Sermon - Laetare 2024 - John 6:1-15

Feeding the Five Thousand, Marten van Valckenborch, 1580-1590

Looking at the Unseen

1. We spend too much time looking at the apparent problems

2. Jesus pushes us to see beyond what is seen, so that we may see Him and His providence

“What is this country coming to?” “I’m worried my children and grandchildren won’t have anything for them in this country.” I hear sentiments like that with some great regularity. There is much to worry about, or at least it feels like that when you pay enough attention to the news and politicians. But even before things like the news we’re pretty good at worrying. In some ways I think we might actually like worrying and being upset about the state of things, we like to complain and grumble. Afterall, that’s the kind of news we see most often, not because there’s only bad news but because that’s the news which sells and is most profitable.

However, it’s not just that bad news sells, it’s also true that bad news is the easiest and most obvious to see. Apparent problems are so obvious because we live in a world riddled with sin and there are troubles every which way you look. It’s easy to be a pessimist because you’re usually right, something is going to go wrong. That Murphy guy was right: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” This is why we have so much safety equipment everywhere because things go wrong in very dangerous ways. And we’re very good at imagining the worst case scenario play out.

When things reliably go wrong very frequently, it’s easy to just see the bad stuff and want to quit. For instance, the Israelites in the Exodus could only see the bad stuff in their situation. “And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Remember what God had just done for them. They had been slaves in Egypt, forced to do hard labor and were beaten when they didn’t get all of their work done; they were miserable. So God did great and miraculous plagues upon the Egyptians in order to force Pharoah to let them go. Upon their departure they plundered the Egyptians, taking any riches they wanted. Then when Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued the Israelites, God separated the waters of the Red Sea so that the Israelites could cross and then when Pharaoh and all his army were attempting to cross they were all drowned.

So the Israelites had witnessed miracle after miracle and yet now they wish all of it were undone so they could return to Egypt and die because they had some food there? This is ridiculous and almost comical! But, it reveals the minds of the Israelites who couldn’t see beyond their immediate troubles. They would rather die in slavery than have to depend on God for their provisions. 

Later in their wanderings in the wilderness they again grumbled against the Lord. “The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”” Their complaint is completely nonsensical: “We have no food, and we hate this food!” If they didn’t have food, they couldn’t hate it. They’re like children throwing a temper tantrum, and they don’t make any sense, they’re just angry. God provides for them, and all they can do is focus on the bad things.

In a much more subdued and respectful way a similar thing happens at the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus alerts His apostles to an issue: “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” So here’s the issue: there’s probably 20,000 hungry people that need to be fed in the wilderness. The solution should be obvious: Jesus can feed them miraculously. Jesus’ first miracle is to turn water into wine and since then Jesus had been performing incredible miracles. In fact this great crowd was here because they had seen the signs He was doing on the sick. Jesus can perform miracles and provide for the great crowd of people.

But, rather, the apostles can only see how desperate their situation is without considering how Jesus fits into the solution.  Philip has no solution: “Two hundred Denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” Alright, so Philip ran the numbers, he did the math, and it turns out they couldn’t even afford to feed the crowd if they could find a place to buy the food. That’s not even an attempt at a solution. 

Andrew then piped up, again without a solution: “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they for so many.” Andrew has apparently found the only food in this whole crowd, but it’s not really enough to feed many people. In a way Andrew just managed to show how desperate their situation is with not enough food. It’d be like a soldier going into war and all he can find to fight with is a butterknife. The butterknife or the five loaves and two fish aren’t much of an asset, they just show how dire the situation is.

Yet, in both Exodus and the feeding of the 5,000, God pushes us to see beyond what is seen, and instead to look upon Him and His providence. God sends the Israelites manna and quail to eat every single day so that they are perfectly satisfied. Jesus feeds the great crowd as much food as they wanted to eat, and He even ends up with leftovers to feed His apostles. What the people saw looked desperate, as if there were no good solution. But in spite of how dire the situation appeared, God provided.

This is a very important lesson for the church today: God provides for His people, and what is seen may not reflect the actual situation, and so we must look to the unseen eternal promises of God. This is helpful for us individually in our own personal lives, but it’s also helpful for us collectively as the church. Instead of seeing the apparent problems in front of us, let us look to Christ and trust in His loving care.

For the church: I know we look at the state of Christianity in America and it looks depressing. You can run the math like Philip and it shows that the church is going to get significantly smaller yet. You can look at our current assets like Andrew and see that most Christians are elderly and there are few of them. But isn’t it incredible how God used some barley bread and roasted fish to feed thousands of people. Isn’t it incredible that God used fine flakelike manna and tiny little quail to feed all the Israelites. God took a small pitiful thing to do great wonders. Isn’t it incredible how Jesus used His pitiful suffering and death, an apparent failure, to bring about salvation for all who believe in Him! God uses small things that look poor in order to do great things. Do not doubt that God will use the decline of Christianity in America to perform great and wonderful works which we can’t even yet imagine.

God works wonders through small and ordinary means. He uses abject failures to perform His most powerful miracles. Even in the midst of failure God is still providing very generously for His people. We may complain and grumble about how we wish it could be like it used to be, but to what end? God is providing for us already very richly, and yet all we can focus on are the problems? So let’s look beyond what is seen and look forward to that which is unseen and eternal. Let us look to Christ and His mercies which are new every morning.