Bible Text: John 6:1-15 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus | Series: Lent 2022 | Jesus looks at this great crowd. And He sees every single one of them as a person created in the image of God, each one fearfully and wonderfully made, the special object of God’s care. No doubt there are some very annoying people there. No doubt some whose hygiene could use some work. No doubt some ugly, misshapen, socially awkward, unintelligent, unkempt. And it isn’t that he’s blind to this; it’s that Jesus sees first things first. He sees God’s creation, and more than that, the crown of God’s creation, individual personalities whom God specially made to be with Him forever.
What if this is how you saw everyone you interacted with. What if this is how the husband looked at his wife every time he saw her? Not first of all at whatever faults might be there, not first of all the imperfections or even the perfections that attract his eye, but first of all as the beloved of God? What if parents saw their children this way, not first of all as mess makers, whiners, expensive, or on the other hand as their little idols, but first of all as the apple of God’s eye, immortal souls made in the image of God? What if every person we met and came into contact with at work, at the store, at church, at school, at home, in our neighborhood what if we looked at them as Jesus looked at that crowd that day and saw what He saw?
We would be much happier. And we would spread that happiness. That’s the name of this Sunday. Be happy. Rejoice. And this happiness comes from the gaze of our Creator on us. We call this His providence. He provides for us. When He looks on us He doesn’t see first of all people to feud with or despise or look down on or abuse, but His creation, bodies and immortal souls He made to be His children and to whom He wants to be a Father. And everything He does, all His providing, the rain that falls, the sun that rises and sets, the fruitful fields, the fruitful wombs, the children, the spouse, the neighbor, the money, the house, everything He gives generously because this is how He sees us first of all.
That’s what the eyes of Jesus saw. And that’s why He fed them. We need to train our eyes to see the same. We may not be pessimists. We may not be despisers of God’s creation, especially not of the crown of His creation, on whom He pours such love and concern. God has even been so gracious as to build His merciful stance into our very souls. What father, Jesus says, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a snake? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? The fatherly heart, the motherly heart, is naturally merciful to its own, naturally cares for its own (which is why the crime of abortion is such a soul-killing thing). But the gaze of Christ sees each one as His Father’s own. And the gaze of Christian eyes has to learn to do the same. When you see your wife, your husband, your children, your brother or sister, your neighbor, the clerk at the store, the waitress, anyone, you are looking at what your Father in heaven specially created, an immortal soul, whom God wants with Him forever and loves more than you can fathom.
Jesus sees this first of all. He also sees what is all too obvious, but He sees it more deeply than any other. That this beautiful creation of God, this precious immortal soul, this body fearfully and wonderfully made, is sick unto death. He sees not only bodies that need Him to provide them with food or they will die but souls that have turned in on themselves, that are desperately selfish, that now put bread and fish above love and knowledge of God, people who will want to make Him a bread king instead of a Savior, people whose souls are sick unto death. But this does not stop Jesus. It doesn’t turn His gaze angry. Instead, to His gaze of love now comes a gaze of compassion and pity. This isn’t to say that God isn’t angry at sin, angry at sinners for sinning. He is and you should fear His wrath and not do anything against His commandments. It is to say that Jesus does not want to punish us, does not want to lose us to the devil forever. He looks at people and He sees men and women and children whose punishment and guilt and shame He would rather take on Himself than lose. He sees people helpless to grope out of the pit, for whom He will dive into the pit of death and despair to save. He sees the misery of sin and separation from His Father, and He steels Himself to take this misery from these people and put it on Himself and to cry out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me,” so that they would never be separated from Him.
Jesus’ gaze will sometimes grow fierce, sometimes show His righteous anger. But this is always against false teaching and false teachers and false belief. The fierce countenance and the whip that drives the false teachers out of the Temple is always accompanied by the kind face and the gentle voice that teaches the people.
And so as we gaze at other people we will see sin. Not just annoyances, but sin, people being selfish and stingy and mean and cruel and vindictive. And we’ll see misery, drunks who keep staring at the last drop in the bottle, addicts who go again to the porn or the drug that has never ever given them a moment of real satisfaction, losers who have never even contemplated the meaning of life or their duty to God and their fellow man. And our gaze is right to despise the sin. And to be angry with it. But it must despise it and be angry as Jesus despised it. Not with a vindictiveness of our own. Not without the great desire to save this precious body and soul from the shame and the pain and the guilt and the punishment.
It is not our natural reaction to do nothing as we see a man mugged and beaten before our eyes. Our eyes must at least look with pity, even if our legs won’t carry us to give help. And if we don’t give the help, we must like the priest and the Levite who walk by, make some excuse for the failure of our pity. But if it is our own child or our own brother being mugged, being beaten, then not only will our eyes pity, but all our strength and voice will join to protect. And if this is our reaction to the devil’s attack on the body, how much more should it be our reaction to his attack on the soul? Not one of disinterest. Not one of I have more important things to do. Not one of He got what he deserved. No, but this is God’s beautiful creation. This is the one for whom Jesus lived and suffered and died. This is the one whose just desert Jesus took on Himself. This is the one whom God wants with Him forever. So you look at him, you look at her, with pity, with the earnest desire that the forgiveness and peace you have from your Savior would be the forgiveness and peace of the person in front of you right now. And your gaze, if it remains a gaze of love and pity, will also be a gaze that acts.
We can’t multiply loaves of bread for the poor. Because we’re not Jesus. But we can give of our mammon to support the poor and the church. We can’t multiply loaves of bread for the poor, but as Jesus Himself says, we can do works still greater than these. We can forgive those who sin against us with Christ’s forgiveness, we can invite people to church to hear the Word that saves both body and soul and gives true happiness, we can confess and speak God’s Word at home with devotions and wherever we go when called upon. Jesus calls these works greater than His miracles because when the Word of God converts the soul and gives faith in Jesus, it is a rising from the dead, it is a reuniting of a soul with God, it is a giving of happiness and joy that no merely bodily miracle could possibly bring.
This, in the end, is the lesson of the feeding of the five thousand. They wanted what at the end? More bread. To make Jesus an earthly king. The great majority of them missed the point, underestimated the kindness and pity in His sacred face. He gave them bread because He was their God, now in human flesh, the life-giving bread that comes down from heaven. And He was there to give his flesh for the life of the world. They would grow hungry again, discontent again, as their fathers did, even when God rained down manna from heaven, and no amount of bread or fish or delicacy or earthly pleasure could satisfy the soul’s longing or combat death in the end. But the Savior Jesus could, He is the bread of life come down from heaven, He would pass through death for them, so that everyone who believes in Him will have everlasting life. As great as the miracle of multiplying loaves was, it pales in comparison with the miracle Jesus gives us today. His face is turned toward us in pure love, us the crown of God’s creation, beautiful, immortal souls created for eternal life. And His face sees the corruption and filth that mires this beauty, our many sins, and instead of looking on us in anger, His love joins with pity and He not only looks but He acts. He gives us the bread from heaven. The flesh that He gave up for the life of the world He now gives to you to eat. He cares not simply for our bodies but for our souls. He gives us the bread that if a man eat in faith, he will live forever. He gives our restless souls what they long for, to find their rest in Him.
And with this He gives us promise of everything else. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. The crowds sought to see Jesus and His signs and Jesus gave them what they needed. We seek to see the kindly face of our Savior and we receive not simply bread but Himself and His righteousness. And because He gives us this we know He will give all else.
But still this is not what we seek, not first, all these other things. We seek righteousness. We seek Jesus. All other things come, and we thank our God for them. But we don’t want these things unless we have them from our God. We don’t want to enjoy the Creation without its Creator. We don’t want to enjoy life without the Giver of life. We don’t want to enjoy stuff in sin, but with our Savior from sin. So we seek the kindly face of our God. And He smiles upon us for the sake of His Son.
This gaze of our Lord Jesus Christ is on us and so we give it to others. I smile at my son and he smiles back. And so he learns to smile at others. Our Savior looks with love and pity on us. His is no pessimism for us. His is no hopeless gaze. It is determined and effective, based on the fact of His death and His suffering and His resurrection for us. So He teaches us to look at one another. As pearls of great price, whom God made in His own image, whom He wants with Him forever, for whom our Savior died and for whom He lives, whose Word now calls one and all, Come to me and I will give you the bread from heaven, which if a man eat, he will not die forever. Amen.