Come, Thou Long-Expected Prophet

Come, Thou Long-Expected Prophet

    

Fourth in Lent

Collect of the Day: Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that we, who for our evil deeds do worthily deserve to be punished, by the comfort of thy grace may mercifully be relieved; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Gospel: St. John 6:1-14

Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.

One of the problems married men have is figuring out what to do when wives present problems. Sometimes she tells you a problem, and you start proposing solutions, and she says, “I wasn’t asking for a solution - just listen.” You think you understand, so the next time she tells you a problem, you just nod. And she says, “So what’s the solution?”

The worst kind of problem to have presented to you is one that has no solution. That’s what happened to Philip. When Jesus saw a great crowd approaching - 5,000 men, and maybe if there were women and children, 20,000 people - he asked Philip, “Where are we going to buy bread so these people can eat?”

Perspective. To understand this story we have to see it from two perspectives.

The first perspective is the Old Testament background for the story. There is no doubt that, as John wrote the story in today’s Gospel, he had in mind two events involving food that happened when Moses was leading the Israelites through the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land.

Not long the people left Egypt there was a crisis about food. They grumbled to Moses:

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.

Their real complaint was against the Lord. But the Lord showed them mercy. He told Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you,” and told Moses to say to the people:

At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.

That evening the Lord covered the camp with quail. The next morning the people found “on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing.” They said to each other, “Manna?” or, “What is it?” That’s how the stuff got its name - manna. For the next 40 years, until they entered the Promised Land, the Lord provided them with heavenly bread, manna, 6 days a week.

Later there was another incident about food when some of the people got tired of the manna. They developed a strong craving for something else. They complained:

“Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at” (Numbers 11:5,6).

The Lord was very displeased with the people. Moses was deeply distressed. He said to the Lord, “Why have you put the burden of all these people on me and told me to carry them as a nurse carries a nursing child?”

Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me (Numbers 11:11-14).

The Lord told Moses he would take care of it, but Moses could not see how it was possible. He said, “There are 600,000 people here. If flocks of sheep and herds of cattle were slaughtered would that be enough? If all the fish in the sea could be caught, would they be enough?” The Lord replied, “Has my hand become so short I can’t do what I said? Now watch and see if what I said happens.”

Then the Lord fed them with quail again, but also sent as judgment for their ingratitude and grumbling.

The second perspective we need is what John tells us. Jesus and his disciples were on eastern side of the big lake in northern Israel, known by two names, the Sea of Galilee or the Sea of Tiberias. Passover was approaching. That makes it about this time of year. People in the region had seen or heard about Jesus’s miracles of healing, so they followed him. Jesus and his disciples went into into the hilly countryside and sat down. From there they could see the large crowd of people approaching.

So Jesus turned to Philip and said, “What are we going to about this? Where are we going to buy bread so that these people can eat?” Philip replied, “Not even if we had 200 denarii (pennyworth) worth of bread, would we have enough so that each person could have just a little piece.” A denarius was the daily pay of a laborer, so 200 denarii would be about what 8 months pay for a day laborer. That much money would buy a lot of bread, but it would be enough to give everyone only a little piece of bread.

Jesus knows all along what he is going to do, but he presents Philip with an unsurmountable problem. Jesus can be like that. He can know what he is going to do in our lives, but first he puts us in a situation that shows us it’s too big a problem for us to solve.

Then Andrew, who was Peter’s brother and partner in the fishing business, said, “Well, here’s a boy who has 5 barley loaves and 2 fish, but what are they when there are so many people to feed?” It was a poor boy’s food for a day away from home, 5 loaves of barley bread and two fish preserved either by drying or salting.

Here was something, but not much. If with Moses it took manna everyday to meet the needs of the Israelites, how are you going to feed 20,000 with 5 loaves of bread? If Moses thought all the fish in the sea would not be adequate for Israel in the wilderness, how are two fish going to feed this multitude? Obviously you aren’t. As Jesus sometimes faces us with unsolvable problems, so he sometimes faces us with situations where we have resources of money, energy, persistence, or spiritual strength, but they not adequate for the situation we face. We have something, but nowhere near what we need.

Prophet. Before Moses died, he predicted that in the future the Lord would send another prophet like him:“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen” (Deuteronomy 18:15).  Moses reminded them that when the Lord had spoken to them 40 years earlier at Mt. Sinai, they had said to Moses, “We can’t handle the Lord’s speaking to us directly. It’s too much. We’ll die. Let the Lord speak directly to you, and then you tell us what he says.” The Lord said to Moses, “They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him” (Deuteronomy 18:17,18).

What Jesus is doing is leading the  people to the confession that he is that Prophet Moses predicted long ago. Jesus had the people sit down. It was springtime so there was lots of grass. Once all were seated, Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, and then had his disciples distribute it to the people. Then he took the 2 fish, again gave thanks, and had them distributed. People took all they wanted and ate to they were full. Then Jesus had the disciples gather up the leftovers, and there were 12 basketfuls.

This was a sign. Jesus’s miracles point to a reality. What reality?  In this case the people seemed to understood the significance of the sign: “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” Jesus is the fulfillment of promise God would sent a Prophet like Moses.

• People - you and I - need to see, hear, and know God, but God’s holiness and glory are so great, if God appeared to us, we would die. How can we see God and live? When we see him in Jesus Christ, his Son, who is God in the flesh. St John tells.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14).

Or, as St. Paul put it

God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Do you want to see God and live? Do you want to hear the living Word of God? Do you want to know God, as he is, and not be destroyed by saved? Then focus Jesus. He is the full, final, and saving revelation of God. Know Jesus, know God - and be saved.

• This same Jesus is the bread of life who alone can satisfy hunger God had put in your soul. The day after Jesus fed this great multitude many of them found him again. It turned out they did not really understand the sign of the day before. What they wanted was a Messiah who could fill their bellies with food. They asked Jesus for another sign, a sign like Moses did when he fed people manna in the wilderness: But Jesus told them, and he tell us:

My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world... I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger... Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life... This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

How do you eat this bread that gives eternal life? By

      putting our faith in Jesus who died on the cross to give

you eternal life. You can strengthen that faith now and eat the life giving flesh of  Jesus as you “Take and eat this bread in remembrance that Christ died for you and feed upon him in your heart by faith with thanksgiving.”