“CHRIST HAS COMPASSION”
Saint Mark 8. 1-9
Seventh Sunday after Trinity: 18 July Anno Domini 2010
Father Jay Watson SSP
You all have nothing to eat. Food that grows from the ground is soon harvested, cut down, ground up, boiled, steamed, fried, and baked. Food that comes from the ground is green one moment and brown the next. You don't even grow your own food any more in the "sweat of your brows" like Adam had to. You buy it at a super-market. Food that comes from animals means that someone (not you of course) has to kill the animal; take a life; shed blood; and usually cause pain to one of the Lord's air-breathing, warm-blooded, milk-producing, fellow-mammals. I'm not talking like a PETA supporter, I'm simply emoting some of the feelings of awe and joy Adam had when he cavorted and associated with all of God's animals in the Garden THE WAY IT WAS FIRST MEANT TO BE! This, this McDonald's, Steakhouse, Slaughter Yard, was not the way Eden was originally designed. Yes, you have dominion over the animals. Yes, you can butcher them all and gorge yourselves on their flesh. But your dominion, your Lordship, over the Lord's magnificent creatures doesn't fill you and satisfy you and preserve you any better than the other junk: sucrose, white bread, turnips or lettuce. But you're not just empty in the gut every day… whining for someone to prepare you a meal; you're empty inside of here [point to chest] you're craving something that takes away the loneliness, the separation, the constant bickering and strife, the tears, pains, and graveside gatherings.
The Christ has compassion on all those who have nothing to eat. He has compassion on you and yours; He has compassion on all those on the various other mountainsides of His earth (Iraq, Iran, Turkey, North Korean, Mexico, Palestine, Russian, and Germany). For God so loved the world. And though He does cause the rain to fall on the unjust as well as the just (the non-believer as well as the believer)… this text of the miraculous feeding has special relevance to the Lord's own sheepfold.
He had compassion upon those who had continued with Him, i.e. on those who had stayed with the Christ during His teaching and preaching.
Yes, the Lord preached the Law. But even more importantly, He rightly divided the Commandments from the Evangel. He preached explicit condemnation to hypocritical enemies of God's Mercy, BUT He also preached unconditional Love and Succor to those miserable sinners who had already been beaten down by the results of the Law and daily sin.
So yes, Jesus had been preaching the full council of God's Word to this huge crowd; this outdoor, hillside parish. And what comes after the Service of the Word? Always according to the Lord's pattern of teaching and table fellowship, a meal follows the homily! The Service of the Sacrament simply MUST follow the application of Law & Gospel from the Savior's lips. This sequence of salvation is first from His mouth to your ears, AND THEN, from His Body and Blood to your mouths.
The "what" of Christ's story this morning is not so much the point. Christ took only seven loaves of bread and a few fish and fed over four thousand people. For those Whom the Holy Spirit has granted the gift of faith, this is simply believed. Yes it is believed on face value, but also because it was witnessed by 12 men who gave their lives in the re-telling of their Master's LIFE-His Person and His Work! But feeding a bunch of people should be expected by a Creator God Who can created the entire universe out of nothing by simply HIS WORD!
The miracle is not in the miracle but in the LOVE. Why should a powerful (all-powerful) ultimate "I AM" even associate with treacherous, traitorous, un-loving things such as that crowd (such as you) MUCH LESS feel compassion for them (for you). The miracle is not in the power but in the LOVE. And note this is not LOVE in feeling or emotion but LOVE in action. Christ fed their stomachs. (this IS what Christians do)
The raw and naked FACT, that God can perform a miracle on Augsburg's own altar as well as on altars all around this World of His (by way of multiplication) is mind-numbingly incredible and Grace Filled to be sure. But is the WHY (GIVEN AND SHED FOR YOU) which is even more wonderful to behold.
You sin against your brother by hating him, holding him down, throwing him out, belittling him and calling him names; and Christ takes that hatred and lets it rip His back, puncture His feet, and choke Him to death. You sin against your brother by your selfishness and hoarding and Jesus picks you up and gives you back the Divine Family Name and status. Jesus takes a green-eyed monstrous, spoiled brat and puts you at the High Table right next to Him. He takes you who are naked (the fake-emperor/empress who truly has no clothes - - like Adam and Eve scurrying around for fig leaves) and gives you His own Kingly robes. He takes you who have been gorging on junk food regurgitated up by a dying snake demon, and gives you the Water + that quenches all fire and thirst, and gives you angel's food - the "Bread of Heaven."
You eat The God/Man's True Body this day because He gave it up for your non-obedience all those years ago. He gave Himself to that multitude as a foretaste of giving Himself on the Cross a few short months later. You drink the God/Man's Real Blood this day because He shed it for your sins all those years ago.
Your earthly hunger comes and goes depending on what time of day it is and upon your own diets, appetites, and sinful indulgences. Fasting indeed would be a fine outward training for all of you.
But your spiritual (your eternal) hungers are satisfied at this communion rail, now, today, and every time the Lord feeds you.
Here, and only here, are you truly filled.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost