When Jesus fed the multitudes, He did so in desolate places—in the wilderness, in effect. The thousands that He fed were a motley group, a mixed multitude, just like Israel was when they came out of Egypt. And so when manna fell from heaven, it fed both the full-blooded Israelites and the mixed multitude with them. They all were fed.
When Jesus fed the multitudes when and where He did, given the crowd’s composition, and the lack of facilities for washing, the whole thing had to be ritually unclean. Any Pharisees there would have been in trouble. Their inability to partake would have been because of the presence of scruples, and not because of the absence of bread.
The bread from Heaven is here. The grace of God is here. Forgiveness of sin is proclaimed here. Your scruples might keep you away, but do not pretend that there is a shortage of bread. A surplus of scruples is not the same thing as a shortage of bread. An abundance of law is not a deficiency of grace.
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Christ offers to feed you here. Come. God offers the goodness of His grace to you here. Come. But you come to receive it. The one thing you cannot do is receive it without receiving it. Come. The grace of God deals with you. The grace of God gets in your midst, and will not leave things alone. So come.
Your scruples say that you do not deserve to come. Well, of course not. Whoever said that you did deserve it? Not deserving it is really the central point. The only thing the multitude in the wilderness contributed to the meal was their hunger . . . their need. So come. Are you hungry? Come. Are you thirsty? Come.
There is food enough here, on this table, for the whole world. Come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.