Exodus 16:2-21; Galatians 4:21-31; St John 6:1-15
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Dear people loved by God, even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, taking up your Cross and following after your Lord and Shepherd through this Lententide and walking the Way of Life itself, you need fear no evil. For not only is the Lord with you, guiding you with His rod and staff, that is, with the Law and Gospel of His Holy Word, He is for you, fighting your battles, making your adversaries of sin, death, and the devil, His adversaries.
He who led Israel by cloud and fire, feeding them in the wilderness with bread from heaven, now, as the Word made flesh, comes down from heaven as the rain and snow, and does not return void, but accomplishes the purpose for which He was sent.
You remember how last week He exorcised the mute demon, ransacking the very house of the devil himself in order to rescue you, His own spoil, His beloved, from tyranny and oppression. And the week prior how He healed the daughter of the Canaanite woman, her little one who was possessed by an evil spirit, taking that poor outcast and giving her a seat at His Table as a dear child. And the first week in Lent, how Christ Jesus was led up by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness in order to be tempted by Satan, in order to face the prince of demons one on one, as the GodMan, who by His obedience undoes the curse wrought by Adam’s disobedience.
Now beloved, with your faces set toward Jerusalem, in the weariness of your Lenten journey, our Lord Jesus leads you out into the wilderness. Not to be tempted - though He may test you. Neither to be preyed upon nor disciplined. For He performs the signs of His healing, raising you from your death beds and causing you to walk in His Way according to His Word.
No, Christ Jesus, your Good Shepherd, the One greater than Moses, has led you into the wilderness in order to feed you, in body and soul; to care for you, His dear lambs and sheep. He has led you up Mount Zion, not Mount Sinai, as St Paul writes to the Galatians, in order to give you respite and peace in the midst of your journey.
For the Passover is nearly at hand. The Great Feast of the Exodus is almost upon us. Wherein we celebrate the fulfillment of the lamb and the shedding of blood that sets us free. For Christ, the Lamb of God, will be slain, His death satisfying the death of all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, not just the first born. His blood marks the door and lintel of this House, where you, His dear family, are gathered under His protection and care.
Even more, His blood marks each of you, baptized into His very death to the curse of sin and the condemnation of the Law. You, brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. Sons and daughters of the free woman, the Jerusalem above, that is, the one, holy, Christian and apostolic Church. You are her children, begotten by water and Word, through the Red Sea of your Baptism.
Your Good Shepherd leads you besides these still waters daily, in contrition and repentance, wherein He restores your soul. He has you recline in the green pastures of His Word. Behold, He will feed you on that self-same Word, through the mouth and hands of His messengers, even as He distributed food for the crowds through Philip and Andrew and the others. He gives you pastors, under-shepherds, who say to you, “Come near before the Lord, for He has hear your grumbling and your lack of trust, your fear and your doubts, and He calls you to Himself not in wrath, but in blessing. He forgives you. He loves you.”
Here He has you sit down in the pasture of His Word. He provides an oasis for you in His Church, on account of His Word, in the desert of this world. It is here that He feeds you, out of fatherly divine goodness and mercy, in love, without any merit or worthiness in you. He may, and indeed does, test you, at times asking, “From where are you to buy bread that you may eat?” But He does this that you may learn to receive your daily bread with thanksgiving, being strengthened to trust in His goodness and care, His fatherly provision and mercy. He Himself knows what you need and what to do.
He has taken the five loaves of the Torah and the two fish for the Tablets of the Law, and He, who is the fullness of the grace and truth from the Father, has fulfilled them in His own eucharistic sacrifice. Which is to say, Christ Jesus fulfills the Law and the Prophets by His own death and resurrection, and He distributes to you the benefit and fruit of His Passion and Cross.
For He who feeds here on the mountain with bread and fish, shall, on the same day on which He institutes His Holy Supper in bread and wine, withdraw to Mount Golgotha alone in order to be your Passover Lamb. Do you see? Jesus, who rained bread from heaven to the Israelites in the wilderness, is the very Bread of Life, come down from heaven, given among men that you may eat and be satisfied, that you may be forgiven and live. Here, in the wilderness of our sin, the glory of the Lord has appeared in the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, who makes Him known. You receive from His fullness grace upon grace, life and mercy and every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Tell me, why then do you desire to be under the law? Why do you fill your bellies with that which does not satisfy? And your hearts with that which is deceptive? It is not merely the day old manna of the Israelites that rots and stinks. It is also our hearts. Our thoughts and desires and actions being soiled by sin. We were born into slavery, and in the freedom Christ bestows, in fear we long to return to slavery, falsely believing it is freedom. Like Israel, we would exchange the meat pots of captivity for trusting in the daily bread of freedom. But what fruit were you getting from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death (Rm 6:21-22).
But now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of righteousness and children according to the promise. Children, fed by the gracious hand of your Good Shepherd, who gives you to eat your fill. Not that your gorge yourself on the things of this world and the passions of the flesh, for that is vanity and dust. Rather, that you partake of the food from above, the bread of heaven, which is every Word that comes from the mouth of the Prophet of God. For Jesus is, in this way also, the new and greater Moses, raised up from among His brethren, into whose mouth the Lord God has placed His Word and promise. Listen to Him. Live off His Word and gifts, without grumbling and complaining, learning contentment from His steady hand.
Do not attempt to make Him a King by force of your will. He cannot be tamed or managed. He will not yield to your worldly desires and passions. He does not fill your belly, keeping you warm and fat. Rather, He keeps you lean and hungry by His fatherly discipline, working in you a true hunger and thirst for a righteousness not your own, but one that is bestowed as free gift.
Fear not, beloved, as He disciplines and tests you, for it indeed done out of His fatherly love. He Himself knows what He will do. And though you feel scattered across the hillsides, baked in the hot sun and almost ready to melt, He will not let any be lost, but gathers you up and joins you together in Himself, twelve baskets full, signifying the fullness of the Twelve Tribes and the Twelve Apostles, baking you into one loaf, though you are many grains. For you share in the one loaf and the one cup.
To be sure the feeding of the five thousand is not the Lord’s Supper. But it is a foreshadowing and prefigurement of that sacred Meal. Even as the daily bread bestowed upon you and all people in love is an extension from the Altar of the Lord and the bounty of His Table. Your table is connected to His. So is your bedside altar, that is, your nightstand, connected to His Altar.
And as He provides rest and refreshment for you there, in hearth and home, bed and table, so does He in even greater measure provide rest and refreshment for you here in Altar and Pulpit, Font and Confessional. Here, as there, He takes what has given back to Him, as gift from His hand, and returns is again to you in blessings.
Consider the impact of the lunch provided by the small boy - five loaves and two fish. If kept to himself he alone and perhaps the disciples would have eaten. But placed into the hand of the Lord in faith, He multiples it unto the thousands and all eat their fill from His bounty and providence. So it was for the Early Christians in the celebration of the Eucharist. The Pastor would take from what was given, bread and wine, returned to the Lord in thanksgiving, and the Lord would bless it and distribute His gifts of Body and Blood in and under the bread and wine. If kept to oneself it is a meal, but turned over to the Lord in cheerful giving it is multiplied unto the entire family of faith as the meal of the Blessed Sacrament.
Come forward then and recline in the green pasture of His Word. It is here, dear ones, that your Good Shepherd spreads this Table before you in the presence of your enemies, that is, in the midst of sorrow and death, and welcomes you to eat and be filled with His righteousness and life. He anoints your head with the oil of gladness and gives you the overflowing cup of His salvation. Surely His goodness and mercy lead and follow you on all sides, all the days of your life. You shall indeed inherit with the son of the free woman, and dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Dear people loved by God, even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, taking up your Cross and following after your Lord and Shepherd through this Lententide and walking the Way of Life itself, you need fear no evil. For not only is the Lord with you, guiding you with His rod and staff, that is, with the Law and Gospel of His Holy Word, He is for you, fighting your battles, making your adversaries of sin, death, and the devil, His adversaries.
He who led Israel by cloud and fire, feeding them in the wilderness with bread from heaven, now, as the Word made flesh, comes down from heaven as the rain and snow, and does not return void, but accomplishes the purpose for which He was sent.
You remember how last week He exorcised the mute demon, ransacking the very house of the devil himself in order to rescue you, His own spoil, His beloved, from tyranny and oppression. And the week prior how He healed the daughter of the Canaanite woman, her little one who was possessed by an evil spirit, taking that poor outcast and giving her a seat at His Table as a dear child. And the first week in Lent, how Christ Jesus was led up by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness in order to be tempted by Satan, in order to face the prince of demons one on one, as the GodMan, who by His obedience undoes the curse wrought by Adam’s disobedience.
Now beloved, with your faces set toward Jerusalem, in the weariness of your Lenten journey, our Lord Jesus leads you out into the wilderness. Not to be tempted - though He may test you. Neither to be preyed upon nor disciplined. For He performs the signs of His healing, raising you from your death beds and causing you to walk in His Way according to His Word.
No, Christ Jesus, your Good Shepherd, the One greater than Moses, has led you into the wilderness in order to feed you, in body and soul; to care for you, His dear lambs and sheep. He has led you up Mount Zion, not Mount Sinai, as St Paul writes to the Galatians, in order to give you respite and peace in the midst of your journey.
For the Passover is nearly at hand. The Great Feast of the Exodus is almost upon us. Wherein we celebrate the fulfillment of the lamb and the shedding of blood that sets us free. For Christ, the Lamb of God, will be slain, His death satisfying the death of all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, not just the first born. His blood marks the door and lintel of this House, where you, His dear family, are gathered under His protection and care.
Even more, His blood marks each of you, baptized into His very death to the curse of sin and the condemnation of the Law. You, brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. Sons and daughters of the free woman, the Jerusalem above, that is, the one, holy, Christian and apostolic Church. You are her children, begotten by water and Word, through the Red Sea of your Baptism.
Your Good Shepherd leads you besides these still waters daily, in contrition and repentance, wherein He restores your soul. He has you recline in the green pastures of His Word. Behold, He will feed you on that self-same Word, through the mouth and hands of His messengers, even as He distributed food for the crowds through Philip and Andrew and the others. He gives you pastors, under-shepherds, who say to you, “Come near before the Lord, for He has hear your grumbling and your lack of trust, your fear and your doubts, and He calls you to Himself not in wrath, but in blessing. He forgives you. He loves you.”
Here He has you sit down in the pasture of His Word. He provides an oasis for you in His Church, on account of His Word, in the desert of this world. It is here that He feeds you, out of fatherly divine goodness and mercy, in love, without any merit or worthiness in you. He may, and indeed does, test you, at times asking, “From where are you to buy bread that you may eat?” But He does this that you may learn to receive your daily bread with thanksgiving, being strengthened to trust in His goodness and care, His fatherly provision and mercy. He Himself knows what you need and what to do.
He has taken the five loaves of the Torah and the two fish for the Tablets of the Law, and He, who is the fullness of the grace and truth from the Father, has fulfilled them in His own eucharistic sacrifice. Which is to say, Christ Jesus fulfills the Law and the Prophets by His own death and resurrection, and He distributes to you the benefit and fruit of His Passion and Cross.
For He who feeds here on the mountain with bread and fish, shall, on the same day on which He institutes His Holy Supper in bread and wine, withdraw to Mount Golgotha alone in order to be your Passover Lamb. Do you see? Jesus, who rained bread from heaven to the Israelites in the wilderness, is the very Bread of Life, come down from heaven, given among men that you may eat and be satisfied, that you may be forgiven and live. Here, in the wilderness of our sin, the glory of the Lord has appeared in the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, who makes Him known. You receive from His fullness grace upon grace, life and mercy and every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Tell me, why then do you desire to be under the law? Why do you fill your bellies with that which does not satisfy? And your hearts with that which is deceptive? It is not merely the day old manna of the Israelites that rots and stinks. It is also our hearts. Our thoughts and desires and actions being soiled by sin. We were born into slavery, and in the freedom Christ bestows, in fear we long to return to slavery, falsely believing it is freedom. Like Israel, we would exchange the meat pots of captivity for trusting in the daily bread of freedom. But what fruit were you getting from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death (Rm 6:21-22).
But now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of righteousness and children according to the promise. Children, fed by the gracious hand of your Good Shepherd, who gives you to eat your fill. Not that your gorge yourself on the things of this world and the passions of the flesh, for that is vanity and dust. Rather, that you partake of the food from above, the bread of heaven, which is every Word that comes from the mouth of the Prophet of God. For Jesus is, in this way also, the new and greater Moses, raised up from among His brethren, into whose mouth the Lord God has placed His Word and promise. Listen to Him. Live off His Word and gifts, without grumbling and complaining, learning contentment from His steady hand.
Do not attempt to make Him a King by force of your will. He cannot be tamed or managed. He will not yield to your worldly desires and passions. He does not fill your belly, keeping you warm and fat. Rather, He keeps you lean and hungry by His fatherly discipline, working in you a true hunger and thirst for a righteousness not your own, but one that is bestowed as free gift.
Fear not, beloved, as He disciplines and tests you, for it indeed done out of His fatherly love. He Himself knows what He will do. And though you feel scattered across the hillsides, baked in the hot sun and almost ready to melt, He will not let any be lost, but gathers you up and joins you together in Himself, twelve baskets full, signifying the fullness of the Twelve Tribes and the Twelve Apostles, baking you into one loaf, though you are many grains. For you share in the one loaf and the one cup.
To be sure the feeding of the five thousand is not the Lord’s Supper. But it is a foreshadowing and prefigurement of that sacred Meal. Even as the daily bread bestowed upon you and all people in love is an extension from the Altar of the Lord and the bounty of His Table. Your table is connected to His. So is your bedside altar, that is, your nightstand, connected to His Altar.
And as He provides rest and refreshment for you there, in hearth and home, bed and table, so does He in even greater measure provide rest and refreshment for you here in Altar and Pulpit, Font and Confessional. Here, as there, He takes what has given back to Him, as gift from His hand, and returns is again to you in blessings.
Consider the impact of the lunch provided by the small boy - five loaves and two fish. If kept to himself he alone and perhaps the disciples would have eaten. But placed into the hand of the Lord in faith, He multiples it unto the thousands and all eat their fill from His bounty and providence. So it was for the Early Christians in the celebration of the Eucharist. The Pastor would take from what was given, bread and wine, returned to the Lord in thanksgiving, and the Lord would bless it and distribute His gifts of Body and Blood in and under the bread and wine. If kept to oneself it is a meal, but turned over to the Lord in cheerful giving it is multiplied unto the entire family of faith as the meal of the Blessed Sacrament.
Come forward then and recline in the green pasture of His Word. It is here, dear ones, that your Good Shepherd spreads this Table before you in the presence of your enemies, that is, in the midst of sorrow and death, and welcomes you to eat and be filled with His righteousness and life. He anoints your head with the oil of gladness and gives you the overflowing cup of His salvation. Surely His goodness and mercy lead and follow you on all sides, all the days of your life. You shall indeed inherit with the son of the free woman, and dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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