They really couldn’t think of anything greater, the 5,000 that Jesus fed. What could possibly be better than to make this man our king? In their eagerness to see Jesus they had followed him to a remote place. Most of them had not taken the time to pack sack lunches, but a lot of people in those days were very poor, so many of them were probably used to going without a meal here and there. They had not gone there expecting Jesus to feed them. Nor had Jesus’ disciples expected it. They were flabbergasted when Jesus asked them to provide food for the crowd.
But how delightful this story is, because Jesus knew exactly what he was going to do. With only five little barley loaves and two fish, he fed the whole crowd, so that they ate their full and had twelve baskets full of good leftovers.
It’s an amazing example of Jesus power as true God, his providence, and his love. They may have been expecting to be hungry for a while. It’s worth it for a special occasion, getting to see Jesus. It wasn’t that they were starving to death. But Jesus cared for them and fed them.
It’s no surprise that they were impressed by this. Who wouldn’t be? But Jesus withdrew then because he knew that they wanted to take him by force to make him their king. But that wasn’t why Jesus did this great miracle. It wasn’t why he had come. They had the wrong idea. They had the wrong goal.
We all have goals in life. From the time we’re little people ask, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” As we get older we think of the life we want to make for ourselves. We set family goals and career goals. But Jesus gives us a goal that really transcends all our earthly goals. It’s something far greater. We might think of the goal of heaven, which is certainly ours in Christ, but Paul in his letter to the Ephesians teaches us to think not just about the place of heaven, but that our goal is to grow up into Christ.
Our Epistle for today is from Ephesians 4. We’ve been following a series of sermons from Ephesians, and we’ve been seeing how Paul wrote this letter from prison to encourage these Christians in the city of Ephesus—and all God’s people—to know what a blessing it is to be “in Christ.” He uses that phrase a lot in this letter. God is the one who chose us in Christ. God united us to each other in Christ. “In Christ’ is a wonderful little phrase that describes who we are, how we got to be here, and what our status is before God.
One thing is very clear in this letter from Paul. This is God’s work, not ours. We can’t claim any of these great blessings for ourselves. We didn’t do any works that earned God’s favor. We didn’t come to faith by our own decision. All the credit goes to God. All the glory goes to God. We can’t take any credit or glory for ourselves.
And that’s a wonderful thing, because it means that we can have complete confidence in Christ, in what our Lord Jesus has done for us. Just as he provided for the 5,000, so he provides for us everything we need, for this life, and for eternal life.
There is a false conclusion that we might get out of this, though, and this is what Paul steers us away from here in chapter 4. The false conclusion is that if Jesus has already accomplished our salvation, then there must be nothing left. There must be no purpose, no remaining goal.
You can see this in the many people in our society who take a very lazy approach to faith. They consider themselves Christian, but apart from the name there’s not much that distinguishes them from the godless people around them. They don’t read their Bible. They don’t go to church. They don’t pray other than possibly on rare occasions when there is some great trouble. They’ll say, “I’m a Christian. I know who Jesus is. I believe in heaven.”
But is that what it means to be “in Christ?” Not at all. In fact, God warns such people, as he did with the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3, where he called them “lukewarm” and said, “I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
And Paul begins chapter four of Ephesians by saying,
As a prisoner in the Lord, therefore, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. 2Live with all humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another in love.
These aren’t just words coming from Paul. He was living it. He was writing from prison, just for preaching the gospel. He uses that wonderful phrase again, calling himself a prisoner, “in the Lord.” His attitude is evident. Even though he’s in prison, that’s not grumbling you’re hearing. It’s actually joy. Paul sees it as a blessing to suffer for the name of Christ.
He doesn’t say that we all need to go to prison though to prove that we’re Christians. That’s not the goal. Instead, the goal is to grow up into Christ.
What does it mean to grow up into Christ? Paul describes a number of things that we as Christians grow in here in these verse. We grow and mature in faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God. So many people seem to think that they know well enough, but can you ever really know Jesus enough? Do you ever reach a point where there is no more that you can learn from his Word? Do you ever achieve a perfect understanding of his will? Certainly not! If you ever find yourself bored with God’s word and instead focusing on filling your stomach with bread and fish, then you’ve got it backwards. “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word from the mouth of God.” We also grow up into Christ in good works. This too is something we never run out of or do too much of. Should a husband tell his wife, “I loved you yesterday, but that’s enough. I don’t love you anymore today.”? No, there’s no such thing as too much service. And finally, growing up into Christ means realizing the unity that we have in him. Paul describes it like this: He says, “Christ is the head. From him the whole body, being joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows in accordance with Christ’s activity when he measured out each individual part. He causes the growth of the body so that it builds itself up in love.”
So growing up into Christ means maturing in those three things — in faith, in works, and in unity. Paul also describes how this happens, how we progress towards this goal. It happens when our one Lord feeds us by means of the gospel in word and sacrament administered by his called workers in the Church.
What does Paul say? “[Christ] himself gave the apostles, as well as the prophets, as well as the evangelists, as well as the pastors and teachers, 12for the purpose of training the saints for the work of serving, in order to build up the body of Christ.”
Why is it that Christians have gathered together on Sunday and other days for the last two thousand years? People get the wrong idea and think that church is about fulfilling their duty to God or about finding entertainment for themselves, but that’s not what Paul says. He says that this is how we grow up into Christ. This is where we build each other up in love. Don’t you know that the people here need you? They need your encouragement. They need your prayers. They need your presence. They need your Christ-like love.
Just as you need Christ’s love. Because whether or not you realize it, Satan has his goals too. And his goals are not for your good, not for this life or for eternity. He’s like a prowling lion, seeking someone to devour. “Forget about your soul,” he says, “What about your stomach? What good is Jesus if he won’t be your bread king? What use do you have for him if he doesn’t fill your belly with everything you desire?”
But here you can see why it is that the goal of growing up into Christ is a blessed one. Because every time Satan kicks you when you’re down, Jesus holds before you his cross. Every time you face trouble and suffering Jesus reminds you of all that he suffered for you. When all of this life’s goals have ended, and nothing remains for you in this world but the grave, Jesus still sends the Holy Spirit to work in your heart by means of Word and Sacrament to bring you along towards the goal of growing up into Christ until you reach the end of that goal in heaven.
The 5,000 Jesus fed had the wrong goal. Jesus wasn’t there to hand out a meal. He was there to win our forgiveness and give us life. He was there to set before us the goal of growing up into him. May he accomplish that goal in us! Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson