"I Will Build You A House" - God

             “And taking five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. And all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.” - Mark 6:41-43

  We turn to the gospel of Mark and examine ordinary bread being multiplied to feed a large crowd and in the process fulfilling what was promised to King David - “I will build you a house.”  The miracle of the feeding of the 5000 is very reminiscent of the Wilderness experience, where God fed His people with manna from heaven each morning except on the Sabbath. We often pray “give us this day our daily bread” but what are we asking? Is it just an empty recitation? Is it just a request for sustenance and enough to keep us satisfied? Is it a promise for all our earthly needs and nothing else? Recall the people in the Wilderness very quickly grumbled against the heavenly bread and instead sought the meat and vegetables they remembered from Egypt. So God sent meat in accordance to their complaint. What were they missing in the provision of the heavenly bread? They were missing the promise we see given to David - “I will build you a house” and that is what we have as believers in Jesus Christ.

  Recall as Jesus explains the meaning of the miracle in Mark 8, where this time he feed 4000. He warns people to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod. What did he mean? Let me frame the answer to that question with a reference to Hebrews and 1 Kings. We have to look at the Ark of the Covenant and its spiritual power, as well as the significance it had to all who encountered it. But have we ever asked what was inside it? That strange question frames who we are with God and who we are without God. Our first response as to the contents would be the tablets containing “the Ten Commandments.” The Bible gives us two differing answers to the content based on the time that the Ark was in use. 1 Kings suggests only the Commandments were in the Ark at the Temple’s dedication but that was not the case in the Wilderness. Hebrews 9:4 tells us that in addition to the Commandments it contained two other unusual things. The first item was a gold container containing the daily bread, Manna. The second was Aaron’s rod that budded. Why manna? This was a reminder that we must seek spiritual things first. It was a reminder how the people rejected the bread of life, but if they were to live, they must eat of it.

   The Manna in the Ark reminds us of the true meaning our daily bread - which is the spiritual life we are given in and through Christ. It is His body broken for you! Although the Exodus was before Christ, its meaning and symbol was just as clear and true as it is for us. So as we look at the disciple’s thick response, we see that we are still looking at the physical elements instead of the spiritual, and thus miss the point and fail to comprehend the lesson. Meanwhile, most of the crowd who were part of those miraculous events also had their physical needs met, left and returned to their everyday lives - unchanged as they return to the world.

  “On the night he was betrayed” are familiar words that we hear when we gather at the Lord’s Table. We should not forget those words when we read of this miracle and the miracle of feeding the multitude. There, at the Supper, Jesus gave the bread as His body broken for you; and the cup of the New Covenant; blood shed for the remission of sin.

 How does God build a Temple in us? Consider the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:19; “Did you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God. But you are not your own for you were bought with a price.”

   Can you see now the similarities of the Temple being in us through the Holy Spirit and in the miracle of the feeding by Jesus of the 4000 and 5000 to be to the greater purpose of God? Spiritual food is what Jesus offers us. In John 4:34, Jesus describes his task employing food as a metaphor: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”  What was in that work? It was building men and women, young and old into houses not made with human hands! Have you taken ownership of who you are in Christ? The Christian life is much more than just being saved; it is growing into the image of Jesus Christ. Be the House that was not built by human hands. Be reconstructed into the image of Christ.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Harry