The Christian Passover surpasses the old one

Posted on April 13, 2017 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Maundy Thursday

Exodus 12:1-14  +  1 Corinthians 11:23-32  +  John 3:1-15

It’s no coincidence that the suffering and death of the Christ took place during the Jewish celebration of the Passover. God Himself connects the redemption from slavery in Egypt, under the leadership of Moses, with the redemption from sin, death and the devil, under the leadership of Christ. God Himself connects the Passover Lamb with Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. It’s why not one of Jesus’ bones could be broken on the cross, as St. John tells us, because that requirement of the original Passover Lamb was pointing ahead to Jesus. And as we’ll hear St. Paul tell the Corinthians in the Easter Sunday Epistle, Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.

In the same way, just as God, under the Old Testament, instituted an annual meal in commemoration of the first Passover, so Christ also, under the New Testament, instituted a special meal in commemoration of the greater Passover of Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection. And the new meal is as far superior to the old as Christ Himself is superior to a lamb.

We often discuss the Lord’s Supper from two starting points: what it is, and what benefit it gives. Let’s compare the old meal with the new on that basis.

When we discuss the old Jewish Passover meal, we really have to talk about two different meals: the original Passover meal that took place in Egypt, and all the subsequent meals that were celebrated afterwards.

The original Passover meal—what was it? Well, the star of it was the roasted body of the very lamb that was killed that day by each Israelite household and whose blood was literally painted on the doorframe of the house where the meal was eaten.

Every year after that, whenever the Passover was celebrated, the meal consisted of the roasted body of a different lamb, not the lamb whose blood was painted on their doors, not the lamb whose death had spared them from death. It was roasted lamb, nothing more.

What was the benefit of the original Passover meal? Eating that meal, inside the house, preserved each family from death. The blood of that lamb cried out to the destroying angel not to enter this house. This house is protected by the blood of the lamb whose flesh was consumed there, in connection with the promise of God. Not that the lamb itself had any choice in the matter, or any power to save. But because God attached His promise to that lamb and its blood, faith led the Israelites to use it, and they were protected.

What was the benefit of every subsequent Passover meal? There was no real benefit. No promised attached. There was a purpose: for the Israelites to remember God’s great deliverance of their ancestors from bondage in Egypt, so that they could give thanks to God for it. But did it save them from anything? Did it deliver them from anything? Did it give them anything? No.

Of course, we now understand—after the fact, at least—that all those Passover commemorations were also designed to point forward to the greater Passover, the greater deliverance, the greater redemption that would be accomplished by Christ, the Lamb of God, who, on the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

What is the Christian Passover meal? It is bread and wine. But it is also the true body and blood of the Passover Lamb, together with the bread and the wine. There is essentially no difference between the original Lord’s Supper and all the celebrations of it since. It is still the very body and blood of the very Lamb who was slain on Good Friday. You and I and everyone who receives the Sacrament of the Altar receive the very same thing that the twelve apostles received on the night in which Jesus was betrayed.

And what is the benefit of the Christian Passover meal? That is shown us by these words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” namely, that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us through such words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. Again, there is no difference between the benefit Jesus’ disciples received and the benefit we receive today. Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed once. Forgiveness was earned for us then, once for all. His blood is now applied to the doorframes of our hearts in Holy Baptism, delivering us from the slavery of sin and the power of the devil. And that same forgiveness is applied to us every time we eat the body of the Lamb and drink His blood. Every celebration of the Lord’s Supper makes those who receive it participants in the true Christian Passover, partakers of the Lord’s death and of His resurrection.

Does the devil accuse you? Does your conscience accuse you? Do you struggle with sin and temptation? Here is the body of the Son of God that was hung on the cross to atone for your sin. Here is the blood that was poured out on the cross and already shed in punishment for your sin. Christ offers it to you for free, to use against the devil, to use against death. What stronger remedy could the Lord Christ offer? What stronger medicine against sin, death, and the devil could you possibly need?

And so we gather today and tomorrow and again on the first day of the week, not only to proclaim to the world our faith in Christ Jesus, crucified and risen from the dead; not only to be reminded of Christ and the redemption He accomplished on the cross, but especially to participate in it again, and to receive the benefits of it, as we hear the Gospel, and as we eat and drink the Christian Passover meal, which is a communion of the body and blood of our dear Passover Lamb. Amen.

 

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Sermon for Holy Monday

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

We covered a lot of ground already this evening: From Jesus’ anguish and prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane, to the venomous hatred for the Christ shown by the Church—the Jewish Council, to the failure of secular government to fulfill its God-given duty to administer justice by protecting innocent citizens from false accusations. There’s so much to say after every reading, after every part of the Passion History. But, then again, the story of Christ’s suffering speaks for itself. The sermons this week will all be pretty short. This evening I would highlight just one thing.

Consider Peter’s denial.

As we discussed in Bible class on Sunday, Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. I think we all know people who can come across as prideful or haughty or arrogant. Simon Peter doesn’t belong in that category. He was passionate about many things, sincere, forceful, often the first to speak up about something. But in one of Jesus’ early encounters with Peter—after the miraculous catch of fish he made with Jesus in his boat—we see Peter’s heart clearly enough as he falls to his knees before Jesus and pleads with Him, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” That’s not pride. That’s humility.

Where we first start to see a bit of pride creeping into this firm believer in Jesus is when he hears Jesus say, months before Holy Week, that Jesus is going to suffer and die at the hands of men. Peter’s response? “No, Lord, this will never happen to you!” He hears Jesus’ words and thinks he knows better than Jesus. That’s a form of pride. You remember Jesus’ response at that time? Get behind Me, Satan!

Then again, as you heard yesterday in the Passion history, on that Maundy Thursday evening when Jesus went to wash His disciples’ feet. He got to Peter, and Peter objected: “Lord, You shall never wash my feet!” It sounds like humility, doesn’t it? Peter knew that Jesus was his Lord and that he didn’t deserve to have his Lord washing his dirty feet. But that, too, was a form of pride. There was Jesus, desiring to serve His disciples, who needed His service in more ways than one, but Peter thought that holding onto his own humility was more important than receiving Jesus’ service to Him.

Then, later in that same upper room, Jesus told His disciples that they would all abandon Him that night, and that Peter would deny knowing Him three times. And no matter what Jesus said, Peter kept insisting that Jesus was wrong, that the words of Jesus would not come true, that he, Peter, would prove stronger than Jesus imagined him to be, as if Jesus’ words were false, as if Jesus Himself were a liar. And to put the nail in his own coffin—how many times in the reading you heard tonight did Jesus urge His disciples to watch and to pray, lest they fall into temptation? But Peter chose to rely on his own spiritual strength rather than use the tools Jesus provided to resist temptation.

It is a form of pride to think of yourself as stronger than the Word of God declares you to be, and thus fail to make use of the tools God provides—the Word, the Sacrament, and prayer—to fight earnestly against temptation when it comes.

Peter loved Jesus. He cared about Him. But when it came right down to it, there in the high priest’s courtyard, he loved his own life more. He said the things that he thought would keep him safe, would keep him from becoming a target of persecution. That meant denying to the servant girl and to everyone out there on that chilly Maundy Thursday night that he knew Jesus. And if he had died in that denial, he would have perished eternally.

A movie came out not long ago called Silence. It’s about an early missionary to Japan who supposedly denied Christ in order to save the Christians there from being put to death. What about that? If you’re trying to save the people of Christ, then is it the right thing to do to deny Christ before men? What does Jesus say about it? Whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven…unless you think you have a good reason to deny Me, in which case, it’s all right? No.

You see, it’s pride again, rearing its ugly head, if a man thinks he knows better than Jesus. If he thinks he can be a better savior for the people of Christ than Christ Himself, by denying Christ in order to serve Christ! No, that’s not service. That’s not faith. That’s sinful human pride. That’s unbelief.

In the same way, it’s pride at work if you don’t take Christ’s warnings seriously about all the ways the world will try to get you to deny Him. Christians are being tempted more and more to compromise the words of Christ, to keep their faith a secret, to go along with the unbelieving world in its various forms of pseudoscience, empty philosophy, and antichristian beliefs and behaviors.

What do we learn from Peter? That we’re not as strong as we think we are, and we’re never stronger than the Word of Christ declares us to be. That even Christians are susceptible to the pressures of the world, and pride can often disguise itself as humility. And that, in giving in to such pressures to deny Christ and His saving Word, we bring shame upon ourselves, upon the Lord Christ, and upon His Church.

But what do we learn from Jesus? That He knows exactly who we are—how fickle and weak we can be—better than we know ourselves. He knows the sins we have committed and the sins we will commit, and still chose to suffer for the real sins of real sinners, including the sin of denying Him. He still chose to call us to repentance and faith and to have us baptized in His name. We learn that He is gracious and merciful and desires, not our death, but our repentance, that we should weep bitterly over our sin, as Peter did, but that we should then return to Him, as Peter did, and know that He has suffered for those sins, too, and that He will surely receive us back, even as He received Peter and restored him to his position as forgiven saint and chosen apostle.

When you know the grace of Christ Jesus, then you learn to pray aright, not in pride, telling God how you will never sin again. But in true humility, seeking God’s strength to fight against temptation and to acknowledge Christ gladly before men, without flinching, without shrinking back. Because He has acknowledged you, a sinner, before His Father in heaven. The strength of His grace will lift you up when you fall, and by faith in God’s grace in Christ, you will be able, when the time comes, as Peter finally was, at the end of his life, to suffer all things, even death, rather than deny your Savior, Jesus Christ, before men. Amen.

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The humility-seeking mind of Christ

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Rev. Paul Rydecki


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Sermon for Palm Sunday

Philippians 2:5-11  +  Matthew 21:1-9  +  Passion History Reading

What a sight it must have been, Jesus the Rabbi, Jesus the Teacher, the Preacher, the Miracle-Worker, loved by many, hated by more, sitting on a donkey, with palm branches and clothing spread out along his path down from the Mount of Olives and up again to the city of Jerusalem, surrounded by people waving their own palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel!” All of it, especially the donkey, proclaimed Jesus’ royalty, and His humility, and His saving purpose, because it linked Palm Sunday to what the prophet Zechariah had foretold long ago: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.

The crowds understood, but only to a point. They hailed Jesus as their king, but they thought He would be an earthly king. They loved Him for His humility, because they thought His humility would soon come to an end and be replaced by a glorious earthly kingdom, with glory for Jesus and for them. They all knew His purpose, that He was coming to save them, so they sang, “Hosanna, save us now!” But the salvation they sought wasn’t the salvation He was coming to bring. Not a one of them thought that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem to lay down His life as an offering to atone for their sins.

Jesus’ disciples understood a bit more. They had called Jesus the King of Israel long before the crowds welcomed Him into Jerusalem with their palm branches and songs. They saw the humble life He always led, and they were there for the foot-washing you heard about this morning, when their King wrapped a towel around His waist and stooped down to wash their dirty feet, instructing them to humble themselves as their King had humbled Himself. But they, too, stumbled over His humility, and over the humility He outlined for all who would follow Him. What did they do almost immediately after He washed their feet? As you heard in the Gospel, a strife arose among them, which of them should be considered the greatest.

In today’s Epistle to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul, writing after the fact—after Palm Sunday, after Maundy Thursday, after Good Friday, after Easter Sunday—addressed this very glory-seeking mentality that was in the Palm Sunday crowds, that was in Jesus’ disciples, and that still dwells in us by nature. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Before He was born into this world, Jesus existed. He was in the beginning with God the Father and with the Holy Spirit. He was “in the form of God,” the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, as the writer to the Hebrews puts it. He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. In other words, He didn’t seek to grab more glory for Himself. He already had all the glory anyone could ever want, the very glory of God. But, rather than hold onto that glory, He made Himself of no reputation. Literally, He “emptied Himself.” He set aside His divine privileges as the Son of God and took the form of a bondservant, a slave. He came in the likeness of men. He lowered Himself all the way down to our level.

First, to our level as human beings. We are creatures who depend on God for everything—for the earth to live in, for sunlight, for rain, for sustenance, for health, for the very air we breathe. We are literally at the mercy of God for everything. Jesus lowered Himself to that same level of dependence on His heavenly Father and perfect obedience to His heavenly Father as a creature, as the Son of Man.

Of course, even Adam and Eve were at that level, and it was still a pretty glorious thing. But that’s not low enough. Jesus had to go lower, to the level of sinful humanity. To the level of cursed humanity, obeying, suffering all the way down to death, even the death of the cross.

And He chose it. He chose it all. As we sang in the hymn, “Yea, Father, yea, most willingly I’ll bear what Thou commandest; My will conforms to Thy decree, I do what Thou demandest.”

Jesus’ willing humiliation of Himself teaches us: There can be no glorious kingdom here, in this sin-stricken world. There can be no paradise, no heaven here on this earth, because every single member of the human race is corrupt with sin, and together, we can only end up destroying ourselves, as history has proven time and time again. No. Sin, death, and the devil were our real enemies. And it took the voluntary humiliation of the Son of God to destroy those enemies for us, to take away their power.

But there is a kind of glory in that loving sacrifice, as Jesus told His disciples, Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself. Because Jesus humbled Himself so willingly, so perfectly, purely out of love for us, He earned for Himself, as a Man, all the glory He once shared with God the Father as the Son of God.

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

God has already humbled you by bringing you to a knowledge of your sin and causing you to sorrow over it, calling you to confession and to daily repentance. God has already glorified all those who believe in Christ Jesus and have been baptized in His name by making you His own children and by forgiving you all your sins, promising you an eternal, glorious inheritance in the new heavens and the new earth.

The hard lesson for us, who still drag around our glory-seeking flesh, is that the path to that glorious inheritance for us Christians is still through shame and pain and suffering. The true path to glory is through self-denial and self-sacrifice. The true path to glory is not seeking glory for yourself at all, but rather, seeking how you can humble yourself to serve your neighbor in love. That is the path that was forged for us by Christ Jesus.

Let’s follow Jesus down that path during this Holy Week, by hearing and meditating on His Word. See again just how the Son of God humbled Himself for us and for our salvation. Rejoice in it! Praise Him for it! And learn from Him, so that the mind of Christ may be also in you. Amen.

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The Seed of the woman stands against the devil’s seed

Posted on April 2, 2017 by Rev. Paul Rydecki


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Sermon for Judica – Lent 5

Hebrews 9:11-15  +  John 8:46-59

In the beginning, after Adam and Eve sinned against God, the Lord God cursed that ancient serpent, the devil, and then, in His grace, drew a dividing line between him and Eve, between the devil’s seed and the seed of the woman. You remember the verse: And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.

There has been a great, ongoing battle between these two sides ever since, the devil’s side and the side of those whom God has graciously brought onto His side. Today’s Gospel highlights the dividing line between those two sides. On the one side of it, on the devil’s side, are the Jews, specifically the Jewish leaders who had heard the word of Jesus and didn’t believe it, who rejected Him as the Christ, sent from God to save sinners from sin, death, and the devil.

On the other side of the line stands Jesus, the true Seed of the woman, the Son of God and Son of Man. And there with Him, on His side—there in Him, really—are all those who are joined to Him by Holy Baptism, linked to Him by faith. We could never stand against the devil or his seed. But in Christ Jesus, we will be victorious over them all.

We witness—we take part in—Jesus victory against the devil and his seed in today’s Gospel. There was a great back and forth, wasn’t there? The Jews hurling their accusations against Jesus, Jesus with His own charges against them, His own claims about Himself and about those who believe in Him. It’s a beautiful sight to behold, our Champion standing against the forces of evil and defeating them with the Word of God.

Jesus had been speaking nothing but the truth, in agreement with all the Old Testament Scriptures, since He began His ministry, proclaiming it before the whole world: All men are sinners. No sinner can keep God’s holy law in such a way as to be justified by it or to earn God’s favor by his works. But God is gracious. He sent His Son, the promised Messiah, into the world, into human flesh, to save sinful human beings, by keeping God’s holy law for them, by laying down His life for them (though the details of His suffering He only revealed ahead of time to His own disciples). The one and only way for anyone to be justified before God and saved from sin, from death, and from the devil, was by trusting in Jesus the Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

The Jews—most of them—despised Jesus for saying such things. “We don’t believe You are who You say You are. We don’t agree with Your teaching. You must be a sinner!” But Jesus struck back at them in today’s text: Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? It’s one thing to claim that Jesus is a sinner. It’s another thing to demonstrate it, to show from the Scriptures where He has said or done something against God’s holy Law. Of course, they couldn’t do that. Which meant that Jesus was speaking the truth. But if He was speaking the truth, why didn’t they believe Him?

As Jesus explains, He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.  What does it mean to be “of God”? It means to be on the side of God. Here again is the dividing line between the seed of the serpent and those who are “of God.” To be “of God” means to be “born of God,” either eternally begotten of the Father, as Jesus was, or reborn of Him by water and the Spirit. It means that, if you hear the Word of Jesus and believe in Him as God’s Son and trust in Him alone for the forgiveness of sins, it is because God has begotten you; God the Father has drawn you to Christ by His Holy Spirit, working through the preaching of the Gospel. He has brought you to repentance and faith and has thus given you new birth.

But if you hear the Word of Jesus and don’t believe in Him as God’s Son, don’t trust in Him as the one Mediator between God and Man, it is because you have rejected the Holy Spirit’s working; you’ve rejected the truth and chosen to believe a lie. In that case, as Jesus told the Jews in the verses before, you still have the devil for a father, not God.

There’s the dividing line, and Jesus was not afraid to point it out. Those who are not on His side, which is God’s side, are on the devil’s side. Those who do not believe in Him are under God’s condemnation.

That angered the Jews. Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?

The Samaritans, remember, lived a bit north of Judea. They followed a mixture of the Jewish faith and pagan religion. It was a religious slur for a Jew to call another Jew a Samaritan. And accusing someone of having a demon—that was a big deal, of course. “We are the owners of the Jewish faith, Jesus, not you. You disagree with us; therefore, You must be wrong. You must be on the devil’s side.” This is what practically every religion does, isn’t it?, claims to be the true religion, while the others are false. (Although, in the depraved times in which we live, a lot of supposedly religious people are happy to believe that all paths are equally good and eventually lead to heaven—a truly demonic teaching.) Well, again, it’s one thing to claim something. It’s another thing to back up your claim with proof, and here the only proof that will do is the unchangeable, always-dependable truth of God’s Holy Word. The Jews couldn’t even begin to back up their accusations against Jesus from Scripture.

I do not have a demon, Jesus replied, but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges. You see, God the Father expects mankind to honor Jesus, to give Him the glory He deserves, the glory of the Son of God who became Man to be the Savior of mankind. The Father seeks glory for His Son and will most certainly judge all who refuse to give it. The dividing line is real. To oppose Jesus is to dishonor the true God. That’s why every religion that does not recognize Jesus Christ as true God and true Man, sent by God to be the only Savior of the world, is a godless, worthless, demonic religion. The Christian faith claims to be the only-saving faith, with everyone else lined up on the side of the devil. That’s a rather unpopular claim, isn’t it?

We make it, not with pride, but with joy, because in Christ we have a Savior who can actually save. Jesus promises in the Gospel, If anyone keeps My word, he shall never see death! Now, the Jews recognized what a bold claim that was. They knew that death was God’s curse upon mankind for sinning against Him. The only one who can undo death is the Lord God Himself who first imposed it. If Jesus is claiming to be able to undo death, then He must be claiming to be God.

And, of course, He was. Before Abraham was, I AM. The name that God claimed for Himself at the time of Moses: I AM WHO I AM. The Jews were right, Jesus wasn’t yet fifty years old, not according to His humanity. But according to His divinity, He is the Word who was with God in the beginning, and who was God. That’s why He can claim to undo death, to have the authority to bring sinners onto His side, to protect them against sin, and death, and the devil.

But He couldn’t just snap His fingers and make death go away. Our sins demanded our death. Justice demanded our death. He Himself had to taste death for us all. Christ came to shed His blood—the priceless blood of God, as the writer to the Hebrews told us this morning. Christ came to suffer what we deserved, so that we might inherit what He deserves. To those whom He graciously brings onto His side by Baptism, by faith, He offers eternal life. He offers forgiveness. He offers salvation. And He seals it to us here in the Sacrament of the Altar, where He gives us His true body and blood, once given into death, but now made alive again forever and ever, and with the power to make us live forever, too.

Yes, those are bold claims, unpopular claims. Yes, they fly in the face of human reason. But they are God’s words, and we Christians believe them. That’s why we’re not afraid to call Jesus our Lord, even though it pits us against the majority of mankind who are still on the devil’s side, even though it paints a big target on our back, even as Jesus had one painted on His. That’s also why we continue to invite all people to repent and to believe in Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, while there’s still time for them to cross over from death to life, from the devil’s side to the side of God.

Two precious children will be baptized here today, marking them as God’s own children, putting them on the side of the saints, and at enmity with the devil. Their parents will openly confess their faith in Jesus Christ and their oneness with us in the confession of that faith. For this, let us give thanks to God, who continues to preserve for Himself a little flock on earth to stand together, with Christ, in Christ, against the devil and his seed. And let us give thanks to the Lord Christ, who continues to build His Church on the rock of St. Peter’s confession, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. The gates of hell will continue to rattle in rage, but they will not prevail against the Church of Christ. He is our Life. He is our Defender. He is our Salvation. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him! Amen.

 

 

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If man is to be saved, God must do it, through Christ alone

Posted on March 26, 2017 by Rev. Paul Rydecki


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Sermon for Laetare – Lent 4

Galatians 4:21-31  +  John 6:1-15

We started Lent with Jesus’ refusal to eat bread, or any food at all, for a full 40 days. He refused to fill His own stomach, to turn the stones into bread at the devil’s urging, because it was His Father’s will that He suffer hunger in order to be tested, to be proved either obedient or disobedient, either self-reliant or God-reliant, either self-serving or God-serving. He proved to be obedient. God-reliant. God-serving.

In today’s Gospel, we see just how easy it would have been for Jesus to provide bread for Himself. With no trouble at all He takes what was enough food for maybe five or ten people and miraculously makes it more than enough for 5,000 men, plus women and children. He did it, not just to do a nice thing for the crowds, not just to fill their stomachs, but to be a sign pointing to something much greater: That Jesus is God, from whom all good things come. That human beings have a great spiritual need before God. But that human strength is worthless to address that need. That, if we are to be saved, God must do it. And He will do it, freely, because of His mercy, through Jesus Christ, and through Him alone, without human works, without human contribution. That’s what Jesus would have you learn through the feeding of the 5,000.

Or, you can be like those 5,000 men who were fed that day, who still thought at the end of the day that it was about nothing but getting a nice free meal out of Jesus.

The crowds followed Jesus out to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. Already we see that these people were infatuated with Jesus’ miracles. That’s why they followed Him. He was doing these signs and wonders that no one had ever done before. As we learn at the end of this account and again on the next day, they weren’t that interested in being taught by Jesus or in learning the truth about God from Jesus. They were interested in seeing a show, a spectacle.

Still, Jesus tries to teach them and plans this friendly miracle for them, to teach them that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. You remember, Jesus quoted those words from the Old Testament to the devil when the devil tried to tempt Him with bread. Now Jesus would have the crowds learn the lesson that Moses once taught to the Israelites.

He asks Philip, Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat? John tells us that Jesus was testing Philip and His disciples with this question, to teach them as well as the crowds. Philip answered correctly, for the most part. Money is not the answer. Money will not solve this problem. There are too many people for us to buy bread. There is no human way for us to feed so many people. He might have added a bit more, though, because as he left it, it seems like, if there is no human solution, then there is no solution. If human powers and human reason can’t provide what these people need, then nothing can be done for them.

Andrew comes along, and he, too, seems to be determined to find a human solution. He has found a boy who has five loaves of bread and two fish! It’s something, right? But not nearly enough. Jesus will teach His disciples to look beyond what their human reason and human powers can provide.

He has the people sit down on the grass. He takes the loaves and the fish, gives thanks to His heavenly Father for His bountiful goodness, and distributes the food to the disciples, so that they can distribute it to the people.

Giving thanks seems like a small thing, but notice, Jesus is here acknowledging His Father as the Provider of the food that man needs to live. He’s giving thanks out loud, so that His disciples should recognize that, too. And He’s giving thanks. He’s not asking His Father for permission or power to multiply the food for the people. He doesn’t need to. He knows His Father’s will. It is the Father who wills that the people should eat, and it is the Son of God who, as always, carries out His Father’s will.

The way Jesus hands out the food by the hand of His disciples seems like a small thing, too, but take note of it. Doesn’t it remind you of something else? Isn’t it exactly the same way Jesus has set up His Holy Sacrament, where He provides more than bread and wine? He gives His very body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. His body and blood are miraculously multiplied and distributed to all who eat and drink in the Sacrament. And yet, He doesn’t hand it out directly to anyone, but Has assigned His ministers the task of distributing this heavenly food.

Now, the multitudes eat as much as they want, and there are still twelve basketsful left over. That’s impossible, of course. At least, human reason and the laws of nature say it’s impossible. Matter cannot be created out of nothing. And yet, that’s exactly how God brought the universe into existence. Out of nothing, God made everything. This was the creative power of God, who didn’t take millions of years to allow loaves of bread to evolve, just as He didn’t take millions of years to allow the universe to evolve. He spoke and it was. That’s power! That’s love and care and concern!

And more importantly, that’s a sign! A sign that teaches something, that points to something greater. It points to Jesus’ divinity. But even more than that, it points to Jesus as the Savior, as the only One who can give the heavenly gifts of forgiveness, life and salvation to men—to men who can’t earn those gifts by being good or by doing right or by being obedient enough. If we are to be saved, God must do it. And He will do it, freely, because of His mercy, through Jesus Christ, and through Him alone, without human works, without human contribution.

That’s the same thing the apostle Paul was teaching the Galatians in the Epistle today in that allegory about Hagar and Sarah, Ishmael and Isaac, Sinai, Jerusalem below and Jerusalem above. Just as Jesus used the free providing of bread to point to Himself as the source of God’s free grace and favor, so God, throughout the Old Testament, used certain people and certain situations to point to the same thing: that doing good and obeying the rules is not the way into God’s kingdom, because all men are sinful from birth; that God’s plan of salvation has always been about God giving away something for free by sending His Son into the world to bear our sins, to suffer and die for them, so that we might live by faith in Him.

The 5,000 who ate the bread and the fish that Jesus gave away as a gift never went beyond the bread and the fish. John tells us that all they wanted at the end of the day was to lay their hands on Jesus and force Him to be their King, so that He could keep providing bread for them, keep doing signs for them, keep entertaining them, and give them a glorious earthly kingdom. They wanted Him for an earthly champion. But not for a Teacher, not for their God, not for a Savior from sin.

This Gospel is God’s way of reaching out to sinners and showing them His grace in the Person of Christ. It’s great comfort for the sinner who knows His neediness before God. It’s all been taken care of by Christ, and forgiveness, life and salvation will continually be handed out through His ministers to all who seek them from Jesus.

But there is a warning in this Gospel for the fickle followers of Christ, for those who follow Jesus for something other than free grace and salvation from sin. There are many who think of Christianity as primarily a social service organization. They think the Church exists to provide food and clothing and services to the community, and they’ll even praise Christian churches for their community programs and the fun activities they offer. But the same people reject Jesus as the Son of God. They don’t want to be taught by Him or be bound by His Word. They don’t want His Church telling them what’s right and what’s wrong. And they don’t want His sacrifice and His works of obedience to count for them before God.

If you’re following Jesus in this Lenten season or in your daily life for earthly blessings, for earthly comfort, or for earthly success, then you will be not only disappointed, but put to shame on the Last Day. Jesus has come to give you the bread of life, to give you Himself for a Savior and for your God. Listen to His words. Devote yourself to His teaching. And believe in Him for everlasting life. Amen.

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