Anthony Amato, Seminarian
Signs: A Sermon for July 28, 2024
The Episcopal Church of St. Martin
Good morning, everyone. My name is Anthony Amato, and as many of you know, today is my last Sunday at St. Martin’s. In a few short days, I’ll be getting on a plane to Virginia and I’ll be beginning my life there as a seminarian. It’s a strange thing to watch everything you’ve ever worked for finally come to fruition. My pathway to this moment has never been straightforward, and it’s involved abandoning many things: old ways of thinking, familiar comfort zones, the denomination of my birth; soon I will be required to give up regular attendance at this parish, and I’ll be forced to live without the close proximity of my loved ones for the next three years.
Still, I suppose the Bible never said that following Jesus would be easy. Scripture is filled with instances of Jesus asking others to follow him, and His call isn’t always met with confidence or enthusiasm. After all, why would we want to follow someone who says we need to first deny ourselves and carry our own cross daily in the process. What’s in it for me if I follow Jesus? How do I know that following Him, that believing in Him, isn’t pointless? How do I even know that Jesus is who He says He is? In moments of spiritual vulnerability, we might ask ourselves these questions now, more than 2,000 years after Jesus walked the Earth. But those who actually knew Jesus would have inevitably asked the very same questions.
Fortunately for us, Jesus leaves no question unanswered. After all, “ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find.” The only caveat is that the answers Jesus gives are rarely straightforward. If He isn’t talking in parables, He’s usually talking in metaphors, calling himself things like the “the way, the truth, and the life.” If Jesus really wants to get a point across, He may perform a miracle, some undeniable glimpse into his divine nature. Today’s Gospel reading illustrates for us one of the most well-known miracles in all of scripture, “The Feeding of the 5,000.”
Remember, though, that the Book of John isn’t the only Gospel that gives an account of this miracle. In fact, the story of 5,000 hungry followers being miraculously fed with nothing more than a couple of fish and 5 loaves of bread is actually told in all four Gospels. But this isn’t particularly surprising. This story would have held profound significance for the authors and early Christian communities that produced the four sacred Gospels. Not only does Christ’s miracle of abundance showcase the authority He possesses as the Son of God, but it actually echoes God’s own provision for the ancient Israelites immediately following their Exodus from Egypt. This miraculous feeding also aligns with the expectations that the followers of Jesus would have had for a Messiah, someone who would provide the actual sustenance required for survival if need be.
Today, we have read John’s telling of this story. And John’s telling of the feeding of the 5,000 has some unique qualities. The most significant among these is John’s tendency not to refer to the miracles of Jesus as “miracles.” The Synoptic Gospels; Matthew, Mark and Luke; usually refer to the supernatural works of Jesus as “miracles” or “wonders.” But as we just heard, John calls these unexplainable occurrences something else: He calls them “signs.”
Now why is this important? For one, this isn’t an accident. This isn’t simply a case of John having a different writing or literary style when compared to the other three Gospel authors. No, the usage of the word “signs” is intentional. First, let’s think of what a sign is. A sign is something that signals or sends a message about some other reality.
Think of a sign on the side of a freeway that says “road work ahead.” Its purpose is to alert drivers to the reality of road work, even if they haven’t driven far enough to actually see the road work taking place.
Let’s also consider that signs are usually not the fullness of the reality they represent. Signs that say “road work ahead” are not the extent of the road work. That’s because infrastructure repair requires excavators and cement trucks, and the process involves much more than we usually care to understand. It’s easiest to take the sign at its word, and keep on driving.
Now let’s apply this understanding to the signs of Jesus. John tells us that a “large crowd kept following [Jesus], because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.” Before feeding the 5,000, Jesus had already healed the nobleman’s son from afar, and He also had already healed a paralytic man at the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. And while either of these signs could be taken at face value as proof of Christ’s divinity, both miracles are relatively subtle and still allow for a degree of disbelief. Some skeptical eyewitnesses likely preferred to believe the miracles were staged – that the men were neither sick nor paralytic to begin with.
On the other hand, those who chose to follow Jesus to the grassy mountain top understood that these miracles, while profound even in isolation, were actually signs that were inviting them to look deep beneath the surface of spectacle and discern some hidden meaning – some parallel reality that the miracles actually represent. Despite their doubts, despite their questions, these people decided to follow Jesus because they knew there was more to the story.
If each sign is meant to reinforce our belief in Jesus by revealing a hidden truth of His divine nature, what then does the feeding of the 5,000 teach us about the nature of Jesus? What is the reality he is trying to show us? First of all, we know that this sign was different from the others. I talk about there being room for disbelief with the previous miracles, but, if one were to rely only on their eyesight, one still might find a reason to deny even the miraculous provision of fish and bread.
After all, we’re told in the Gospel that this mountain top has “a great deal” of grass. Perhaps the grass was so tall that it obscured one’s vision of the fish and bread as it was being passed around, and maybe there was enough food to feed the masses the whole time. Still, the Gospel mentions no disbelief in this particular sign. In fact, we’re told that “when the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.” As I said, these followers already had strong expectations for who the Messiah must be; and there was something about being fed, something about their hunger being satisfied, that made them believe in Jesus even when seeing His previous miracles with the naked eye had not yet prompted this realization. Perhaps this perfect ability to feed us, not just physically but in some existential way, is what Jesus is trying to demonstrate for us.
So let’s review where we’re at so far: We know that Jesus has the supernatural ability to create abundance from very little. We know that Christ is intentionally modeling the very best characteristics of Old Testament figures such as Moses. And again, we know that each of the physical signs of Jesus actually teaches us about some parallel spiritual reality. In today’s Gospel, Jesus wants us to discover that He has the power to end our hunger – and not just our physical hunger. Jesus satisfies those spiritual hungers we experience every single day: our hunger for peace in all areas of the globe; our hunger for justice when we see people treated poorly; our hunger for love and acceptance when love and acceptance are lacking. Later in the Gospel of John, Jesus refers to himself as the Bread of Life. He’s telling us that He is the spiritual food necessary for eternal life. Our love for Him, our faith in Him provides a fulfillment that food, money, power, sex, drugs and entertainment could never even hope to achieve. I trust that anyone here who’s ever experienced a saturation of one or more of these things, knows that no matter how much of it you have, it’s never enough.
So why should we follow Jesus? What’s in it for us? Is Christ’s power to satisfy every single one of our needs really made available to everyone? Yes! Yes, but we need to seek it out – you actually have to make the effort! Remember that Jesus does not materialize food from thin air. He takes fish that someone already made the effort to catch – bread that somebody already took the effort to bake – and Jesus takes the fruit of our labor and makes it enough. Even when our best efforts fall short, Jesus makes it enough. In fact, he makes it more than enough. Without Jesus, we can do very little.
I want to end on this final element: Jesus is inviting us to understand that our spiritual needs are no less important than our physical ones. Our spiritual hunger needs to be satisfied every bit as much as our physical hunger or physical thirst. Not only does Jesus have the ability to satisfy these needs; He’s showing us that He’s the only one who can. We can even take this a step further: Jesus didn’t just perform signs, Jesus is the ultimate sign of God’s very existence, of God’s love for us. Jesus isn’t just a historical figure who performed miracles; He is the living sign pointing us to the reality of God’s kingdom, inviting us to partake in the abundance of His love and grace. And unlike a “road ahead” sign, Jesus is the fullness of the reality He represents.
Jesus is the fullness of the God who sends Him. And we must make the effort to follow Him. The signs that Jesus provides are helpful indicators that we should follow Him, but the decision to do so ultimately comes from within. God gives us signs all the time. Think of a time when God answered one of your prayers in such a direct and
undeniable way. Think of a time when you survived something you truly believed you wouldn’t be able to overcome, or a time God intervened in your life in a way you just cannot explain. Sure, we can choose to ignore or deny these signs, or we can choose to see them for what they are: invitations to follow God more closely.
As I prepare to leave for seminary, I carry with me the signs of God’s faithfulness and spiritual provision that I have witnessed here at St. Martin’s. I am grateful for the ways in which you have each shown me the love of Christ, and for being signs of His presence in my life. I ask for your prayers as I embark on this new journey, and I promise to carry each of you in my heart as a constant reminder of the impact this congregation has had on my life. It is my sincere hope that we all continue to seek and find the signs of God’s love and grace in our own lives. Merciful God, help us to follow your Son with courage and with faith. Help us to know that He is and ever shall be the Bread of Life, our spiritual food, our sustenance in all things. We ask this in the name of your most precious and beautiful son Jesus, who reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God now and forever. Amen.