So many of the stories about Jesus are stories about outrageous abundance. Outrageous abundance and outrageous, open-hearted generosity. This is key to understanding what it means to see in Jesus the embodiment of the Divine in human form.

What does this mean for how we live our lives?

All around Jesus in story after story there springs up and multiplies all the good things of this earth that feed and nourish us in body and in soul, satisfying our deepest hunger and quenching our most essential thirst. From that abundance, Jesus gives to all who ask; he heals all who come to him in their need.

He doesn’t turn people away; he doesn’t play favorites; he doesn’t judge; he doesn’t offer an open hand today only to close it tomorrow. And all the time through his goodness Jesus points to the goodness of God.  

In this Easter season we remember that the generous abundance of being that flows through Jesus is even too much for a single life; it spills over the boundaries of a lifetime defined by birth and death. After the end of Jesus’ mortal life, his followers only continued to receive the gifts of his being, even more so in this resurrected form, in fact, as they realize that Christ’s nature truly flows out from God Godself, who is infinite.  

What does this mean for how we live our lives?

In our story this Sunday from the Gospel of John, in which the disciples encounter Christ in resurrected form, we see the overflowing abundance in the form of fish so plentiful they almost burst the nets of the fishermen (John 21:1-17). Then Peter receives this overwhelming abundance in the form of the mercy. For every time Peter had denied Jesus in his time of need, Jesus gives Peter the opportunity to say “Yes” again, and return to the truth of his love for his beloved teacher. The mercy of this act and the love it affirms sets Peter free from his guilt and shame.

And then what?

“Then feed my sheep,” Jesus instructs him.

As you have received, so give to others.

Peter learns that the nature of divine love is an outrageous abundance that demands to be multiplied and shared, regardless of questions of merit. Nourish others with this unconditional love that our Holy Creator pours out upon our world, if only we would turn and receive.

What does this mean for how we live our lives?

As I quoted last week, from Thomas Merton:

“The root of Christian love is not the will to love, but the faith that one is loved. The faith that one is loved by God. That faith that one is loved by God although unworthy – or, rather, irrespective of one’s worth! In the true Christian vision of God’s love, the idea of worthiness loses its significance. Revelation of the mercy of God makes the whole problem of worthiness something almost laughable: the discovery that worthiness is of no special consequence (since no one could ever, by himself, be strictly worthy to be loved with such a love) is a true liberation of the spirit.” (New Seeds of Contemplation, pg. 75).

As Jesus shows time and again, this liberation of the spirit by God’s love leads one to share and share and share from this abundance to each and all according to their need, irrespective of “worth.” We are liberated from any judgment of deserving or undeserving in how we share the good gifts from God that are ours to share.

“Go and do likewise.”

Jesus makes clear that this is not only a metaphor, but is quite literal. This is about us receiving and sharing the unconditional abundance of both spiritual and the earthly gifts-  our daily bread as well as the bread of eternal life.

“Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

“Give us this day our daily bread.” As well as “Forgive us as we forgive others …”

Jesus literally fed the multitudes from the fruits of God’s earth, multiplied through the giving; just as he spiritually gave the living waters that quenches our deepest thirst to know God and to receive God’s generosity and mercy.

So too are we to receive and share all the gifts we receive by the grace of God.

“Give to all who ask of you,” Jesus said. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, cure the sick, liberate the captive. That which you do to the least of these you do to me.

Do we get to pick and choose? Do we get to judge and condemn and resent those in need, forgetting just how deeply we too need? Do we get to fill the food pantries one day, send the aid trucks, only to withhold it all the next day? Do we get to put conditions and demands on sharing the essentials of life, razor wired boundaries with merciless gatekeepers? Do we get to give or withhold essentials for life as a cruel flex of our power?

No. Not metaphorically. Not literally. Not if we’re professing Christians. That’s not how God treats us, as we know through the word and the witness of Jesus Christ. That’s not how we should treat others … for we are to “be merciful as our God is merciful.”

I sure have benefitted from this mercy. Have you? The mercy to know that by the love and grace of my Holy Creator I have a value that nothing can take away – and so does everyone else?

I’ve also received mercy in taking care of essential physical needs, as well as spiritual.

I’ve had to be on SNAP benefits, I’ve had to be on Medicaid. It was during a difficult and unexpected period. It was in fact early in my wife’s pregnancy with our daughter. It was not what we had planned or worked for, and I thank God those benefits were there for the sake of their health in a time of need.

I want that for everyone.

I’m not too proud to say it now. I was too proud at the time, and kept it secret. Because despite what I professed, I still held in my heart the unchristian belief that my essential worth and dignity depended on my economic productivity. But there’s nothing like being humbled to help someone truly understand the meaning of grace.  

“Be merciful as our God is merciful,” Jesus said.

This is easier when we come from a place of gratitude, our sincere appreciation for the gifts we get to receive and share, by the grace and mercy of God, regardless of whether we “deserve” it or not. Foremost among these gifts is the unconditional love of our Creator, and the blessed gift of Jesus who showed and shared that love for us.

This is a truth that can set our hearts free.

Thanks be to God.  

Delivered May 4, 2025, by Rev. Nathaniel Mahlberg at the United Church of Christ at Valley Forge.

Image by beauty_of_nature from Pixabay