Here in a Desert Place

In Nomine Iesu!

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Sermon Text: St. Mark 8:1-9

“And His disciples answered Him, ‘Whence shall one be able to fill these men with bread here in a desert place?’”

Prayer in Pulpit before Sermon:

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, Whose mercies are new unto us every morning and Who, though we have in no wise deserved Thy goodness, dost abundantly provide for all our wants of body and soul: Give us, we pray Thee, Thy Holy Spirit, that we may heartily acknowledge Thy merciful goodness toward us, give thanks for all Thy benefits, and serve Thee in willing obedience; through, + Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior + Jesus Christ. Amen. 

My dear friends, we often meditate upon the feeding of the four thousand, or the five thousand, without paying much attention to the context. The main thing people like to focus on seems to be our Lord’s power. He can conjure up fish and bread out of nothing. 

But there is more to it than that. There is an important context. These four thousand men, plus women and children, had been following Him for three days. They had been so absorbed in His teaching that they had made no provisions for their own needs. They had walked out into the desert place, hanging on His every word, until they had gone so far, to such a desert place, that there was no place to obtain provisions and they were lacking the strength to make it back to a safe place. They were in danger of starvation, of death. The miracle showed more than our Lord’s power. It showed how He puts to death for the sake of His compassion to make alive. 

Because the multitude did not get to that point by accident. Now, most of us have probably been caught up in work or school, or a game, and have forgotten to eat lunch at some point. But how long did it take until your stomach reminded us? A few hours are the most we ever make it. If we go even twenty-four hours without any food, we feel like we are starving; even though we are not. How did these people stay this distracted for three days? How did four thousand people all fail to realize they were going into a desert place without provisions? This only happens—men only forget about their stomachs—when the Lord is at work on them. Like the Pied Piper, our Lord led them out there, on purpose. He strung them along with the joy and peace that His Word gives. He seduced them with theology, which is how He gets people into the Church. 

In any case, He set up the miracle. He could have sent them home before it was too late. He could have sent some of them for provisions along the way. Instead, He preached the Kingdom. The people left this world for the Kingdom. They forgot themselves. They were caught up in the beatific vision, unaware of the dangers swirling around them. Then they were caught. They were in the desert place without provisions. They suddenly became aware of their weaknesses and great need. But it was too late. There was nowhere to turn. The Apostles ask: “Whence shall one be able to fill these men with bread here in a desert place?” It is a rhetorical question. They don’t expect an answer. It is like asking, “How can we end world hunger or teenage pregnancy?” It is impossible. These people cannot all be fed. They will starve. 

Our Lord does not answer the question. He does not explain. He simply gathers the provisions they have here in the desert place, seven loaves. Our Lord + Jesus Christ, the same night in which He was preaching the kingdom in the desert place, took bread; and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and gave it to the Apostles, and said, “Give this to them to eat. This bread satisfies those in the desert place.” After the same manner, also, He took a few small fish, He gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Give this to them.” So, they did. They took the seven loaves and the few small fish, blessed by the Lord, which showed no outward change, and they gave them, piece by piece, to the four thousand. And like Elijah’s flour and oil it never ran out. Every time they reached to the paten there was another piece. There was plenty of bread and fish, enough for everyone, for four thousand to eat and be satisfied in the desert place. The Apostles gathered up the fragments afterwards and filled seven large baskets. For men can never contain the bounty of the Lord. His mercy and generosity are far greater than our actual needs, as is His love far greater than our sins.

Then our Lord lifts His hands over them and says, “Depart in peace.” He sends them away, back to the world, to home and neighbor. And He continues on the road prepared for Him in the desert place by His camel hair-covered and locust-eating cousin. He goes from desert place to desert place, with not a place to lay His head, until He lays it down outside the city gates of Jerusalem. No one will provide for Him. But He will give Himself as Bread to satisfy the souls of men. He will be skewered on the cross, baked over hell’s coals, stoked by the Father, attended to by the Holy Ghost, until the fire burns itself out and death meets its own demise. And then, at long last, there will be no more. There will be no more to pay because all sin and death and hell, all accusations, guilt and shame, all regret and remorse, all fear and hatred and lust, all sorrow and all pain, are finally done, finished, complete, and gone. 

Order comes to the desert place where the Centurion confesses: “Surely this was the Son of God.” The place of the skull is the new Zion; the place of God’s abiding mercy. This hill now orders our devotions and directs our attention. This is the hill from which cometh our Help. And we might there erect a monument of the Victory won for us by the defeat of the Lord + Jesus, the Christ, on the cross, and write upon it: “Never again.” 

That is what is written on the monument in Dachau, a site of evil like few others in the world. It reads “Never Again” but it means: “Do not let what happened here happen again, because it could.” On Mount Golgotha the memorial must be distinct. Its message is not simply a reminder or admonition, or our hope, but the absolute reality: “never again.” The Lord + Jesus, the Christ, our Lord, has died once for all, and never again will He die or any man needfully go to hell again who has faith in Him. The enemy is really done. He has no sons, admirers, or students to pick up his cause. The Lord + Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, is risen from the dead. Never again will the devil have dominion. Never again will we face our accuser. Never again will hell’s bars keep us in. And even if we find ourselves in a new version of Dachau, subject to the evil perversions of men, or if we faint on our way home, we will be safe, we will be free; we will be loved by God in Christ + Jesus. Death lies dead in the once-desert place outside Jerusalem, a victim of its own greed. The accuser’s mouth is stopped, full of dirt, and empty of all power and strength. 

And that is the point of the miraculous feeding in the desert place. The Lord led the multitude into the desert place in order to pull back a corner of the curtain and expose the closeness of death. None of us is ever more than a missed heartbeat away from death. We cannot live without a beating heart, functioning lungs, or brain, or kidneys, or a host of bodily functions. Any of them can fail for thousands of reasons and without warning, because of genetics, or a slip on the stairs, or something in the water. We can be undone in a matter of seconds, dead before we hit the floor. We are as fragile and fleeting as butterflies, prone to violence and disease on every hand. We survive, and even prosper, by the providence and grace of our Lord God. But we are mostly unaware of this. We think of our health often, for we are obsessed with our bodies, but rarely do we recognize how frail we are, or that it is the grace and mercy of our Lord + Jesus, the Christ, who sustains us.

The Lord provides more than just beating hearts and functioning kidneys; more than merely bread for the day. He gives His Body; the Body He gave to the tree of the holy cross for the sins of the world. He gives it to us for our food and salvation. For how can one fill these dear ones in Christ, in this desert place? How can we minister to those who are divorced or abused, afraid or lonely, to those who are struggling against perversions in their minds and bodies, whose wills have been broken, who are dying of cancer, who wake in the night to terror or rage, apathy or exhaustion? Was there ever a generation with more mental illness, with more addictions, with more broken families, or more debt, than ours? How can these people be filled? The Lord does not answer. He simply takes bread, breaks it, gives thanks, and says: “Take, eat; this is My Body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.” And when we have eaten and been consumed by the Lord, when He has transformed us anew into His temple, His abiding place, He sends us away, back to the world, to family and neighbors, with the words: “Depart in peace.” Do not be afraid. He will not leave us, nor forsake us. He will sustain us.

 And if we faint on the way, or land in an evil place like Dachau, so be it. Do not fear those who can kill the Body. His Name is upon us. He will provide and He will bring us home. The sacrifice is complete. We are ready and heaven is ready. But not all of the elect have been sealed in the waters of Holy Baptism, yet. So, our Lord restrains the four destructive winds of the apocalypse. The harvest is plentiful, but not all are yet in. He is extravagant in His mercy, but not wasteful. He will bring all His children home. Not one of those given to Him by the Father will be lost or missing. So, we wait in this grace, at peace with the Lord God for the sacrifice of our Lord + Jesus delivered in the Holy Communion, Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and in His Word. We wait, in this grace, like David waited for the morning, like Anna waited in the Temple, like our Lord Himself waited in the tomb for Easter morning. We wait in eager expectation for all the sons of God to be revealed to creation, and our own final relief and reward, having already now tasted the foretaste of the Feast and the joy that comes from being loved by the Lord God and free of guilt as a gift of His grace. So that we can now depart in peace. In the Name of our Lord + Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

Prayer in Pulpit after Sermon:

Almighty God, be pleased to accompany Thy Word with Thy Holy Spirit and grant that Thy Word would increase faith in us; bring into the Way of Truth all such as have erred; turn the hearts of the unrepentant; and for sake of Thy Name grant succor to all heavy hearts and those who are heavy-laden, that they may through the mercy of the Lord + Jesus Christ be relieved and preserved so that they succumb not to the temptation of despair but rather that they gain the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil; through the same + Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with the Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.

The Votum:

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!