4th Sunday in Lent (Laetare) – March 30th, 2025
Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church, Block, Kansas
Rev. Joshua Woelmer
Text: Exodus 16:2–21 and John 6:1–15
“Food from God”
Theme: God wants us to trust him for our daily bread and so much more—for eternal life.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
There is a sign on US 75 as you head north to Topeka near the Carbondale exit that I used to see quite often as I would head up to Topeka from Vassar. It says this: “1 Kansas Farmer Feeds More than 155 People + YOU!” The message is clear: Kansas farmers—and really, American farmers—feed a prodigious amount of people, whether they are raising crops or livestock. We all depend upon the hard work of many people to supply the food that we eat. It’s good to recognize this, to thank farmers for their work, and to be a bit more patient when stuck behind a combine during harvest season.
At the same time, even farmers will point out that they can only do so much to make the crops go or even keep the livestock alive. Any number of things such as droughts or illness or catastrophes can wipe out quite a lot. They rely on God to give them rain in due season, fair weather, veterinarians, and so much more. You could put it this way: God is the one responsible for feeding the 8.2 billion people on planet earth. Everyone ought to thank Him, for he provides for us in good times and in bad. As we will learn today, God wants us to trust him for our daily bread and so much more—for eternal life.
The first time God taught his people this lesson was when they had just left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, and entered the wilderness. It didn’t take long for them to “grumble against Moses and Aaron” (2). Verse 1, which was right before our reading, says that it was only 45 days since the Passover. They still had their herds with them at the very least. They would have wanted to use those herds to breed rather than eat on them, but they weren’t starving yet. Furthermore, given how their slavery was described earlier in Exodus, I don’t think they were sitting “by the meat pots and [eating] bread to the full” (3).
These are children. At the slightest bit of hunger, they go into full “I’m hungry” mode. They don’t just doubt God’s goodness now when their bellies begin to be hungry. They also doubt his future care for them, that they will end up dying in the wilderness, “for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (3).
God’s response is one of a parent. He does not respond with exasperation. He does not immediately go into discipline mode. Later, when they complain about the manna and quail, he will send fiery serpents to discipline them. But here, he acknowledges their need and tells them what he will do: he will give them bread from heaven in the morning, and quail will fly through the camp at evening, and they can gather as much as they need.
But we need to note one important thing: God does not give them food to save up and store for many days. Parents don’t do the same thing either. As much as you child may like chicken nuggets, you don’t let them take the spare chicken nuggets to their rooms. You feed them today what they need for today, and then you take care of the leftovers.
God told the people that the manna would last for a morning. They should gather what they needed, then leave the rest to melt in the sun. If they stored some anyways—and some tried—it would breed worms and stink (20). However, they were to gather twice as much on Fridays so they wouldn’t have to work on the Sabbath day by gathering food.
The miracles here are profound. First, tons and tons of bread each day for all 600,000 men besides women and children. Second, twice as much bread on Fridays so they could store some for Saturday. Third, keeping any into the next night would immediately breed worms and stink. It’s not like the chicken nugget you find in the sock drawer that’s covered with mold after a few days. Fourth, however much they gathered, they had no lack. If a widow could only get a few pieces, she was filled with it. Likewise the teenager who hauled in lots of manna. I’m reminded of the book Lord of the Rings and the elven Lembas bread that sustained the fellowship for many days. Even a bite would fill them for the day.
God taught the people of Israel to rely on him day by day, not only for physical needs, but also for their spiritual needs.
We see something similar with Jesus and the feeding of the 5000. Jesus acts here as the new and better Moses. That’s one comparison you should be making in Jesus’s ministry. Moses was a great prophet and figure of the Old Testament, but Jesus does everything he does and more. Here, he feeds 5000 men, besides women and children, by multiplying loaves of barley bread and two small fish.
The first thing to notice that’s different from the manna is that Jesus does not even wait for the people to grumble. He acts first, like a parent setting the food in front of the kids before they even get hungry. It’s a wonderful act. Jesus shows that he knows our needs before we even recognize them ourselves.
Second, this is the only miracle that is in all four Gospels, so it is a miracle of some importance. It is more impressive than the manna because Jesus is right there distributing the food. It was not done through natural causes like dew bringing the manna or wind bringing the quail. They could see Jesus filling the baskets for his disciples to hand out. Furthermore, this and the Feeding of the 4000 are the only miracles of multiplying. All other miracles that Jesus does are fixing ailments, raising the dead, or changing substances, like water into wine.
The people notice this multiplying. Their eyes get big. The last verse is the only one that occurs in John: “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” (15). Instead of beginning with grumbling, here is where things begin to go off the rail. The people get greedy and want Jesus to be a “bread-king.” After all, an army marches on its stomach. If a king can provide limitless bread and fish to his army, imagine what they could do against the Roman army. This is precisely what the people had in mind.
Like the Israelize in the wilderness, they did not just want food for today; they wanted food for all the days to come. They wanted to bottle up this power of Jesus and tap into it whenever they wanted. They wanted food on demand. They wanted to use his power for their ends.
There is much that we too can take away from this text. We should not take the gifts that God gives us for granted. He gives us our daily bread. There is appropriate stewardship of these gifts that we can exercise. But at the end of the day, God can give and take away at his will, just as he gives and takes our lives by his gracious will.
What God really wants from us is our trust and thanksgiving. He wants us to trust Him for all good things—physical and spiritual. The people of Israel should have remembered the Exodus and the crossing of the Red Sea and realized that God would continue to provide for his people. Jesus has died for you, dear saints. He loves you and will care for your basic needs and necessities. He loves you. Trust in him when you start to feel hungry or when you begin to be worried about the things of this life. Don’t go into immediate rage-mode that God no longer cares for you.
Rather, give thanks. Thank God for sending his Son to die for you. Thank God for providing you with daily bread. Thank God for giving you everything—you owe everything to him.
What happens when times are hard, when recession hits or crops fail or relationships suffer? Remember that you are a sinner living in a world ruined by sin. Repent where you have failed. Pray to God for your daily bread. Give as you are able to those around you. Mend relationships by the grace that God has first given to you. Trust in Him for all things.
You will not be able to bottle up God’s power for yourself, and that is good. Let God be God in your life. You make for a poor god, trying to order all things around you. He loves you and provides for you. A Kansas farmer may provide food for 155 people—and you. God provides for 8.2 billion—especially for you. And just as there were twelve baskets of leftover fragments, that is what we can realize in our lives, that God does not just provide the basic necessities—he often gives us more than enough. Thanks be to Him, now and always.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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