Sermon: Bread, Spit, an Ass, and Aha
Text: Mark 8:1-9 (Feeding of the 4000), Ro 6:19-23 (slaves of sin/God)
Occasion: Trinity VII
Who: Mark Woolsey
Where: Arbor House
When: Sunday, July 30, 2006
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I. Intro
o Explain and show what the loaves probably looked like (pancakes the size of an open hand, about 4" diameter).
o Take the 7 "loaves" and create 1/8000th (because 4000 only included the men) piece.
Now I want you to imagine a big burly fisherman or some other lower-class worker that was the bulk of Jesus’ followers. In your mind picture yourself coming up to him and saying, "Since you have not had much, if anything, to eat for 3 days, here’s something I’ve cooked up for you. Eat this, and when you are full put all your leftovers in a basket." What do you think would be his response? Would he be in such awe that he would follow you into the desert? Or would he just beat you up for making fun of him? This is how much bread, per person, Jesus had to give. Yet after blessing and breaking it, there were 7 large baskets of left-over fragments.
o Show a basket full of various breads.
What’s the difference in these two items (piece in one hand and basket in the other)? Is it the giver, the gift, or the Guarantor? What, pray tell, does all of this have to do with slaves of sin and slaves of God mentioned in today’s epistle passage? And beyond Jesus’ obvious compassion upon the poor, what is the larger context of this miracle? Well, if you can stand the suspense, you’ll learn the answer to these questions and more in a sermon I’ve entitled, "Bread, Spit, an Ass, and Aha".
When I first saw the Gospel passage that was assigned for today, I was a bit put out. Among friends, familiarity breeds contempt, but in sermons, it just delivers drowsiness. Reminds me of a preacher whose sermons were so bad that he used to put himself to sleep! :-) And, no, his name was not Mark! ;-) Seriously, though, almost everyone who’s grown up in church has heard this story a hundred times. However, I hope today you come away with something other than glazed eyeballs.
II. The Crowd
First of all, notice that these people had been in a desert for three days, and now have nothing to eat. What could have caused them to do this? I doubt they had a state-of-the-art gym, with a fully-equipped nursery for little Jimmy and Sally, or anything else you might find in a typical mega-church. Then what could have drawn them? It was nothing other than our Lord Himself. Jesus, fill this place with people you have drawn to Yourself as we present You in Word and Sacrament. So many people have been wandering about in the desert, dying. We beg You, bring them here that their thirst may be slaked and their hunger satisfied.
III. The Word of God
What was Jesus doing all this time? Certainly He was healing many, but as was His want, I believe He was also teaching God’s Word. This certainly was the case with the earlier feeding of the 5000. Why would He be doing this when He could spend all His time simply healing people? Listen to what our Anglican forefathers said of Scripture in the introduction to the King James Version:
It is not only an armour, but also a whole armoury of weapons, both offensive and defensive; whereby we may save ourselves and put the enemy to flight. It is not an herb, but a tree, or rather a whole paradise of trees of life, which bring forth fruit every month, and the fruit thereof is for meat, and the leaves for medicine. It is not a pot of Manna or a cruse of oil, which were for memory only, or for a meal’s meat or two; but as it were a shower of heavenly bread sufficient for a whole host, be it never so great, and as it were a whole cellar full of oil vessels; whereby all our necessities may be provided for, and our debts discharged. In a word, it is a panary of wholesome food against traditions; a physician’s shop (St. Basil calleth it) of preservatives against poisoned heresies; a pandect of profitable laws against rebelllious spirit; a treasury of most costly jewels against beggarly rudiments; finally, a fountain of most pure water springing up unto everlasting life. And what marvel? The original thereof being from heaven, not from earth; the author being God, not man; the ineditor, the Holy Spirit, not the wit of the Apostles or Prophets; the penmen, such as were sanctified from the womb, and endued with a principal portion of God’s Spirit; the matter verity, piety, purity, uprightness; the form, God’s word, God’s testimony, God’s oracles, the word of truth, the word of Salvation, the effects light of understanding, stableness or persuasion, repentance from dead works, newness of life, holiness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost; lastly, the end and reward of study thereof, fellowship with the saints, participation of the heavenly nature, fruition of an inheritance immortal, undefiled, and that never shall fade away: Happy is the man that delighteth lo the Scripture, and thrice happy that meditateth in it day and night.
As important as preaching the Word of God is, I would like to further in this story and look at what happened next.
IV. Bread, Spit, and an Ass
As you know, when Jesus finished teaching the multitudes, He had compassion upon them because they had nothing to eat and no way to get some food. He told His disciples that He wanted to feed them, but their reponse was about the same as last time - How? When Jesus asked them what they had, their reply was only seven loaves and a few fish. He took that anyway and, of course, was able to multiply it until the multitude was completely fed. This we all know. But have you ever wondered why Jesus asked for the loaves and fishes in the first place? When He created the universe, He did it, as theologians like to say, "ex nihilo", that is, out of nothing. There was no left-over universe from times past which He fashioned into our universe, for where would those materials have come from? If they predate God, then God is no longer the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. No, He’s quite happy to make everything out of nothing. If that’s the case, then why did He need the bread and meat? I suggest, then, that He did not need it, but chose to use it for His own reasons. As a matter of fact, He does this quite frequently. Just before our Gospel verses today, we read:
Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him. And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. (Mark 7:32-33)
Jesus spat in this man’s mouth! Not only that, but just after our Gospel story here’s another account of a healing:
... they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And ... He ... spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, ... And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. (Mark 8:22-25)
This is gross. Surely there must have been a more sanitary way to treat these people. If the Pharisees hadn’t gotten to Him first, I’m sure the Jerusalem Medical Association would have begun their investigation! Probably the most famous such usage is from the book of Numbers. That book starts out real slow with a lot of enumerations, but turns out to be a quite interesting book because of all the cool stories in it. The one I’m thinking of is Balaam’s ass. I don’t have time to go into the story, but at one point we see an God making an ass, that is, a donkey, to rebuke it’s rider. Couldn’t God have simply spoken to Balaam Himself? Of course, but He chose not to. You see, God frequently uses things we can see, hear, taste, touch, and feel to accomplish His purpose. Many times they are things that we bring to Him.
V. Objection: Useless
At this point, I can hear two objections immediately pop up. The first is that what I have to give is so worthless that it can’t possibly be of any use. But remember the bread Jesus used earlier? Here’s a description of bread making that might be like what some of His poor followers had. This comes from "Unger’s Bible Dictionary":
She spread some handfuls of grain upon an oblong slab of stone, slightly hollowed on its upper surface, and proceeded to crush them with a smaller stone like a painter’s muller, which she moistened from time to time. For an hour and more she labored with her arms, shoulders, loins, in fact, all her body; but an indifferent result followed from such great exertion. The flour, made to undergo several grindings in this rustic mortar, was coarse, uneven, mixed with bran or whole grains, which had escaped the pestle, and contaminated with dust and abraided particles of the stone. She kneaded it with a little water, blended with it, as a sort of yeast, a piece of stale dough of the day before, and made from the mass round cakes, about half an inch think and some four inches in diameter, which she placed upon a flat flint, covering them with hot ashes. The bread, imperfectly raised, often badly cooked, borrowed, from the organic fuel under which it was buried, a special odor, and a taste to which strangers did not sufficiently accustom themselves. The impruities which it contained were sufficient in the long run to ruin the strongest teeth. Eating it was an action of grinding rather than chewing, and old men were not ingrequently met with whose teeth had gradually been worn away to the level of the gums, like those of an aged ass or ox. (Unger, p183)
If Christ can feed a multitude on that, He can take whatever you have and make it useful.
VI. Objection: Not All
There is, however, a more subtle, but I think, more effective objection to any gifts we might bring. I know it trips me up. It is this: Whatever I bring, I know it’s just the tip of the iceburg of what God requires of me. If I give that (whatever THAT is), then He’s not going to receive it because what He really wants is something I just don’t feel I can give. If He’s not Lord OF all, He’s not Lord AT all. In response I would say this.
While it’s true that "If He’s not Lord of all, He’s not Lord at all", it’s not true in the sense that you just quoted it. You see, Christ is Lord of all regardless of what you give or don’t give. You don’t make Hiim Lord; He’s that in and of Himself. He’s Lord of your life whether you want Him to be or not. He orders every action down to the smallest movement. This is the great comfort of the doctrine of predestination. In fact, if the acceptance by God of your gift depended upon your level of commitment, love, etc, then God would never accept anything. The world has yet to see what God can do with a man wholly surrendered to Him. It’s not what you do that makes the gift worthy or enough, but what He does. And what were His words on the cross? "IT IS FINISHED!" It’s done. There’s nothing that you can add. That’s why in today’s epistle passage that St. Paul does not say, "Stop being slaves to sin", but "you are set free from sin". We have work to do, much work, but not in the sense of this-for-that. When Paul talks about our works in sanctification, it’s not in the sense that we are sanctified by grace and works. No. Just as we are justified by grace alone, so does God sanctify us by grace alone. Unlike justification, in sanctification he does use our works, but that’s not WHY He changes us. It’s simply how. We are not given three steps to be free from sin, but we are told that we already are free from sin. Of course your offering to God is not enough, nor is it pure. You are corrupt thru and thru. When you first believed, God declared you clean, but it will take a lifetime to make you so. Therefore, what I would encourage you to trust that God will finish what He has started. God will have a holy bride and you will be a part of that.
This is not permission to slack, but to not beat yourself up when you see that you still have sin in your life. As long as you trust in Christ, He will not only justify you, but will continually sanctify you until He presents you spotless on the last day. And even that trust that you have is guaranteed by Him.
VII. Aha
Well, there’s only one thing left from my sermon title. We’ve discussed bread, spit, and an ass, but what’s the "aha"? Although Jesus accomplished many things with this miracle, I submit the greatest one is recorded just a few verses after it’s over. All through the book of Mark people are marvelling at Jesus, wondering who He is. His home town gets mad at Him and kicks Him out. Others ridicule Him. Even His disciples, after He walked on water "amazed themselves beyond measure, and marvelled". But finally, with the feeding of the 4000, and subsequent events, the message starts to get thru. In the same chapter as this story:
Jesus ... asked His disciples, saying to them, "Who do men say that I am?" So they answered, "John the Baptist; but some say Elijah; and others, one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered and said to Him, "You are the Christ." (Mark 8:27-29)
That is the message of the feeding of the 4000. Once we realize that Jesus is the Christ, we are giving glory and honor to Him. And that is the highest calling to which we can attain.
VIII. The Eucharist
Lord, where’s that bread today? Can you multiply it today for us? Can you feed us so that we can recognize You? I say to you all, yes, He not only can, but will. Here is His bread that He multiplies countless times until it fills all His people. Eat this bread and recognize Christ.
This is the word of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Soli Deo Gloria!
