Tag Archives: Daily Bread

Leftovers – Sermon on John 6:1-15 for the Fourth Sunday in Lent

John 6:1-15

1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 

5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” 

15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Dear saints, your God isn’t stingy. He provides everything you need spiritually and physically out of the abundance of His mercy. Here in the wilderness, Jesus feeds 5,000 men plus women and children (possibly ten to twenty thousand people total) with five loaves of bread and two fish. And this text shows how Jesus is the Shepherd described in Psalm 23. 

Jesus sees this massive crowd coming toward Him. The gospel of Mark tells us that Jesus had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and Jesus restores their souls by teaching them many things (Mk. 6:34). But it looks like there is going to be a whole lotta want from this flock because Jesus’ sermon has gone long. The disciples get antsy and ask Jesus to send the crowd home because they are going to need to eat (Mk. 6:35-36).

But with Jesus as their Shepherd, so there will be no want. Jesus asks Philip, “Where are we going to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” Even today, feeding a crowd this size is a monumental task. We are blessed with farmers that can produce massive amounts of food. Trucks, trains, and railroads can transport goods measured in tons. Most stores still have ample supplies of bread, meat, cheese, and all sorts of goodies, but how many stores would you have to buy out to feed this many people? Plus, the people in Jesus’ day didn’t have all these luxuries, and because this crowd is out in the wilderness, the task is even more impossible. But, again, Jesus is the Shepherd, so this flock will have no want.

A young boy is there, and gives his little snack to Jesus. Our translation records Jesus saying, “Have the people sit down,” but it’s a bit more forceful than that, and sounds more like Psalm 23. Literally, Jesus tells the disciples, “Make the people sit down.” And where do these people sit down? In the green grass. And Jesus prepares a table for His flock. Jesus takes the bread and the fish, gives thanks, and distributes the food to the people as the disciples wait on them (Mk. 6:41).

None of the Gospels say anything about what the crowd drank, but their plates certainly ran over. And everyone eats their fill. Not only that, but while everyone is unbuckling their belts, Jesus sends the disciples out again with doggie bags. They gather up the leftovers and return with twelve baskets full. There is more food in the end than there was in the beginning.

We should remember that in this feeding of the 5,000, Jesus does what He had already been doing and is always doing everywhere throughout the entire world – providing food. Every day, Jesus feeds the billions of people throughout the world and throughout history (Ps. 104:27-28). The only difference here is that Jesus does it differently than He normally does. Of course, feeding this massive crowd with five loaves and two fish is a miracle and reveals that Jesus is God in the flesh. But don’t lose sight of the fact that the food you ate yesterday was also a gracious gift of God miraculously provided for you. You have just gotten used to God feeding you through your paycheck or your parents, then through a restaurant or grocery store, your fridge, and your stove.

Now, let’s reflect on this a little bit. I am tempted (and I suspect you are tempted as well, so I’ll lump you in with myself) we are tempted to divide our life into two parts – the spiritual part and the physical part. And the temptation goes like this: Jesus takes care of the spiritual part – the forgiveness and the eternal life part. But we’re tempted to think that we have to care of the physical part – the working and earning a living part, the eating part, the caring for family and friends part. We think, “Sure, I need mercy and grace for the spiritual part, but I need works and effort for the physical part.” But the result of this makes us live like atheists who don’t believe in God. We end up living as though God isn’t involved in giving us our daily bread. We wrongly think that our food is only the result of creation – soil, seeds, sun, water, etc. But that’s not true. God provides forgiveness and eternal life, but God also provides strength, work, money, bread, and physical life. Because Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth, He gives us what we need for the life to come, and He gives us what we need for this life.

It is true that the way God provides for us spiritually is different than how He provides for us physically. Salvation comes down from heaven, and bread comes up from the earth. But God is behind both. And in this Gospel text, and our Old Testament text (Ex. 16:2-21), God reminds us that He sometimes rains bread from heaven. Sometimes five loaves feed 5,000 men plus women and children. 

And notice how Jesus provided what His flock needed in this life. He used the little snack that the boy gave to provide for His sheep. Jesus wouldn’t have needed this boy’s food to feed the crowd. But He did use it, and Jesus used it to do more than was expected. Again, there were leftovers. As the crowd unbuckles their belts, Jesus sends the disciples out a second time saying, “Gather up the leftover fragments.” Christ here isn’t worried about waste. If He was worried about waste, Jesus wouldn’t have even given as much as everyone wanted, let alone enough for everyone to totally stuff their bellies. Jesus could have provided only what was needed.

But Jesus says, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may perish.” Our translation says ‘lost,’ but it is the same word Jesus uses in Jn. 3:16. In God’s infinite love, He sent His only-begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not ‘perish’ (same word) but have everlasting life. In other words, every last bit of what this boy gives and Jesus’ multiplication of it is used by Jesus. Even the leftovers are useful for further provision in Christ’s kingdom. Nothing of the boy’s gift or Jesus’ multiplication of it perishes.

Dear saints, the same is still true today. Because you belong to Jesus, because you have been redeemed by His death and resurrection, everything you do is used by Jesus to further His kingdom. We are always tempted to minimize what we do in our God-given callings and vocations as though it doesn’t matter or is insignificant. But it isn’t. Don’t minimize what you do as God’s children. Don’t ever think, “Well, I’m just changing a diaper when I could be doing something more spiritually significant,” or, “God doesn’t care how I empty the dishwasher or fold the laundry,” or, “What I put in the offering plate doesn’t help as much as what so-and-so puts in because they can put in a lot more.” That simply isn’t true!

Everything you do and everything you give is used by God. Jesus makes sure none of your works or gifts perish, Christian. God takes what you do, multiplies it, and uses it for the good of your neighbor and for His kingdom. Nothing you do, Christian, will ever perish because it is holy work rendered to your neighbor in service to God. No leftovers end up in the trash. All of it is used by Jesus. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Distributed – Sermon on John 6:1-15 for the Fourth Sunday of Lent

Listen here.

John 6:1–15

1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The details of this text are so vivid and wonderful. Jesus and His disciples sit down near the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The Passover was near, so we know that it is a spring day and there was “much grass in the place” (v. 10). Everyone had been enjoying nice, sunny weather during this beautiful time of the year. We know that because Mark’s Gospel tells us that the grass was green (Mk. 6:39). As Jesus looks up, He sees a large crowd – five thousand men plus women and children – coming toward Him. And Jesus has this little conversation with Philip and Andrew while the crowd gathers around them.

“Philip, where are we going to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” But Philip balks at the suggestion. “Seven months’ worth of wages won’t buy enough for them to get even a little.” Andrew joins the conversation, “This kid has five loaves of barley bread and two fish, but big deal.”

So, Jesus has the people sit down, and the boy gives Jesus his little lunch. Jesus takes the loaves, gives thanks for them, and blesses them. Christ does the same with the fish. The other Gospels tell us that Jesus has the disciples distribute the food to the crowd (Mt. 14:19; Mk. 6:41; Lk. 9:16). John tells us that each person in the crowd is served, and everyone has as much bread and fish as they could eat. But neither John nor the other three Gospels, give us the details of exactly how this distribution took place. Where did the food come from? Of course, it came from Jesus. Of course, it was a miracle. But what did the miracle look like?

While Jesus was blessing the food, did the loaves and fish grow and expand and become a huge mountain of food, because that is what it would take to feed this massive crowd? Did the loaves keep multiplying so the people could see where there had been one loaf, but now there are two? Did the fish keep plopping down from the sky into the disciples’ hands as they walked through the crowd? The Scriptures don’t say.

Personally, I like to think – as some have suggested – that the disciples each go out with a basket that has some of the bread and fish inside (since we know they had twelve baskets). They walk around to the people and each person reaches in to take some of the food. And while it appears to each individual that they are depleting the amount of food in the basket, when the next person reaches in, there is still enough. And more than enough. Maybe each person was a little cautious at first and takes just a little bit, but then the disciples say, “If anyone wants more, let me know. I’ve still got some.” And they go around again.

It could be that each person took some food from the disciples, and as they take a bite every now and then, they look down and there is still more.

Maybe you have been to a camp or something where a large number of people are going to eat, and you see a sign that says, “Take all you want. Eat all you take.” Well, Jesus and the disciples didn’t have a sign like that. Because every last person in that crowd – again five thousand men plus women and children, so this is likely ten to twenty thousand people or more – everyone eats their fill. And, as the last man unbuckles his belt and as the stuffed women and children lick their fingers, Jesus sends the disciples out again. And they gather up the leftovers and fill those twelve baskets full of food.

This is a miracle, but this is also how God always works even today. Every day, you deplete things, which is something that you are probably more aware of today. You write a check or swipe your card, and you can look at your bank account and see that there is less. Think of your fridge, freezer, cupboards, and pantry. You prepare some food and eat it, and there is less then there was before.

We can see how we are consuming and depleting things, and it is easy to focus on that and worry. But what we can’t always see is how things are delivered and distributed to us.

Yes, we have jobs. We work and toil. Our paycheck is deposited, or the social security check, our tax return comes. And we notice that. But I hear people tell me of times when the logic of what they have and what is available to them simply doesn’t add up or make any sense. I have experienced this too.

In seminary, the fourth year of our learning was to do a pastoral internship, and my placement was in Salinas, CA. The congregation provided us with a place to live along with a monthly stipend that was generous, but it was the seminary’s intent that we interns would have just enough to get by. We were out in California when gas prices were extremely high (it was almost $5/gallon for a long time). During that time, we were still paying my student loans, and we had our second child. My car was broken into. All sorts of things happened that were crazy expensive. But when it was time to move back to Minnesota, my loan was completely paid off. I had purchased a new laptop to use for work. We had been blessed to be able to travel to beautiful places like Yosemite. I was able to go to a couple baseball games in Oakland and San Francisco. And just before we left California, we looked at our bank account, and had more, significantly more, in our account than when we moved there.

Yes, we had been given gifts from the members out there, and we accounted for that. But the math didn’t work. And I know how to use a calculator! There was no reason or explanation for how greatly we had been blessed except – the Lord had provided. God provided more than we could make sense or logic of.

Here’s the point: God does let us see how we use His resources and deplete them. But He doesn’talways let us see how He gives and distributes them.

Now, a lot could be said here about how you give to the church. And if things were different in our country and world right now, I would take the opportunity of this text to do so. But I don’t want to put any unneeded pressure on you. Even though this is being video-recorded, I am not some TV preacher asking for seed money for a Learjet or something ridiculous like that. But know that God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7), and He will not let you go hungry or lose your house because you give money to support the work of His church.

Instead today, I’d like to encourage you. You might find it easy to act like Philip or Andrew did in this text. Philip is looking to money as the solution to the problem of feeding the crowd, and he concludes that they don’t have enough. And even if they did have enough, there’s no store that would be able to supply food for a crowd this size. And Andrew mockingly looks to how little they have out there in the wilderness.

The problem with both of them is not that they didn’t know Jesus or that they didn’t trust Him. They have left everything to follow Jesus and be His disciples. Their real problem is that they are sinners, just like you and me. Their problem is that they acted the same way that we often act even though we know the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. And because they are sinners, they, just like us, give in to the temptation to focus on various idols instead of focusing on the gracious giving of God.

And even still, Jesus provides for them. He provides what they could not buy, bake, grow, earn, or deserve. He provides them this meal and enough to last for days afterward. But most importantly, Jesus lavishly pours out on His sinful disciples His mercy and grace. We see it here as He doesn’t scold them for their sin. It will happen again. In fact, after this Jesus will feed another crowd – four thousand that time (Mk. 8:1-10). And right after that the disciples are with Jesus in a boat, and they realize they only have one loaf of bread, and they will worry again (Mk. 8:14-21). And still loving Jesus goes to the cross to shed His blood for them and for you.

Dear saints, Jesus still provides for you. May we be wise with the temporal, First Article gifts He freely gives. And may we be confident with the eternal gifts of His mercy and grace which cannot be taken away no matter what may come. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.