Sermon on the Gospel for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity 2025

The Seventh Sunday after Trinity: “The Lord Will Provide”

(St Mark 8:1-9)

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

The Lord provides. Ever since creation, He has not left what He has made to itself but continually cares for it. He is not like someone who completes his work and then goes home, leaving whatever he has made to itself. No, God is ever present, providing for the greatest mountain and the least sparrow and for us all. And nothing will hinder Him in His Divine Providence. He will preserve us, His Church, to the very end. To His glory and our eternal good.

And while nature itself declares the glory of God, the Lord has revealed things in Scripture beyond nature too. He has done so to establish us, His Church, immovably in the confidence that He truly does provide for us daily. And accounts like the feeding of the four thousand provide us with an occasion to discuss this Divine Providence. Because

The Lord who provides the extraordinary things
is also providing you daily with ordinary things.

I.

We start with the extraordinary providence. The Lord’s providence is extraordinary when He operates either without means, beyond means, or contrary to means and their nature.

So, for example, the Lord provided without means with Moses on Mt. Sinai. You remember how the first set of Ten Commandments Moses broke on the ground due to the idolatrous golden calf incident. So, God had Moses cut new stone tablets. And Scripture tells us that Moses was with the Lord on Mt. Sinai for forty days and forty nights, renewing His covenant with them. And, extraordinarily: “He neither ate bread nor drank water” that whole time (Ex 34:28). Of course, ordinarily that’s impossible. You’d die if you tried that. But the Lord provided in an extraordinary way without means.

And He has provided beyond means too. Remember Elijah defeating the prophets of Baal? Evil Queen Jezebel was out to kill him after that, so he fled into the wilderness, thinking he was going to die. But an angel came to lamenting Elijah under a broom tree and said, “Arise and eat.” And there was “a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water.” Twice the angel came to him and twice Elijah ate and drank. Then we hear that Elijah “went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights…” (1 Kg 19:8). The Lord provided in an extraordinary way beyond means, making that food and drink sustain him nearly six weeks.

Then you have the Lord providing contrary to means too. This happened with Elisha when the sons of the prophets and he were cutting logs to build a house. As they were cutting down trees, the axe head of one of the prophets flew into the River Jordan. But Elisha, the “man of God,” threw a stick in where the axe head fell in the water “and made the iron float” so that they got it back (2 Kg 6:6). The Lord provided in an extraordinary way contrary to means. Iron simply doesn’t float. But God can override His laws of nature to make it float, just as He can do so to sustain Moses with no food and Elijah with very little.

Which brings us to the feeding of the four thousand. This is also the Lord’s extraordinary providence that is beyond ordinary means. They had only seven loaves and a few small fish. These ordinarily only feed a few people. But they fed four thousand in a desolate place and with seven baskets of leftovers. Jesus did the extraordinary because, as the Lord of all things, He is not restricted to the ordinary way He has established things. Nothing is impossible with the Lord. He can create out of nothing and take nearly nothing and feed thousands.

In His ministry, Jesus demonstrated through extraordinary, supernatural miracles like this that He is the One Who provides for all people. He did this in order to show who He is: God’s eternal Son made flesh. He is the Creator who has become a creature.

And in these miracles, He also showed His heart. He showed how He cared for these hungry people in a desolate place. He had “compassion” on them, St. Mark writes. And this “compassion” is a deep concern, an internal yearning to provide for those in need.

And by showing through these extraordinary miracles who He is and His compassionate heart, He also showed all of us today that we can trust Him to provide in the ordinary ways too.

Which brings us to consider the Lord’s…

II.

…ordinary providence for us all. His ordinary providence is when He carries on His works through His established and accustomed course of nature.

This is true of all of nature. He takes care of the waters below and the skies above. He rules sea and land. He causes every plant to grow, giving it its seed so that each, according to its kind, bears fruit. He works through the sun He has created to provide us with daylight and growth. He gives life to all creatures in the womb of their mothers. And the eyes of all the animals and of all human beings too, look to Him and he gives them their food at the proper time. He opens His hands and satisfies the desires of every living thing (Ps 145:15). The Lord is the One providing in these ordinary ways in nature every single day.

And this is especially true of humanity. God cares about us more than He cares about the rocks, plants, or animals. We human beings, male and female, are the crown of His creation. “You are of more value than many sparrows,” Jesus says to His disciples (Mt 10:31). This is why, in our OT Lesson, the Lord gave Adam the Garden of Eden “to work it and keep it.” God created it for him. And, even after the fall into sin, the Lord continues to provide rain to fall and sun to shine, especially for humanity, even for the evil and unjust. So, there are grades or ranks of God’s providence. You and I and all of humanity are at the top.

But there is a very top too. Because those who trust in Him, who are members of His Church, His Body, they will be with Him in eternity. In the new creation in the resurrection. And He is providing in the ordinary course of things especially for them. Especially for His Church, His mystical Body. Especially for you. St. Paul writes to Timothy: “For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe” (1 Tim 4:10). “Behold,” the psalm says, “the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love” (Ps 33:18).

And our Lesson informs us of all of this too. “These people” that Jesus was feeding were the Gentiles. Jesus was in a desolate place near the Decapolis, which was Gentile country. The feeding of the five thousand was for the Israelites. The feeding of the four thousand was for the Gentiles. So, Jesus cared for all of humanity, showing He provides for all nations.

But especially for those who trusted in Him. And you see this in the text too. Jesus said very specifically why He cared for them: “… because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.” It’s not just that they had nothing to eat. Yes, the Lord provides for all. But it’s more specifically because they trusted in Him. They were hungry because they were dutifully listening to Jesus’ Word for three whole days. This was their most important food. A lesson for us all! “And some of them have come from far away,” Jesus said. Another lesson for us: to be willing to travel far to hear the Word of our Lord!

Jesus would not let His believers, His Body, go hungry and perish. He had compassion on them. He cared for them. He provided for them.

And He does the same for all of you. When you see the beautiful sunrise or sunset or bask in the afternoon rays, when you see the cattle on a thousand hills in Iowa, when you feel the gentle sprinkles from the sky or hear it raining cats and dogs, when you eat and drink and enjoy time with family or friends, when you see the plants grow row on row, when a woman gives birth, when nature does its thing, this is really the Lord providing, doing His thing. It’s not just mother earth but God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth working through it all, together with our Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

And He is working through the ordinary means of humanity too. Through parents who raise children, through farmers and electricians and plumbers and carpenters and doctors and workers of all kinds. He provides them with their reason and strength. He is giving them their breath. He is giving you yours. All eyes look to Him as their Provider.

Which means that you can trust that He can and will provide for you today. No matter how desolate it looks, no matter what difficulty you are going through right now. Do not doubt like the disciples, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” One like us cannot, that’s true, which is why we get so anxious so that it’s not only sinful how we act but silly how distressed we can get over being without not even what we need but just the things we want. One like us cannot provide, so we doubt. But One Who is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever, can provide. And He does. So we trust in Him.

Because He uses ordinary means to do extraordinary things, to go above and beyond. Not just in feeding four thousand in their bodies but in feeding myriads in their souls, including you and me. With an ordinary cross of wood, He provided for you forgiveness for all of your doubts and other sins. With ordinary human flesh from His virgin mother Mary, which He has taken into His Divine Person forever, He did the extraordinary and gave up His Life for the life of the world and took it up again. Yes, He has had compassion on you and paid the price of His own life in order to provide you with the Bread of Life that gives eternal life.

Which He provides you through ordinary means today. An ordinary man. Ordinary water. Ordinary bread and wine. But Jesus speaks. Jesus is joined to that water of Baptism. Jesus’ Body and Blood are satisfying you in His Supper and giving you strength in the midst of this desolate world until you enter the new creation that He is preparing for you.

So, think upon the extraordinary things the Lord provides you. And trust with thanksgiving that He is and will provide the ordinary things too until He does the most extraordinary thing of all and leads you to the resurrection of the body and the joys of a Paradise better than Eden.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

— Rev. Stephen K. Preus —