Trinity 7
Beloved. In today’s epistle, we again heard about the Christian’s new life of righteousness to which we have been called as Christians. Although Jesus loves sinners, calls sinners to Himself, receives sinners and eats with them [Lk. 15.2], brings us “just as we are” into His kingdom, this does not mean that we are to remain “just as we are”. We are not to continue on in a life of sin. Before being brought to faith in Jesus, we used our body, the various parts—or as St. Paul calls them in the epistle, members—for sinning: the mouth for speaking evil, the ears for hearing gossip, the eyes for lusting, the mind for planning evil, the hands for serving self. He says: Indeed, just as you offered your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, resulting in more lawlessness, so now offer your members in the same way as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. Notice: we are slaves—we have to do what the master wants, either sin or holiness. Like a slave, we can only serve one master—either sin or righteousness, the devil or God. We serve one and are free from the other. Our epistle: For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness… But now, since you were set free from sin and have become slaves to God, you have your fruit resulting in sanctification.
When Jesus calls us to Himself/ calls us into His kingdom, He is calling us into a life of holiness. That’s why we confess in the Creed that we “believe in the holy Christian Church.” That is not just the Church in heaven—the saints—but it also includes the Church here on earth. We too are marked as “holy”. That’s because as Christians living here in this sinful world, we are forgiven our sins. As Christians, we are given and covered with Jesus’ perfect righteousness and holiness. That is a true and perfect holiness before God. But also, as Christians, we have been given the Holy Spirit. He is in us leading and empowering us to live a life more and more free of sin, a life more and more in accord with the holy will of God—doing what He wants, not what we/ our old sinful nature want. To be sure, this side of heaven, we will never be without sin—but for the Christian, led and empowered by the Holy Spirit, it won’t be for lack of trying! But when we do sin, which will be daily and often, we have the forgiveness of sin; we have the perfect holiness of Jesus given us.
Then St. Paul goes on to show the foolishness of being a slave to sin. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. So what kind of fruit did you have then? They were things of which you are now ashamed. Yes, the final result of those things is death. Being a slave to sin—that’s all of us before we were brought to faith in Jesus; that’s all people as we come into the world—results in death, eternal damnation in hell. But what does a life of holiness bring? But now, since you were set free from sin and have become slaves to God, you have your fruit resulting in sanctification—and the final result is eternal life. Serving sin/ being a slave to sin leads to death and damnation; living a life of holiness/ being a slave to God leads to eternal life in heaven with all the saints, the holy angels and the Triune God. And this blessed result is all a gift of God’s grace. St. Paul notes at the close of the epistle: For the wages of sin is death, but the undeserved gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is the struggle of the Christian—striving to live a holy life in the midst of a sinful world and its temptations, fighting against our own sinful nature. But it is a struggle worth the fight. Our struggles as Christians to follow the promptings and leadings of the Holy Spirit to fight against sin are worth it. Today’s Gospel is one of great comfort for the Christian single-mindedly striving to live a holy life, but feeling the weight and burden of the devil, world and our own sinful nature that want to weaken our resolve and lead us on the path back to slavery to sin/ death.
Our struggle as Christians is a struggle because we are with Jesus. Because we are with Jesus, that means that we have rejected, turned away from the devil and the world. Because we are with Jesus, we have powerful enemies!
Look at how our Gospel is a real life event that also pictures this great spiritual truth. In those days, when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples and said to them, “I feel compassion for the crowd because they have already stayed with me three days and do not have anything to eat.” Notice the large crowd with Jesus. And notice where they are—in the wilderness. His disciples replied, “Where can anyone get enough bread to feed these people here in this deserted place?” They are gathered around Jesus some place from anywhere. So, the large crowd with Jesus, in some deserted place, called far away from civilization is a wonderful picture the holy Christian Church. The word “Church” itself comes from a word referring “to those who are called out.” We, dear Christian, have been called out of the world to be gathered around our Lord. At our calling/ conversion we have been called out of the world and to Jesus. Yes, we still live in the world; yes, we still enjoy the many gifts and blessings God gives us in the world. But we know that this earthly life is not all there is and so we don’t get bogged down in the cares and worries of this world, striving for riches, power, etc. doing all we can to get all the world has to offer. Instead, with single minded devotion, we strive for heaven and keep ourselves close to the Lord, His word, His sacraments where He gives us His heavenly and spiritual gifts. This crowd of the 4000 gathered around Jesus in this deserted place hearing His holy word and receiving His gifts is a picture of the Church—you, me, all Christians—today. As Christians living in a world that is often hostile to Jesus and His Church—or at the very least, “unsupportive” we often feel a struggle because we are with Jesus.
And then there is that amazing little detail that Jesus mentions: “I feel compassion for the crowd because they have already stayed with me three days and do not have anything to eat.” What does that have to do with anything? Not only does it show that the people were so eager to be with Jesus that they lost all track of time so that three days had gone by as well as their food, but it shows their single minded devotion to Jesus. This is, too is a picture of the Church, of each Christian. It shows how the Christian loves the Lord and loves to be in Church around His word and sacrament; it shows that the Christian daily ponders God’s word and delights in reading/ studying it; it shows that love of the Lord, His word and will forms and shapes our everyday lives.
And there is also a subtle point here as well—being with Jesus three days. Of course three days is significant because that was the time Jesus spent in the tomb. But remember last Sunday’s Epistle where St. Paul wrote: Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him by this baptism into his death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too would also walk in a new life. The point is this: we, too dear Christian, were with Jesus those three days as in holy Baptism we are united with Jesus in His death and resurrection. It is through holy Baptism that we become part of the Church and are united with Jesus. United with Jesus in holy Baptism, we are now different—we are in Him and He is in us. And because of that we are at odds with the world around us; the devil is our enemy; and our old sinful nature works to draw us away from Jesus. And so there is a struggle because we are with Jesus.
We dare never take our old sinful nature lightly. It wasn’t all that long before this Jesus performed the miracle of feeding the 5000. With that relatively fresh in their minds, Jesus says: “If I send them home hungry, they will faint on the way. Some of them have come from a long distance.” His disciples replied, “Where can anyone get enough bread to feed these people here in this deserted place?” Either the disciples didn’t want to “dictate” to Jesus what He should do; or they had already forgotten the previous feeding of the 5000. But in any case Jesus was working to make this miracle clear to them. He pointed out the peoples’ extreme need; He pointed out the seeming impossibility of finding food there; and He shows the hopelessness of the situation: He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” “Seven,” they said.
The point of this for us in our struggles as Christians is this: because we have a weak sinful human nature, we so easily forget our Lord and His graces, gifts, and blessings; we too easily forget who He is. When things are going well, it is easy to be strong and bold in the faith and so we take the faith for granted/ take our eyes off the Lord/ think we can do it ourselves. So what does our Lord do? Like with the disciples, He tests our faith with the goal of making it stronger/ improving it. He lets us reflect on the problem: If I send them home hungry, they will faint on the way. Some of them have come from a long distance, and He lets us see our need very clearly: Where can anyone get enough bread to feed these people here in this deserted place?
But let us never forget: we are with Jesus! As Christians striving to live as Christians—that is, a life of faith and holiness—we will have struggles; we are with Jesus and have powerful enemies: the devil, world and our own sinful self. But our greatest comfort in the midst of our struggles is the fact that we are with Jesus.
He commanded the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves, gave thanks, and broke them. He gave the pieces to his disciples to distribute to the crowd, and they did so. They also had a few small fish. He blessed them and said that these should be distributed as well. The people ate and were satisfied. They picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. What does this miracle show, but that Jesus is the true God. He is the God who was with the Israelites during their desert wandering giving them the manna to eat. He is the almighty God who cares for and provides for His creation. Here is our greatest comfort in our struggles against sin and temptation: Jesus is the almighty God Himself. And like the disciples and the 4000 that day—we are with Jesus! And not only are we with Jesus, the almighty and true God Himself, but He has compassion on us. He doesn’t leave us in our sufferings—especially in our sufferings on account of the faith/ because we are with Him. Instead, He helps mightily and in the best way for us: I feel compassion for the crowd because they have already stayed with me three days and do not have anything to eat. Because we are with Jesus, His compassion doesn’t remain hidden in His divine heart but is revealed to us—as that day He fed the crowd and strengthened the faith of His disciples by that miracle. We can always be certain that nothing but compassion is flowing from Jesus’ heart toward us. We are His dear Christian. He called us to Himself. As we are gathered around Him, how can He forsake us? He may at times allow us to feel our need dramatically, but He always has compassion on us and as the almighty God He can always act on that compassion in the best way for us so that we may all the more love and serve Him.
Even in the midst of our struggles as Christians, Jesus is with us. And He serves us. He serves us through His holy word which He had His apostles write and which He preserved to us. In His word, He is feeding us the bread of life to strengthen and preserve us; in His holy Sacrament He comes to us giving us His body and blood, uniting with us, forgiving our sins and strengthening our faith as we strive to serve Him. Our compassionate Lord Jesus will richly provide for us in our struggles as Christians because we are Christians with Him. There is no better place to be than to be with Jesus, in His Church, receiving all His graces, blessing and comfort. About four thousand men were there. Then he sent them away. INJ Amen.