4th Sunday in Lent (Laetare) – March 10th, 2024
Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church, Block, Kansas
Rev. Joshua Woelmer
Text: John 6:1–15
“Food from God”
Theme: God’s providence means that he cares for us, body and soul.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
One comedic routine regarding children is how they get hungry and go about asking for food. It’s usually goes like this: “Mom…I’m hungry!” “Yes, I know, I’m getting supper ready. Just wait 15 minutes.” “But I’m HUNGRY.” “It will be ready when it’s ready. Just be patient.” “DO YOU EVEN LOVE ME?” That may or may not be relatable to every parent ever. But these things are connected. If your stomach is hungry, it is hard to think about anything else, especially how good your parents really are or how good God is.
We should recognize this in our own selves. We often look to things in our lives as signs of God’s blessings. If you get a raise or bring in some money, God must love you. If you lose them, it is tempting to think that God has withdrawn his hand.
What’s difficult to see is God’s continued love through good times and bad. It’s like the marriage vows: a man and woman make a promise to each other to be with each other in sickness and in health and so forth. That promise isn’t for the honeymoon when everything’s going really great. It’s for when things aren’t going so great and you’re not sure you still want to be with this person anymore. Now, human promises before God are one thing, but God’s promises to you are another. God has promised to be with you in sickness and in health. We need to be reminded of this fact. That’s one reason to come to church. We need the constant reminder that God is with us and loves us in Christ.
When our stomachs are hungry, we can get hangry, even against God. We have examples of this in the people of Israel in the desert. It’s very tempting to mock them, but I don’t think we should. We should interpret biblical history with the notion that we would probably act in the same way that the people of that day acted in relation to God. Even though they had been saved from the Egyptians by the crossing of the Red Sea, it took only a few days of hunger for them to grumble against God.
They would rather have the meat pots and bread in slavery in Egypt rather than a little bit of hunger living as free children under a loving God. If I examine my heart, I can probably sympathize. We all should. None of us act rationally when we are hungry or sick.
The same is with the Feeding of the 5000 and 4000. These people are probably hungry. But even before they complain to Jesus, He acts first and feeds them. The story is remarkable, of course. Jesus asks his disciples how they are going to find enough food for everyone, and they have no idea. Andrew points out a boy with five loaves and two fish but asks “but what are they for so many?” (9).
Jesus has the people sit down. He takes the loaves, gives thanks, and distributes them and the fish to everyone. Everyone ate to their fill and there were twelve baskets left over. The people recognized that while Moses asked God for manna, Jesus was able to do something even more spectacular by feeding such a crowd such a feast.
They said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” (14). This fulfills what Moses himself says, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen” (Deut 18:14). Jesus is a prophet greater than Moses. In this miracle you also have some echoes of the Lord’s Supper here. God knows our physical and spiritual hunger and acts to feed them and us.
Now, one minor problem you have is that they want to take Jesus and make him king. Not a heavenly king like we believe, but a bread-king. This is a wrong way of seeing Jesus: that he’s only here to make us happy and fill our bellies. There’s a middle road between accusing God of not caring about our physical bodies on the one hand and giving us everything we demand.
The reason God often acts first to address physical hunger is so that we can hear his spiritual promises. God did not punish the Israelites for their grumbling. He gave in. He gave them manna and quail. He continued to teach them about his provision and his grace through Moses. Jesus gave them bread and fish. He taught the people as well. This informs Christian charity. If you stop to talk about Jesus with someone who is poor and can’t afford food or barely has clothes, it’s not wrong to feed them first then talk with them. Even if the conversation doesn’t go anywhere, God feeds us first.
God uses others in our lives to provide for our basic necessities. There are many men and women in our lives who work to put food on the table, whether by earning a living or preparing the food or by cooking the food. There is a fabric that God has given us to provide us food. God wants you to fit into that fabric. We should be training our children to fit into that fabric of God’s care. Encourage them to work, to give charity, to support the life of the home, and to practice all those things that will make up their future life. Sports and entertainment have their place in life, no doubt, but they do not make up the entirety of our existence as humans. We were not made to be entertained, but to exercise dominion over this world and to live in relation to God.
Finally, there is a spiritual fabric called the church by which God feeds us spiritually. Imbibe the word of God. Let it feed your soul. Read the Word of God—all of those things. But God also works through the discipline of a father or mother. He works through forgiveness of a parent, spouse, or sibling. We are not isolated individuals, living a solitary life on a frontier. God wants us to live into our roles and duties. He wants us to help others physically and spiritually. Train your children to understand the ways that God works in this world for their physical life and their spiritual life. Have them practice apologizing and forgiving.
Perhaps the most beautiful picture of the church is what we have in Acts 2: a church that is devoted to the Word of God and to fellowship with other believers, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. They shared their possessions with one another, and received their food with glad and generous hearts. This passage is not an advertisement for Christian communism, but rather for a life of faith that sees God working through the “small things” of life. And, when kids complain as they will, perhaps it’s a good time to remind them that you do love them, but dinner will still be ready in 15 minutes.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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