Fourth Sunday in Lent - Laetare

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Isaiah 49:1–16
St. John 6:1–15

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

So, how are you doing? Really, how did this week go for you? You’re probably stuck at home, and maybe there’s a bit more tension. Maybe you have bigger worries about when you’ll be able to get back to work, when things will get back to normal. Or let me also ask this: how is this Lent going for you? How are your prayers going? ARE they going? How about your fasting? How about your giving? To your church or to others in need? Really, how are you doing? Do you feel like you’re in a wilderness yet? Is your prayer life stagnant? Is your patience dried up?

Jesus was in a desolate place, with an enormous crowd. They were in the wilderness, no place to get food. They were tired, they were hungry. They were like sheep without a shepherd. But Jesus had compassion on them (Mark 6:34). He gave them refreshment. He revived them, sustained them. He gave them what they needed with even more left over. 

The Son of God became Man, and even though He is without sin, He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. He knows what an empty belly feels like. He knows what it feels like to be tempted to worry, to doubt, or to be afraid. Jesus knows what we need better than we do. And He gives it. During the wilderness of Lent, we have this Sunday for rejoicing, for a bit of refreshment. During life in this desolate world, Jesus still provides refreshment, a reason to rejoice and carry on. He provides the food and the strength to rejoice and carry on. You may be getting by with a bit less these past days. You may have to get by with even less in the days to come. But Jesus knows your weakness, and He will provide what you need.

But having gotten their miraculous bread for the day, that crowd wasn’t satisfied. Like all sinful men, they got a taste of something good and just wanted to stuff themselves with more. And they didn’t want more of Jesus Himself. They just wanted more bread—easy bread, free bread. They wanted full bellies so that they could forget about life and death, and act like this life on earth is all there is. That’s not why Jesus came. He was their king, but not in the way they wanted a king. There is more to life than bread and fish. There is more to life than this earthly existence. Real life is found somewhere else.

Perceiving then that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by Himself. He wasn’t going to let them control Him or make Him into just another earthly king for this earthly life. He had come with a very different job to do, a very different throne and crown and kingdom. 

But Jesus didn’t retreat only to get away from the crowd’s greedy and sinful demands. In Mark’s Gospel, it says that Jesus left the crowd and went up on the mountain to pray (Mark 6:46). Jesus often did this. Sometimes He took His disciples, and other times He went by Himself. Although Jesus is true God, He is also true Man, and He did not always use His full divine powers. Jesus got exhausted. He also needed rest and refreshment. Jesus went away to pray to His Father, to commune with His Father, to meditate on His Father’s Word. Even for Jesus, His real food, His real life, came from receiving it from His Father—hearing His Father, and speaking to His Father.

Jesus also wants to provide this same kind of refreshment for you. He will feed you and clothe you, to be sure. Your heavenly Father knows you need all those things. But the greatest food, the greatest comfort, the thing that will take away worry and fear—that is rest with Jesus, communion with Your Father—hearing the Words He speaks in the Scriptures, and speaking back to Him in prayer.

This is refreshment that gets you through the dry times. When all other helpers fail and comforts flee, the Help of the Helpless is our Lord Jesus Christ who gives us His never-failing Word and His never-ending access to our Father. It’s only natural, and all too common, for sinners like you and me to feel like we are failing in our prayers, our devotion to God, or in so many other areas of our lives. We didn’t plan for this, we haven’t done enough about that, and we can’t possibly know what’s going to happen next. All these worries and failures will just keep piling up the more we try to solve them on our own with our own power.

Instead, go find rest with Jesus. Put the worry, the need in His hands. Ask your heavenly Father for what you need, not only for your earthly goods, but for that life of peace and joy that He provides through His Word and Sacrament. Go ahead and ask Him, that no matter what happens, that He would be with you, that He would sustain you, feed you, give you strength to meet whatever comes next. He has promised to answer that prayer. It’s there for the taking.

But also realize that this is not the same as asking God to make your life go back to normal. He will give you strength and peace and faith, but that doesn’t mean He will simply fix or remove every obstacle you face. It may be He is giving you a cross to bear, a test to undergo. But that means it’s also good for you, because it comes from your Father. We are so earthly minded, we must always be reminded that our hope is not that things would go back to the way they were.

We may all be struggling in different ways right now. But for the most part, we are being given a very small test. Yes, there are many inconveniences for most of us. And there is a great deal of uncertainty with how long this pandemic will last or what it will mean for the future. My heart especially breaks for those in our nursing homes—they’re lonely, they can’t see their families or their pastor. And there are many people in our country who have already lost their jobs. So, I don’t mean to make light of any of this. But when you compare this sickness and quarantine to the great challenges people have faced in other generations, you can see that this is a pretty small test from God. And then you can also see that our big reaction to this test shows just how small our hope really is.

Our hope cannot be for this world and this life only. Jesus was not content with just keeping the bread and fish coming. He was not content with being their king when they felt like it, or for what they wanted. He left them, to be refreshed with the true spiritual food from His Father, and to go on from there, to do something far greater than feeding several thousand people. If we have faith and hope in Jesus then our hope must be for something better, something greater as well. 

This test that we are undergoing as a nation, as a community, as a church, as families, this test is telling us, no matter who are: repent. We are distracted by bread and fish and a comfortable life. This sickness and all of its awful consequences is a sign of God’s judgment. So it’s time to confess our sins, and realize where our true life is found. And then also hear the gracious words of our Lord and Savior: “I forgive you. I came that you may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). In Jesus you will find the refreshment you need. In His Word and in prayer, He will sustain your life in ways that go beyond any tests or trials, worries or doubts.

You need the Word of God and prayer. And don’t hear that in a “you better do this” kinda way. But, really, “You’re gonna love this. It’s going to be so good for you.” It’s like giving you free tickets for a vacation—you need this. Hearing Jesus and His Father and the Spirit speaking to you in the Word, and then speaking back in prayer… that’s good for you in ways you don’t know or can even expect.

The crowds didn’t know what better thing Jesus had in store for them. They could only see as far as their next meal. We can’t see our whole lives either. The fact is, we don’t know what normal will really look like in a month or two or six. But that’s okay, when you’ve got Jesus. You just keep working at those good disciplines He’s teaching you: fasting when you need to fast; giving what you can to those who need it; and praying to your Father all the time. You chip away at those, and your God will work out the details. He can bring you to a new normal that you never would’ve imagined, but will also be that much better.

I’ll leave you today with the promise we get from the Lord in the Old Testament Reading. Israel was saying, “God has forgotten us. He doesn’t care.” “No way,” says the Lord Jesus. “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Yeah, sometimes even mothers forget their children, or even abandon them. Yet I will not forget you,” says Jesus. “Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands.”

That’s the better thing Jesus had to do, better than making more bread or curing every sickness. That’s how He is and remains your true King, with a cross for His throne, thorns for His crown, nail marks in His hands. There’s His love for you, engraved forever in His wounds. And He welcomes you into this far greater kingdom, where He provides everything you need, now and forever.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.


Preached for YouTube Service at Immanuel, Charlotte, IA & on the radio in Clinton, IA

Fourth Sunday in Lent - Laetare

St. John 6:1–15

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Lord will provide. It’s such a common saying, almost cliché. As much as we say it or know it, do we ever really believe it? The wealthy are satisfied with their life and think that they don’t need God or His Word. And the poor wonder how they could possibly be concerned with God’s Word or make it a priority when they have to spend all their time and effort just getting food or shelter.

Somehow the American Middle class seems to fall into both problems. They’re not really concerned about God or eternal questions like heaven and hell because their life seems so good and comfortable. Who wants to think about heavy, serious things when we have toys to play with? On the other hand they are very serious about their jobs, working and saving for expensive colleges and comfortable retirements. Very little attention is given to the Lord, or His Word, or His promise to provide.

But this is the message of the feeding of the 5000. The Lord will provide. And this miracle can teach us how the Lord provides two kinds of bread: earthly bread and heavenly bread.

First of all, we should notice that Jesus provides more than enough food for the crowd out of His compassion for them. It is His idea to feed the crowd. He knew what He was going to do. And He initiates the whole thing. He brings the matter of food up to Philip, because He wants to feed them, and He wants to teach something through the feeding.

Our Lord still provides out of His compassion. He gives daily bread to everyone, even without our prayer. He makes the sun shine, the rain fall, the corn grow. And He would continue to do all this even if no one asked Him to. Because that’s how He is. He gives gifts to people who don’t deserve them, even you.

Second, we should notice how Jesus gives the food through means. He takes up already existing bread and fish offered by the boy. And then He distributes it to the disciples, who in turn distribute the food to the crowds. Our Lord always prefers working through means, through created stuff, and through ordinary people.

He always provides earthly bread through means. He sends rain and sun to make seeds germinate and grow. He sends farmers to harvest the grain, gather it, process it, and distribute it. He sends bakers and cooks, wives and mothers to prepare it and set it before the ones who need to eat it. There are a lot of steps between God and the bite of food in your mouth, but He is the One who makes it all happen.

We are used to thinking of a miracle as something that interrupts and changes the natural order of things. Like a magic spell that turns a boy into a frog. But the miracles of Jesus are nothing like that. When Jesus feeds the 5000 He doesn’t turn stones into bread and scorpions into fish. He uses regular bread and fish, He just multiplies it. Water really does turn into wine: Water falls on the vines and is taken up into the grapes, and the grapes are fermented to make alcohol. Diseased bodies really do become healed. Storms really do quiet down. The miracles of Jesus are not magic tricks, contradicting the Laws of Nature. They simply speed up nature. Or they direct nature to work the way it was meant to so that it supplies mankind with what is good. We think of the feeding of the 5000 as an incredible miracle, and yet when single kernels of grain produce a bountiful harvest, we dismiss it as ordinary. God hasn’t changed in either case. He is still providing. But we so often fail to recognize God’s miraculous works in the little things of life. As much as we might praise the Lord for the feeding of the 5000, we should also praise Him for every bit of our food as well.

Finally, Jesus teaches us to be careful with what has been given to us. He tells the disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” You’ve all heard that other cliché: “Waste not, want not!” But many times frugality can turn into stinginess. Still, there is truth in it. We should not assume that there will always be an overabundance. The Lord provides, but we don’t necessarily know when He will provide, or how much, or for how long. We should appreciate the gifts we have while we have them and not squander them. We should not presume that we can just go back to God and snap our fingers for more (like to a waiter) when we’ve wasted His gifts and run out. So we should take care of what God has given us.

Unfortunately, the crowd didn’t learn what Jesus wanted them to. The problem with sinful people is that when they’re hungry they lose faith in God and think they will starve to death. And then when they’re well-fed and satisfied they lose faith in God and think they’re all set and they don’t need Him for anything else. The crowd was happy that Jesus filled their bellies. And that’s all they wanted from Him. They were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king. So Jesus left them.

But in the rest of John, chapter 6, they followed Him, looking for more bread. When they caught up to Him, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking Me… because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you” (John 6:26–27). “The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:33–35). Now Jesus is leading them from the earthly bread to the heavenly bread. This was the greater point of the feeding miracle: the heavenly bread is the Lord Jesus Himself and the Lord provides Himself to us in His Word.

The feeding of the 5000 also illustrates how the Lord provides this heavenly bread. First, He provides His Word for us out of His compassion. It is His desire to make Himself known to us so that we might believe in Him and live with Him. If God were not gracious enough to reveal Himself to us in His Word, then we could never find Him. Second, He provides His Word through means. He sends prophets and apostles to write down His Word by the direction of the Holy Spirit. He sends preachers, and even every Christian, to speak His Word, either publically for the Church or privately within their own vocation. And He sends His Word along with physical elements like water, bread, and wine. The Lord does not speak to us directly. He speaks to us through His written and spoken Word. But His speaking is no less real. His Word is meant for you.

Third, the Lord teaches us to gather up the left-overs. When the Gospel is being preached in abundance, when we have opportunities to hear and study God’s Word, when we are able to receive the Sacrament, then we must take advantage of it. We are still so blessed, especially in our corner of America, where we have several faithful churches in easy driving distance. This is not the case everywhere in the world. Many Christians have a much harder time hearing God’s Word than we do. So, we should appreciate what we have and make use of it. We cannot assume we will always have those opportunities. We must learn now our Catechism and the basic teachings of Scripture, store them away in our hearts and minds, so when we are in need of comfort or guidance, we won’t go to the cupboard and find it bare. We must make every opportunity to cherish God’s Word while we have it so available.

The problem is, sinful people don’t appreciate what the Lord provides, either His earthly bread or His heavenly bread. They want a king who will give them bread on their terms. They want a king who will give them what they want when they want it. Jesus is not that kind of King and He doesn’t go along with that program. Thanks be to God, He provides according to His will. He does not pander to the delusional felt-needs of sinners. He is only the King on His terms.

Jesus suffered to be made a King. He allowed them to crown Him with thorns and mock Him with a purple robe. He allowed them to set Him on His wooden throne, exalted above the earth on the cross. He allowed them to proclaim His kingship as a cruel joke: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. He suffered all that to happen, because that is how He is King. That is how the Lord provides. He offered up His body and shed His blood to provide us with the forgiveness of sins. He gave up His very life, so that we might have it.

Many don’t like that kind of King: a dead man, hanging on a cross. Many people turned away from Jesus even before it got to that point. At the end of John, chapter 6, many of the crowd left Jesus. Turns out, He wasn’t the kind of King they were looking for, and what He was providing wasn’t what they wanted. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that You are the Holy One of God” (John 6:67–69). Peter is right: Who else can we go to? The Lord died and rose for us. He provides heavenly bread for us, His Word that gives eternal life. Surely, He provides earthly bread for us as well. Thanks be to God.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Martin Luther’s Sermon: Baker, Vol. V, pp.344–350.