A Meal with Jesus

Well, it is October and October obviously means Christmas. Wait. No, it doesn't, but for my neighbour it does because the Christmas lights are already up. Perhaps, you know, someone like that. Already from July, they're getting quite antsy about Christmas coming.

Perhaps you are that person. I think I'm slightly married to that person. She's so eager to buy her little nephews and nieces presents already. She's happily organising our Christmas trip at the moment. And I'm pretty sure my memory is correct that a few weeks ago, she was asking me if we could put up the nativity scene already in our house.

Well, I'm probably not on the same level as my wife or my neighbour, but I am interested in one of the greatest things about Christmas, my highlight, which is always the food. My family, the Trump family, has always done celebration through food very well, and Christmas is usually the pinnacle of food festivals for us. It's a strange thing though, isn't it? How we use food in celebrations. On the one hand, food is so readily available to us in Australia, and yet food and celebration go hand in hand.

On the one hand, we eat food every day, but when we enjoy food, when we enjoy a time together, food has to be a part of it. And we are particularly fond of that food when we celebrate. Our hearts instinctively feel like celebrating when we have amazing food, or alternatively, when we want to celebrate something, we have to have food with it. This morning, we're going to be reading in the Gospel of Luke, and we'll also see a celebration going on, a feast. And it's an absolute doozy.

A feast with more than 5,000 guests, and Jesus is the host. But there's a problem. There is no food. Where has the food gone? Where is it coming from?

Let's have a look at Luke 9:10-17. Luke chapter 9, verse 10. On their return, this is the disciples, the apostles told him, who is Jesus, all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. When the crowds learnt it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing.

Now the day began to wear away, and the 12 came and said to him, send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place. But Jesus said to them, you give them something to eat. They said, we have no more than five loaves and two fish unless we are to go and buy food for all these people, for there were about 5,000 men. And he said to his disciples, have them sit down in groups of about 50 each. And they did so and had them all sit down.

And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then Jesus broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, 12 baskets of broken pieces. This is the word of the Lord.

We come to this miracle story in the account of Luke, finding out that the 12 had just returned from a short-term mission trip. They had been preaching in the surrounding villages of the Galilee region, and in verse 10, we hear that they returned to Jesus to tell him how it went. They're tired. As you can imagine, they're worn out from a tough time of preaching and teaching, and so Jesus invites them to a retreat, to a town called Bethsaida to come away with Him. Unfortunately for the disciples, they have no rest because the crowds hear about it.

And soon, they are there with them. Jesus takes pity on the crowds. Mark writes that Jesus has compassion on them when he sees them. We hear from Luke that He begins healing their sick, and He just begins teaching again. There is no rest.

Mentally and emotionally drained, the disciples just have to help out Jesus again. They carry the sick people to Him. They pray with others. But you can imagine they are well and truly spent by the end of the day. And then they realised that the people aren't going home.

They're lingering. And they realised that these people need to eat. So they begged Jesus to please excuse them, to send them off, to find lodgings, to find places to sleep, and to find provisions, something to eat. And Jesus turns to them and says the surprising words, you find them some food. Of course, they realised with a crowd of that size, there is no way they can do that.

The best that they could do is to scrape together five loaves and two fishes. That's it. We see Jesus praying over that food. He blesses it and starts breaking it into smaller pieces. And hours later, we're told, miraculously, everyone has had their fill.

Everyone is full. And the disciples go on to pick 12 baskets full of leftovers. I don't know if anyone here has done much catering to large crowds. At Open House, we love a good little feast. People like Audrey here and Michael will explain to you, it can be quite a big headache to make food for so many people.

You have to ensure that there is enough food. You have to make sure, especially nowadays, that special dietary requirements are considered. The food has to be cooked and ready and prepared at just the right time. Now imagine trying to manage all that with no ingredients. Nothing to start with.

Jesus asked the disciples to cater for 5,000 people, and He is giving them an impossible task to complete. They are totally outnumbered. They are totally under-resourced. And then we see where the disciples falter, Jesus completes. I think Luke tells the story of the feeding of the 5,000 with a particular emphasis on pointing out the total inability of the disciples and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ.

Just before this story, if you have a look, Jesus has sent out the disciples on a mission, and He tells them not to take with them any bread. Verse 3, chapter 9. Now they must rustle up bread from thin air. So they are sent out with no bread and now they have to give out bread. In the other gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, and John, the references to the huge amount of people is made at the end of the story to emphasise how powerful Jesus was, that Jesus made enough food for 5,000 people.

For Luke, the mention of the 5,000 is smack bang in the middle of the story. Why? To mention how daunting the task is to the disciples. They can't do this. When it comes down to it, the disciples have no way to provide for the people.

And so Luke sets up the situation in such a way that Jesus is shown to offer something truly miraculous, and the disciples are shown to be the human beings that they really are. They are powerless. The job gets done. We see 5,000 are fed through the power of Jesus, but we really are made to realise it's His power. That the ministry has been given to the disciples, yes, but the ministry is Jesus' ministry.

But again, as with all the miracles of Jesus in the gospels, it's not some party trick. It's not just to make you go, wow, this guy's got some amazing tricks up his sleeve. This is not a sideshow alley trick. There is a purpose to it. There is a deeper meaning to it.

At the start of the chapter in verse 7, you see that the corrupt king Herod has started hearing about Jesus and about His preaching and teaching and healing ministry, and he is really perplexed. He doesn't know who this Jesus is. All sorts of stories were coming to him in Jerusalem. Some people believed, they said, that He's John the Baptist resurrected, the same John the Baptist that King Herod, remember, had killed. Others say that it's the Old Testament prophet Elijah.

Same Elijah that went into the clouds on the chariots of fire. He's back. And others wonder if this is not Moses, the friend of God, the speaker on God's behalf. In writing this, Luke is posing the question to us, who is Jesus? It's a question the reader must answer when you start reading Luke chapter 9.

Who is Jesus? First, Herod asked it at the start of the chapter. And then Jesus in, towards the middle half, at verse 18, Jesus asked his disciples the same question. Have a look. Luke 9:18.

Now it happened that as He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him and Jesus asked them, who do the crowds say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others that one of the prophets of old has risen. Then He said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Peter answered, the Christ of God. This the answer to the question of who am I is given directly after the feeding of the 5,000.

Peter confesses Jesus to be the Christ, the Messiah in light of what's happened with the 5,000 people being fed. In other words, this miracle story is so important that it causes the disciples to click that this is the man they've been waiting for. He is the Messiah. And the story itself, the feeding of the 5,000, is the only miracle story. Imagine this.

The only miracle story recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, all four of the gospel accounts. You have to ask yourself the question, why is it so important that all four gospel accounts include it? Well, it is to answer the question, who is Jesus? Seven hundred years before Jesus, the prophet Isaiah proclaimed this promise from God in Isaiah 25, and we'll put that up now, please. Isaiah 25:6-9, which reads, on this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich foods for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats and the finest of wines.

On this mountain, He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations. He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces. He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken.

Traditionally, the feast of Isaiah 25 mentioned here was known as that messianic banquet. It's a vision of a time when God would make everything right again and there would be one giant celebration in light of it. The image of the wine, the rich food is one of provision, is one of satisfaction and joy. It's a harvest feast. It is a feast of hope.

We've received the bounty of the land. We can survive again another year. Let's celebrate. But there's talk of God in this celebration swallowing up death forever. That is the reason for the celebration.

God's Messiah has defeated death itself. He has put the world right and has enabled every willing person to enjoy God's presence at the table. In truth, the feeding of the 5,000 was not the feast of Isaiah, but it was a foreshadowing of it. This is what seals it for Peter. This is why Peter in that very next instance can say, you are the Christ of God, the anointed one.

And Luke, thankfully for us, points out all the necessary elements to make that conclusion. Jesus is the host where? On a mountain. It is a large miraculous feast brought about from nothing. There is something special about sharing a meal, isn't there?

Think of those moments where you've invited someone over, when you've gone the extra mile, you've cooked up an especially delicious dinner for them. All the people there have said all the necessary oohs and aahs at the right places for your meal. They've enjoyed all the right savouries and all the right sweets. What Middle Eastern people call the breaking of bread together, however, is not just the enjoyment of that meal, is it? It is the fellowship, it's the togetherness of being in that sacred moment almost together.

It is intimacy. It is welcome. It is friendship. We are so aware this morning of a world in pain. We've prayed for it this morning through our elder Dani, a week where terrorists burst through front doors, invaded safe homes, snatched up children, murdered infants.

The horror of what has taken place in Israel and the ferocious rage from that nation has been lit from the audacity, the callousness of defiling warm, innocent, safe homes. And as the world looks on in horror, our hearts sigh with a heartache because we long for a world that needs sorting out. The world we are a part of is a world where hunger exists, where injustice goes unchecked, where neighbours living next to each other, separated simply by a fence, can do these horrors to each other, where homes are invaded and fractured, where lives are destroyed. And this morning, we read that here in a desolate place, where there is no water, where there is no food, there was a moment in time where we have a glimpse of a new reality. More than 5,000 people ate and were satisfied, verse 17 says.

Now it's true that the people there, as Jesus will tell them in the John account, the people there eat and have their fill, but the next day they're hungry again. Empty bellies will need to be filled again. But here for a moment is a foretaste of heaven. In this desolate place, on this mountain, a group of needy people gathered together with Jesus at the centre as the Lord of the feast. And what we see is though we are looking through a crack in a door into another world, into God's kingdom, where we see Jesus just at the centre of the table.

And then we're told, at the end of it, that there is a vast amount of leftovers, 12 baskets full, we are told. Now, of course, there's all sorts of theories of what 12 represents here, whether it reflects God's provision to the 12 tribes of Israel, like the manna that He gave in the desert in the Exodus, or whether it is a basket for each of the 12 disciples to go and feed the word to the world. These may all be worthwhile speculations, but the one thing that is undeniable is that 12 is a lot of baskets. There is plenty left over. It means that the feast was lavish.

It was more than enough. It's over the top. And maybe it also means that the feast is not over. Friends, there is something in this for us as church today. When our spiritual family gathers together, we need to remember that we are a group, firstly, of needy people.

We are needy for the provision of God that He has given us through Jesus. We see a few verses later in the same chapter, the story heads in a new direction. Look at verse 51 of Luke 9. When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem. All the action in the chapters leading up to Luke 9 and including Luke 9 takes place in Galilee.

That's in the North. That's where Jesus lived and did His ministry, but now He heads to Jerusalem. Luke tells us He sets His face to it. It is like flint. He is focused on Jerusalem.

What happens at Jerusalem? That is where the Christ of God must die. It's interesting that Isaiah, not only in chapter 25, but then in chapter 55, again, writes about the messianic banquet. Have a look there with us. This time, however, it comes with words of invitation to this incredible feast, but have a look at what it costs to enter this feast.

Isaiah 55:1, come, all you who are thirsty. Come to the waters, and you who have no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread? Your labour on what does not satisfy.

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in rich food. A time is coming when God's people would see an incredible feast, and they would be able to receive soul-satisfying food. But the most amazing thing of it all is it's free. I read a story of a father who turned 80 and he had a very wealthy son who was a top surgeon somewhere. And so the son decided to shout the whole family an amazing meal to celebrate the eightieth birthday.

They went to the most exclusive restaurant. You know that it's exclusive because the menus didn't have any prices printed on them. But only the son was going to pay that bill. That was the deal. He told his guests to choose whatever they wanted.

And because there were no prices on the menus, they had no reason to feel guilty about it. That night, his family ate the most amazing meal they'd ever had and they ate it gladly because it was a rich meal, freely given. Come, says Jesus, all of you who have no money, and buy wine and milk without money, without cost, and your soul will delight in the richest of food. Jesus is the wealthy son who has provided a soul-satisfying banquet to free us.

That is what the feeding of the 5,000 was really about. We know that the cost of this banquet was immense. It comes at the cost of His life, but it is a price, amazingly, that He is willing to pay. In fact, the Bible tells us He was glad to pay it. In our meeting together, let's never forget, in our times of being together as His family, when we meet like we do Sunday mornings, as we meet in Bible study groups, as we meet for lunches after church or Friday night dinners, know that in that communion, we emulate just a little bit the wedding banquet of God.

That's why it's so important for us to belong to the church, to belong to a community because we truly miss out on tasting that slice of God's goodness if we don't. We see the Lord of the Feast inviting people to a great banquet, the greatest there will ever be. And ultimately, the wedding banquet of the Lamb, it wasn't something that took place two thousand years ago. It happens when He comes again. But He invites us today to join Him, to already now begin with hope celebrating that final day with joy, with anticipation along with our fellow feast enjoyers here and now, and to accept that this has been given to us for free.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that we can see in amazing detail with eyewitness accounts recounted four times, the stamp of Your authority on the life of Jesus who became known after that moment as the Messiah. He is the Christ of God who we know and believe in. And in that moment, apart from grateful bellies being full, at least for one day, we see the Saviour who would invite us into the final wedding banquet, the celebration when all things are made right again, where death will be swallowed up, where sin and Satan have finally been crushed, where people who were once enemies have turned their swords into ploughshares, have laid down their weapons.

The day where the lion will sleep with the lamb. We thank you, Lord, that in Jesus Christ, we see the fullness of the hope that we may have now. And in that amazing miracle, to see the truth of the reality that You are building the kingdom through the one who was seen in Daniel's time as the Son of Man, given the keys to the kingdom. Thank you that we are reminded today that it is a kingdom that can never be destroyed and that forever, Lord Jesus, You will be shrouded in glory and honour and dominion. To You be the glory for this free gift, this invitation we have received again today.

All praise to You, Lord Jesus, in Your name. Amen.