Manchester Lutheran Church

Where can I get enough?

Every single one of us here knows what it feels like not to be able to make ends meet: Money. Security. Safety. Resources. Savings. Debt. We all know what it’s like for words like these to cause massive, massive stress and anxiety.

And God understands too.

Many places in the Bible address the anxiety we feel about money and finances:

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:25 says:

do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink

Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:32 writes:

I want you to be free from anxieties.

Peter in 1 Peter 5:7 writes you should be:

casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

And God’s Law shows he really cares about the poor. In Deuteronomy 15:7 he commanded Israel:

If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother,

Amos later preached that God was angry with Israel because of their mistreatment of the poor, 8:4, 7:

Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end,… The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

Money matters to you, and you know what it’s like to feel anxious. Well… this matters to God as well. And you matter to him. And he has something to say about it. And one of Jesus’ clearest revelations about anxiety over money comes in the feeding of the 5,000 in John 6.

One way of looking at John’s Gospel, is that it is a story revealing what God loves and cares about. That is Jesus’ role described in the prologue, 1:17-18:

grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Jesus has come to reveal the grace and truth of God. Jesus then calls his first disciples to trust him. He then turns water into wine, showing that our joy matters to him. He talks with Nicodemus and explains his mission in chapter 3 verse 16 by saying:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,

He meets a Samaritan woman, an outsider, and offers her living water. He heals people to show that God cares about them. And then in chapter 5 he has just argued with the religious leaders who wanted to limit God’s love only to those who follow certain religious practices.

The person reading John’s Gospel might be thinking two things at the end of chapter 5: “Should I trust Jesus or not?” and “Who does God actually love?”

And so Jesus now continues his revelation of God’s love by addressing a question everyone personally wrestles with: Where can I get enough?

And in today’s story, there are two parts to Jesus’ answer:
Trust Jesus, don’t rely on human solutions
Jesus provides even when you struggle to trust

First, Trust Jesus, don’t rely on human solutions

Please look again at vv. 1-2:

After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.

In his Gospel, John often contrasts true faith based on Jesus’ Word with a kind of false based on things people can see.

The ancient preacher John Chrysostom explained v. 2 like this:

What is here told marks not a very wise state of mind; for when they had enjoyed such teaching, they still were more attracted by the miracles,

And this is the essential question we face today, when issues of money and finances come up in our lives: Do I trust in Jesus? Or only in what I can see?

There’s plenty of superstitious reliance on signs in churches today:
—people expecting direct miracles to provide for them
—relying on miraculous signs before making decisions
—making decisions by interpreting events as signs from God

God does not promise us that he will provide money or guidance through miracles, signs or coincidences, so relying on these things is not faith, but superstition.

God commands us to trust him, which means trusting what he says in his Word: in scripture. Trusting in things we see, miracles, signs, or coincidences is not faith. This is not what God commands.

But, of course, the far more common thing to rely on today is our reason and logic, this is exactly what Jesus reveals in Philip, look again at vv. 3-7:

Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.”

Jesus knows what your needs are, and he knows the anxieties you have about them. And he asks Philip this question to reveal how he thinks about problems. Philip doesn’t express trust. He doesn’t speak from faith. His reason takes him straight to counting numbers.

When we think about security and the future, the biggest false God we are all drawn to is… money.

Worrying about the future. Hoarding wealth. Refusing to give. Overworking and so neglecting church, family or good works. Equating financial security with God’s favour. Borrowing money unwisely or impulse buying to try and drive out fear and anxiety.

All of these are ways our reason and human logic can eclipse and replace faith: simple trust in God and his promises.

Another major substitution for faith, that’s particularly popular here in Manchester, is politics. Look again at vv. 14-15:

When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

The crowd can see from this miracle that Jesus is unique, that clearly he has some special role in God’s plan, but rather than place their faith in God’s Word, they place their faith in a political solution.

And, again, we do this today: Every election, politicians over promise what they can’t deliver. Because voters want to be told politics can save the world. We so often despair when an election doesn’t go the way we want. We imagine the future of the world depends on the success of one superpower over another.

Where can I get enough?

All of us know what it feels like not to have enough, and to rely on these worldly things—signs, reason, politics—as substitutes to faith.

And yet the solution to this is not to be told to have faith. Being told to trust Jesus is not the Gospel, even though many churches in Manchester will tell us that it is the Gospel.

No, the command to have faith is exactly that: a command. It is a requirement of God’s Law. And on its own, the Law only ever encourages more sin.

That’s why, when I’m anxious or worried about my security, my finances, my future, simply being told to trust God doesn’t help.

Which leads us onto the second part of Jesus’ answer: the Gospel: Jesus provides even when you struggle to trust him

Seeing people had needs, Jesus didn’t just command his disciples to trust him, he trained them to trust him. Look again at vv. 5-6:

Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

Jesus is training trust. And Philip fails in this test of faith, but Andrew does a bit better, look again at vv. 8-10:

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.

Andrew is doing better than Philip in that he has faith: He brings to Jesus the food that he does have, showing that he sees Jesus as the only real solution. But his faith is still only weak. Because rather than expressing confidence in Jesus, he’s stuck at needing to imagine for himself what a solution would look like.

So what does Jesus do? Look again at v. 11:

Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.

Andrew had weak faith. Philip had no faith. And yet, Jesus provides for them. And Jesus provided for everyone in the crowd, despite knowing that many in the crowd had no faith. A bit later, in v. 26, Jesus will say:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”

Jesus knows many of these people entirely worldly in their thinking, and yet he provided for them anyway. And THAT is the Gospel message of this story: Jesus provides even when you struggle to trust him

This is the Gospel: not “put your faith in God and he will love you” but rather: “God loves you. He loves everyone. Period.”

So many churches today mask this good news, they confuse Law and Gospel by only expressing God’s love with conditions.

But this Gospel message is all over the Scriptures:

Matthew 5:45:

The Father makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Psalm 145:9:

The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

And Jesus promised in Matthew 6:30:

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

God’s love is universal, unconditional, unilateral—depending on nothing. We receive it by faith, but even that is a gift. Ephesians 2:8:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Jesus provides even when you struggle to trust him to provide

God is your Father. He is generous. He is abundant. He is gracious. He gives freely to people who don’t deserve it. It’s in his nature.

So much so, that he even offers himself to us: Once for all time on the cross, and week by week here in the Supper.

And that, the Sacrament, is not a pretend thing. It’s not merely a sign, a remembrance, or a symbol. In this bread and this wine, Jesus actually gives us himself: “This is my body. This is my blood.”

And many people doubt this promise because, like Andrew, they can’t imagine how it could be true.

John Calvin wrote this in his Institutes of the Christian Religion:

Unless the body of Christ can be everywhere without any boundaries of space, it is impossible to believe that he is hid in the Supper under the bread… I reject the absurdities which appear to be unworthy of the heavenly majesty of Christ, and are inconsistent with the reality of his human nature.

But, isn’t it inconsistent with the reality of 5 loaves and 2 fish to be eaten by 5,000 people and still leave 12 baskets full of pieces as leftovers?

Calvin was wrong: the real Jesus promises the impossible and delivers the impossible.

And those final instructions by Jesus seem bizarre don’t they? Look at vv. 12-13 again:

And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

This story has shown that: Jesus provides even when you struggle to trust him to provide. And, Jesus’ Word has incredible power to promise the impossible and deliver the impossible.

So, why on earth should the disciples bother gathering up the leftovers?

Well, this is how faith in God’s promises of provision works its way out in practice.

God has given us amazing promises to look after us and provide, but we don’t respond to that by tempting him and frivolously wasting what he gives us. The faithful response is to value his provision and be prudent with what Jesus gives you.

It is not ungodly to watch your spending, to budget, to save. These are good works that flow from faith.

We should neither be anxious as though God’s promises mean nothing. Nor should we be superstitious, expecting daily miracles, as though God does not want us to live as good stewards of the ordinary means by which he provides for us.

So, Where can I get enough?

A question we all feel, a question we all struggle with.

Well first, Trust Jesus, don’t rely on human solutions

God’s Law says “you shall have no other gods”. This means first and foremost: trust him. Put your faith in him. And the command to have faith is precisely that: a command of the Law. In the face of your need for provision: Trust God. Don’t trust signs. Don’t trust reason. Don’t trust politics. Instead, put your faith in Jesus.

Jesus provides even when you struggle to trust

God loves everyone. Jesus died for his enemies, not for his friends. God provides for everyone. He sends the rain on the just and the unjust. God’s Spirit even provides the faith you need to receive his eternal love.

And to strengthen your faith, Jesus offers himself to you in this bread and wine. He offers his body and blood: really, actually, mysteriously.

So trust him, and live out that trust by being wise and prudent with what he gives you.

And next time you struggle with needing enough, fix in your mind this picture of Jesus:

Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.