Bible Text: Mark 8:1-9 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus
The feeding of the four thousand is a greater miracle than the feeding of the five thousand. Everyone talks about the feeding of the five thousand, because it happens first and it’s a bigger number, obviously. In fact, the Bible-bashers will simply dismiss the feeding of the four thousand as a “doublet,” as simply a mistaken repeat of the same story. That’s silly. But the feeding of the four thousand is greater. When Jesus fed the five thousand, they’d only been with him a day, and they could have just walked to the nearest town and eaten. That’s what the disciples tell Jesus – send them home so they can eat. And Jesus says, “You feed them,” and they say they can’t, and then Jesus feeds them. It’s a miracle, it shows Jesus’ creative almighty power, but it doesn’t show the faith of the people. And that’s where it’s a lesser miracle. Because when He feeds the four thousand, they have been with Him three days. They’ve run out of food. They can’t go home. They’ll faint on the way. They’ve neglected everything for three days, left their jobs, their fun, their homes, run out of food, been simply irresponsible, because they are obsessed with listening to Jesus. And then, they don’t even ask for food. They aren’t worried about it. Jesus is. Without them asking, He gives, because He is merciful and that mercy isn’t simply for your soul but for your body.
So there are two feedings here. God feeds us in two ways. First, a spiritual feeding, and that’s what the people come for. They don’t come for food. And after that, a feeding of their body. And Jesus gives both. But look at the order. First comes the spiritual, then the bodily. And this isn’t simply chronological, first this, then that. It’s their priority, their main goal in life, that Jesus feed them with His Word. They seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things are added. You see it here. And you will see it in your life when you seek first the Kingdom of God.
I’ve had people tell me, Yeah, but people can’t be praying all the time or going to church all the time or reading the bible all the time, they need to work and need to relax and have fun. Of course. But is this really our problem today? Are people reading their Bibles too much and going to church too much and praying to Jesus so much that they’re neglecting their jobs and their time with family and their sportsball? I don’t have people coming to me with this problem – pastor help me, I can’t keep a job because all I ever want to do is read the Bible and go to church. Pastor, I forgot to eat and fainted and had to go to the hospital, because I just couldn’t tear myself away from the Bible. That’s not happening. And Jesus doesn’t warn against that as a problem either. He says beware of mammon, of worshipping money and job and leisure. Because that’s your problem. Jesus never warns about hearing His Word too much. You could argue it was a problem in the ancient church and in Luther’s time, monks literally running away into the desert or into a monastery and abandoning family and productive work and just praying and going to church. But that’s because they weren’t listening to the Word of God that tells you to take care of family and to work hard and to be a good citizen.
No, the problem today, as it was in Jesus’ time, is that people, Christians, do the opposite of the four thousand. They want all the other things and then Jesus. They don’t want to go out into the desert to be with Jesus, because there’s no coffee shops there, no sportsball there, no money there. So look at the crowd. See them leave behind home and job and everything else, because what they want above everything is Jesus, to hear Him, to get what He gives. See them spend three days listening to Him. And then without asking, without thinking about asking, they get Jesus feeding their bodies too.
God will take care of your every need. And you will know this when you seek first what He first wants to give. The Son of God did not become a man to feed you with food that your body eats and yet in the end can’t keep your body alive. From the creation of the World Jesus has been providing for people’s food. He makes the rain fall, makes the grain grow. It’s easy for Him. He still does it and He didn’t need to become a man to do it.
He became a man to feed your soul with the food that if you eat you will never die. And that was not easy for him. The food He gives is His flesh and He gave it on the cross in bitter sufferings and death for the life of the world. And when He feeds you with the word of His cross, you know no matter what you have done or left undone, no matter your health, your cares, your worries, you know that you have a God who loves you, who cares for you, who counts every hair on your head, who created you in His image to spend eternity with Him. He speaks and you know that the sin that separates you from Him, the evil that you have done and thought and said, your lustful eye, your judging heart, He forgives it, erases it, washes it away by His blood, pours out His life unto death, to present you as pure and holy before His Father in heaven. He feeds you with His Word and you know that His death has destroyed death, so you who belong to Him don’t need to fear it. The hell that your sins deserved He suffered and so it cannot touch you. You hear this, you trust in Him, and before you ask for anything else good, you know He will give it.
They didn’t even ask. The four thousand. And He gave it. So ask for good government. Ask for a good job. Ask for a hard work ethic. Ask for faithful friends, a faithful spouse, whatever good thing you want from Him, and leave it in the hands of the One who died for you and lives for you. Ask, and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened unto you. He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not with Him freely give you all good things?
But never, never make the secondary the primary. You don’t seek first the feeding of your body and then the feeding of your soul. That was the original sin. God tells Adam, eat of every tree in the garden, but do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And Adam and Eve, they lived by that word, they trusted that word, and so they ate of the tree of life and lived. But when they sought first the secondary things, when they sought first the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because it looked so good, then came pain and thistles and ruin and death. And that is what the seeking of stuff first leads to today – you can take none of it with you and it will never satisfy your need, because you need God.
There is a third kind of feeding, where Jesus feeds us, that combines in a way the two feedings of your soul and your body, and brings us back to the tree of life, which Adam and Eve ate because God told them to. And that is the Lord’s Supper. There are obvious similarities between Jesus feeding the four thousand and the Lord’s Supper. When He feeds the four thousand, He gives thanks, breaks the bread, and gives it to His disciples, those are literally the words you will soon here when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, “Our Lord Jesus Christ on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and gave it to His disciples.”
And you should make the connection, because the miracle of the feeding of the four thousand is that a finite amount of bread, which could not according to the laws of nature sustain four thousand men, did. And then there was more left over. So it goes with the body of Christ and His precious blood. It is the same body that bore your sins on the cross, that defeated your death, that rose to eternal life. And He feeds you with it and it never diminishes, never takes away from Him, but only gives to you, and it gives everything He is, His life, His sonship, His righteousness. So your body and your soul will live forever. Death could not hold Him. It cannot hold you. This is what the feeding of the four thousand teaches. Jesus says so. He comes to His disciples walking on the water, and they think he’s a ghost, and they’re terrified. And He says, “Don’t you understand about the loaves?” Don’t you understand that they multiplied and fed thousands? Do you think it is difficult for Me to walk on water, to defy the very rules of nature that I created, with the body that now belongs to Me, the eternal Son of God? So we have here the greater feeding, the greater miracle, that our incarnate God gives us the body and blood that truly satisfies our souls and will give immorality to our mortal bodies.
And there will be a fourth feeding of us by God. And that is the feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom which has no end. We know life on this sinful earth is bitter, but we still cling to it. We call the days evil and yet none of us wants to leave them behind. There are simply too many joys on earth because God gives them and our flesh, no matter how strong our faith becomes, still dreads death, dreads the unknown. So it is a habit that you need to get into, daily, whether you are young or old, happy or depressed, rich or poor, enjoying life or just drudging through, think of heaven and the resurrection and beholding the face of God. It is not an unknown. It is your future, secured by the almighty God who bore your sin and destroyed your death and will welcome you into everlasting homes. You all have seen love in the face of loved ones – a mother, a father, a wife or husband, friend or child, you’ve seen love in their face. And it is beautiful. It cannot compare to the love you will see on your Savior’s face, how eternal, divine love for you will radiate from every feature of your God. And you will see it. And he will feed you with immortality and eternal peace in this beatific vision. Then you will be satisfied, body and soul, forever, giving thanks to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.