379 --> 00:18:52.539 get to know each other and make friends, right? Just help them get connected. I remember in my 00:18:52.539 --> 00:18:58.460 late 20s, I was working as a counselor and I would meet with people and none of the people that I was 00:18:58.460 --> 00:19:02.859 meeting with, I worked at a secular clinic, and none of these people were in any way connected to 00:19:02.859 --> 00:19:06.899 the church. Although a lot of them had very religious longings, none of them were connected to a 00:19:06.899 --> 00:19:11.259 church. And I think therapy, I think that's very important. I think it's essential. 00:19:11.259 --> 00:19:16.619 But I kept thinking about the fact that these people need more than a week of therapy. 00:19:18.019 --> 00:19:23.859 They need more than the meds they're taking. I said, you know, I think these people, they need 00:19:23.859 --> 00:19:29.379 Jesus and they need a community that can care for them holistically, where they're going to be known, 00:19:29.579 --> 00:19:34.200 where they're going to be able to walk through their life with people alongside them. You know, 00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:40.700 they can be cared for body, mind, and soul. And I began praying about this and processing it with 00:19:40.700 --> 00:19:47.019 other believers. And I started to feel like Jesus was saying, you're right. What are you going to do 00:19:47.019 --> 00:19:54.460 about it? You know? And so some of us in this room started getting together and are actually joined 00:19:54.460 --> 00:19:59.600 with a group that was already getting together in Northwest DC. And back in 2008, we started Church of 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:08.399 the Advent. Right? So this is how it works. And I think that there are needs and opportunities and 00:20:08.399 --> 00:20:15.099 gaps that everyone in this room is called to fill. Right? Some of you are called to bring beauty where 00:20:15.099 --> 00:20:20.639 there's brokenness. Some of you are called to bring order where there's chaos. Some of you are called to 00:20:20.639 --> 00:20:26.399 bring justice where there is exploitation. Some of you are called to bring reconciliation and connection 00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:32.780 where there's division. But there are needs that we are called to meet. But here's the thing that we 00:20:32.780 --> 00:20:36.960 need to understand as we begin to talk about our response to the needs of the world. The minute 00:20:36.960 --> 00:20:43.720 you say yes to the need, the minute you say yes, the next thing that you're going to realize 00:20:43.720 --> 00:20:50.519 is that you don't have enough. Right? Yeah, I want to do something about it. And then immediately you 00:20:50.519 --> 00:20:54.420 realize, ooh, this is a bigger problem. And I thought it's a lot thornier. It's a lot more 00:20:54.420 --> 00:20:58.660 complicated. And there's this part of you that's like, you just made a huge mistake. 00:20:59.420 --> 00:21:06.660 You should say no. You can still get out of this. You're immediately going to realize that the calling 00:21:06.660 --> 00:21:11.400 of Jesus always exposes the limits of our resources. So what do we do about that? 00:21:13.080 --> 00:21:20.620 That leads us to the provision of Jesus. I want you to put yourself in the place of the disciples for 00:21:20.619 --> 00:21:26.939 just one minute. Right? Imagine this scene. Even though we commonly refer to this as the feeding 00:21:26.939 --> 00:21:33.219 of the 5,000, there's a little footnote at the end of this pericope, this unit of text that says that 00:21:33.219 --> 00:21:39.539 the 5,000 just refers to the men. It's not counting the women and children. So commentators differ in 00:21:39.539 --> 00:21:45.339 their estimates of what we're dealing with here. But a lot of commentators will say this could be as 00:21:45.339 --> 00:21:53.099 many as 15,000 or 20,000 people. So Capital One Arena, if you've ever been to Capital One Arena, 00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:57.679 when it's packed, total seating capacity at Capital One is about 20,000 people. 00:21:59.159 --> 00:22:05.240 I want you to imagine standing in the middle of Capital One, sold out, looking around, 00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:13.639 realizing everybody's starving, and Jesus looking at you and saying, you feed them. Right? That's how 00:22:13.640 --> 00:22:22.000 they felt. And so they must have thought that this was crazy. I mean, it's utterly absurd. All they have 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:28.800 is five loaves of bread and two fish. And John's gospel tells us that they got that from this little 00:22:28.800 --> 00:22:34.740 boy. And he probably brought it for his family's dinner. Right? His job in the family was probably 00:22:34.740 --> 00:22:39.680 carrying the food for the evening meal because they actually planned ahead. And they get there, 00:22:39.680 --> 00:22:43.840 right? And isn't that the way it always is? Right? You get there and you're like, we planned ahead 00:22:43.840 --> 00:22:47.779 unlike these other people. And then everybody starts looking at you. Right? You're the only one with a 00:22:47.779 --> 00:22:52.180 pack of food. Right? And so this boy gives the food to the disciples and they show it to Jesus. That's 00:22:52.180 --> 00:22:59.560 all we got. It's not even barely enough to feed a family. So Jesus says, bring them to me. He tells 00:22:59.560 --> 00:23:04.480 everyone to sit down. They realize, okay, Jesus is about to do something. And even though they must have 00:23:04.480 --> 00:23:12.700 felt crazy, they offer the bread to Jesus. Now we're going to come back to that. It says, 00:23:13.039 --> 00:23:19.140 taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. 00:23:19.720 --> 00:23:24.920 Then he gave them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the people. And then everyone eats their 00:23:24.920 --> 00:23:32.779 fill and is satisfied. And there are 12 baskets of food left over. And friends, clearly this is a 00:23:32.779 --> 00:23:37.700 miracle. But we get distracted by saying, well, how did he actually do it? And what actually happened? 00:23:37.779 --> 00:23:43.920 Not the point of the text. Matthew's not interested in telling us the how. He wants to point us to the 00:23:43.920 --> 00:23:50.220 deeper question of what it means. And I would suggest it means a couple of things. There are kind of layers 00:23:50.220 --> 00:23:55.960 of meaning here. If you've been here the past few weeks with Pastor Hillary and looking at these 00:23:55.960 --> 00:24:00.960 parables in Matthew, this is just another, this is a kind of embodied parable. Right? The miracles of 00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:06.140 Jesus are just another form of parable. He's teaching us through what he's doing rather than what he's saying. 00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:14.240 But the sense of layers of meaning is always there. It's like an onion. You just go deeper and deeper and 00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:21.539 deeper. Here's the first thing I would suggest it means. It means first, whatever Jesus commands, 00:24:21.539 --> 00:24:31.960 he supplies. Whatever Jesus calls you to, he will provide what you need to obey that command. Right? 00:24:32.019 --> 00:24:39.299 So he commands the disciples to feed the crowds, but then he supplies the food. And the same pattern, 00:24:39.299 --> 00:24:46.940 I would say, appears all throughout the Christian life. Right? God calls and commands you to do something 00:24:46.940 --> 00:24:55.700 that seems impossible. But then he supplies what you need. I've seen people respond to God's call to move 00:24:55.700 --> 00:25:00.360 to a completely different part of the world and do something they never thought possible. And then you 00:25:00.360 --> 00:25:06.620 see how Jesus responds and supplies over time their ability to do that faithfully. You know, there are 00:25:06.620 --> 00:25:11.960 people who say, you know, I never thought I was called to singleness. I can't imagine this. And then God 00:25:11.960 --> 00:25:18.440 supplies over time what they need to live out that call faithfully. Right? I've seen, you see it happen 00:25:18.440 --> 00:25:24.440 again and again and again. He calls us to follow him in ways that exceed our capacity. And that's the 00:25:24.440 --> 00:25:30.559 point. That's sometimes how you know that it's the voice of Jesus rather than your own little voice, 00:25:30.799 --> 00:25:36.440 is if it was my voice, it would be stuff that I was well prepared for, that I was well trained for, 00:25:36.440 --> 00:25:42.440 that I was well resourced for. But it's the voice of Jesus that will call us to do something that we think 00:25:42.440 --> 00:25:50.019 that sounds crazy. That might be Jesus. And then he provides what we need to do it. The point is, he doesn't 00:25:50.019 --> 00:26:00.940 expect us to manufacture miracles. He simply calls us to offer what we have to him. Right? This past week, some of our 00:26:00.940 --> 00:26:10.380 people, some of you in this room, offered up a few days and nights to go to youth camp. That was your 00:26:10.380 --> 00:26:17.200 loaves and fish. He said, I've got a little, I've got some time that I'm going to just offer to Jesus, and I'm 00:26:17.200 --> 00:26:23.980 going to see what Jesus does with this. And some of us sat around last night and just debriefed the deep 00:26:23.980 --> 00:26:32.680 and powerful moving of the Holy Spirit, leading youth and adults alike to weep, to cry out for more 00:26:32.680 --> 00:26:39.579 of the Lord, to pray for revival in this church and neighborhood and city, the Spirit moving people 00:26:39.579 --> 00:26:46.860 to speak words of knowledge and truth into one another's lives and hearts. You said, here's my 00:26:46.860 --> 00:26:51.579 loaves and fish. I've got a few days that I can give you. And Jesus says, here's what I'm going to do with 00:26:51.579 --> 00:26:58.879 that. And everybody receives and everybody eats and everybody feasts on the goodness of God and 00:26:58.879 --> 00:27:02.960 everybody is satisfied. And that's what you hear people coming back just again and again and again. 00:27:03.019 --> 00:27:08.539 You wouldn't believe what happened. It's the exact same thing that we see here when people say, I 00:27:08.539 --> 00:27:11.039 didn't think I had anything to eat. And all of a sudden, somebody handed me a plate of food. 00:27:12.939 --> 00:27:18.859 Everybody got fed. Right? So I don't know what your five loaves might be. It might be an extra 00:27:18.859 --> 00:27:26.819 evening each week. It might be your professional expertise. It might be your dining room table or 00:27:26.819 --> 00:27:32.099 your musical gifts. Right? All the people that play and sing up here, they're offering the loaves and 00:27:32.099 --> 00:27:36.959 fish. Every time I write a sermon, almost every week that I'm writing a sermon, at some point I feel 00:27:36.959 --> 00:27:42.059 like this is completely inadequate. I have no idea why I'm doing this. It's utterly pointless. And the only 00:27:42.059 --> 00:27:45.479 way that I can have learned to respond to that in about 20 years of preaching is to think, 00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:52.400 these are my loaves and fish. If I'm trying to do something spiritual in people through this myself, 00:27:52.579 --> 00:27:59.620 I've missed the whole point. My job is to prep. It's to know that it's inadequate, that no human 00:27:59.620 --> 00:28:05.579 words or wisdom can ever change a heart, and then to offer it to Jesus and to trust that he's going to 00:28:05.579 --> 00:28:10.339 do what he's going to do. Right? Maybe it's your financial resources. Maybe it's simply your willingness 00:28:10.339 --> 00:28:17.059 to notice somebody who's alone that nobody else is talking to. Whatever it is, Jesus is not asking you to feed 00:28:17.059 --> 00:28:27.879 20,000 people. He's asking you to offer him your lunch and to see what he does. And the second thing that 00:28:27.879 --> 00:28:32.519 we'll say, the second layer of meaning, the reason that Jesus is able to do this, the reason that we're able to 00:28:32.519 --> 00:28:37.819 bring that bread to him and to know that he's going to multiply it in ways that we can't possibly imagine 00:28:37.819 --> 00:28:47.779 is because Jesus is the true bread. Ultimately, this miracle points beyond itself. Remember I said 00:28:47.779 --> 00:28:53.200 layers? We're going deep into the layers. What does it mean that Jesus is the true bread? Number one, 00:28:53.240 --> 00:29:00.059 it means that this meal points beyond itself. First, it points back into the past. The Jewish imagination 00:29:00.059 --> 00:29:05.700 was rich with the memory of God providing for and feeding his people with manna in the wilderness, 00:29:05.700 --> 00:29:11.059 and they knew that one day the sign of the Messiah would be that that manna would return and that God 00:29:11.059 --> 00:29:18.480 would feed his people as he had always done. And they're awaiting the messianic sign of the bread 00:29:18.480 --> 00:29:26.279 from heaven. And Jesus is saying, that's me. I'm here. Right? The meal points to the present in the sense 00:29:26.279 --> 00:29:32.339 that the wording that Matthew uses to describe this miracle is not arbitrary. He says Jesus took, 00:29:33.700 --> 00:29:42.059 and then he blessed, and then he broke, and then he gave. This is the language of the Eucharist. 00:29:42.420 --> 00:29:48.279 This is the language that is used to describe the Last Supper. When Jesus shares his final meal, 00:29:48.379 --> 00:29:53.619 and he says, I want you to do this every time you gather until I come again. And through this meal, 00:29:53.619 --> 00:30:01.039 I will be with you to the end of the age. Right? It's a Eucharistic feast that every time 00:30:01.039 --> 00:30:07.279 we do this, Jesus is multiplying, right, the fish and the loaves. Jesus is giving us what only he can 00:30:07.279 --> 00:30:12.000 give us. He's feeding and satisfying his people. And then this points to the future. 00:30:13.459 --> 00:30:18.379 This points to that great banquet, the wedding feast that we read about in Revelation chapter 19. 00:30:19.239 --> 00:30:23.319 The great point and the culmination of all human history when Jesus has returned and vanquished 00:30:23.319 --> 00:30:28.240 evil and wiped away every tear from every eye and feasts with his saints for eternity in heaven 00:30:28.240 --> 00:30:35.919 is pointing to that meal. Past, present, and future. All reality, past, present, future, 00:30:36.039 --> 00:30:42.480 collapsing in on this moment, this miracle, this glimpse of what is to come. And all of this is 00:30:42.480 --> 00:30:51.579 possible because Jesus is the true bread. Ultimately, what this means is that the one who feeds the hungry 00:30:51.579 --> 00:31:01.279 crowds here will one day give them even greater than bread that one day he's going to give himself. 00:31:02.559 --> 00:31:08.639 Right? So on the cross, this is also pointing us to the cross, Jesus allows himself to be broken 00:31:08.639 --> 00:31:17.819 for the life of the world. And just as the bread was then placed into the disciples' hands to be shared, 00:31:17.819 --> 00:31:26.919 Christ now places the gospel into our hands to be shared. Right? So along with whatever other specific 00:31:26.919 --> 00:31:32.919 ways God has called you to meet the needs of the world, part of all of our vocation is to take that 00:31:32.919 --> 00:31:38.659 gospel bread, the good news of the true bread, and to go and to give it to anyone and everyone who's hungry. 00:31:39.799 --> 00:31:44.599 Right? We, our lives, from here until Christ comes again, our lives are to be spent 00:31:44.599 --> 00:31:49.599 handing out that bread. Right? Feeding the hungry. 00:31:53.419 --> 00:31:59.659 There is enough grace. There is enough mercy. There is enough forgiveness. There is enough hope 00:31:59.659 --> 00:32:07.740 for the world. Why would we not hand it out every chance we have to heal the world? No one who comes 00:32:07.740 --> 00:32:14.180 to Jesus will ever leave empty. So I want to just pull all of this together. This, friends, is how 00:32:14.180 --> 00:32:22.039 Jesus responds to a world in need. First, with inexhaustible compassion. So if that is you this 00:32:22.039 --> 00:32:29.599 morning, if you just kind of limped in here, and we sort of look below the nice outfit and the makeup and 00:32:29.599 --> 00:32:35.980 the coiffed hair and the shiny shoes, and below that you're limping and bleeding out on the floor, 00:32:36.819 --> 00:32:43.279 and you just need, because you know that's true, don't believe what you see. Half of us have just 00:32:43.279 --> 00:32:51.139 barely made it in here. If that is you, all you need to do is to come and receive that compassion. 00:32:52.099 --> 00:32:55.059 That's the only thing that's asked of you this morning. Just come and receive that compassion. 00:32:55.639 --> 00:32:59.079 If you've never done that before, if you've never come to Jesus, you don't even know what that means, 00:32:59.079 --> 00:33:02.460 a little bit later when we're sharing this meal, we're going to have prayer ministers over here, 00:33:02.819 --> 00:33:07.339 and if this is your first time and you don't even know how to pray, all you need to do is come up 00:33:07.339 --> 00:33:12.639 and say, I heard that, I just heard, I want that compassion, I don't know, and these men and women 00:33:12.639 --> 00:33:18.220 up here will pray for you. And if you want to talk more about that, Hillary and I would be happy to do 00:33:18.220 --> 00:33:24.779 that after the service. Second, Jesus calls us to join with him in the healing of the world. So I want 00:33:24.779 --> 00:33:30.839 you to be asking, what needs grab your attention? What do you notice among the people around you? 00:33:30.899 --> 00:33:34.839 What grabs you? What God might be calling you to? That's between you and Jesus. 00:33:37.359 --> 00:33:42.639 Number three, and finally, whatever he calls you to, you can't do it. 00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:52.320 But don't let that scarcity mentality stop you from trying. Don't do it in your own strength. 00:33:53.540 --> 00:33:58.740 Do it through the abundant provision of Christ. So what that means is you look at what you have, 00:33:59.300 --> 00:34:05.540 whatever paltry offering you can muster together, and you say, here you go. You offer it to him. 00:34:05.880 --> 00:34:10.780 Bring it to Jesus, bring him what you have, and just watch what he does with it. Let's pray. 00:34:10.780 --> 00:34:22.460 Lord, we thank you. We praise you. The true bread from heaven. We pray as we continue in prayer and in 00:34:22.460 --> 00:34:28.000 confession, and as we gather around your table, that we would eat our fill and be satisfied, 00:34:29.060 --> 00:34:35.440 and that the 12 baskets left over would not just be for the 12 tribes of Israel, would not just 00:34:35.440 --> 00:34:40.760 represent the 12 apostles, Lord, but that they would be in our hands, that we could take them 00:34:40.760 --> 00:34:47.740 out to feed all of the people who need to hear your gospel, Lord. We pray all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen.