Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
For three days this multitude—about four thousand—listened to Jesus’ teaching. For three days they heard Christ’s teaching about who He is, true God and true man. They heard Christ teach about the law’s requirements, how the law condemns everyone because no one can keep the law perfectly from the heart. But they also heard the blessings He brought to those who confess their sins and acknowledge that they have incurred God’s wrath because of them. He taught them of God’s grace, the forgiveness of sins, the righteousness of faith the new life, and eternal life. For three days they received Jesus’ doctrine in faith, believing it and applying it to themselves so that they were fully confident that for His sake they had a gracious God and eternal salvation. For three days they heard God’s word and applied it to themselves so that, filled with the Holy Spirit, they would go from that place, no longer as slaves of sin to do its bidding, but as slaves of righteousness to holiness. For three days they heard and learn God’s word. But while they feast on Christ, the Bread of Life, they have nothing with which to fill their stomachs. That was how much they wanted to heard Christ’s teaching. Jesus calls His disciples to Him and tells them, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar.” Jesus has compassion on this multitude because they have continued with Him, heard Him. They forsook the needs of the body so that they might attend to the need of their souls, and this to the point that many of them would faint on the way home.
The disciples ask, “How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?” to which Jesus responds by asking how much they have, which amounts to seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. He has the multitude sit down. He takes the seven loaves, gives thanks, breaks them, and gives the pieces to His disciples who are to set them before the multitude. He does the same with the two small fish. And then the miracle happens. Not only does Jesus feed this multitude of about four thousand, He satisfies their hunger. He fills about four thousand stomachs with seven loaves and a few small fish and He provides seven large baskets of leftover fragments to prove that everyone had had enough. The disciples had asked how one could satisfy these people in the wilderness. Jesus shows them that He could do just that by His almighty power. And He did so, not because this multitude sought a sign from Jesus, as the crowd of six thousand did. He does this out of compassion for the multitude since they have continued with Him three days. They sought first the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness, and because they did, Christ cared for them, gave them their daily bread, completely satisfying their hunger so that they would not faint on the way home.
From this we learn that Christ has compassion on those who continue to with Him. How do we continue with Christ? We do what this multitude did. We don’t despise preaching and His Word; but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it. We set aside time on Sundays to hear His preaching, and by that I mean not just listening to the scripture read, sung, and preached, and letting it go in one ear and out the other, but hearing it so that we apply it to ourselves. Hopefully we set aside time each day to read His word and apply it to ourselves. Like the multitude, we hear the law’s requirements and how the law condemns everyone because no one can keep the law perfectly from the heart. Applying the law’s strict demands we must confess that we have sinned in thought, word, and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone, and by our sins we deserve nothing but God’s wrath and eternal punishment. But, like the multitude, we also hear about God’s grace in sending His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to atone for the sins of the world; God’s promise to forgive the sins of all who are truly penitent and believing; God’s promise to declare those who believe righteous with Christ’s perfect righteousness, and the promise of eternal life for all who endure in this faith unto the end, no longer living as slaves of sin, to do its bidding, but as slaves of righteousness to holiness.
This is an earthly way of describing the new life of faith. Paul says uses human terms like this because of the weakness of our flesh. And although we don’t typically think in terms of freedom or slavery, the terminology is useful to help us understand how it is that we continue with Christ. A slave presents his members—body, mind, and will—to his or her master to do what they will and command. Paul explains that formerly, before we believed the gospel, we presented our members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness. The devil, the world, or our sinful flesh would tempt us to unclean and sinful thoughts, words, or deeds, and as dutiful slaves, we would willingly think, speak, and do as our master desired. Our lawlessness—which is just another word for sin—could only lead to more and more sin, because sin is never satisfied. We didn’t do anything righteous because we didn’t serve righteousness. But Christ redeemed us from this slavery. He set us free from sin by the gospel so that sin is no longer our master. But He did not set us free to ourselves. Since we still live in the sinful flesh, if we were freed to ourselves we only go right back to our former master, something that sadly we see too often in this life in those people who imagine the gospel sets them free so that they can boldly continue in their sin under the cloak of Christ’s forgiveness. But this is nothing but the old slavery to sin.
Paul says, “Having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.” Christ sets us free from sin by forgiving our sins and covering us with His perfect righteousness, but in doing so He makes us slaves of God. This doesn’t mean we aren’t children of God by faith in Christ and baptism. As Paul uses it, slavery doesn’t contradict sonship as Jesus uses the image in John 8:35, “A slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.” The Holy Spirit employs the human language of slavery to press one specific point, and that is, that, having been set free from sin, having been made sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, we present our members—our bodies, minds, and wills—to God so that we strive to do the will of our heavenly Father. Just like sin doesn’t have to coerce the unbeliever to do its bidding because he is a slave to sin, God does not coerce His slaves, either. He gives them new hearts with new wills, motivations, and movements, so that we want to do His will, for His glory and for our good. Since His will is our sanctification, Paul calls us slaves of righteousness for holiness. We are not, like so many, to go back to our former way of life, conforming our minds to the world’s thinking. The slavery of sin only earns the wage of death, spiritual death in this life that culminates in the second death, what St. John calls “the lake which burns with fire and brimstone (Rev 21:8). But the gift of God—which He freely bestows on His slaves who serve Him in love—is eternal life. Part of continuing with Christ is to present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness, because that is the reason He has set us free from sin in the first place.
And our Lord Jesus Christ is still compassionate to those who continue with Him during the three days of this earthly life. Though we may have to go into the wilderness to hear God’s word, traveling further than others; though we may have to go without or with less of the comforts of this life so that we can hear His word; though we may have to forsake the things of this life in order to to faithfully confess Christ and His doctrine, He promises that “everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life” (Matt 19:29). Christ sees all this and has compassion on all who continue with Him. He will give you your daily bread, all you need for this body and life, and He will give it you when you need it. He will satisfy the weary soul and replenish every sorrowful soul (Is 31:25) with righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17). He does this out of compassion for you, He will not see His beloved child, a slave of God to righteousness, faint on the way to their heavenly home. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.Amen.
