Sunday Sermon July 21, 2024 - Guest Drew Schumacher - Table for 5000

This morning, we are going to return into Marks biography of Jesus Christ. We will be reading from Mark 6:30-44. If you’d like to follow along in a pew bible or in one that you have brought that’s great or you can read the scripture on the screen behind me when the time comes. 

To get us in the mindset for our scripture this morning, Id like to ask you a few things. 

Have you ever felt like you aren’t important? Like you are comparatively less than? Do you also feel a lack of happiness, or peace? What about love? Do you feel like love is lacking in your life? Have you ever felt like you have nothing to offer in life? 

 Our text this morning highlights one of the most notable of Jesus’ miracles during his ministry on Earth and it is also the only miracle excluding the resurrection that is recorded in all 4 Gospels. The feeding of the 5000. 

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand 

30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.  

33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. 35 And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. 36 Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 

 37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii[a] worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” 38 And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” 39 Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. 

 40 So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. 41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men. 

To give a little context as to where we are in the timeline of Jesus’ ministry, the disciples had just returned from their missions, going 2 by 2 spreading the word of our Lord Jesus Christ, preaching and healing in his name. Casting out demons from those afflicted. And so, they reunite with Jesus around the Sea of Galilee. Their missions were a big success, and they cannot wait to tell their teacher all they had done according to his will.  

Really, how could they not be excited. The things they did in his name were amazing. I remember when I first found supermarkets had added those automatic doors that sensed motion and opened on their own. Not knowing why these doors opened at my presence, I thought it was something I did. By the end of that day, I told everyone I knew that I was a Jedi and willed the doors to open before me. I was devastated when I learned the truth. But I imagine the disciples’ excitement was even greater than mine that day. 

The disciples were surely tired from their journeys, and we are told they didn’t even have a chance to eat. Jesus knowing this, tells them to get on a boat and they sail for an isolated area where they can have a much-needed break. Now if you don’t know much about the geography surrounding the Sea of Galilee, I have seen these places recently on a pilgrimage and the best description is that the Sea of Galilee is much like a lake here in the states.  

There are sections around it that have high hills surrounding areas of plains along the coast. Traveling by boat would give you a good chance at getting to an area without many easily following as quickly. This was short-lived though as the people hoping to hear the amazing words and witness the healings of our Lord Jesus Christ, raced from all over to see this with their own eyes. 

As Jesus and the disciples came to shore, they saw to their surprise a crowd had already gathered. Jesus could have had them steer the boat away and find somewhere else to go but instead he has compassion for these people. Mark tells us this is because they appear to be like sheep without a Shepherd. Our lord is the shepherd of all shepherds. In Latin, the word for shepherd is Pastor. This means Jesus is the pastor of all pastors. And so, as a pastor does, he teaches the people. 

He teaches for so long that the day escapes them and just as night draws near, his disciples tell Jesus to send them away to the places nearby for food. 

Nearby for them was certainly at best a few hours of one of the hungriest walks you could imagine. And when they finally get to one of these villages, it’s still going to be a while until they eat. There is no McDonalds there in the 1st century. By the grace of God there is still not one there today either. McDonalds is just awful. But I digress… 

Jesus directly tells the disciples “You give them something to eat.” And they ask if they should spend the equivalent of 200 days wages of work on bread for them. I assume this is a bit of sarcasm. But he tells them to go and see what food they do have currently. They have 5 loaves and 2 fish. Obviously, this is not enough on its own to feed that many people. 

The disciples, who had just returned from doing marvelous things in Jesus’ name, have already grown skeptical of their teachers process here. Jesus takes the loaves and fish and holds them up, saying a prayer to his father in heaven. 

 He breaks the bread and gives and repeats this over, and over to his students who in turn do the same. He does the same with the fish until all are satisfied, and even ends up with 12 baskets extra while he is at it. 

Its also worth noting, that the number of 5,000 derives from a count of the men present only. In those times women and children were not counted. Some believe it could have been more like 10,000 people. 

Jesus, God in the flesh, has fed the people not once, but twice today; he fed their bellies but only after he fed their souls. We too have the opportunity to be fed the bread of life by our savior. He knows that we don’t have much or even anything to offer like the people in this text this morning.  He calls us to have faith in him, and he gives us his grace and love and forgiveness bountifully. 

My personal road to salvation was a very bumpy ride to say the least. In a time that seems like so long ago, I remember being in a rehabilitation center upstate. I was broke, broken, and so terribly lost. I was a sheep without a shepherd. After coming to terms with the fact that everything I did on my own just put me in an even worse situation than I was in before, I had a moment of clarity.  

Now maybe it was the view of the horizon over a skyline of mountains, or it was the fresh mountain air that surrounded me. I looked up to the heavens and I asked God humbly and desperately to do with me what he willed. This was a first for me. I had never had a conversation with God before that didn’t involve me saying nasty things and denying his glory. 

I had nothing left to offer my children, my family, or people I had loved. I thought I had nothing left to offer God either. But I offered myself to God completely that day. His work in my life since has been a miracle in itself. That mustard seed of hope and willingness has multiplied into a life I could never imagine. 

While I was in this rehab center, the world stopped because of Covid 19.  

As I was nearing the end of my stay, sober houses were denying everyone entry due to the fear of transmission of the virus. Yet somehow…. I was granted a place in a house in Mastic. When they send you out of rehab, they tell you to find a meeting the day you get out. Get a sponsor. But the day that I arrived there I was told that because of quarantine, all meetings were closed till further notice. A real bummer. 

Interestingly enough, a guy in that sober house attended a meeting regularly and informed me that they would do weekly meetings on zoom. His meeting was based out of this very church.  

A year or so into attending this meeting I befriended a man in that same meeting who I did not know was the Pastor of Bethel. Just a few years later I am where you see me now.  

God weaved a miracle together in my life so intricately with the scraps that I gave him that even though I saw it first-hand…it still amazes me every day. 

Don’t get me wrong, there are still some rough days. There are days I have felt like I was choking on that miracle. There are days when my faith has been rattled so thin, that I wonder if God wasted his time on me. 

The truth is, God does not waste time, he creates it. God does not call the equipped, he equips the called. 

Our savior is compassionate. And with the feeding of the 5,000, he shows us that anything is possible with God. Whether that be helping to better the lives of others around us or getting us through the hardest times of our lives. Or even molding a selfish, Godless heroin addict into a preacher.  

We must trust in God’s ability to provide for us what we need, whether we know what that is or not and be willing to have faith in his divinity, and that by his grace our imperfect human nature is forgiven.  

As Christs’ followers we are called to serve his will and fulfil his mission. The apostle Paul instructs us how to do this when he writes in Colossians 3:12-13; “Put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, and forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven you.”  

Spreading his gospel to those we encounter isn’t just done with words. Our actions in how we embrace this world personify the Gospel.  Jesus did not just give the loaves and fish out to the people himself.  

He commissioned his followers, the 12 disciples, to help in distributing it. We must do the same and give the world around us the only nourishment it really needs. The miraculous, bread of life from our Lord, Jesus Christ. 

In the days ahead if you feel less than, or like you have nothing to offer, remember that Jesus can make miracles with scraps.  

As long as we faithfully trust in him, our Lord Jesus washes away the debt of our sins. And his work in our lives can help others to see just how miraculous he really is. 

This is the word of the Lord for you this morning, This is the grace of God for you today. Amen.