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HE TENDS TO OUR NEEDS, BODY AND SOUL.
In
the name + of Jesus.
Occasionally, the lessons for our Divine
Services begin in the middle of a story. For example, today’s Gospel begins with the
phrase, “Now when Jesus
heard this” (Matthew 14:13), which begs the question, “When Jesus heard what?” Peering back, we learn that John the Baptist
had been executed by Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee. Upon hearing that news, Jesus withdrew privately,
presumably with the apostles accompanying him.
The Bible records several times that Jesus withdrew to lonely places to
pray. It seems likely that this was his
agenda. Perhaps he also went to mourn
the death of John. Perhaps he wanted a
place to teach his apostles without interruptions. He chose a desolate place where he would not
be bothered—or so he thought. “When
the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd…”
(Matthew 14:13-14).
This shows us the astounding patience of
Jesus. We do not demonstrate such patience
when we get interrupted. We get infuriated
by an ill-timed phone call, by someone who says, “Can I bother you for a second?”
(and you know it will be way longer than that), or even by a child who asks for
a cup of milk. We greet minor
interruptions with heavy sighs and eyerolls.
Our sinfulness is betrayed by seeing other people as a burden rather
than people to love and serve. Jesus sought
a time of solitude, but that was blown apart by throngs of people who wanted
Jesus’ attention and healing. When Jesus
saw the crowds, he heaved no exasperated sigh.
He did not redirect the boat to a distant shore. Rather, “when… he saw a great crowd, …he
had compassion on them and healed their sick” (Matthew 14:13-14). He tended to their needs, body and soul.
The Lord Jesus tends to our needs, body
and soul. We may think that the Lord
only has interest in our souls. We may say
that Jesus “saves our souls.” When someone
dies in the faith, we speak about their soul going to be with Jesus. We may get the impression that the soul is
all that matters, and that the body is irrelevant or disposable.
The Lord created mankind to be body and soul.
After creating Adam and Eve, the Lord
assessed his creation and, “Behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). That includes the bodies God gave to Adam and
Eve. God also addressed their basic
needs. God told them, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed
that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You
shall have them for food” (Genesis 1:29). You may choose to follow that and
be vegan. But we also recognize that God
expanded the menu after the Flood. Regarding,
“every beast of the earth … every bird of the heavens …
everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food
for you. And as I gave you the
green plants, I give you everything” (Genesis 9:2-3). So, God’s care is not just for
the soul. He feeds and sustains our
bodies because they matter. We are body
and soul people.
The Lord tends to our needs, body and soul. They are united. It is only by death that body and soul are
ripped apart. Death is the result of
sin. God never intended for bodies and
souls to be separated from each other.
But the curse of sin produces this rending. Even before the soul is taken from the body
in death, sin affects the body so that we suffer illness, weakness,
disabilities, disorders, viruses and varieties of emotional, mental, and
physical stress. These may be common,
but they are not normal. That’s why we
go to a doctor to seek a cure for what ails us—whether penicillin, corrective
lenses, a plaster cast, or chemotherapy.
If you are suffering from a disease or illness, you don’t shrug your
shoulders and say, “Oh, well. I guess
this is normal.” You seek relief. You may learn that your disorder is your new
normal, but you recognize that it is a disorder.
In the days of Jesus, relief was not so
easily had. A fever was enough of a
reason to fear death. Those who were
maimed or lame had to live with it. You
can understand why large crowds came to Jesus yearning to be healed of whatever
ailments they had. And while Jesus spoke
to them about the kingdom of God, he did more than deliver spiritual healing to
troubled consciences and fearful hearts.
“He had compassion on
them and healed their sick” (Matthew 14:14). He tended to their needs, body
and soul, because both mattered to him.
The Lord tends to our needs, body and
soul. To do that, he came as a
body-and-soul man. Jesus came to restore
all that was corrupted and cursed by sin.
These bodies have been affected by sin, so Jesus took our sins into his
body—from our sins of impatience and self-importance to our sinful condition
which results in failed health and frail existence. Therefore, Jesus gave his body to being
battered and bruised by religious men and pagan soldiers. His back was ripped apart by flogging. His head was pricked and pierced with a crown
of thorns. His hands and feet were
nailed to a cross. His side was run through
with a lance, producing a flow of warm, red blood. Jesus gave himself into death where his soul
was rent from his body. The soul went to
be with the Father, and Jesus’ corpse was laid to rest on a stone slab in a
tomb. Body and soul, Jesus endured the cruelties
of men and the curse of God. “The
wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), so Jesus went into death for us. He did all this to deliver us out of death,
body and soul.
Jesus’ resurrection from the dead shows us
what is in store for us. Jesus did not rise
from the grave as a phantom, an avatar, or a Star Wars force-ghost. He lives as a body-and-soul human being. So shall we.
Jesus’ healing of the multitudes is also a glimpse of what will be. “He had compassion on them and healed their sick” (Matthew 14:14). Jesus not only
reverses the curse of death, he will rescue our bodies from every effect of
sin. Jesus will restore our bodies to
perfect glory such as Adam and Eve had when they were first created. St. Paul wrote that “the Lord Jesus Christ
… will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). It is not only victory over death. It is victory over sin and all its consequences—no
more disease or disorders, no more pulled muscles or muscle cramps, no more hearing
aids or band-aids. The bodies created by
God will be restored by God to perfection.
He tends to our needs—body and soul.
St. Matthew does not specifically mention
it in his gospel, but St. Luke noted that Jesus “spoke to them of the
kingdom of God” (Luke 9:11). While our
bodies will be made whole when we enter heavenly glory, perfected bodies here
will not get us there. Preaching the
good news of the forgiveness of sins won through Jesus’ sufferings, death, and
resurrection is necessary. God is
merciful when he brings healing to our bodies, but the good news of Jesus’ forgiveness
must be proclaimed if forgiveness of sins, new life, and salvation are to be
delivered.
But even in this, body and soul are not separated. We do not baptize souls; we baptize
bodies. We do not feast on Jesus’ body
and blood with our souls; we take, eat, and drink. Even when the church gathers, it is not a
gathering of souls. The body of Christ,
the Church, is made up of bodies—real people who live and breath and speak and
act. Real people with struggles and sorrows,
with regret and remorse. Real people who
need direction for godly living, encouragement to remain faithful to Jesus, and
consolation when we falter. Watching
services online works when you have no choice, but God calls us to be together. The crowds that gathered in that desolate place
wanted to be with Jesus. Jesus was pleased
to be with them. He did not interact with
them as a bodiless voice from heaven.
Jesus, as a body-and-soul man, interacted with body-and-soul people. In tending to their needs, Jesus lived with
them, ate with them, spoke with them, and touched them. God took on flesh to connect with
flesh-and-blood, body-and-soul people.
The Lord tends to all our needs. The crowds spent the day with Jesus in a remote
place. The sun was getting low, and they
had not eaten yet. I suppose you could
argue that Jesus had better things to do than to provide supper for these
people. The disciples sure thought
so. They said, “Send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food
for themselves” (Matthew 14:15). Even if the crowds had flooded the near-by
villages, would there have been enough food for so many? Jesus was eager to tend to their needs. Bodies hunger. They need nourishment.
Jesus tended to their needs, body and
soul. The disciples reported that they
had a scant amount of food, probably barely enough for themselves. “Jesus ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five
loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the
disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied” (Matthew
14:19-20). Jesus met the needs of the hungry crowds,
filling them with good things. He did
not let the scant amount of food prevent him from serving them. He took what the Lord had provided and multiplied
it, supplying more than enough to satisfy the hunger of 5,000 men plus women
and children. They feasted without laboring
for it or paying for it. By his pure
grace, Jesus tended to their needs, body and soul.
While the Lord does not work through miracles
to satisfy our need for food, what he does year after year around the world is
still amazing. God uses the labors of
farmers, ranchers, migrant workers, truckers, grocers, and others to provide
enough food to feed the world. He uses flesh-and-blood
people to serve in various vocations to supply our bodily needs. The God who became flesh and blood knows what
we need to live, and he has promised to provide it.
He tends to our needs, body and soul. He sustains us in this life, and he has redeemed us for eternal life. Like the crowds, we long to be with Jesus because he knows our needs and he tends to them. Finally, our body-and-soul Savior will deliver us to dwell with him in our glorified body-and-soul. And there, we will feast forever with Jesus who will in mercy remove all that is bad and in grace supply all that is good.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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