Hands That Provide

based on Matthew 14:19-20

Lent Midweek 3, March 19, 2003

Pastor Richard Mau

Immanuel Lutheran – Des Plaines, IL

 

            Today we continue with the theme, Hands of the Savior.  Our first message was Jesus’ hands that invite.  Jesus calls us by his word to be his own dear children.  He wants us to come to him.  It is by his invitation alone that we know of him, know his love for us.

           

The second message was of Jesus’ hands that heal.  As he healed a man’s visual blindness, bringing light into his visual life, Jesus heals our spiritual blindness, bringing his saving light into our dark lives of sin. 

           

Today we look at hands that provide.  The Helping Hand that reaches out in times of need to sustain you.  We know the term, receiving a “hand out,” a gift that meets your immediate need.  We rejoice in giving hands that help many in all situations of life.  Our text is from the account of Jesus’ feeding the five thousand in Matthew 14.

 

Matthew 14:19-20   And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.  They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

 

            The disciple, Matthew, who was present at this event, records in the next verse:  “The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.”  [v. 21]  We often overlook how much our Lord provides as we easily recollect the five thousand, but overlook the remainder of the people who were there.  Counting the women and children the number of people fed could triple or quadruple exceeding twenty-thousand. 

 

            We can count our own blessings as we turn to page 301 in the front part of the hymnal and read the explanation of the first article of the Apostles’ Creed.

 

I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my sesses, and still takes care of them.

 

He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have.  He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.

 

He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil.

 

All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me.  For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. 

 

This is most certainly true.

 

            The feeding of this great mass of people emphasizes that God our Savior is also our maker and provider.  Jesus had no obligation to do what he did.  The people who were following him were, as the disciples observed, responsible for their situation.  They had followed Jesus out into this area and forgotten to bring along their provision for lunch.

 

            But Jesus did it his way, he provided for them.  And in this account we see some patterns that Jesus gives you and me today to remember that in him are the hands that provide for us.

 

            First of all, he gave thanks.  The different times recorded where Jesus “gave thanks” are here, the feeding of the four thousand, at the Last Supper when he instituted his body and blood for us to have today, and with the disciples at Emmaus.  King David was known for his prayer of thanks, “Oh give thanks to the Lord for his love endures forever.”  That prayer is recorded for us in 1 Chronicles [16:34, 41], the Psalms [106, 107, 118, 136], and recollected by Solomon at the dedication of the temple. 

 

            The meal consists of bread and fish.  Jesus tells us that he is the bread of life.  As we need bread to sustain us day by day in this earthly life, Jesus’ word feeds us with the nourishment for eternal life, knowing God’s love, forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus alone. 

            Fish are present in both feeding the five and four thousand, what Jesus cooks for his disciples along the shore after his resurrection, and what he eats the eve of his resurrection to show that his body is real, that it is not a vision they are experiencing.  Jesus’ provides fish in abundance both at the first catch early in his ministry, and again that last time he calls his disciples in from the Sea of Galilee.  Interesting how Jesus uses uncountable quantities of fish to remind his disciples then, and you and me today, that we are fishers of men, that his word alone will produce a harvest that we cannot count, that we cannot fathom, that by our own selves, we would never be able to do.  He brings in lost souls, just as he did fish to the boat and fish to feed the hungry, by the power of his word alone.

 

            It is interesting to see the miracle that just a handful of fish and loaves continued to be present until all were satisfied and there was plenty left over.  When the Israelites were in the wilderness, God allowed the people to gather only enough food to supply the need for that specific day.  Now, through Christ, God gives an over abundance.  Our Savior provides for us more than we could ever imagine in our daily lives.  He provides also, more than we could ever imagine in the blessings of eternal life that he will bring us to.

 

            As we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  Luther again reminds us that “God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.”  

 

The people on that hillside did not expect to be fed a meal that day.  Jesus provided.  In the world today, as sinful people think that we must do something to earn our way into heaven, by works of our own.  Instead, Jesus provided.  The disciples could not fathom being left in the world without their Lord.  You and I too, wonder, how can we do this by ourselves.  With the same hands that blessed the loaves and fish, Jesus presented simple bread and wine telling us that in those simple elements are his body and blood, given to you for the forgiveness of sins.  He instructs us to do this as often as we do it in remembrance of him.  The same hands that made a couple of fish and loaves feed an uncountable number of people also make his body and blood present countless times in countless places for countless souls to be strengthened and nourished knowing that this is the very body and blood sacrificed on Calvary for the forgiveness of all sins. 

 

As we give thanks for our daily bread, we give thanks for the spiritual feeding we receive as we hear God’s word of salvation for all people in Jesus Christ.  As we are refreshed and renewed at each meal with our daily bread, we are refreshed and renewed in the washing of baptism, presented as new creatures before God in Jesus’ righteousness.  As we are strengthened at each meal of daily bread, we are strengthened each time we receive the Lord’s Supper, knowing that in him all sins are forgiven in that body and blood given just for us.

 

Hands that provide.  Jesus has provided not only for physical nourishment, but has provided his kingdom which is already given to you.  As you give thanks for the abundance given in daily life, it is only a foretaste of the greatest abundance, that of eternal life in heaven with God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

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