Sermon: Laetare - 2019

31 March 2019

Text: John 6:1-15 (Ex 16:2-21)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

In the Garden, before the Fall, there was no scarcity and no hunger.  Food was everywhere and was plenteous.  Adam and Eve had no concept of hunger, let alone famine and starvation and warfare waged over access to food.  It was all perfect.

But of course, the serpent convinced them that they had it rough.  “Poor, pitiful me,” thought Eve.  “Here I am stuck in this dead-end job,” thought Adam.  The Serpent marketed to them like an infomercial.  He told them that they “could be like God.”  He convinced them that God was lording over them, and they didn’t have to take it anymore.

We know what actually happened.  Everything fell apart.  No more would the ground yield its abundance.  Now things died.  Now seeds refused to germinate.  Now, floods and draughts and storms would cause famines.  Now, even when there is no flood or draught, we have to labor constantly to keep enough food in our bodies to stay alive.  And of course, not everyone has it as well as we do.  People around the world suffer horrific poverty and want.

It’s our fault, dear friends.  We choose our own way over the  Lord’s providence.  We do not fear, love, and trust in Him above all things.  We are the children of Adam and Eve, and we live in the world they left to us.  

And so it is fitting that our redemption should come as the fulfillment of the Passover: the holy meal of the children of Israel as they were being freed from Pharaoh’s tyranny.  The Passover lamb that fed them with his own flesh was a sacrifice, a divine satisfaction for the death that the children of Adam and Eve deserve – the death that will be dealt on those who fear, love, and trust in Pharaoh above all things.  The lamb was slain to pay their bloodguilt, and the lamb’s blood marked the people redeemed by God’s mercy.  The flesh of the lamb was eaten to sustain the people on their journey, food that was a gift of God’s providence.

Of course, this Passover lamb finds its fulfillment in the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!  The Lamb who feeds the hungry with the bread of His flesh, given for the life of the world, the sacrifice, the divine satisfaction for the death that the children of Adam and Eve deserve.

And in John Chapter Six, our Lord is looking forward to the Passover Feast: a holy meal of bread and wine and the flesh of the lamb.

And as the crowds press in to hear Him proclaim the Word, the coming of the kingdom, the good news of His redemption of the people of God, our Lord Jesus Christ “said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?’”

For this is not the Garden of Eden.  Food is not everywhere and is not plenteous.  Indeed, there is scarcity, and there is hunger.  There is not enough money to feed the crowds.  Nor does anyone have food enough to go around.  Of course, by grace, one does not have to buy the food that Jesus gives, and indeed, even a tiny amount in His hand is enough to feed everyone.  

For we are seeing the coming of the New Passover, the multiplication of bread that is the Lamb’s flesh, the abundance of wine that is the Lamb’s blood.  The New and Greater Passover will be for all of God’s people who have been freed from the tyranny of Satan.  

And on this day, as the crowds come to hear Jesus as the Passover draws near, as the multitudes hear the Word of God calling them anew to repent and believe the Good News that their sins are forgiven, that Satan is destroyed, that the old dilapidated world of scarcity is giving way to a restored Paradise without scarcity and want and hunger and death – as they press in to hear the Gospel, Jesus gives them more than just words.

“Have the people sit down,” He says.  Five thousand men, plus women and children, had come to hear Him preach the Gospel.  A thousand men and their families per each one of the barley loaves that a boy had brought.  They sat and awaited the blessing of the Passover Lamb, to be fed eternally by the flesh and blood of the Lamb.  And in this place, Jesus “took the loaves.  And when He had given thanks,” He distributed the miraculous bread to the multitudes.  He also multiplied the two fish into a meal for everyone.  

No scarcity.  No anxiety about where the next meal will come from.  No lack.  No poverty.  No hunger.  And no death!  Not on this day, for Jesus has come bearing the plenteousness of God, the blessing of a miraculous meal that staves off death.  

And this life-giving meal of bread from the hands of Jesus not only fulfills the Passover, but it also fulfills that miraculous meal that fed the Israelites in the desert: the manna.  For in spite of their wandering through the desert (the very opposite of a garden), the children of Israel would not go hungry, they would not suffer want, they would not die for lack of food.  The Lord Himself provides for them from His bounteous goodness: “At twilight you shall eat meat,” says the Lord, “and in the morning you shall be filled with bread.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ is that bread: the bread of life come down from heaven.  He was born in Bethlehem: the House of Bread.  He was laid in a manger: a food trough.  He is the manna provided from above by which the people of God are fed in the wilderness.  And “our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks…”

Jesus is our Passover, dear friends.  Jesus is our manna, dear brothers and sisters.  He is the Lamb that takes away our sins, the Lamb whose body was offered as a sacrifice, the Lamb upon whose flesh we feast, the Lamb by whose blood we are saved.  Take, eat.  Take drink.

In eternity, there will be no scarcity and no hunger.  Food will be everywhere and will be plenteous.  The children of Adam and Eve will have no concept of hunger, let alone famine and starvation and warfare waged over access to food.  It will all be perfect. 

Now the Passover is at hand.  Amen.

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