READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 62:6-12
Romans 6:19-23
- St. Mark 8:1-9
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Savior. (Titus 1:4)
Who speaks to you from the Gospel reading today, saying:
“And they ate and
were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets
full”
Thus far from the Word of God, which He includes for you to
hear and remember that Jesus alone is the one sacrifice for sin, offered once,
Who found an eternal redemption, and perfected forever those who are sanctified
(Heb 7;9;10). No other person, place, or thing can make satisfaction, that is
fulfill all that is needed to renew this world and you, except Jesus.
This should point us to a greater understanding of sin and
guilt in our lives. That, though they remain, they have been covered by Jesus’s
satisfaction. Thus, we thank God for the knowledge of our sin and give greater
thanks that His satisfaction can heal everyone else, in the same way.
When are you satisfied?
I know when you are not satisfied: Though gold should fill
your coffers, though you are praised by the strong and mighty, yet you are not
satisfied. Though you have the job you want, the family you spent so much time
and effort on, and a place on this earth you can call your own, you are not
content.
And though there is a discontent in us that wishes and hopes
for better things for us and our neighbors, our true heart is focused only on
our own wants, our own feelings, and our own hurts. For gold can be any kind of
wealth we imagine is important to us. Praise is any circle of people we want to
be a part of, even a circle of one.
You are also not satisfied with the Word of God. Remember
Jesus speaking about how “man does not live on bread alone, but by every
word that comes from the mouth of God”? (Mt 4:4)
Why? Why are we so dissatisfied with what God gives us? Not
just some, but every single thing from God we gripe about how we don’t have
enough or our neighbor has more or better than us.
And that is just with material things. As soon as Jesus
brings up His Word and compares it to bread, we transition to His gifts that He
brings to us and we are just as unsatisfied with them. Not only are His Word
and His sacraments common and unassuming to us, but His work on the cross is
also dull.
Its dull because its so far in the past. Its dull because I
get nothing in return for it. Its dull because there are no measurable
differences in my life or the life of others according to it. So for you to
offer your forgiveness, feels like an empty promise and at worst, a burden.
So much so that we begin to hoard it. We keep the
forgiveness to ourselves and make it harder for others to find forgiveness. We
begin to make rules around them. Rules that never have touched God’s lips.
Funny thing about forgiveness; if its hoarded and not
distributed out, it becomes worthless. And worthless spiritual things demand
more laws and rituals from us.
Thus you hear things such as: “If anyone says that the total
punishment [for sin] is always remitted by God at the same time as the guilt,
and that the satisfaction of penitents is nothing else than the faith by which
they apprehend that Christ made satisfaction for them, let him be anathema
[cast into the outer darkness]” (Ex. of Trent II:630)
When we find Christ’s satisfaction for us, unsatisfying, we
replace it with our own. We imagine our own satisfactions pleasing to God. As
if we have something that God does not. As if we can pay God back for all that
He has done. As if all that He commands and demands of us, we can fulfill with
a bigger offering, many prayers, and empty vows.
Even if we know all this, we still attempt anyway. Why?
Because in our sin, God has laid on us this hunger. Lamentations 3:15 says, “He
has filled me with bitterness, He has satisfied me with wormwood.” When we
seek other satisfaction besides Him, we find nothing and it leaves a bitter
taste in our mouth and we say, ““My strength and my hope have perished from
the Lord” (Lam 3:18).
But what does our Gospel reading say today? They ate and
were satisfied. More than that. they ate, were satisfied, and the broken
pieces leftover, the grazing fragments of food that you take but aren’t really
hungry for, the full plates that find themselves in the garbage at the party
that someone took but didn’t eat off. Seven baskets of “more than enough” were
filled.
What a wolfish hunger set upon Jesus! He even calls out the
crowd after feeding the 5000 in John 6. Jesus walks on water, sends His
disciples ahead of Him to cross the sea in a boat, and on the other side is a
crowd wondering just how Jesus got there and Jesus says, “you seek Me, not
because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to
everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father
has set His seal on Him.” (Jn 6:26-27)
What does our dear Lord cry out from the cross except that
He suffers this hunger for us all, “I thirst!” (Jn 19:28). The
forgiveness of sins is a thing promised for Christ’s sake, not ours, and it
cannot be received except by faith alone.
St. Paul does not say, “[God] gives us the victory if we set
up our satisfactions against death.”
But, “thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 15:57)” (Ap XIIb(VI): 49/146)
Therefore, it is impossible that our satisfactions can be a
payment for the eternal punishment or for the guilt. If only because that would
make the punishments of Christ not a sufficient satisfaction for the eternal
punishment.
However, our works will much less be such a satisfaction.
For even the works of a holy man are imperfect, and cannot even satisfy for his
own minor daily offenses, let alone for eternal punishment.
In other words, “there is no inner repentance unless it also
produces the outward putting to death of the flesh”, says our Confessions (Ap
XIIb(VI):34). In other other words, “without the shedding of blood there is
no forgiveness” of sins (Heb 9:22)!
Not all the blood of beasts, not all the blood or
satisfactions of men could merit the forgiveness of sins or satisfy the perfect
Law of God. For He wrote it with His own fingers. With His own voice He
threatened with guilt and punishment anyone who lives contrary to it.
So it is we find Christ on the cross for us, with His own
fingers wrapped around the nails, and with His own voice crying out, “Father
forgive them!” He did not say, “Father give them a bit of forgiveness so
that they can find the rest of the way themselves”.
He saw the crowds gathering, knew they had no bread to eat,
and fed them. At the right time, He set the table before His enemies, sinners,
and called for a Great Banquet. His enemies, confused, gladly accepted and when
they broke the bread, “their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus—and
He disappeared from their sight” (Luke 24:31).
Now, in the Bread and Wine without cost; in the ever-flowing
fountain of Life, we are given the satisfaction from eternity. A filling that
not only fills us completely, but overflows. An eating and drinking that calms
the hungry stomach and soothes the lacking soul.
So now we must present our members as slaves to
righteousness, as our Epistle taught today. For righteousness is the solid food
of Faith, given to the mature Christian (Heb 5:13-14). Righteousness, “faith
in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of
the dead, and eternal judgment” (Heb 6:1-2).
Now the Bread has become the meat. The meat of God. The
Incarnation of God on earth, come to bind, come to heal, come to feed. Jesus’s
love is enough for you. His care, His Church, His Life. It is enough and
everything will be ok because of it.
In fact, in order to defend His own Honor, to protect the
Glory of His Name, and to Keep His promises that not even death can stop, He
wills that you handle the Bread of Heaven. For today, the Lord has given us
this food in this due season of these Last Days. He has opened up His
raw-imprinted hand and satisfied the desire of every living thing (Ps
145:15-16).
Amen.
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