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Sermon for Laetare – Lent 4
Galatians 4:21-31 + John 6:1-15
We’ve been speaking a lot about temptation and testing in this Lenten season. We often wonder why God tests us, or why He allows the devil to tempt us. Well, today’s Gospel is an example of what often happens in the absence of testing, when God sends us a tremendous blessing. We become so wrapped up in the earthly blessing that we lose sight of the real, more important, eternal blessings Jesus came to win for us and give to us. We forget that we’re sinners who desperately need His grace and His forgiveness—forgiveness that only comes through Jesus.
You see, there are no demons in today’s Gospel, as there are in the rest of the Lenten season. No trials, no temptations, no testings—at least, not of the crowds. Only God’s free and abundant goodness and grace, which is why this Sunday bears the name Laetare, from the Introit, Rejoice with Jerusalem, all you who love her! Because Jerusalem is the Church of God that is the recipient of His grace. But in today’s Gospel, God’s grace is quickly followed by man’s stubborn refusal to accept it. Oh, the people in the Gospel readily accepted the free bread and the free fish to fill their bellies. What they wouldn’t accept, couldn’t accept, was the free salvation from sins that God was offering them through Christ, who is the true Bread that came down from heaven, without whom we starve and waste away. No, they, like most people still today, were focused on earthly blessings. They wanted a Messiah to provide earthly food, earthly goods, earthly benefits, not the salvation from sin they so desperately needed. But that path only leads to spiritual starvation and death. Jesus does provide the earthly bread that we need. But, as we learn in today’s Gospel, what we really need from Jesus isn’t bread.
The story is familiar, I think. 5,000 men, plus some women and children, had followed Jesus to a mountain, near the Sea of Galilee. He had taught them for most of the day and had healed their sick. But before dismissing them and sending them home, He wanted to feed them—not that they were going hungry or would have starved without it. But He wanted to show them His power and His compassion. And, He wanted to teach them, as we see in the rest of the chapter, that earthly bread is nothing compared to the bread from heaven, which they truly needed, and which He had come to provide.
He also wanted to test His disciples, starting with Philip. He asked Philip, Where shall we buy bread, that the people may eat? It was a test. What will Philip do? Will he run the calculations in his head and conclude it’s impossible to feed them? Or, has he learned finally to turn to Me and say, “It’s impossible for us, Lord, but nothing is impossible for You!”?
Philip, unfortunately, went with the first answer. Two hundred days wages wouldn’t buy enough bread for each one to have even a bite. Andrew did only a little better. There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fish. But what are they among so many? They weren’t there yet, not yet ready to put all their needs into Jesus’ hands and leave them there for Him to take care of. They were still looking to themselves, to what they could do, even in an impossible situation. And at least they were honest about it. They could do nothing.
There’s a lesson for us there. Some things are within our reach in this life. With hard work, with dedication, and education, and a stubborn refusal to quit, there’s a lot you can accomplish—although even then, it’s only with God’s consent and blessing that you’ll succeed. But other things are so far beyond our reach that there’s absolutely nothing we can do to achieve them. The prime example of that is dealing with sin.
Here’s an example. I talked to someone not long ago who wanted to know more about God. He said he absolutely believed in God. But every other sentence he uttered was an explanation of how he had led a pretty good life; how he hadn’t done a whole lot of bad things; how, if anybody could be saved, it was probably him. I told him, that’s exactly what the Jews thought who eventually put Jesus to death. They ended up hating Him, because He kept insisting that they hadn’t done nearly enough to achieve peace with God, and that they had no chance at helping themselves out of the predicament caused by their sin. They refused to humble themselves before God. They refused to admit, from the heart, that they could do nothing to earn His favor or His forgiveness.
But for those who did come to that realization, to that genuine recognition that they had zero possibility of gaining grace, that they deserved only condemnation, Jesus had another message. He would be their possibility, their way to gain grace, just as He was with the multiplying of the loaves for the 5,000. He would be their Mediator with the Father. And the Father would accept them, if they came to Him through Jesus. That’s what He truly came for. Because that’s what sinners truly need. Not a bite of bread here, or a job promotion there, or healthy bodies, or a peaceful society. But a Mediator between God and sinners who would atone for our sins and stand between sinners and a holy God, and make us acceptable to Him, through faith in Christ Jesus.
That’s what Jesus was really offering the 5,000, peace with God through Him, everlasting life through Him. He would give it to them as a free gift, just as He gave them the gift of earthly bread and fish, which they had no possibility of providing for themselves.
You know the rest of the story. Jesus took those five loaves of bread and two fish, gave thanks for them, and gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people, who were seated in groups on the grass. And the bread and the fish just kept coming from Jesus’ hands, into the disciples’ hands, until all 5,000 of them were full, with enough leftovers to fill twelve baskets. And the lesson was, this is nothing compared to the spiritual blessings you’ll have from Jesus, if you remain with Him.
But the crowds took the wrong lesson from it. Or rather, they drew the wrong conclusion from it. They learned one important lesson from this miracle: This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world! That much they learned. And they were right. But what was the Prophet for? Why had He come? What would He do for them? It says that, after the people realized that Jesus was the promised Prophet, they were going to come and take Him by force to make Him their king. Not the king of the kingdom of heaven, but a king for this life, to give them power and glory and wealth and prosperity, to give them a better life on earth.
And isn’t that what most people want still today? In fact, it’s about all they want. And if they’re interested in the afterlife at all, they think they’ll earn it with their hard work, with their decency, and, maybe, with their bloodline. What do most people really want from religion today? Some want entertainment. Some self-help advice. A nicer world to live in. A feeling of belonging somewhere. But you don’t need Jesus to have any of that. If that’s what you want, just about any religion will do, or no religion at all. You don’t need Jesus to get bread.
What we really need from Jesus isn’t bread. It’s salvation from our sinful obsession with bread, from our greed for personal gain, from our lack of trust in God to provide. It’s salvation from our pursuit of career, or sports, or leisure at the expense of hearing and learning God’s word. It’s salvation from our unrighteous anger, and bitterness, and lovelessness, and from lustful thoughts and sexual depravity. It’s, literally, salvation from death, both temporal and eternal. That’s what we really need from Jesus.
And it’s exactly what He came to give away, for free. To those who repent of their sins against God and who look to Jesus Christ, crucified and risen again, for the forgiveness of sins and for salvation that lasts into eternity—to them Jesus gives the true bread. He gives Himself, true God and true Man, and the Mediator between God and sinners. He feeds us with this very Gospel as it’s preached. And He even makes Himself available to us tangibly in the water of Holy Baptism, and even more tangibly in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, where He literally feeds us with His body and blood, the “medicine of immortality.”
The question is, do you understand that these are the things you really need from Jesus? If you do, then seek it from Him above all else. Trust in Him, and you will always be given the kind of Bread that will sustain you through life, and through death, and back into life again. That’s why this Sunday bears the name that it does: Laetare. Rejoice! Amen.
