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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Maybe you have, like I have, raised concerns about companies’ customer service and had company representatives ask you what will make the situation “right”, or in other words, what will “satisfy” you. Although sometimes asked condescendingly, the question can be effective: moving you, from complaining about a past problem, to focusing on a present or future solution. (Although, maybe when company representatives ask us what will “satisfy” us, we have a hard time answering the question because we would rather complain about a past problem than focus on a present or future solution.) In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus identified a concern about His apostles—that His apostles just back from a missionary trip needed rest, rest that sometimes comes only after eating, which they apparently did not have an opportunity to do—and Jesus identified a concern about the great crowd that met them when they at least tried to go away to a desolate place by themselves—that the great crowd was like sheep without a shepherd, bound to perish. So, Jesus both taught the crowd many things and, again engaging the service of His apostles, Jesus miraculously fed the crowd, with the result that they all ate and were satisfied. In short, “Christ satisfies.”
Aside from customer service concerns, what will “satisfy” you? Fine food, after which you still eventually will be hungry again? Classy clothes, which like less-classy clothes can be stained, tear, fade, be outgrown, and go out of style? A nicer car or home, likely with greater payments, taxes, and maintenance costs? How about better health, which still eventually will be subject to sickness and death? What will “satisfy” you? In today’s Gospel Reading, being “satisfied” has to do with hunger: the Divinely‑inspired St. Mark says they all ate and were satisfied. The Bible as a whole usually speaks of hunger’s being “satisfied”, especially with bread, but, by way of figurative meanings for food such as bread—figurative meanings such as nourishment in general, partaking of sacrifices, and even participation in heavenly bliss—the Bible can also refer to satisfying our soul’s “deepest aspirations” (Warmuth, TDOT, 14:19-31; Behm, TDNT 1:477).
These days it seems that too many people are looking to government to “satisfy” them, never mind that the Divinely-inspired St. Paul writes that those are not willing to work should not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10), though certainly in one way or another we should help those who are not able to work. In keeping with today’s Old Testament Reading (Jeremiah 23:1-6), Jesus in today’s Gospel Reading may have identified the crowds as sheep without a shepherd in part because of King Herod (Mars, CPR 25:3, p.28). King Herod arguably was not so much concerned about teaching or feeding the people, as he was concerned about entertaining and feeding his nobles, military commanders, and leading men of Galilee, which led to the martyrdom of John the Baptizer, as we heard in last week’s immediately-preceding Gospel Reading (Mark 6:14-29). Enabled by the Holy Spirit, the people who ran to Jesus on foot from all the towns may have recognized Him as a better shepherd than King Herod, maybe even recognized Jesus as the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-18), Who could satisfy them in far greater ways than mere food, which Jesus did, teaching them and feeding them. In short, “Christ satisfies.”
Like Moses, who once asked the Lord where he was supposed to get food for all the people of Israel (Numbers 11:13), Jesus’s disciples in the Gospel Reading still had a lot to learn, and so do we today. We may be fixated on our material blessings and on their logistics instead of on our loving God, Who provides not only the material blessings and their logistics but also the more-important spiritual blessings. In the Gospel Reading, Jesus had compassion on, taught, and provided food to sinful people—sinful people who deserved, as we deserve, both death here and now and torment in hell for eternity. God in human flesh, Jesus had compassion on all sinners as only God’s promised saving Shepherd could have compassion (Koster, TDNT 7:553‑554; Micah 5:4). On the cross, Jesus the Good Shepherd laid down His life for His sinful sheep, for us and all people, and then Jesus took His life back up again (John 10:11, 17-18). As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (Ephesians 2:11-22), through the cross Jesus reconciled us to God. Jesus “satisfied” God’s righteous wrath over our sin! When we turn in sorrow from our sinful nature and all our sin, trust God to forgive us for Jesus’s sake, and want to stop sinning, then God does forgive us—God forgives our sinful nature and all our sin, our sin of fixating on our material blessings and on their logistics, or whatever our sin might be.
Whatever bad leaders we might have now, still today the Good Shepherd teaches and feeds His flock that is His Church, although He does so through the “under-shepherds” whom He calls and sends. Those pastors read and preach God’s Word to groups such as this group in the Divine Service, and they apply His Gospel to individuals in Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion. From this Altar, Jesus miraculously feeds us bread that is His Body given for us and gives us to drink wine that is His Blood shed for us, and by them we receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Although we are sinners, Jesus eats with us, feeding us on Himself. He is the true bread of heaven; He is the bread of life. He is our sacrificial meal, satisfying us and our soul’s “deepest aspirations”. In short, “Christ satisfies.”
As the Divinely-inspired St. Paul rhetorically asked the Romans, How will God, Who did not spare His own Son but graciously gave Him up for us all, not also with Him graciously give us all things (Romans 8:32)? As we prayed in the Collect of the Day, we do not deserve His goodness, still He provides for all our needs of body and soul, and He grants us His Holy Spirit that we may acknowledge His gifts, give thanks for all His benefits, and serve Him in willing obedience. Before our meals, we may pray as the Small Catechism teaches, quoting the psalmist David, that the eyes of all look to the Lord, and He gives them their food in due season; the Lord opens His hand, and He satisfies the desire of every living thing (SC VIII:7; Psalm 145:15-16). That verse was also used in today’s Introit (Psalm 147:7-22; antiphon: Psalm 145:16), and it is said to mean that all creatures receive enough to eat in order to make them joyful and of good cheer (Tappert, 353). As the Small Catechism also teaches, the “daily bread” for which we pray in the Lord’s Prayer is so much more than food, arguably taking in all of the gifts that we associate with faith in God the Father Almighty, Who not only made and but Who also sustains heaven and earth (SC III:14; II:2). Like St. Paul, whether satisfied or hungry, we can be content through Him who strengthens us. Either way, satisfied or hungry, we can and do praise Him! The hungry will be satisfied, if not now, then in the life to come (Matthew 5:6; Luke 6:21). We have been taught and have partaken of His holy food, and so we know that we also will partake of His heavenly bliss and rest (Daniel 12:13; Revelation 6:11; 14:13).
For past customer service problems, we may have to give company representatives solutions in order to “satisfy” us, but, for the ongoing problem of sin, God Himself has come up with and provided the solution now and for eternity. In short, “Christ satisfies.”
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +