Jesus Says, "Bring Them to Me"

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from Jesus Christ, our Lord:

If you’ve watched any of the news or heard reports, you know of the events that happened not too far away from here. I know many of you maybe even had family members or even worked over in the Menasha/Appleton area as a large tornado came through this week. One of the great things people share so much about when a huge devastating event like that happens is how all the people who have been going through this, everyone is helping everyone else. There are people pouring in to help and donate, but neighbors are helping neighbors. It’s people who have lost so much or are going through the hard things or seeing other people who are going through the hard things and helping out. It’s great! It’s awesome!

But I think there is a good question to ask. Is that normally how we act when we’ve had a difficult thing happen to us? If we’re not seeing everyone else and the hardships that they’re going through, when I’ve had a loss, when something hard has happened to me, to you, what do you normally do? Do you retreat and the last thing you maybe want to do is help someone else? You maybe don’t even want to talk to anyone else, or you don’t want to hear anyone else’s story that is similar to yours. “I’m going through my own thing. What do you know?”

With the events this week, we see something very different than I think that is normally happening for us when we go through hardship and difficulties. Why do I bring that up? Why is that important?

Today, as we are going to see, Jesus says, “Bring them to Me;” bring different things, bring our worries and cares, bring our troubles to Him and see what He is going to do with them. We can trust Him to provide. Did you see how the Gospel lesson began with just a short word of context that we often would skip over? It said: “When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.” What had happened? Maybe that’s a little bit important when we look at what Jesus is doing and why He is going to a solitary place. Jesus had sent out His disciples. They had gone out to share the Gospel. So His disciples are a little tired and they are maybe looking for some rest.

But earlier in Matthew 14, do you know what happens? There is this very interesting story with Herod and the woman dancing and Herod making an oath and promise to do whatever the woman asked for. And she asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. That’s pretty gruesome. Jesus had heard about this. John the Baptist wasn’t just someone. He was His relative, His cousin. He was the prophet who led the way for Jesus. So here Jesus is dealing with the loss of one of His closest relatives, someone who went before Him, and He wants to retreat into a solitary place. That’s not a bad thing.

Often when we go through hard times, it’s good for us to sit and go to be with God, to pray and to think about it. But did He have time to do that? He is going there to spend some time on His own, but “Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.” Can you imagine that? Going through the loss of one of the closest people in your life and you just want some time away and you land and then there are thousands of people there waiting for you. Why is that important?

Here we see some of the humanity and the divinity of Jesus, how He is fully God and fully man. Jesus being man, He understands you and me, but He is also fully God and He has an amazing compassion. Being fully man, He needed some time. He understands what it’s like for you and me to go through loss, to suffer, to need time away and to be with our God. He understands that. He understands what it’s like to go through these things. He understands what everyone is going through with loss and hardship. But yet, in His divinity, He has an amazing compassion, greater than any of us. He doesn’t just help a neighbor but we find out how many people are there—thousands of people. And it’s not that He just helps a couple people, because He continues to help them until evening. He doesn’t help one or two. He doesn’t heal a few. But He speaks and heals so many people that they are all there still into the evening and people are out of food.

This is what makes Christianity so awesome, it’s that we have this God, who came down to be one of us, to live in our place, to understand what it’s like to be human but was also perfect. So He was perfect in our place and has an amazing compassion on the people there but also an amazing compassion on you and me. He understands and He has compassion on what you are going through, like sheep without a shepherd. He cares for you.

But as this continues to go on, we see the problem approach. It says: “As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.’ Jesus replied, ‘They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.’” The disciples noticed that something was wrong. There was certainly a huge need and some lacking. There is truth that we all have needs and inadequacies. Those maybe come in different forms. There may be, like Paul speaks about, a thorn in your side that though you may have so many strengths, like the apostle Paul had. He was such a great missionary. But he speaks about a thorn in his side and this lacking, this difficulty that he asks God to take away over and over again. Or maybe in the list of all your strengths and all the gifts that you have, you just wish that you could do that thing or have that gift or maybe it’s a sickness, an illness, a relationship that is struggling, something that has been going on for a long time, a need, an inadequacy that you see in your life. But maybe it’s not a long-term thing. Maybe it’s more like the situation that we have in our text. Or what just recently happened. Maybe it’s something that happens all of a sudden. That here, Jesus went to a solitary place and the disciples make it known they are in a remote place. Jesus went out here and the people came out and all of a sudden there is this huge need.

That’s similar to what we see in the world now, where people say “Why would something like this tornado happen and bring this devastation?” Is it helpful sometimes for us to see our needs and our inadequacies? That we don’t have it all and we are not in control of our lives and at any moment, it can all be gone. The truth is so many people go throughout their whole life not thinking about that, thinking only about the physical things and looking at how nice everything is and that everything is great until it’s the end of life. They don’t think about the spiritual things. They don’t look at their needs and inadequacies as too big. But sometimes when our needs and our inadequacies are so large, where do we go and what can we do when we can’t fix it?

Notice what Jesus says to the disciples. “Jesus replied, ‘They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.’” Could you imagine being the disciples and they are like, “We have to send them away” and Jesus, who is their great teacher, the guy they look up to and has taught them so much says “You give them something to eat.” “’We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,’ they answered.”

It’s kind of interesting to see that is probably enough for them disciples to get a little bit of a meal after they’ve been out there working and sharing the Gospel. What Jesus then says is: “’Bring them here to me, he said. And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied…” Notice what Jesus works through. Jesus shows His work in our lacking. What did the disciples not think about doing? As they were struggling to find an answer, they didn’t say “Jesus, do you have an answer for this? You are asking us to fix this, but we trust you, Jesus.”

In our lacking, in our struggles, in our problems, where do you go to first? Do you look to your strengths? Do you look to your own wisdom and continue to maybe go into that until you’ve reached the end and you’re lost. Or you finally see and realize your needs and inadequacies and finally go to Jesus. But Jesus works through those lackings. Jesus uses those things and He provides abundantly. Not only did He give them food to eat, it says that they picked up twelve baskets of broken pieces that were left over. They had enough for each of them when they barely had anything.

Jesus works through our lacking to show His great power and mercy. That means in our lives that we can look to God when we don’t have enough, that we don’t have the gifts, the strength, the ability, and He will provide. But what is our greatest lacking? It’s our inability to save ourselves.

The truth is, when we come here every Sunday, we start out worship, we sing a hymn, but then we confess our sins because we admit our lacking. We admit we can’t do it and we’re not saying “God, I’m coming here because I’m pretty good. Look at the things I’ve done this week.” We’re coming here because we’re lacking. We need a Savior. We see the depths of our sin and that we can’t dig ourselves out. So Jesus works in our lacking to show us that He is sufficient. As Paul states, we rejoice in our weaknesses because when I am weak, He is strong. We know we cannot make our way up to heaven, as much as we might compare ourselves to other people, as we might say “I’m going to offer you more good works,” it’s not enough. Our lackings are too great. We are born sinful and we need a Savior, so Jesus shows His saving work by understanding our situation and coming down to earth and living perfectly for us. That’s the compassion He has.

As He looks to Jerusalem and He mourns, He looks at His people, sheep without a shepherd. He comes to sacrifice for you and for me and the whole world. We’re all lacking. It’s a question of do we understand how much we’re lacking and how much we need Jesus and His salvation.

Once we do that, once we understand and that faith is worked in us, we see that He provides much more. We see the abundance that He provides for the people. There are not just 5,000 people but 5,000 men, which means there could be thousands upon thousands more of men and women. But did you see when Jesus told the disciples, “You give them something to eat,” their minds are blown. They are like, “We can’t do that.”

But then who does God work through? Jesus works the miracle, but then who gets to pass out all the food? The disciples do. What can we then also think about? We can trust

Jesus to provide through it all. We talk a lot about how Jesus works through our weaknesses, but He also works through the blessings and gifts that we’ve been given.

Again, I think about the events in Menasha and Appleton this week. It truly has been a blessing how people have come together to provide, to give. We had opportunities to be there early to give out Gatorade and water and to help at some houses and clean up some brush, and so many people are providing. There were people there and it was just so amazing to see all these people there. Yes, you can think that it’s only people, but is God also providing?

As we see that God works through us, on Sunday nights we’re reading an awesome book about vocation, how God works through us in just our normal ways of making money, so that we have money to provide for those in need, or having the gifts and talents, doing work that we can provide for others, provide these different services that people need. God works through it. When we think about God providing for us, it’s not like He’s always magically, miraculously providing (as He does in our Old Testament lesson and our Gospel lesson). Most often, how does God provide for you in your life? It’s through those around you, through the people that He has gifted. But we also have to be willing to see our lacking and understand we can’t do it all so we see that God provides people for us.

But then as we go out and we are able to share our gifts and talents, don’t lose sight of what is most important. That God is working through it all, and that Jesus wants to bring people closer to Him. He says, “Bring them to me.”

In all this, as we serve and we help, as you work in your different vocations, as a student, as a mother, a grandparent, working in a factory, in a classroom, all these different things, we get to serve and see how God works through us. But if we forget the most important thing, to bring people to Jesus, we’re only working for this world. But we can see that we can bring so much more, so that they can see God will provide for them, not just in earthly ways but when everything is gone. When someone is standing there and seeing their house gone, can we, as Christians, be different? We can give them a hope and a peace and say there is an eternal hope. God is still with you in the midst of your trouble. Even though we might lose earthly things, there is an eternal home for you. You are loved and forgiven. No matter what difficulty, no matter what loss you have, Jesus understands and He has compassion.

So as you go out, you work and see how He works through you, remember to bring them to Him, the one who brings eternal salvation and will provide abundantly. Amen.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7) Amen.