Full table [Trinity 7; St. Mark 8:1-9]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

Who speaks to you all today in verse 4 actually saying,

“Where will anyone be able to get the breads to satisfy these people here in the wilderness?”

When was the last time you truly explored the depth of your trust in God? You work for a compassionate God, so why can’t you be compassionate? Of course Jesus is going to feed those 4000 people. We see His compassion revealed in the Gospel today, where the people’s physical weakness of hunger moved Jesus to act. Yet, it was He that allowed those people to go hungry in the first place.

When we look to Jesus for only a moral code, we see a very deficient God. Sure, He gives me food on my table, but for the most part I work hard for that and provide it, myself. We can say that He enables that to happen, but He doesn’t enable it for everyone. There are still people starving today, some 795 million people, according to World Hunger Statistics.

So, Jesus must not be all-powerful. He must not be able to enact miracles, or we excuse Him and say, “He doesn’t work that way”, which in turn excuses us from our having to be compassionate to and feeding our enemies.

You must remember that the miracle was only for 4000, the great catch of fish was only for St. Peter, and there is still the matter of the law condemning us in our sin and landing us in eternal jail till we pay the full price of all hanging over our head, as we’ve heard from the last few weeks of Gospel readings.

Indeed, you hear the cry Israel hurls at God saying, “Would that we had died in Egypt…when we ate bread to the full. For you have led is into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (Ex. 16:3) Why do I have to be compassionate when it just causes so many problems. They, like you, complain to God. They blame God. They were condemning God.

“Who will feed us with meat?” (Num. 11:18), they scream. We are hungry. We demand compassion. We work too hard not to deserve it. Their lamentations begin to take on an infantile tenor in a tantrum. Moses fears for his life, for these are not infants he’s dealing with, but full grown adults able to fight and wield weapons. Moses turns to the Lord and desperately calls for aid, “Where will I get meat to give to all this nation?...I will not be able to bear this nation alone.”(Num. 11:13-14)

Repent. The evidence you present for your case against God as being uncompassionate is pretty air-tight. Just like the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years, you don’t see any provision or potential for provision in the immediate future. Israel was going hungry. The people following Jesus were going hungry. Your compassion grates on you and God isn’t keeping His end of the compassion bargain.

God is unable, according to you, and if He is, He only shows up every once in a while and moreso to other people, even wicked people, but not you. Yes, the wicked prosper and their eyes stand out with fatness, for all the blessing of food God gives to them and not to the poor.

King David is on your side saying, “Will God be able to prepare a table in the wilderness?...Is He able to give bread? (Ps.78:19-20) He also is in to doubt as to whether or not God can provide, not just food but true care and concern that helps in every generation, even to his future descendants: you.

Good news everyone! We don’t have to make excuses or imagine various ways we think God is acting out compassion in our lives nor must we fake being content with what we have. In fact, Jesus was able to not only provide for the needs of those who had gathered to hear Him teach, but Jesus was also willing to feed those who had gathered to hear Him teach. Which is exactly what we do today: gathering to hear Him teach. So where is the providing and feeding offered, not just to St. Luke, but to the whole world?

We have Psalm 23 telling us about the Lord setting a table before His enemies. We have Isaiah promising a banquet set by the Lord (25:6). We don’t have to throw it all into the prophesy category and say, “well God’s not doing it now, but He will later”, because Jesus has taken us the cross.

It is not just compassion that Jesus is giving out to His Church, or the 4000 today, and it is not just future hope in front of sin, death, and the devil. Jesus is giving out Himself. In the incarnation of God, the Lord takes on human flesh. Not that God slips into a flesh suit, but that He brings humanity into Himself.

Thus, whenever we think about what it means for God to “have compassion” and whenever we contemplate whether God can provide for us or not, we must always start and end at Jesus on the cross and Jesus’ Supper. Can the Lord provide for you in real ways today, or is it just spiritual imagination?

Yes. He does. And He does it in the sacrifice of His Son and the offering of His Son to you on a silver platter. Who will feed you forgiveness in this desert of forgiveness? Who will feed you life in this valley of the shadow of death? Where will you get the bread of compassion?

Our Lord Jesus took the Bread of Heaven, and when He had given thanks, He broke it on the cross and gave it to His disciples saying, “You feed them.” Faith trusts God to feed ever so much more than 4000 or even 5000. The compassion of our God is not just a future hope of fulfillment in heaven, but a present reality in bread and wine. Because Jesus does not just show compassion, He is compassion.

If you are thinking that God is only providing for you because you live in the greatest nation in the world, well that’s thinking too small. Likewise, if you think God is not providing because people are starving in other countries, also too small. God doesn’t want to care for the self-righteous. He has come to rescue and redeem sinners.

Our hunger and thirst is so much deeper than the next hamburger. They signify two things: 1) that we are weak in our sin without a constant influx of food and 2) that we don’t trust God. Thus, Jesus not only promises rescue and forgiveness, but gives us a sign that He is telling the truth: His Supper.

Do we trust God enough to be able to hand out the entirety of His promise in Christ, in bread and wine or are we waiting for a different sign from heaven? Faith not only trusts that God is compassionate, but that He is compassionate toward you. For, though our mortal eyes only behold bread and wine as we pour it, faith sees compassion incarnate, given and shed for you.

The Lord will provide, goes the saying, not only physical needs, but spiritual. Even if our physical needs are not provided for, or are over-provided, The Lord’s Supper is the same for all, providing comfort for all, compassion for all, and Body and Blood for all. Bread and fish just couldn’t cut it.