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Compassion
Grace to you and
peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our Lord Jesus has a way of caring for His children that is
unlike any other way that the world has ever known. It is the Lord’s way to
gather people unto Himself. It is the Lord’s way to feed those whom He gathers
as His own. It is also the Lord’s way to give us what we need in order that our
burdens may be lifted. The sort of Lord and Savior to which you and I belong
looks beyond Himself to the needs of others. Jesus said to His disciples, “I have compassion on the multitude, because
they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.” Don’t
take this statement lightly. Jesus uses a word which means His concern for the
people causes His insides to ache with sadness. What happens to His children
affects Him deeply. The condition of the people affects His very being. He sees
a people who are going through a spiritual wilderness, a people who are at
risk, who are saddened and troubled. He sees disbelievers, sinners, people who
are hurting, people who are troubled. We see those same people when we look in
the mirror.
Jesus cares for them with a Divine love. We see in this text
something that sounds very familiar to our ears: “He took the loaves and blessed them and broke them and gave them to
His disciples.” Time rushes together in such a way that the event becomes
timeless. Just as God placed Adam and Eve in a delightful garden filled with
food they could eat just by plucking it from the tree; just as God provided
manna in the wilderness for His wandering children; just as Jesus, God in flesh
dwelling among His people, provided for these 4,000 hearers, He now comes to
you in the Word, in the water, in the bread and wine here in the Divine Service,
sustaining and blessing His people. It is for you, free, given without any work
or worth on your part.
Did you hear it? Remember the words recorded by the Apostle
Paul: “The Lord Jesus, on the same night
in which He was betrayed, took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it
and said, ‘Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you.’” It is sad,
though, that, in the midst of these blessings of bread come from God, Israel
ends up grumbling about it. Many disciples in the Gospel of John stop following
Jesus because of His Bread of Life teaching.
Even today we are sometimes guilty of despairing of ourselves,
of not rejoicing in the Supper which is Jesus Himself, taking it for granted,
saying it could be something less than special if we receive it more often. At times
we are numb to its blessings, and we even neglect the opportunity to receive
and find comfort in this gift of Jesus, present in and under bread and wine. We
must repent of this apathy. We should thank God that He gives us this holy
Feast, and we should cry out and beg Him for it when it is not made available
to us.
What we see in the feeding of the multitude is Jesus pointing
to the upper room and to Golgotha. Jesus looks
upon you with compassion and love. Jesus has mercy for you and forgives your
sins—even the sin of our disbelief that God would provide heavenly bread in the
midst of the spiritual wilderness of the world in order to give us heavenly
peace. The blood He shed, the body He gave as the sacrifice, is the sign of His
compassion and love showered upon you. In the same way, the Church looks upon
the holy Supper as the evidence of God’s love, mercy, and concern for His
people. This is how our Lord operates. When you hear the Words of Institution
in this place over bread and wine, God grant that you remember that it is the
compassion of Jesus being showered upon you by Him directly. In the name of the
Father and of the Son (†) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The
peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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