Daily Bread
Matt. 14:13-21
13When Jesus heard about it, he withdrew from there by boat to a remote place to be alone. When the crowds heard this, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd, had compassion on them, and healed their sick.
Matt. 14:13-21
15When evening came, the disciples approached him and said, “This place is deserted, and it is already late. Send the crowds away so that they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”
16“They don’t need to go away,” Jesus told them. “You give them something to eat.”
17“But we only have five loaves and two fish here,” they said to him.
18“Bring them here to me,” he said. 19Then he commanded the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20Everyone ate and was satisfied. They picked up twelve baskets full of leftover pieces. 21Now those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
When Jesus heard about it, he withdrew from there by boat to a remote place to be alone. Heard about what? The brutal murder of his right-hand man, John the Baptist, the one who had prepared the way for Jesus the Messiah. This had hit Jesus hard, and understandably so. He needed time alone. He tragically lost one who was family – like losing a brother or child. What this reveals about Jesus is his humanity. Though fully God, he was also fully man, experiencing everything all human beings experience – the greatest joys and the worst sorrows. He needed time alone, to mourn.
But he would not be allowed this time alone. The crowds from the towns followed him. A large crowd, 5,000 men, not including the women and children. That meant at least 10,000 people. He was very popular, one reason being he had been miraculously healing the sick.
So he put aside his time alone, his compassion kicked in, and he miraculously healed those among the 10,000 who were sick. How many would that have been? It is safe to say that at least 1% of the 10,000 were sick. Perhaps 5%, or more. Anywhere from 100 to 500+ were healed right then and there, miraculously, instantly, perfectly.
Before we talk about the feeding of the 5,000 men plus 5,000 or more women and children, I want to skip ahead to next week’s text, for the same thing happens again. Immediately after feeding all of them, he made his disciples get into a boat to sail across the Sea of Galilee, he dismisses the large crowd, and he goes up on a nearby mountain to be alone (again) and pray. Around 3 a.m., with the boat in the sea being battered by the wind and the waves, Jesus walks to the disciples on the sea. They think he is a ghost, he assures them he is not, telling them, “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Peter then, thinking himself to have courage, requests he be able to walk on the water to Jesus. Jesus tells him to “Come,” but as he does so he starts to focus on the strong winds, became afraid, and starts to sink, crying out, “Lord, save me!” And Jesus does, rebuking him for his lack of faith. They both got into the boat, the winds ceased, and the disciples right then and there worship and make this confession, “Truly you are the Son of God.” And they of course were right. His divinity and his humanity have both been revealed.
When they get to the other side of the sea, the men there recognize him, and alerted the whole nearby vicinity. What happens? They come, and, again, they bring all who were sick. And what does Jesus do? His compassion kicks in and he heals all of them, again.
So he miraculously heals, miraculously feeds, miraculously walks on water, miraculously calms the sea, and then he miraculously heals a bunch of sick people again.
There are two purposes of these miracles. Two. One is to bring about a proper confession of faith, as we see with the disciples in the boat: “Truly you are the Son of God.” To rightly identify him. But this purpose does no good without the other purpose being realized and believed (I will come to that in a second).
When Jesus performed miracles like these, he made life better for the people then and there. People received a physical healing. 10,000 people were given physical bread and their physical hunger was satisfied. This life was made better for them.
Things needed and beneficial for this life fall under the category of “daily bread.” When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” in the Lord’s Prayer, that’s what we are praying about. This is what we find in the Small Catechism: “What is meant by daily bread? Daily bread includes everything needed for this life, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, fields, cattle, money, goods, God-fearing spouse and children, faithful servants and rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, order, honor, true friends, good neighbors, and the like.”
It is important and necessary to understand this. Everything needed and good for this life comes from our Father in heaven, whether it comes miraculously and by natural means. It is important to understand this so we give credit where credit is due. Or, as we say again in the Small Catechism, he gives us all these things, this daily bread, “purely out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me; for all which I am in duty bound to thank and praise, to serve and obey Him.”
But if you think about it, this daily bread gets us only so far. Sooner or later sickness, an accident, war, some disaster, or old age catches up with us and brings about the ultimate toll: life ends, we experience death.
Again, the first purpose of these miracles is to lead us to the proper and necessary confession of the true identity of Jesus Christ: “You are the Son of God“. But the second purpose of miracles depends on you and me and everyone else coming to grips with this upcoming death, a death that is both physical and eternal (better known as hell). But also, coming to grips with is why we will die, why death is waiting for you, me, and everyone else. The reason why death is coming is not merely due to sickness, an accident, some disaster, or old age – these are merely the means or instruments bringing us to death. But what is really behind these means and truly causing death is sin.
People like to avoid dealing with both of these. They like to avoid the reality of death and sin. Even Christians have a tendency not to think about the reality of their sin which brings about the reality of their deaths. And to some degree that is understandable: imagine if we spent all our waking hours thinking mostly about our sins and death. Nobody were want to spend any time with us.
But the point is this: you sin, you die. Death is not natural, but is something you have earned. That’s why the apostle Paul said, “the wages of sin is death.” Yesterday I sinned. You want to know which commandments I broke? I’m not going to tell you; you will just have to take my word for it. If you were a pastor, I would confess my sins to you, for that is one of the reasons why God established the office of pastor, so people could confess their sins to a pastor privately and then receive absolution, for the sake of Christ, freely and fully, no questions asked.
Yesterday I sinned. Yesterday I earned death. Today I have and will sin, so today again I will earn death. Throughout my life I have sinned, so throughout my life I have earned death, physical and eternal.
But as I come, and as you come, with the realization of death because of sin, the second purpose of the miracles of Christ can be realized, can settle in, can take hold. And that second purpose will be realized, settle in, and take hold.
Jesus did not come just to heal physically. He did not come just to provide bread for this life, to satisfy us here and now. That daily bread is real and important and leads us to thank and praise, to serve and obey him. But there is another Daily Bread, one that is for the eternal life, for the then and there. And that Daily Bread for eternal life is Jesus himself. All his miracles point beyond the here and now; they are signs of something far more greater than whatever we might have here. When Jesus fed the 5,000 plus, he was saying more than, “I want to relieves your physical hunger. He was saying, “I am the bread of life. … This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone 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. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. … Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.” (John 6:48-55).
In our text for today, Jesus was able to multiply the five loaves so the bread just kept coming and coming and coming. And there was even 12 baskets left over. Nobody was hungry, they all were satisfied. People would have said, “Where is all this bread coming from? How can it not run out?” The same with Jesus as the Bread of Life from heaven. The difference is that Jesus satisfies eternally. He can do that, and he does that, because Jesus is no mere man, he is also eternal Son of God. Now we just have to find others who can partake of the leftover baskets of his grace, for there is plenty for them as well.
Those realities of sin – your sin – and what your sin earned, death, Jesus has destroyed: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Cor. 15:54-57).
Yesterday, today, and throughout my life, I earned death. And so did you. But Jesus, by his perfect life and sacrificial death, has conquered your sin and therefore your death and has earned you total forgiveness.
Daily bread for this life is vital and important. But it only goes so far. Death still comes. But Jesus, as the Bread of Life, is also a Daily Bread. We partake of him by faith every day. And we partake of him in word and sacrament, including today: “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. … Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.”.
1“Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water; and you without silver, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without silver and without cost! 2Why do you spend silver on what is not food, and your wages on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and you will enjoy the choicest of foods.
Is. 55:1-5
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