Daily Bread

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0:00 with last week we started with Lent, this six week, 40 day preparation period for the celebration of the resurrection. And what we're focusing on, the reason we spent last week different folks wrote confessions is because for the season of Lent we focused on our need for the death and resurrection of Jesus, that we are people who need God.

0:33 And so we're going to take different stories from scripture in these weeks leading up to Easter looking at stories of people who were in a place of need, what they needed, and how in what way God met that need. And maybe there's things we can learn about our neediness and who God can be for us in our place of need. So the story I want to look at first this morning is in Matthew's account of the gospel

1:04 if you want to look there with me. Matthew's the first book in the New Testament so it's like three quarters or five eighths of the way through a paper copy, towards the back. Matthew Mark Luke John, Acts Romans. And in Matthew chapter 14, the beginning of Matthew chapter 14 is where we won't go through the first 12 verses but what happens there is John the Baptist is killed and that's

1:40 a real bummer for Jesus. Remember John the Baptist is Jesus' cousin. And John the Baptist baptized Jesus, remember that they would have met and known each other. Maybe not much when they were young it seems like John the Baptist definitely knows of Jesus but when Jesus comes to see him at the Jordan it doesn't feel like a meeting of two people that have known each other for a long time or very well but certainly very

2:12 dear. And especially because John the Baptist understood and believed the calling of Jesus. At one point in the story Jesus is talking about John the Baptist and he says there is not a man born of woman greater than John the Baptist. And this is the incarnated God saying this about the dude. And Jesus is having to go back and forth with his closest friends, the 12 disciples

2:44 all the time they are getting it, they are understanding it, they are not understanding it. John the Baptist got it. And when you think about Jesus remember that Jesus when he was a baby Herod the king of the time killed all the boys in the region who were the same age as Jesus. So if you think about it Jesus growing up probably didn't have a lot of boys his age because Herod had killed them all when he was two.

3:15 So I can imagine that John the Baptist, this cousin who understands and believes his calling, who is working like laboring with Jesus along the same line, understands the problem of the religious authority in the day. That losing John the Baptist whom Jesus calls the greatest born among woman is a real bummer for Jesus. Like he is bummed.

3:47 And the verse 12 there and the disciples came and took the body of John the Baptist Herod and then they went and told Jesus Jesus finds out from her. Verse 13 now when Jesus heard this he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself understandably. I feel like he probably feels alone and so would like to be alone.

4:18 But when the crowds heard it they followed him on foot from the towns and when he went the shore he saw a great crowd. If I were in Jesus' shoes I went in the boat to go to a desolate place to be by myself. And when I land in my desolate place that I've picked because I feel alone I'd like

4:49 to be alone, a crowd of people are there waiting for me. I would turn the boat around because I have strains of myself that are selfish and weak and my compassion fails me at times. I'm an empathetic person and my empathy fails me at times. I cannot feel other people's pain. I am overwhelmed with my own.

5:20 Jesus' empathy never fails him. His compassion never runs out. He pulls the boat up to the desolate place sees the crowd in what? When he went to shore he saw a great crowd and had compassion on them and healed their sick. Now that for me, like just that right there has been mind blowing for me and kind of indicting

5:52 for the last. I read that story and thought about it that way about my compassion running out and Jesus' compassion never running out about ten years ago and it's challenged me to enlarge my heart to say I can't be Jesus but I can be a person like Jesus. I have the capacity for greater compassion than I've been exhibiting and so I began to wonder how could I expand my compassion. There's enough there that we can sit on forever but I want to get to this other story here

6:24 so let's keep going. I just know you can go back and meditate on that if you want later, my first. Now when it was evening the disciples came to him and said this is a desolate place. Jesus was like I know I picked it. And the day is now over. Send the crowds away to the villages, into the villages and send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.

6:59 Jesus said they don't need to go away. You give them something to eat. I love that. I thought about this for the first time. I don't know if the disciples pulled all the people that were there. They were like are you guys getting worried? You know it starts. I don't think so. I think that the disciples' compassion ran out.

7:29 They're like Jesus we're in this desolate place and these people are not going home. Tell them to go home. Here's the reason they got to eat. What are we going to do? And Jesus is like hey enlarging your compassion to disciples. You give them something to eat. Send them away and send to themselves. We take care of them. Jesus send these people away at the end of the day.

8:04 But I don't think the 5,000 people were worried. First time I thought about the story that way. It's not a mutiny. The 5,000 people are not like or 10,000 whatever. It's 5,000 men plus women and kids. They're not like hey Jesus we came out here and are expecting you to feed us. You don't hear a word from them. You hear the disciples go hey here's our good chance to get rid of them finally and be in the desolate place. Send these people away. And Jesus is like no you take care of them. But the disciples are not worried.

8:34 I mean the 5,000 don't seem worried. That's what I want you to see. If they were worried they wouldn't still be there. What are they things going to happen? Either they'll figure they'll make it through the night and it won't matter. They don't want to leave Jesus. This is a pretty cool thing that's happening. Or their figure some solution will present itself but they don't seem worried. And I think that that's really interesting. They clearly have a need but they're around Jesus and they're not worried.

9:06 They said they had to end. Oh wait. This is a desolate place and the day is now over. And the crowds away and go into the villages and buy food for themselves. But Jesus said to them they need not go away. You give them something to eat. And they said to him man we've only got five loaves here and two fish. And he says hey bring me those things.

9:36 This bring them up here. I wonder if Jesus hadn't prayed for them and the disciples are like okay. He says feed them. Let's just feed them. It's the same thing would have happened. Like I wonder. You know. Because they don't seem to be going okay you want to feed them cool. This must work. We've got five loaves, two fishes. This will be enough. Right. They seem to be saying there is no way we can feed them Jesus. We've got five loaves and two fishes. This will not work.

10:07 And so Jesus says give these things to me. He takes the five loaves and the two fish and he says bring them here to me. Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Everybody has teeth. I wonder. The disciples headspace low on compassion. Children are running around getting annoying. There's 5,000 people. A lot of them were sick. Maybe they're not anymore. Now they're exuberant which is great but also exuberance is annoying.

10:38 Right. Like their compassion has run out. And Jesus said these people home get blessed to eat. They have to eat. And he's like no we're going to figure it out. They're like yeah you're going to forget we've got five loaves and two fishes. He says give that to me. Then he tells everybody to sit down. Like what are the disciples thinking? Oh my gosh. What's he going to like how's he going to. Okay. And bring him here to me. And then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass and taking the five loaves and

11:09 the two fish. And he got to heaven and said a blessing. And he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples. And the disciples gave them to the crowds. I have thought about this part a lot. Like how the mechanics of that for the disciples. Like there's 12 of them. And he started with five loaves. So then is he breaking those loaves and give because he didn't have 12 loaves.

11:42 So they couldn't each have gotten a loaf. And if five of them got a loaf and two of them got a fish. They're still I can't do the math. But a couple guys that don't have anything right. So hand out. So he probably broke the loaves of bread and gave them out. And then they start walking around to the groups of people. They probably sat in little family groups like this on the ground. Maybe a couple families in a group. And they go around and maybe they're going to do a family style so they're not having to pass to every single person and amount of food.

12:16 So they break off a piece of the half of a loaf of bread that they got. And then in my head it's like what happens. Does another one appear out of thin air or does that one half or loaf just never like just keep having bread there. And they break something off and then there's more. Something happens. And this story is recorded in Matthew, in Luke and in Mark. Okay.

12:46 And we know that these stories were written down before the end of the first century. And we know that there were 5,000 men plus women and children. So there were at least 10,000 people here. If this story was made up someone would have called it out. And there are enough witnesses of this story that this thing happened somewhere around the Sea of Galilee. Like several thousand years ago, young goose, they think the disciples were under the age

13:20 of 21, got some lobes of bread from Jesus of Nazareth, broke them off and in their hand was more. And so they kept breaking thinking this is going to be the last piece I got. Hopefully Thaddeus has some more still and then he'd break them off. Oh, and there's more to give out. Okay. And he keeps giving out the bread. Okay. Looked up to heaven, said a blessing, broke the loaves. Oh, he did break them. There you go. And gave them to disciples. And the disciples gave them to the crowds, verse 20.

13:54 And they all ate. And were satisfied. And they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces left over. Now I was thinking about this because as a kid, I remember hearing this story and thinking wow, they gathered up these crumbs. It looked like nothing in the grass and they gathered up these crumbs and when they gathered the crumbs they were actually 12 baskets left. But I don't think the disciples worked that hard. Their compassion was running out. Plus, the people were sitting on the grass. I think this is like leftovers that were worth saving.

14:27 This is not like the little crumbs. This is like hunks of bread. Like they passed out like half loaves to these family groups and they shared the bread around. And then there was some leftovers. And so they just went around and picked up the leftovers and they had 12 baskets. Well, you know, 12 is like a significant number in the story of Scripture. It's like for the fullness of the people of God, there are 12 tribes, there are 12 disciples. 12 shows the fullness of the people.

14:59 Got 12 times 12 in the coming city at one point in the revelation, the picture of the old and the new covenant fulfilled with all the people. 12 means there's enough for everyone. That's what 12 means. There's enough for everyone. They pick up enough for everyone. I'll sing about that. Everybody got everything they needed. And there was still enough left for everyone.

15:31 Like I bet that boy that brought the lunch ate better than he would have if he just had his loaves and fishes that he brought for himself. God in Jesus provides for these thousands of people just on an evening in a best-book

16:04 place because he had compassion on them. Isn't that interesting? He didn't tell them, great, I'm glad we're all here. You all have been healed. You're welcome. We're in this desolate place. I am, Jesus of now together, let's fast and pray and thank God for what he's done. He doesn't do that. I think it's so cool that this is like a simple, like this is like one evening meal.

16:35 They would have been fine. But it's okay to want to have an evening meal. I love that Jesus makes their need okay. He doesn't give them the holy answer. He's like, we're all here together. I wonder if he had planned on feeding them. We could ask him, but that's not the way the story goes. The story goes, he was hanging out in the desolate place with people that he cared about and someone came up and said, oh, we should eat.

17:06 He said, cool. He said, let's eat. I love that. I love that he waited until someone presented a need and saw two needs. The disciples needed to care and folks needed to eat. So he put the disciples to work, to expose them to their need and expand their ability to care and he gave the people food. I think one of the great benefits of being the people of God is to be able to let God

17:46 know what we need. Now Jesus was in the desolate place. He knew they weren't going to go buy some food. He knew it was dinner time, but he doesn't tell them to sit down and bring forward their food until they asked for it. I don't know why. I just follow the story.

18:18 There were sick in the town that came to meet him at the desolate place. He didn't heal them then, but when they walked around the side of the lake and brought their sick to him, he healed them when they came and asked for it. Yes, God knows what you need. So what? Do you come to him with the things that you need? There's a section in Luke where it's actually here in Matthew 2 and Matthew 6.

18:52 Let's look there. If you go just a little bit to the left, Matthew chapter 5 is this amazing teaching. Matthew puts all the teachings of Jesus together and he's called the Sermon on the Mount. And right after that, now I'm going to have to, oh, here it is. Matthew chapter 6 verse 5. He's talking about giving to the needy and then he says, and when you pray, you must not

19:23 be like the hypocrites where they love to stand and pray in the synagogues of the street car that may be seen by brothers through the, they have received the reward. But when you pray, go into your room and pray, when you pray, do not heap up the infant's house, do you? Okay, verse 8. Verse 9. Pray then like this, he says, our Father in heaven, how love be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Okay. Hey Father, you're holy in a big deal.

19:55 We recognize that. We love for your will to be done here as it is done perfectly in heaven. Make that happen. And then what's the next thing says? Give us some food to eat. Give us our daily bread. And forgive us our sins. Even before Jesus teaches people to pray and even before he says, ask for the forgiveness

20:26 of your sins, he says, ask for the things that you need. Especially at the time of Jesus, if you had bread, if you had food to eat, a large portion of your problems were solved. Okay. Daily bread means the things you need for life. God will give you the things that you need. I mean, I don't know how he works it out or when these things come.

20:57 But what we learn from the story of Scripture is that God has compassion for needs and encourages us to come to him with our needs over and over again. For me, one of the most liberating realities of being a person of the way of Jesus is the removal of the responsibility to provide for myself. I work because my calling, I am responsible to live faithful lives, one life, eight faithful

21:35 life. Together we are responsible for living faithful lives. That means we work because we are made to work. We are made to create, to serve people around us, to work for the general welfare of our city, the peace and prosperity of the place where we live. We work because we are made to work. Not because God gives us the things that we need. This mindset has been one of the most liberating realities for me in being a person of God.

22:08 God will take care of me. Then I realized the boy could have refused to give what he was able to scrounge up together. But he probably ate better under the provision of Jesus than under what he could put together. Same for the rest of the people sitting on the ground. They could have gone somewhere and scrounged together meals.

22:39 But it wouldn't have been as good as all sitting on that hillside. Ten thousand of them with kids running around exuberant people healthy again, eating the food passed out by the disciples in the presence of Jesus of Nazareth come on. This is what you can scrounge together a life and take care of yourself. You are confident, capable, well connected people.

23:10 But it will not be as good as if you learn to rely on the provision of God. Did you hear that in that confession? I don't know who wrote it. Somebody wrote it yesterday or last week that said like I am caught up in thinking I can solve my own problems. I spend my time vacillating between anxiety and different ways to numb myself because the pressure I am providing for myself is too great. Because you weren't made for that.

23:44 We are people. He is God. God provides for his people and we live faithful lives amidst his provision. This is a pleasant season as you prepare to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. Take some time to acquaint yourself with your neediness and then having a quick realizing what you need, go to the God with your need and be open to his provision.

24:15 Oh, and like the boy, go to the God with what you have. Maybe you've sent some time thinking about it and you're like I'm going to have some needs but I've been running up against the wall with those needs for a while. Cool, clip it. Like the boy with the lunch. Go to him with what you have and give it away. Trust in his provision instead of what you can put together.

24:46 Maybe you don't need that. Maybe you give it to him and it turns into something else. Let's pray. Hey Lord, teach us to rely on your provision instead of our own ingenuity. Show us the line between faithful living and assuming responsibility that's meant only for you. Teach us the freedom and the liberation that comes from being people who rely on you Lord. Teach us that now. Open our eyes to our neediness and to your provision this morning.

25:20 In Jesus name is praying. Amen.