“Abundant Grace, Abundant Giving”
Original sermon given July 28, 2024, written and delivered by Pastor Jeffrey Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Watch the sermon live.
“Abundant Grace, Abundant Giving”
Mark 6.1-21/ 2 Kings 4
Mark 6.1-21/ 2 Kings 4
In the name of the Living God and the risen Christ. Amen.
Let’s start with Elisha, before we get to Jesus, if that’s okay with you. As you might know, the Old Testament readings are meant to correspond with the gospel readings—to offer clarity and contrast. This morning’s miraculous feeding from 2 Kings sets up the famous miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, recorded in John 6.
So, can I tell you a Bible story? Elisha is God’s Man in a godless time. He’s received a double-portion of the spirit of his mentor, the great prophet, Elijah, and boy is he going to need it! Elisha prophecies at a time of wars and rumors of war; of political intrigue and palace corruption; of alliances and betrayals; of the mechanisms and manipulations and maneuverings of international state craft; of bloody battles; of injustice for the poor. (If you ever get depressed about our world’s current state of affairs, just started reading 1 and 2 Kings and it’ll cheer you up!).
God’s message through God’s man, was a call to faith and faithfulness. Not faith in princes or politicians, or policies, but in the one true God, Yahweh of the everlasting covenant, who knows all things and rules all things and rules all things and judges all things and directs all things.
Elisha, with that double-spirit, is a reminder that, though seemingly small and insignificant, only faith and faithfulness to the Lord ultimately is what counts in the end.
We meet Elisha in this reading from 2 Kings in a time of war and famine and persecution. Gathered with his company of fellow prophets, a miraculous feeding occurs [which will spring us forward to Jesus, in a minute]. God’s people of faith and faithfulness provide for Elisha and his company, from their own stores. But how can only 20 barley loaves with a bit of grain feed 100 hungry preachers [it’s like feeding a whole Lutheran Pastor’s conference, or something!)? The double-spirited prophet prophecies: give, and there will be enough. Trust, and the Lord will provide.
I find it both an inspirational moment and a convicting one, for us. I think about these faithful people in 2 Kings and how much more reason they had for spiritual stinginess than we! They had so much less in so much worse a situation, but gave what they had and trusted God’s word. They lived in the freedom of knowing that when you do the right thing with whatever God has given you—your money, your talent, your time, your gifts, your future, your very self—God will provide all that you need and bless all you do.
It's so easy to do the opposite than these faithful ones who provided for God’s work. We like to clutch onto, collapse in, seek the self’s needs first, and live lives of a sort-of “spiritual stinginess.” This is the slavery to self rather than the freedom of faith.
But a miracle is done, there in 2 Kings. They gave what they had, God blessed it, and there was even a bit left over, just as the prophet had said.
Now, let’s move a few hundred miles north, to the sea of Galilee; and a few hundred years forward to the first century AD. Here, another gathers a crowd around himself, teaches them, and feeds them miraculously.
The two miracles are obviously meant to be connected: a prophet preaching faith and faithfulness to God in a difficult time, people giving what they have for God’s work, and God’s abundant provision.
But note how much greater Jesus’ miracle is over Elisha’s:
The sheer number fed is obviously greater—not just 100 are fed but 5,000 (not including women and children, so maybe 2 or 3 times that!)
The contrast is greater—a mere 5 loaves and two fish feed so many, rather than 20 loaves and fresh ears of grain in Elisha’s day.
The sacrifice is greater—it’s but a little boy, who gives all that he has, rather than a group of adults giving from their fields and stores.
The test is greater—Jesus pointedly asks Phillip “where are we to buy bread for all these people?” Six months wages couldn’t feed them all!
The leftovers are greater—in Galilee, there’s not just a bit, barely taking us over the top, but 12 basketfuls—one for each of the twelve Apostles.
The revelation is greater. This miraculous sign at Galilee shows not just a prophet, nor even “the prophet”, but points to Jesus Messiah, the very son of God. He’s not just God’s man, but God made man. He’s not just delivering the word, as Elisha did, but is the Word made flesh. He doesn’t just have a double-spirit of a prophet, but has the full Spirit of Yahweh descended upon him and at work in him.
And finally, the purpose is greater. The purpose of the Feeding of the 5,000 is not to feed a rebellion, or win a war, or rule a kingdom, or provide for some prophets, but it is to point to the greatest sign, when Christ will give his body for the life of the world. This is where he will feed all of mankind, with the manna from above, his very self.
The contrast is even greater for us, here, this morning too. For you. For whatever’s going on in the world. Or, however far you’ve fallen. Or, however greedy or selfish or self-serving you’ve been. Or, however faithless or compromising, bowing the knee to false gods of our age. Or, however turned inward in the slavery to self. Jesus, Messiah, feeds us today with his very self, the bread of life. In this abundant miracle is forgiveness and life beyond measure. In this sign is salvation, for us, and for the whole world. Christ is crucified, risen, and now given for all.
Keep faith and faithfulness on your journey in the wilderness. Don’t hold back. Don’t turn inward. Don’t clutch all the things of this world, retreating into the slavery of self. Be freed by faith, see the sign of the loaves, and know that God’s abundant provision and promise is enough.
Come soon Lord Jesus. Amen.