“FED THE WORD”
Saint Mark 8.
1-9
7th Sunday after Trinity: 14 July Anno
Domini 2013
Fr Jay Watson
SSP
In The Name + of
Jesus
In the beginning there was nothing to eat.
But even before the beginning the Lord loved His own; He loved Adam and Eve
before He breathed His Son, Spirit and Self into them. “In the beginning was The Word…all things were made by Him…in Him was
life.” [Jn. 1.1, 3a, 4a] “In the beginning God created…let the earth
bring forth…the herb yielding seed…and the tree yielding fruit…and fowl that
may fly above the earth…cattle…to you it shall be for meat.” [Gen. 1] “And
the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat’” [Gen. 2. 16]
The Word feeds. The Word is food that saves!
The
Lord Jesus creates and feeds. Jesus makes life, restores life, and maintains
life. Jesus doesn’t just feed He nourishes, delights, and lavishes good
food—the finest of fat meats and wines on the lees; the freshest and most
delightful bread and refreshing pure water.
“This
day at Thy creating Word” we sing in TLH # 12 “first o’er the earth the light was poured; “O Lord this day upon us
shine.”
He is the Good Shepherd who pastures His
multitude, His flock, upon His own green pastures which are in His own Flesh
and His own Blood. His multitudes need to eat not just to stay alive but to BE
ALIVE in Him—vibrant, healthy, and growing green in life—branches to the
vine…not phloem and xylem from a cellulose center but living stones from the
Rock of Ages, the wounds, pierced side, mouth, and heart of the God/Man.
Sin and rebellion, deicide—trying to kill
God and be “like gods,”—drove Man
from paradise and the feasting banquet. Sin produces hunger, famine,
malnutrition, wasting and death. Your sin produces gnawing emptiness, fainting
on the way, and death—both spiritual hunger as well as physical wants, an empty
gut.
Jesus doesn’t just want to give you a
minimum, a survival ration; He desires to “satisfy.”
“From
whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?” Nowhere,
and No one: “I believe that I cannot by
own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him…”
writes the Reformer in the 3rd Article’s explanation. What man can’t
do the God/Man can and does! The Word
feeds. The Word is food that saves.
Only Jesus satisfies and feeds in the
40-year desert of Exodus sin. Seven loaves of bread point to Creation’s
perfection which man destroyed in piggish gluttony and prideful spite. When the
Lord also fed the 5,000 in John 6 He spoke the truth about real food and real
feasting: “I Am the bread of life, he
that cometh to Me shall never hunger,” and “and the bread that I will give is My Flesh.” Note well that these
words came after that miracle of multiplying fish and bread. He is talking
there about Calvary; about the paschal mystery of the vicarious satisfaction of
the Lamb of God slain and cooked on the crucifix in the fire of God’s wrath
against your trespasses. For God so
loved the world…in this precise way, that the Crucifixion of the Only Begotten
full of Grace and Truth was necessary to fill your lifeless corpses not just
with re-birth, but with a Eucharist Wedding Gourmet-Graced “three-course” + extravaganza!
The language that Saint Mark uses in his
Evangel typifies what Jesus will do
on Maundy Thursday, and on Sunday 14 July: “gave
thanks, and brake, and gave to His disciples to set before them.”
Miraculously multiplying a few fish and
loaves of bread does indeed show Divinity and Omnipotence…the mastery over
matter and supernatural control. That’s nice…especially for the four-thousand
that were strengthened for the journey back to their homes. But this “sign” isn’t about temporary satiation
or even daily bread—daily. The feeding is the Word. The Word is the Word made
flesh: Christ Jesus. The Word made flesh is His Scripture whetting your
appetite and giving you forgiveness and peace and salvation. The Word made
flesh is His very true and real and actual Body and Blood in His feeding in The
Sacrament. The Word feeds. The Word is food that saves. Sacramental, that is, “mysterious” what happened that
day? Sure. But for He to Whom all things
are possible, this character of His giving, satisfying, doing, and merciful
nourishing is present every Mass!
The Cross of Christ, even before
Golgotha, was planted firmly into the ground that day in the midst of all those
people. Jesus’ Body, obeying the Law, and loving God and His neighbor (the
multitude) fed them. The Cross of Christ, at Golgotha, planted firmly
into the pierced Body of Jesus produced Blood, Water, and Flesh. But that was
then and now is now. NOW…right now…that which was prepared for distribution by
His disciples…is given to you that you might be satisfied. Perfection is
restored; the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church—the reconstituted paradise of
seven baskets filled—is here in this Nave.
Eat, drink, the Body and Blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of your
sins!
In The Name of
The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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