What is bread? What image first comes to mind when the word bread is said? Is it the loaf you can find bagged at the back of Walmart. How about the appetizer placed on your table at the restaurant as you look over the menu? It’s the biscuit on which is placed the sausage, egg, and cheese, the bun on which you place your all beef patty, the slices you pile high with tuna, chicken, or egg salad, the roll with which you mop up the last bit of gravy or salad dressing, and the tortilla in which you place your beans, meat, cheese, and salsa. It’s a filler food—white, wheat, multi-grain, gluten free, what have you.

Bread is a staple food; it has long been seen as such. It is given by God, granted to all people alike, be they good or evil, but it is a food for which you have to work, as all First Article gifts are. As the curse pronounced to Adam went, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread...” (Genesis 3:19a), even as St. Paul wrote, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10b) Bread is a staple food, but much hard labor is required to obtain and enjoy it.

The people in today’s text are guilty of two errors. These are errors as old as time since the fall; errors which still plague people to this day.

The Gospel readings for these past several weeks have been events which happened one right after another. This is pattern will continue for the next few weeks, too, though from St. John’s Gospel instead of St. Mark’s. The death of John the Baptist, the feeding of the 5000 men, the walking on the water, and the healing of the sick in Gennesaret all happened one right after the other. Even before the Baptist’s death, what you had been hearing were events which happened one right after another, except that what you had been hearing was interrupted by the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession.

Today’s Gospel reading, although from John, actually continues the narrative. John leaves out the short bit that Mark includes about the healing in Gennesaret, but before today’s reading, Jesus fed the 5000 men, sent His disciples ahead of Him across the sea to Gennesaret (though not named), walked to them on the sea, then got in the boat with them. Today’s lesson is the very next verse, but back on the side of the sea where Jesus fed the multitude.

Picture it, if you will…

You’re on a vast, grassy plain. Everyone is there with you. You all decide that it’s a great place to build a city, so you start making bricks and mortar. Somewhere along the way, someone suggests a tower, and that the city should be the crowning achievement of mankind. “We’re going to make a name for ourselves,” they say.

So, the city and tower are being built, monuments to the greatness of mankind. The plans are in place, and they are grandiose. Foundations are established, brick and mortar laid, buildings are formed, and a great tower right in the middle. All the while, you’re feeling pretty good about yourself; you take pride in the structures you’ve had a hand in building.