READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 2:7-17
Romans 6:19-23
- St. Mark 8:1-9
Grace to you all and Peace from God our Father and our Lord
Jesus, the Christ.
Who speaks to you today, saying:
This is God’s Word which Jesus sets before you to understand. Like a meal, you can understand how much this Word cost Him. This is to point you to the sacrifice Jesus makes for you. Not just 2000 years ago to middle-eastern hill people, but today. Today, may you hear His words, along with eating and drinking, and find there the forgiveness of our sins.
In St. Mark’s chapter 8 and part of 9, along with our Introit and the hymn we just sung, Jesus appears to be tackling the issue of understanding today, by setting His bread and His words in front of us. After our Gospel pericope, in verses 17 and 21, Jesus exclaims, “Do you not yet understand?” Not yet understand what? That Jesus is God in the flesh and that only God feeds in such miraculous ways, thus St. Mark is catechizing us. God has come and He has taken action.
Understanding, in general, is a sure sign of consciousness. In other words, being human is being conscious and being conscious means, you understand and can understand the world around you: up, down; good, bad; right, wrong. This is very helpful if you want any chance at survival.
You see, understanding involves more than just knowing something. Understanding is not plugging numbers in an equation. That’s just computing. Any rusty robot can do such a thing. What consciousness and understanding give you is the truth behind the numbers. Instead of mindless computation, you believe that the mathematical rules that reveal 2 + 2 = 4, are true.
Same with animals. Though they seem to be conscious, they simply obey commands, whether they are right or wrong. It may be wrong to bite or attack a person, but the animal only knows rebuke and reward. Thus, obedience is not the way for us to consciousness either, since that can be produced by bit and bridle.
Maybe we get closer to understanding when we think of food. There are many things we call food and even things that our government calls “food”. Cows, eggs, and apples would fit the first category. Partially hydrogenated soybean oil, xanthan gum, and cyanide (in small doses, of course) would fit the second category.
Yet, both categories are considered food. Understanding lets you know that consistently consuming hamburger is infinitely better than consistently consuming Xanthan Gum. Now you can say its a matter of quantity, but understanding is understanding. If your child is hungry, you reach for the bread, not the lab kit.
Let’s take this into the Feeding of the 4000, because Jesus brings up the leaven of the Pharisees and that’s where our misunderstanding begins. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod, He says, and the Apostles reply, its because we don’t have any bread and Jesus, once again, tells them they are wrong.
Again Jesus makes this spiritual. Beware the spiritual leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, that is their doctrine and preachings. Do you not understand, Jesus asks, that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. If you have even a small amount of works mixed into your Gospel, then you do not have the Gospel. If you do not understand what Jesus is doing, then you do not have Jesus.
However, just as knowing only takes you so far until you must understand, so too, understanding without faith is just as bad. For the Pharisees and Herod don’t only have leavened doctrine, they also have actual bread they use on the people. Bread and circuses from Herod and the Bread of the Temple for the Pharisees.
Repent. As is understandable, when we understand something, it is mostly spiritual to us. An inward change, if for no other reason than you cannot see thoughts. Anything that comes out of the brain is physically only chemical and electrical. A brain surgeon will never come out of the O.R. saying, “well that guy had some interesting thoughts.”
But Jesus, when He created us, put all of His Wisdom into creating and locating these spiritual thoughts and understandings in a fleshy brain. Such that it is necessary to have a fleshy brain to have unseen thoughts. Jesus works our consciousness in and through our bodies.
Same with the bread. Jesus does His work with both spiritual bread and physical bread. Not only does He feed those in need with daily bread, but He also says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4).
This means that the understanding faith gives us is to see and believe that feeding and bread are the point. The feeding that God will do with every word that comes from His mouth, is going to be through the ears AND through the mouth. He is not going to be a bread King, but God of our daily bread. Not a food pantry king, with an endless supply, but a Father with endless mercy.
Thus, feeding is the way to God. It is how God is accomplishing His work of salvation on earth. He is not using bread only in a spiritual way, like the Pharisees, and He is not using bread only in a physical way, like the kings and elites of the earth. All to coerce and control.
He is using it as a sacrifice. It is a sacrifice. Food is always a sacrifice. Whether it is burned up on an altar or ground up to feed the priests, the food always “loses” and in this way, sent up to God.
God makes the sacrifice.
Since Jesus is the Bread of Heaven and food is always the sacrifice, then Christ is the Bread of God Who taketh away the sins of the world. He is the food Who endures to eternal life. He is the Bread Who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
“This is the bread that comes down from heaven”, Jesus says in John 6, “so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:50-51)
How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things? Because God said so. It is His Word that declares, “This is how it is”, not any priest, or holy man, or leader. It is His Word that generates belief in His words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” It is the Word along with the bodily eating and drinking which accomplishes the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to all who believe.
Now, let us answer Jesus’s question of, “Do you still not understand”.
Yes. We still do not understand, but we believe. We believe in You and Your Word. That it does what it says and accomplishes the great feat of the salvation of sinners. Help our unbelief.
Jesus makes the point to remind the Apostles that at both great feedings, the 5000 and the 4000, that there were fragments left over from the meal and gathered reverently, in order to foster their understanding. Their understanding that He is going to save and care for His Creatures is the most perfect and final way ever: uniting Himself to you.
And it won’t be a union only on paper or only breathing in your nostrils. It will be flesh and blood. It will be body and soul. It will be a perfect union of God and man in Christ, such that we will be able to say, “Yes, Jesus. Now we understand. We feed on You.”
Not just a “sitting at table” way, but a “baptized into Your Body” way. That being members of His Body means that we feed as the heart feeds. We feed as the eyes, hands, head, and feet. This is the fulfillment of everyday eating. That we eat and are never hungry again. As branches of the vine, through faith, we live accordingly.
Not as robots, but understanding what our Lord is doing and loving that it is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. And since it has been set before us, we think about these things and rejoice (Phil 4:8). For God has revealed His glory, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it (Isaiah 40:5).
Who speaks to you today, saying:
“And He directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And
He took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, He broke them and gave them
to His disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd”
This is God’s Word which Jesus sets before you to understand. Like a meal, you can understand how much this Word cost Him. This is to point you to the sacrifice Jesus makes for you. Not just 2000 years ago to middle-eastern hill people, but today. Today, may you hear His words, along with eating and drinking, and find there the forgiveness of our sins.
In St. Mark’s chapter 8 and part of 9, along with our Introit and the hymn we just sung, Jesus appears to be tackling the issue of understanding today, by setting His bread and His words in front of us. After our Gospel pericope, in verses 17 and 21, Jesus exclaims, “Do you not yet understand?” Not yet understand what? That Jesus is God in the flesh and that only God feeds in such miraculous ways, thus St. Mark is catechizing us. God has come and He has taken action.
Understanding, in general, is a sure sign of consciousness. In other words, being human is being conscious and being conscious means, you understand and can understand the world around you: up, down; good, bad; right, wrong. This is very helpful if you want any chance at survival.
You see, understanding involves more than just knowing something. Understanding is not plugging numbers in an equation. That’s just computing. Any rusty robot can do such a thing. What consciousness and understanding give you is the truth behind the numbers. Instead of mindless computation, you believe that the mathematical rules that reveal 2 + 2 = 4, are true.
Same with animals. Though they seem to be conscious, they simply obey commands, whether they are right or wrong. It may be wrong to bite or attack a person, but the animal only knows rebuke and reward. Thus, obedience is not the way for us to consciousness either, since that can be produced by bit and bridle.
Maybe we get closer to understanding when we think of food. There are many things we call food and even things that our government calls “food”. Cows, eggs, and apples would fit the first category. Partially hydrogenated soybean oil, xanthan gum, and cyanide (in small doses, of course) would fit the second category.
Yet, both categories are considered food. Understanding lets you know that consistently consuming hamburger is infinitely better than consistently consuming Xanthan Gum. Now you can say its a matter of quantity, but understanding is understanding. If your child is hungry, you reach for the bread, not the lab kit.
Let’s take this into the Feeding of the 4000, because Jesus brings up the leaven of the Pharisees and that’s where our misunderstanding begins. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod, He says, and the Apostles reply, its because we don’t have any bread and Jesus, once again, tells them they are wrong.
Again Jesus makes this spiritual. Beware the spiritual leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, that is their doctrine and preachings. Do you not understand, Jesus asks, that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. If you have even a small amount of works mixed into your Gospel, then you do not have the Gospel. If you do not understand what Jesus is doing, then you do not have Jesus.
However, just as knowing only takes you so far until you must understand, so too, understanding without faith is just as bad. For the Pharisees and Herod don’t only have leavened doctrine, they also have actual bread they use on the people. Bread and circuses from Herod and the Bread of the Temple for the Pharisees.
Repent. As is understandable, when we understand something, it is mostly spiritual to us. An inward change, if for no other reason than you cannot see thoughts. Anything that comes out of the brain is physically only chemical and electrical. A brain surgeon will never come out of the O.R. saying, “well that guy had some interesting thoughts.”
But Jesus, when He created us, put all of His Wisdom into creating and locating these spiritual thoughts and understandings in a fleshy brain. Such that it is necessary to have a fleshy brain to have unseen thoughts. Jesus works our consciousness in and through our bodies.
Same with the bread. Jesus does His work with both spiritual bread and physical bread. Not only does He feed those in need with daily bread, but He also says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4).
This means that the understanding faith gives us is to see and believe that feeding and bread are the point. The feeding that God will do with every word that comes from His mouth, is going to be through the ears AND through the mouth. He is not going to be a bread King, but God of our daily bread. Not a food pantry king, with an endless supply, but a Father with endless mercy.
Thus, feeding is the way to God. It is how God is accomplishing His work of salvation on earth. He is not using bread only in a spiritual way, like the Pharisees, and He is not using bread only in a physical way, like the kings and elites of the earth. All to coerce and control.
He is using it as a sacrifice. It is a sacrifice. Food is always a sacrifice. Whether it is burned up on an altar or ground up to feed the priests, the food always “loses” and in this way, sent up to God.
God makes the sacrifice.
Since Jesus is the Bread of Heaven and food is always the sacrifice, then Christ is the Bread of God Who taketh away the sins of the world. He is the food Who endures to eternal life. He is the Bread Who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
“This is the bread that comes down from heaven”, Jesus says in John 6, “so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:50-51)
How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things? Because God said so. It is His Word that declares, “This is how it is”, not any priest, or holy man, or leader. It is His Word that generates belief in His words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” It is the Word along with the bodily eating and drinking which accomplishes the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to all who believe.
Now, let us answer Jesus’s question of, “Do you still not understand”.
Yes. We still do not understand, but we believe. We believe in You and Your Word. That it does what it says and accomplishes the great feat of the salvation of sinners. Help our unbelief.
Jesus makes the point to remind the Apostles that at both great feedings, the 5000 and the 4000, that there were fragments left over from the meal and gathered reverently, in order to foster their understanding. Their understanding that He is going to save and care for His Creatures is the most perfect and final way ever: uniting Himself to you.
And it won’t be a union only on paper or only breathing in your nostrils. It will be flesh and blood. It will be body and soul. It will be a perfect union of God and man in Christ, such that we will be able to say, “Yes, Jesus. Now we understand. We feed on You.”
Not just a “sitting at table” way, but a “baptized into Your Body” way. That being members of His Body means that we feed as the heart feeds. We feed as the eyes, hands, head, and feet. This is the fulfillment of everyday eating. That we eat and are never hungry again. As branches of the vine, through faith, we live accordingly.
Not as robots, but understanding what our Lord is doing and loving that it is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. And since it has been set before us, we think about these things and rejoice (Phil 4:8). For God has revealed His glory, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it (Isaiah 40:5).
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