Sermon: Laetare (Lent 4) - 2021

14 March 2021

Text: John 6:1-15 (Ex 16:2-21, Gal 4:21-31)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Unbelievers often ask how there can be suffering when God is all-knowing and all-merciful.  To know the answer to this only requires reading the first three chapters of the Bible. 

God created a perfect world – including Adam and Eve.  They lacked nothing.  But the serpent convinced Eve to disobey God and partake of the one forbidden fruit, promising that she would “be like God.”  When she and her husband listened to the serpent, chaos was unleashed on the earth.  And worst of all, Adam and Eve became mortal.  Their deaths were only a matter of time.  

God had made them to have minds of their own, and the ability to make decisions.  And what goes along with the power to make decisions is the necessity to live with the results.  Because of his sin, God told Adam, who was made from dust, that to dust he would return.  God also told him that the days of superabundant food were over.  He would have to work the ground, but it would not be productive like before.  Man had become burdened by scarcity.

Scarcity means more demand than supply.  And that means we have to figure out who gets what.  One way is that the biggest and strongest eat, and everyone else starves.  Charles Darwin thought this was a great way for nature to advance.  Another way is for men to work the land and trade with each other, taking advantage of the doctrine of vocation so that we could all do what we do best, and be most productive.  But even in this system, there is still scarcity.  And as Jesus said, there will always be the poor among us. 

A German Lutheran in the 1800s thought there might be a better way.  He imagined people sharing everything.  But he rejected the Bible and was a worshiper of  Satan.  He did not believe that fallen man had to deal with shortages.  He thought we could indeed be like God, and that science and management and education would overcome this curse of God.  He promised Eden without God.  He promised superabundance by rejecting God.  His name was Karl Marx.

And under his system, there was no paradise: only starvation and waste, only totalitarianism and the loss of human rights and dignity.  Hundreds of millions of people were killed by Marxist governments in the last century, all trying to overcome Adam’s curse.  But it only made the curse all the worse.

And there are better systems of government and economics than Marxism, but Jesus has a still more excellent way.  He does restore us to the way we were in the Garden of Eden – not with science or management or education, and not even by the division of labor and trade – but by forgiveness. 

And this is what our all-knowing and all-merciful God does about suffering: He takes on human flesh, He suffers with us and for us, He absorbs the curse of Adam into His own body, and He undoes all of the damage that we have done to the world.  He restores us to the image and likeness of God, He removes our mortality, He supplies us superabundantly, and He creates a new heaven and a new earth in which there will be no death.

We see a little glimpse into this in our Gospel, as the vast crowds came to hear Jesus, but there was not enough food.  Scarcity reared its ugly head.  Jesus took five loaves and two fish, and miraculously fed five thousand men and their families.  They “had eaten their fill” and there were “twelve baskets” of leftovers.  This is politics and economics like nobody had ever seen, and the crowds wanted to compel Jesus to be their political ruler – “but He withdrew to the mountain by Himself.”

Jesus was to be enthroned in a different way: on a cross.  For the feeding of the five thousand was but a preview of our future without scarcity.  It is a picture of the kingdom of God – which does not work like politics and economics in our fallen world.  Jesus is not of this world.  Nor is His kingdom.

Instead of scarcity, there will be abundance.  Instead of being tempted by the devil, the devil will be thrown into the lake of fire.  Instead of death, there will be everlasting life.  Instead of a curse, there will be a blessing.

We saw another preview of this world to come as the children of Israel, wandering in the desert, suffered scarcity.  They grumbled against Moses for liberating them, dreaming about the meat pots and eating bread “to the full” back in Egypt.  They conveniently forgot their slavery, their labor, and the meager rations. 

But in spite of their grumbling, our all-knowing and all-merciful Father feeds them with bread from heaven: manna.  This miraculous food did not run out, and it could not be saved.  God provided daily bread to the Israelites – beating back the curse of scarcity, for “whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”

Not long after feeding the five thousand, Jesus would point out that He offers something even better: Himself: the true bread of life.  By eating His flesh and drinking His blood, we are given the gift of eternal life.  Not even time is scarce in God’s kingdom.  He is the fulfillment of the sign of the manna.  He is the true bread from heaven.  And the bread that He offers “for the life of the world” is His flesh.  “Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life,” says Jesus, “and I will raise Him up on the last day.”

That is our Lord’s promise, dear friends.  Along with all of the things we need for this body and life, Jesus provides His body and blood for us to eat and drink, and so we have the gift of everlasting life.  He is our daily bread from heaven – better than the bread we eat today and are hungry tomorrow, and yes even better than the manna which the fathers ate in the wilderness, and still died.  Jesus is the bread from heaven, so that one who eats of this bread will not die!

The Israelites ate the manna after they had been freed from bondage and from the harsh rule of Pharaoh.  We too eat the Lord’s Supper, having been washed clean in Holy Baptism, being set free from slavery to sin and from the tyranny of the devil. 

St. Paul speaks of how much better it is to be free than to be a slave.  We Christians are not the spiritual heirs of the enslaved Hagar, but rather we are the spiritual heirs of Abraham and Sarah – children of the promise.  For just as the children of Israel were freed from their captivity in Egypt, we too are freed from our captivity to sin, death, and the devil.  For Jesus has overcome all three.

Yes, indeed, our God is all-knowing.  He knows what you need even before you ask, and He “richly and daily provides us with all that we need to support this body and life.”  But what’s more, He richly and eternally provides us all that we need to support everlasting life: His sacrifice on the cross, the gifts of Holy Baptism, of Holy Absolution, of the preached Word, and of the Holy Eucharist in which we eat His flesh and drink His blood, which come to us from heaven, by which we have everlasting life.

And as we venture on past those first three chapters of Genesis, we learn that God Himself is willing to suffer for us, for He is indeed all-knowing, all-merciful, all-loving, and all-sufficient for all of our needs.  His more excellent way is to restore paradise, to remove the curse, to defeat the devil, to raise us from death, to carry this all out by grace – and to accomplish it at the cross.  Rejoice with Jerusalem.  It is finished.

Amen.

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