Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
The Christian Trusts God to Provide
These are the readings for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost.
(This Worship Help aligns with the lectionary readings from Christian Worship 1993 and Christian Worship: Supplement.)
God’s Word for This Week
Our Savior is a God of mercy and kindness. Our very existence is testimony to that fact. Daily he provides us with all that we need to keep our body and life. He also grants protection from all earthly dangers. In addition, our Savior provides us with spiritual blessings—food for the soul. In his Word, we receive the good news of sins forgiven and free salvation.
First Lesson – Isaiah 55:1-5
What satisfying sustenance does God promise to his people?
In his Word, Jesus promises to give us food and drink that is truly satisfying, for it will quench the hunger and thirst we feel because of our sin. This spiritual food and drink offers us forgiveness of sins and eternal life, a truly satisfying fare!
What is the imitation bread in which some invest?
The imitation bread might look appealing on the outside, but it offers no relief from hunger. Consider the many religious practices performed to make oneself right with God. But we can never know with certainty if we’ve offered enough; therefore, we are never truly satisfied—a most unsatisfactory fare!
Whom do verses 4 and 5 point to?
The Holy One of Israel must be pointing to our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Supplemental First Lesson – Genesis 41:41-49
A Christian trusts that God will provide—even when the plan makes no sense to us. Sold as a slave by his brothers, Joseph could have despaired of God’s care and love. In faith, however, Joseph trusted in God to provide for his needs and future. Year after year, God did just that and raised Joseph from the depths of prison to dizzying heights of power. By the age of 30, he controlled one of the greatest empires the world has known. And it was all so God could provide for his people. He used Joseph as his tool to fill the granaries during the seven fat years that he might give bread to the people during the seven lean. So great was God’s blessing that they stopped counting the grain! The grace in God’s provision can be seen not only in the thousands of Egyptians saved from starvation, but most especially in the grain he provided to Jacob and his sons during the famine. Though he was sold as a slave, God made Joseph vizier that he might be God’s hand providing food to preserve the bloodline of the Savior. How often we look at our lives and see only problems and none of the possibilities that God would work in us and through us! Look at Joseph and learn again to trust God to provide.
Traditional Second Lesson – Romans 8:35-39
Suffering might cause us to question God’s love. But in the end, what capability does any suffering have?
While Paul indicates that suffering has been around for ages and is generally something we can’t escape, he also states boldly that none of it can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ.
What makes us more than conquerors?
Christ’s victory on the cross makes us conquerors as well.
Name anything that isn’t covered in Paul’s list of agents that “cannot separate us from the love of God…”
Paul’s list of agents ends with “nor anything else in all creation.” The only being uncreated is God himself, and it is he who worked and won our salvation. It is, therefore, reaffirmed that absolutely nothing can come between us and God’s love for us!
Supplemental Second Lesson – 1 Timothy 4:4,5
The Gnostic heretics that plagued the early church believed the physical world was evil. They demanded an ascetic life that was at odds with God’s intentions for our existence. Paul asserts that God not only cares about our physical existence, but everything we need for it is, in fact, a creation of God and essentially good—not evil. Rather than a life of denial, the Christian life is one of gratefully receiving all that we need as gracious gifts from God.
Gospel – Matthew 14:13-21
How does Jesus show his nature as the provider of all things physical?
Jesus provides for this crowd of more than 10,000 people by miraculously stretching the bread and fish to fill all their stomachs. (Compare Matthew 6:33 and Psalm 23:1.)
Which attributes of Jesus shine through clearly in this miracle?
Obviously, as in all his other miracles, Jesus shows his omnipotence or almighty power. But note, also, that Jesus shows his compassion for the people. (See 14:14.)
