Holy Angels Anglican Church
Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Lent
(March 19, 2023)
St. John 6:1-14
“Why We Follow Jesus”
Given by: The Rev. Fr. Vincent J. Varnas
Why do we follow Jesus? Not everyone does, you know.
The best-known of these, I suppose was British philosopher Bertrand Russell whose most famous book was, Why I Am Not a Christian. Besides rejecting the existence of God and the divinity of Christ, Russell also challenges the morality of the historical Jesus, saying: “There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment” His philosophical twist upon theology is gravely flawed, since it ignores the fact that some choose Heaven and others choose Hell by their actions while still on earth (Matt. 7:13-14 and Lk. 16:19-31). Therefore, knowing that the Bible advances the reality of the existence of both and the everlasting punishment of Hell, it is justice that prevails in exacting everlasting punishment to the unrepentant sinner who has chosen their fate by their own actions. Humane behavior is a sham when it defies the virtue of justice. And his argument is further flawed because Russell ignores the mercy of Christ in exacting justice upon the sinner.
From today’s Gospel reading, we know that the 5000 followed Jesus, but why so?
Many followed Jesus because they understood that he was truly the Messiah: the Son of God: but not all.
Some merely followed Jesus out of curiosity and because they wanted to see him perform “the miracle of the day”, as it were, much as many of the early settlers in the Old West followed traveling medicine shows for the entertainment value and also to purchase “miracle cures for what ails you”!
Jesus offered miracle cures to those of faith. But, unlike the drummers of the Old West, Jesus was the real thing!
The multiplication of the loaves and fishes accommodated the physical needs of the people gathered there to hear him, but what of their spiritual needs? What of their spiritual hunger?
His words of truth were abundant, but there needed to be more; much more. And that would come soon thereafter.
The people hearing Jesus, “... when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, [i.e., multiplying the loaves and fishes] said, ‘This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world’” (Jn. 6:14). However, they were not yet able to distinguish Jesus as more than a prophet and as the Messiah, the Son of God, because, ironically, their Jewish faith prevented it. Their strict monotheistic beliefs could not fathom or allow for the existence of a Son of God, as that would imply for them that there were at least two Gods; not just one.
In the Gospel reading for the Second Sunday in Lent about the Canaanite woman whose daughter was “vexed with a devil”, saying: “Lord help me”, Jesus replied: “It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and cast it to the dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” (Matt. 15:25-27)
In today’s Gospel reading about feeding the 5000, we also hear about “the children’s [Israel’s] bread”. “When they were filled, Jesus said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost ... they ... filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten” (Jn. 6:12-13). The fact that they were fed barley loaves is also significant, as barley is the bread of the poor or the Anawim. The 5000 were the poor in spirit seeking enlightenment into the earthly mission of the Messiah.
The 5000 children of Israel were filled with the bread of life and yet there was some left over for us: the crumbs that filled twelve baskets! The twelve baskets represented the twelve Apostles who took the Words of Jesus and spread those words, those fragments, or crumbs of the bread of life to the world. And we are also fed by the crumbs that fall from the “children’s table”: the fragments of the feeding of the 5000!
You are about to partake of this “bread of life” in just a few minutes. It is our Holy Communion. It is the Eucharist!
Before Jesus multiplied the five barely loaves and the two small fishes in order that there would be enough food to feed the 5000, he performed other miracles. He cured many of blindness, deafness, and restored speech to others. He healed the lame and the lepers and He raised the dead.
He also transformed water into wine at the Wedding Feast of Cana. That was his first miracle.
Many knew of his miraculous works, and they began to follow him.
They followed him both out of curiosity to see what other miracles he would perform and for their own personal healing. Not many followed Jesus out of belief that he was the Messiah prefigured in Sacred Scriptures.
His miracles were signs and wonders for many that he was more than a prophet, or a great physician or just a simple magician who used trickery to impress the crowd. They said: “What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? ... Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said ...Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world” (Jn. 6:30-33). Jesus spoke of Himself. Yet those of little faith wanted proof of His divinity.
Jesus satisfied the physical hunger of the 5000, but also made it clear what manna from heaven truly represents, saying: “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (Jn. 6:35). And that, my friends, is what was promised for us all.
Signs and wonders are only needed by doubters, not those of faith. But faith is stronger than physical proof because it comes by grace directly from God. And grace is a spiritual food given to us freely, unmerited and without cost.
So, we know why the 5000 followed Jesus and we know why others to this very day do not follow Him, but why do you follow Jesus?
Are you also looking for miracles?
Just as we hunger for physical food to eat, our souls hunger for spiritual food that is found in the Word of God and most of all the bread of life that is the Eucharist (Jn. 6:35).
The miraculous feeding of the 5000 from so little as five loves and two fishes was done out of compassion (Matt. 14:14) and most of all prefigured the Lord’s Supper. It demonstrated to all that the Lord provides for both physical hunger and spiritual hunger. And, yes, it was a sign for the doubters.
The 5000 were not on the brink of starving to death, but mostly they hungered for spiritual sustenance. The majority of the 5000 who were not seeking physical healing, needed to believe in Christ and not just follow Jesus around for entertainment. Just as Jesus knew of their needs, so too does he know of our needs and provides for them.
In order to get from the desert of skepticism to the other side, the land of milk and honey, where an abundance of faith abounds, we must first leap across a chasm of doubt. We must make a “leap of faith”. That can only happen with grace. Faith is an act of the intellect founded upon experience and knowledge. Thus, to see a miracle or a sign is to lay a foundation for faith. This is what Jesus had to do during his three-year ministry.
And, what about us? Why do we follow Jesus?
We also spiritually hunger for the healing presence of Christ in our daily lives. Thusly, we are the NEW 5000. We are the new “People of God”.
And just as some of the “old 5000” of whom some doubted and some believed were fed both physically and spiritually by Jesus, we too have varying degrees of belief.
To understand and accept the fact that we receive the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist requires that, “leap of faith” that I spoke of.
We cannot see the presence of the flesh and blood of Jesus in the bread and wine that we consume, except with the “eyes of faith”. It is not a physical seeing that takes place, but a spiritual insight into the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
Thusly, we are fed the bread of eternal life.
We do not have to go into a village to find this sustenance as His disciples suggested for feeding the 5000, but only seek and find it in this spiritual oasis of the Mystical Body of Christ, that is his Church.
So, getting back to my opening remark and question: “Why do we follow Jesus?”
It is simply because, we know by faith, that he is our Savior. We know that he loves us more than anyone else could ever love us. We know that his love for us became that redemptive act of atonement on the cross by his substitution for all of humanity that reconciled our sins and opened the gates of Heaven for us. And, by the Eucharistic doxology we know that, through him and with him and in him, we will find everlasting life in the Kingdom of God!