| “THE FREE LUNCH” Psalm 50:1-15; John 6:1-15 Olivet Covenant Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA © Rev. Linda Jaymes, 9/13/09 Communion |
I don’t know who it was that first coined the cliché, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” but whoever it was,
apparently, had never read the Bible! Or at least they had not taken seriously the feeding miracles recorded in Scripture. This
lesson from John’s gospel describes an event that could be called a really free lunch, a lunch not only free but of such huge
proportions that it satisfied the appetite of 5,000 men and filled twelve baskets with the leftovers! It’s hard to say who was
more amazed by what happened: the disciples or the crowd.
As I think about the effect of this story on us today, some 2,000 years later, what comes to mind is the suspicion that we
are not amazed by it. Maybe we were once, the first time we heard it, especially if we were children at the time. But if I
wonder how many of us would honestly say that this miracle still amazes us, or produces awe and excitement about God—who
He is, his mighty power and what He might just do next among us? I fear that all too few of us understand that God still speaks
to us today through these biblical miracles.
The even sadder truth is that Jesus had the same problem with the majority of people who witnessed his miracles in
person! Oh, they were amazed all right, but for the wrong reasons. The motives of the crowd were pretty shallow and self-
centered. Sure, they loved the pizzazz! They couldn’t get enough of it. That’s why 5,000 people kept following Jesus around,
disturbing his peace and interrupting his solitude and times of prayer. They loved it when He healed the sick and restored sight
to the blind. They recognized that this guy had real charisma and power, and they wanted Him in their corner. In fact, once
they had seen this miracle of the free lunch, they wanted Him to be their King. Just think, with a guy like Him in charge, a guy
so compassionate that He was always putting the needs of the crowd ahead of his own, they would be able to get whatever
they wanted whenever they wanted it. But that wasn’t meant to be. As scripture tells us, becoming a king who could do
miracles on request wasn’t what Jesus had in mind. On the contrary, what Jesus had in mind was the real miracle, but
hardly anyone understood that.
Philip sure didn’t, when Jesus asked him where they might buy bread for all those people to eat. Maybe Jesus asked Philip
that question because Philip was from Bethsaida. Philip would know the territory around there better than some of the others.
He might know where all the deli’s were located, where they might get enough bagels and lox to feed that mob of people. Or
maybe Jesus asked the question in order to draw Philip out a little—get him more involved in the program. Unlike Peter, who
was always quick to open his mouth and take risks (like walking on water), Philip was not a very bold or adventurous disciple.
He had not volunteered for this assignment; it was Jesus who had gone after him and singled him out to be one of the disciples.
But even if he was a little shy, Philip had potential. And he was no idiot. One look at that huge crowd and a few mental
calculations told him that eight months wages wouldn’t even begin to feed that number of people in any significant way. Yet
Philip didn’t realize that the challenge confronting him wasn’t really about problem-solving, but about faith. Jesus wasn’t
asking him for lunch money, but for trust. This was a test of Philip’s faith, and Philip never even noticed it. All he could think
about were the human possibilities for solving the problem at hand.
But then along came Andrew. He was a different disciple altogether. He was more of an extrovert, always bringing
someone to Jesus, saying, “Come and see.” This time it was a little boy, who had brought five small barley loaves and two
small fish for his lunch. Maybe Andrew had been out sizing up the crowd to see if anyone had food to share. He seemed to
have a little more faith than Philip, and maybe he thought that if he could just come up with something, the Lord could do the
rest.. Even so, Andrew had his doubts. He admitted that the boy’s food wasn’t going to be a whole lot of help. Then again, it
couldn’t hurt, either.
But no one was really prepared for what took place that day. Jesus had the crowd sit down on the grass, and then He took
those five little barley loaves—the bread of the poor—and He gave thanks and started to break them up and distribute them
among the seated crowd. He did the same with the fish, until everyone had as much as he wanted. They all had enough to eat,
and then some. This had to be the ultimate in free lunches. It was an incredible miracle, something like the miracle by which
God formed the creation out of nothing. There was no dirt or dust or building material for God to use to create the heavens and
the earth and everything in it, yet here they are. In a similar way, there were only five small loaves of bread and two small fish
to feed five thousand people, yet from practically nothing Jesus created enough to satisfy everyone—with plenty left over. But
here we sit, still relatively unamazed. What does this story have to do with us?
My answer to that would be, first of all, to remind us that Scripture is God’s eternal word to his people, and so it has a
great deal to do with us. It has meaning forever and always and right now. We must put ourselves in this story and realize that
Jesus is not just testing Philip when He asks where they can get bread to feed the crowd, but He is testing us, too. He is asking
us questions not so very different from that one. You’ve heard some of these questions, questions to the church, such as “Who
can help with children’s Sunday School?” or, “How can we get more families to come to church?” or, “How can this little
church make a difference in this neighborhood?”
And you’ve probably heard Jesus’ questions to your family, like, “How can we turn this marriage around?” or “Where can
we get help for our rebellious teenager?” or “How can we care for our aging parents?” Jesus asks questions like that all the
time, but not so that we might calculate the answers based on worldly resources alone. No. He asks them as a test of our
faith. And the good news is that He is the one with the answers. He is the one who will provide the solutions. Sure, He
expects us to help by bringing what little we have for Him to use. Maybe it’s a casserole; maybe it’s a contribution. Maybe it’s
love and caring and compassion or whatever little offering we packed in our lunchbox for the day. Maybe it seems insignificant
compared to the need, like five small loaves and two small fish among 5,000 hungry men. But we just never know when our
little bit might be the material Jesus uses to work a miracle. Most importantly, we need to realize that whatever the situations
are that test our faith, Jesus already has in mind what He is going to do to provide for our need—just as Philip discovered in this
story of the free lunch.
And this is where we can really get excited, where we can become amazed over and over again at what Jesus has done
and can still do by the power of the Spirit. This is the real miracle, the Good News that should continually amaze us from this
story of the ultimate free lunch. It’s right there in verse 6, and I’m referring to the fact that even before the need arose,
Jesus had in mind what He was going to do. The Lord anticipated what was going to happen. He took the initiative to feed and
nourish the crowd, even before the need was expressed. He already had a plan, and it was a plan to provide not just enough,
but more than enough, even to overflowing.
The Good News is that the Lord always has a plan. But all too often, we forget that. We get all caught up thinking that
every problem has to be solved by our calculations; every challenge has to be overcome under our own power; every need has
to be met by our own resources. Especially in these tough economic times, we may even panic as we see finances and
investments dwindle. We tend to think in terms of what is possible for us to do, and then we become discouraged when we
realize that what we can do is not very much at all. For example, Billy Graham’s wife, Ruth Bell Graham, used to agonize with
worry when their son Franklin went through a very rebellious period as a young man. She wracked her brains trying to figure
out what she could do to straighten him out, and despaired even though she had done everything in her power to help him.
Then one day she realized that she had done her part and would have to trust God for the rest. She discovered that her job was
to do the possible, and leave the impossible to God. That’s the business God is in, always doing the impossible. And as some
of you know all too well, there are few things as impossible as rebellious children! (And isn’t it sobering to think that God may
feel that way about us?!) Yet over and over again He has shown us that He has a good plan for our lives and our church and
our world, and He’s always prepared to provide the impossible. But we rarely live as if we believe that. Instead, we go off
determined to work things out on our own.
I am reminded of an old Peanuts comic that depicts the ever-hungry Snoopy on Charlie Brown’s doorstep, trying to
redeem a gift certificate. But when Charlie Brown reads it, he says, “Sorry Sir. This is a gift certificate for Pizza. We don’t
serve Pizza here.” Poor Snoopy returns to his dog house looking rather dejected. But then he gets up on his roof and you see
him erasing the gift certificate and in the next frame he’s back on Charlie Brown’s doorstep with it again. This time, Charlie
Brown says, “What’s this? A gift certificate for dog food? Why certainly Sir…we’ll take care of that right away.” Charlie
Brown goes in the house and returns with a heaping bowl of dog food for Snoopy. And as Snoopy walks home carrying his
bowl of food, he is saying to himself in disbelief, “I can’t believe it took me three years to think of that!”
Obviously, I’m not suggesting that God wants to give us dog food or even a free lunch. But how long will it take us to
figure out that God is able to provide for far more than we could ever think or ask? All power and resources are at his disposal
to take care of our every need. According to Psalm 50, He owns the cattle on a thousand hills; the world is his and everything
in it. Will it take us three years or thirty years before we will trust that He has anticipated all of our needs and already has in
mind what He plans to do for us? Do we have enough faith to believe that the One who can call the creation into being from
nothing and provide free lunch for five thousand from virtually nothing, can also bind up broken hearts, turn rebellious people
around, solve financial problems and wrestle neighborhoods and entire cities out of the hands of Satan and into the arms of
Christ? Will we be a people overwhelmed by every challenge, like Philip, thinking it all depends on us, or will we take a chance
like Andrew, and bring every person and every problem to Jesus, to see what He will do? If we continually underestimate God’
s power to do the impossible, then the chances are we’ll never see a miracle like the free lunch. It takes faith to recognize
miracles in the first place. Without faith, miracles become nothing more than coincidences or occurrences still for waiting for
scientific explanation. Without faith, that old saying is true: “There is no such thing as a free lunch.”
Two thousand years after the free lunch with Jesus, He is still calling disciples and still testing their faith. He is still asking
questions to find out whether they will trust in the God who provides so much more than free lunches. And on this day, as we
come to the Lord’s Table, we need to remember that all those miracles and free lunches didn’t come cheap. In the end, they
cost Jesus his life, a horrendous price to pay to feed a bunch of rebellious children. But that was his choice, a decision made
out of love for us and in obedience to the Father He trusted.
As we come to this table which the Lord has provided, we have choices, too. Will we recognize that the questions we
bring with us today may be the Lord’s way of testing us? Will we choose faith, the kind of faith that believes that with God all
things are possible? As we eat this bread and drink this cup, opening our hearts to the Lord in this sacrament, what kind of
faith will He find in us? Is it the kind that believes that the God who provided free lunch for 5,000 already has in mind for us
not only salvation and heaven, but every other provision along the way? I hope we can answer that question with a resounding
“YES!” remembering that all God’s good plans and promises are already “Yes” in Jesus Christ.
Let us pray.
apparently, had never read the Bible! Or at least they had not taken seriously the feeding miracles recorded in Scripture. This
lesson from John’s gospel describes an event that could be called a really free lunch, a lunch not only free but of such huge
proportions that it satisfied the appetite of 5,000 men and filled twelve baskets with the leftovers! It’s hard to say who was
more amazed by what happened: the disciples or the crowd.
As I think about the effect of this story on us today, some 2,000 years later, what comes to mind is the suspicion that we
are not amazed by it. Maybe we were once, the first time we heard it, especially if we were children at the time. But if I
wonder how many of us would honestly say that this miracle still amazes us, or produces awe and excitement about God—who
He is, his mighty power and what He might just do next among us? I fear that all too few of us understand that God still speaks
to us today through these biblical miracles.
The even sadder truth is that Jesus had the same problem with the majority of people who witnessed his miracles in
person! Oh, they were amazed all right, but for the wrong reasons. The motives of the crowd were pretty shallow and self-
centered. Sure, they loved the pizzazz! They couldn’t get enough of it. That’s why 5,000 people kept following Jesus around,
disturbing his peace and interrupting his solitude and times of prayer. They loved it when He healed the sick and restored sight
to the blind. They recognized that this guy had real charisma and power, and they wanted Him in their corner. In fact, once
they had seen this miracle of the free lunch, they wanted Him to be their King. Just think, with a guy like Him in charge, a guy
so compassionate that He was always putting the needs of the crowd ahead of his own, they would be able to get whatever
they wanted whenever they wanted it. But that wasn’t meant to be. As scripture tells us, becoming a king who could do
miracles on request wasn’t what Jesus had in mind. On the contrary, what Jesus had in mind was the real miracle, but
hardly anyone understood that.
Philip sure didn’t, when Jesus asked him where they might buy bread for all those people to eat. Maybe Jesus asked Philip
that question because Philip was from Bethsaida. Philip would know the territory around there better than some of the others.
He might know where all the deli’s were located, where they might get enough bagels and lox to feed that mob of people. Or
maybe Jesus asked the question in order to draw Philip out a little—get him more involved in the program. Unlike Peter, who
was always quick to open his mouth and take risks (like walking on water), Philip was not a very bold or adventurous disciple.
He had not volunteered for this assignment; it was Jesus who had gone after him and singled him out to be one of the disciples.
But even if he was a little shy, Philip had potential. And he was no idiot. One look at that huge crowd and a few mental
calculations told him that eight months wages wouldn’t even begin to feed that number of people in any significant way. Yet
Philip didn’t realize that the challenge confronting him wasn’t really about problem-solving, but about faith. Jesus wasn’t
asking him for lunch money, but for trust. This was a test of Philip’s faith, and Philip never even noticed it. All he could think
about were the human possibilities for solving the problem at hand.
But then along came Andrew. He was a different disciple altogether. He was more of an extrovert, always bringing
someone to Jesus, saying, “Come and see.” This time it was a little boy, who had brought five small barley loaves and two
small fish for his lunch. Maybe Andrew had been out sizing up the crowd to see if anyone had food to share. He seemed to
have a little more faith than Philip, and maybe he thought that if he could just come up with something, the Lord could do the
rest.. Even so, Andrew had his doubts. He admitted that the boy’s food wasn’t going to be a whole lot of help. Then again, it
couldn’t hurt, either.
But no one was really prepared for what took place that day. Jesus had the crowd sit down on the grass, and then He took
those five little barley loaves—the bread of the poor—and He gave thanks and started to break them up and distribute them
among the seated crowd. He did the same with the fish, until everyone had as much as he wanted. They all had enough to eat,
and then some. This had to be the ultimate in free lunches. It was an incredible miracle, something like the miracle by which
God formed the creation out of nothing. There was no dirt or dust or building material for God to use to create the heavens and
the earth and everything in it, yet here they are. In a similar way, there were only five small loaves of bread and two small fish
to feed five thousand people, yet from practically nothing Jesus created enough to satisfy everyone—with plenty left over. But
here we sit, still relatively unamazed. What does this story have to do with us?
My answer to that would be, first of all, to remind us that Scripture is God’s eternal word to his people, and so it has a
great deal to do with us. It has meaning forever and always and right now. We must put ourselves in this story and realize that
Jesus is not just testing Philip when He asks where they can get bread to feed the crowd, but He is testing us, too. He is asking
us questions not so very different from that one. You’ve heard some of these questions, questions to the church, such as “Who
can help with children’s Sunday School?” or, “How can we get more families to come to church?” or, “How can this little
church make a difference in this neighborhood?”
And you’ve probably heard Jesus’ questions to your family, like, “How can we turn this marriage around?” or “Where can
we get help for our rebellious teenager?” or “How can we care for our aging parents?” Jesus asks questions like that all the
time, but not so that we might calculate the answers based on worldly resources alone. No. He asks them as a test of our
faith. And the good news is that He is the one with the answers. He is the one who will provide the solutions. Sure, He
expects us to help by bringing what little we have for Him to use. Maybe it’s a casserole; maybe it’s a contribution. Maybe it’s
love and caring and compassion or whatever little offering we packed in our lunchbox for the day. Maybe it seems insignificant
compared to the need, like five small loaves and two small fish among 5,000 hungry men. But we just never know when our
little bit might be the material Jesus uses to work a miracle. Most importantly, we need to realize that whatever the situations
are that test our faith, Jesus already has in mind what He is going to do to provide for our need—just as Philip discovered in this
story of the free lunch.
And this is where we can really get excited, where we can become amazed over and over again at what Jesus has done
and can still do by the power of the Spirit. This is the real miracle, the Good News that should continually amaze us from this
story of the ultimate free lunch. It’s right there in verse 6, and I’m referring to the fact that even before the need arose,
Jesus had in mind what He was going to do. The Lord anticipated what was going to happen. He took the initiative to feed and
nourish the crowd, even before the need was expressed. He already had a plan, and it was a plan to provide not just enough,
but more than enough, even to overflowing.
The Good News is that the Lord always has a plan. But all too often, we forget that. We get all caught up thinking that
every problem has to be solved by our calculations; every challenge has to be overcome under our own power; every need has
to be met by our own resources. Especially in these tough economic times, we may even panic as we see finances and
investments dwindle. We tend to think in terms of what is possible for us to do, and then we become discouraged when we
realize that what we can do is not very much at all. For example, Billy Graham’s wife, Ruth Bell Graham, used to agonize with
worry when their son Franklin went through a very rebellious period as a young man. She wracked her brains trying to figure
out what she could do to straighten him out, and despaired even though she had done everything in her power to help him.
Then one day she realized that she had done her part and would have to trust God for the rest. She discovered that her job was
to do the possible, and leave the impossible to God. That’s the business God is in, always doing the impossible. And as some
of you know all too well, there are few things as impossible as rebellious children! (And isn’t it sobering to think that God may
feel that way about us?!) Yet over and over again He has shown us that He has a good plan for our lives and our church and
our world, and He’s always prepared to provide the impossible. But we rarely live as if we believe that. Instead, we go off
determined to work things out on our own.
I am reminded of an old Peanuts comic that depicts the ever-hungry Snoopy on Charlie Brown’s doorstep, trying to
redeem a gift certificate. But when Charlie Brown reads it, he says, “Sorry Sir. This is a gift certificate for Pizza. We don’t
serve Pizza here.” Poor Snoopy returns to his dog house looking rather dejected. But then he gets up on his roof and you see
him erasing the gift certificate and in the next frame he’s back on Charlie Brown’s doorstep with it again. This time, Charlie
Brown says, “What’s this? A gift certificate for dog food? Why certainly Sir…we’ll take care of that right away.” Charlie
Brown goes in the house and returns with a heaping bowl of dog food for Snoopy. And as Snoopy walks home carrying his
bowl of food, he is saying to himself in disbelief, “I can’t believe it took me three years to think of that!”
Obviously, I’m not suggesting that God wants to give us dog food or even a free lunch. But how long will it take us to
figure out that God is able to provide for far more than we could ever think or ask? All power and resources are at his disposal
to take care of our every need. According to Psalm 50, He owns the cattle on a thousand hills; the world is his and everything
in it. Will it take us three years or thirty years before we will trust that He has anticipated all of our needs and already has in
mind what He plans to do for us? Do we have enough faith to believe that the One who can call the creation into being from
nothing and provide free lunch for five thousand from virtually nothing, can also bind up broken hearts, turn rebellious people
around, solve financial problems and wrestle neighborhoods and entire cities out of the hands of Satan and into the arms of
Christ? Will we be a people overwhelmed by every challenge, like Philip, thinking it all depends on us, or will we take a chance
like Andrew, and bring every person and every problem to Jesus, to see what He will do? If we continually underestimate God’
s power to do the impossible, then the chances are we’ll never see a miracle like the free lunch. It takes faith to recognize
miracles in the first place. Without faith, miracles become nothing more than coincidences or occurrences still for waiting for
scientific explanation. Without faith, that old saying is true: “There is no such thing as a free lunch.”
Two thousand years after the free lunch with Jesus, He is still calling disciples and still testing their faith. He is still asking
questions to find out whether they will trust in the God who provides so much more than free lunches. And on this day, as we
come to the Lord’s Table, we need to remember that all those miracles and free lunches didn’t come cheap. In the end, they
cost Jesus his life, a horrendous price to pay to feed a bunch of rebellious children. But that was his choice, a decision made
out of love for us and in obedience to the Father He trusted.
As we come to this table which the Lord has provided, we have choices, too. Will we recognize that the questions we
bring with us today may be the Lord’s way of testing us? Will we choose faith, the kind of faith that believes that with God all
things are possible? As we eat this bread and drink this cup, opening our hearts to the Lord in this sacrament, what kind of
faith will He find in us? Is it the kind that believes that the God who provided free lunch for 5,000 already has in mind for us
not only salvation and heaven, but every other provision along the way? I hope we can answer that question with a resounding
“YES!” remembering that all God’s good plans and promises are already “Yes” in Jesus Christ.
Let us pray.
