Rom. ; Mt. 14:13-21]
Grace to all of you who are one in Christ. Amen.
A clever German once said in his sermon on the Unmerciful Servant in Matthew 18,
“But you [the congregation] say: Do you still insist that God will have no regard for our good works, and on their account will save no one? Answer: [God] would have them done freely without any thought of remuneration; not that we thereby obtain something, but that we do them to our neighbour, and thereby show that we have the true faith; [...for what have you then that you gave [God] and by which you merit anything, that he should have mercy on you and forgive you all things that you have done against him? Or what profit has he by it?..] Nothing has [God], but that you praise and thank him, and do as he has done, that God may be thanked in thee. Then you are in his kingdom and have all things that you should have. This is the other part of the Christian life, which is called love, by which one goes out from God to his neighbour.” (Martin Luther, Sermon-22 after Trinity)
Let’s talk about good works. It’s a topic which is very often still misunderstood.
Good works will not earn you a seat in heaven. Only by God’s grace received through faith will you be saved for eternal life. And all the rest flows from that.
Jesus sees the crowds and has compassion for them. The disciples want to send people away to neighbouring villages to get food, a logical response. That won’t be necessary says Jesus. But we have nothing, the disciples reply. But they do have something. Jesus blesses the food, looks to heaven, breaks the bread as he does for us in holy communion, and the people are fed. 12 baskets of leftovers, 12 is the number of completion in the Bible, of perfection.
Jesus has compassion and acts on it, even before feeding them he is curing their sick. He doesn’t pray for the crowds or preaches to them. That’s not what they need at this moment, this is not the time for prayers or preaching. This is the time to ask for God’s involvement and blessing, and then to get to work.
People have different needs at different times. God recognises our needs before we even recognise them ourselves. So in order to fill the needs of the world, God came up with a very clever plan: God takes care of our justification and salvation and heaven and eternity, so we don’t have to worry about that and so that we’re free to do good works and fill the needs of our neighbour. Good works in response, good works because they’re commanded, good works as a calling, good works out of gratitude or enthusiasm, good works because a faith without works is a dead faith.
So, no to the slogan of ‘paying it forward’, whereby you do good works in the hope -in the expectation!- that the next person will do good works for you. That’s not a good work, that’s an exchange, a barter.
No to the ‘prosperity gospel’, whereby you give financially to God (to the preacher) in the hope -in the expectation!- that God will bless you financially even more. That’s not a good work, that’s a bribe.
Both ‘paying it forward’ and the ‘prosperity gospel’ are heresy, please stay far away from false teachers that promote them. Because good works are not a barter or a bribe, they’re the result of something bigger and far more wholesome and holy: God who loves and forgives.
Jesus comes ashore and has compassion with the crowds.
God always takes the first step and it’s always a step towards us. And like him, we’re inspired, commanded, called to take the first step to our neighbours, to creation, to those we love and those we don’t love, and try our best to fill their needs and be coworkers with God