The King chose the path of our redemption

Posted on March 29, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Palm Sunday

Philippians 2:5-11 + Matthew 21:1-9

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness at the very beginning of His ministry, a path was laid out for Him—by the devil. There was a path that led to His glory. Easy glory, on a painless path. All he had to do was bow down and worship Satan. You know that’s not the path He chose. Already in eternity, before the foundations of the world were laid, God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—chose, or really, created the path that would lead, not to earthly glory or comfort for the Son of God, but that would lead to our eternal redemption.

Already in eternity, in His counsel and purpose, God decreed that the human race should be truly redeemed and reconciled with Him, rescued from the sins He knew very well we would commit, delivered from sin, death, and the power of the devil, and changed from His enemies into His beloved children, so that we might all be saved for time and for eternity.

That was the goal. And the first step on the path to that goal was the incarnation of God’s Son in human flesh and His birth under the Law, just as we are all born under God’s moral Law. That’s what we celebrate at Christmas, of course. The path to the goal of our redemption continued with a perfect life of obedience on our Redeemer’s part, so that He could truly satisfy the righteous requirements of God’s Law in our place, so that He could earn the righteousness, in mankind’s place, that God the Father could count toward us unrighteous people. Well, mission accomplished. Jesus lived that righteous life for us.

But now we come to Holy Week, to Palm Sunday, to what is probably the biggest step on the path to our redemption. Jesus, the King of the Jews, has a choice to make. Will He go through with the Father’s plan for Him to suffer? Will He stick with the Father’s plan for Him to humble Himself and become obedient even to the point of death, even to the point of letting Himself be nailed to a cross?

He surely doesn’t deserve that kind of suffering, or any suffering, for that matter. He deserved to be worshiped by all men. He deserved a throne. He deserved to ride into Jerusalem on a warhorse and to wipe out every sinner in the city, in the world. But you know what that would have meant? It would have meant wiping out everyone. Absolutely everyone on earth. Because without the suffering and death of the Son of God as the atoning sacrifice for man’s sin, no one could be saved. Everyone would have to die, and die forever. God’s own righteous character would have demanded it.

And Jesus knew it. He had no desire to suffer as He would that week. But He had even less desire for mankind to suffer, and to be eternally lost. So He got up on Palm Sunday and, once again, as He had been doing every day of His life, chose the path of our redemption.

He walked to the Mount of Olives with His disciples, and then sent two of them to fetch a donkey for Him to ride. Why a donkey? Because He had a message to send to Jerusalem, a message that had been written and delivered to the Jews 500 years earlier by the prophet Zechariah: Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King comes to you, meek and riding on a donkey, and on a colt the foal of a donkey. Zechariah actually has a few other details that Matthew omits: Rejoice, daughter of Zion! Your King is righteous and having salvation.

So by choosing to ride on a donkey that day, Jesus was sending the message to Jerusalem: I am your King, the King of the Jews. My coming should be cause for rejoicing, because I come, not to destroy you, but to save you, to rescue you, to redeem you.

Now, even if the people put together Zechariah’s prophecy with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, even if they understood that He was coming to redeem them, most of them still didn’t understand what kind of redemption, what kind of rescue Jesus had come to accomplish. Most of them thought in terms of earthly deliverance from oppression, from sickness, from poverty, from injustice. Jesus and His apostles would eventually correct that understanding. But for now, the people understood enough to recognize Jesus as their Redeemer sent from heaven, as the King of the Jews, and as the One who would save them, somehow.

And so they surrounded Jesus as He rode down into the Kidron valley and up again to the city gates. And they spread their cloaks and their palm branches on the path He had chosen—the path of our redemption. And they rejoiced and sang with all their might, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!

You’ve learned to sing that same song to Jesus, now ascended and reigning at the right hand of the Father, but still coming to us with salvation in the Holy Supper we celebrate—a salvation He earned for us with the body and blood He gave and shed on the cross on Friday of that Holy Week, a salvation He accomplishes for us when we believe in Him, our Redeemer and King.

But Good Friday only happened because of the choice Jesus made on Palm Sunday. The King of the Jews chose the path of the donkey, knowing it would lead to the cross, because it was the only possible path toward our redemption, and He was dead set on forging that path. Let that be a cause for rejoicing today, and a solid reason for following King Jesus at all times, no matter where He leads, because in Him, and in Him alone, we have redemption. Amen.

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The harshest sermon ever preached, part 1

Posted on March 25, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the week of Judica – Lent 5

Hosea 9:1-9 + Matthew 23:13-22

Turn your minds back to Holy Week, Tuesday afternoon, as Jesus continues His harsh sermon against the scribes and Pharisees. Last week we heard the introduction of Jesus’ sermon, spoken to His followers about the scribes and Pharisees. Now, He turns directly toward those scribes and Pharisees and rails against them in what can only be called an angry tirade, pronouncing upon them woe after woe, curse after curse (that’s what “woes” are, curses). And as we consider this evening the first four of the eight woes Jesus pronounced upon them, remember, His passionate curses are not directed against His penitent and believing followers, but against the unbelieving ministers of His Church who have done such great spiritual damage to His beloved flock. Hear your God’s anger at them, and in it, hear your God’s devotion to His precious sheep.

The first curse: But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. For you neither go in yourselves nor allow those who are entering to go in. How had they shut up the kingdom of heaven, both for themselves and for others? By teaching that keeping the Law was the way to earn a place in God’s kingdom. This is something we have to watch out for, because a lot of Christians out there have been taught that keeping the Ten Commandments is the way to heaven. “If we just keep the Commandments, we’ll be fine! If only we put the Ten Commandments in our schools, then the children will learn to be godly and righteous!” No! The only way for anyone to be godly and righteous in God’s sight is by trusting in the Lord Jesus for mercy, because of how we have broken the Ten Commandments. The crime of the scribes and Pharisees lives on today, and so does Jesus’ curse against those who believe and who teach that good works are the way to eternal life. They are not the way. Jesus alone is the Way. Once a person enters by the Way, then, yes, good works should and will follow, and the Commandments have their proper place in the life of the Christian, not as the way into God’s kingdom, but as the code of conduct within God’s kingdom.

The second curse: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you shall receive the greater damnation. How did they devour widows’ houses? By showing no mercy to them in their time of need. By making sure they didn’t get justice in court because the Pharisees favored the rich over the poor widow. They took advantage of the poor widows, because they could get away with it. Meanwhile, they stood up in front of the people of Israel and made lengthy prayers to God, showing everyone how righteous and religious they were. But it was a pretense, Jesus says. They were only pretending to be righteous and compassionate. The word “hypocrite” literally means pretender, one who is putting on an act. But God sees through every pretense. And for those who behave as the scribes and Pharisees did, there will be “greater damnation,” because they commit their sins in the name of God, and convince people that God favors them and their behavior. For that, they will suffer in the lowest pits of hell.

The third curse: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. The scribes and Pharisees did their version of “evangelism,” apparently, going out and seeking to bring people into the Jewish religion. And, if it had been the pure Jewish religion which taught people to humble themselves before God and to seek His favor through the promised Messiah, that would have been great. But that’s not at all what they did. Instead, they brought people into the Church and then turned them in self-righteous, nose-in-the-air people who were even more snobbish and merciless than the Pharisees were. In your lifetime, you have probably seen or heard of church people who fit that description to a tee, to the point that, in some people’s minds, it has become a caricature of what it means to be a Christian. Always been on your guard against such hypocrisy, so that it can never be said about you! Because having Jesus describe a person as a “child of hell” should send chills down such a person’s spine.

The fourth curse, and the final one before us tonight: Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, “Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing. But whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And, you say, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing. But whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is guilty.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore whoever swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. And whoever swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it. Oaths and vows were regulated by the Law of Moses. They were to be taken only in God’s name, calling upon Him as the One who would judge the liar or the oath breaker. By extension some people were taking oaths with the Jerusalem temple or God’s altar as the witness, not unlike how presidents take their oaths of office with their hand on a Bible. But the Pharisees had introduced these strange human ordinances and traditions, claiming that an oath taken on the temple or on the altar wasn’t binding. Only an oath taken on the gold in the temple or on the sacrifices on the altar was binding! These may seem like minor technicalities to us, but that’s kind of the point. Jesus is pointing out just how foolish the Pharisees had become in their micro-managing and regulating of everything, to the point that God and His Word were left behind in the dust, because they had made the life of God’s people all about following their made-up little laws instead of focusing on God and His temple and His Word. And God was fed up with it, because those blind Pharisees were blindly guiding God’s precious sheep to their destruction.

This is a harsh sermon, and Jesus isn’t done yet. As I said earlier, the curses aren’t directed at the penitent believers who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus. It’s directed at the hypocrites. But in exposing their hypocrisy, He is exposing the sin that infects all of us, showing us again why we can’t save ourselves, why we can never rely on our works, but must rely on Him alone to save us by His innocent suffering and death. He’s also warning us, because the sins of the Pharisees are all-too-common among those who have become religious, because the more religious we become, the more devoted to God and His Word, the less we participate in the blatant sins of the unbelievers, which is good. But then what can too easily happen is that we start to think highly of ourselves and our goodness, and that’s a recipe for disaster for the Christian. Trust in the Lord Jesus, never in yourself. And take comfort in His sermon against the hypocrites, because it’s your salvation that moved Him to preach it. Amen.

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Jesus is the God of Abraham

Posted on March 22, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Judica – Lent 5

Hebrews 9:11-15 + John 8:46-59

About a month ago, U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, claimed in an interview that those who practice Judaism, the Jewish religion, the one that rejects Jesus as the Christ, are the “spiritual descendants of Abraham,” and that, on that basis, they have a right to live in the land called “Israel.” I bring this up today only because that very question—who are the spiritual descendants of Abraham?—comes up in today’s Gospel and is answered definitively by Jesus. And, yes, His answer exposes Huckabee, and all who teach as he does, as dangerous and blasphemous false teachers. But much more importantly, Jesus’ answer calls all men to turn away from all their false gods and to seek eternal life through Him and through Him alone, because Jesus is the God of Abraham, which means that only those who believe in Jesus as their God are the spiritual descendants of Abraham.

The Jews were in a standoff with Jesus when our Gospel takes place. Jesus had been telling them very plainly that He had been sent to earth by God the Father, and that, because they didn’t believe in Him, they were wrong to call God their Father, even though they were physical descendants of Abraham. In fact, in the verses right before our text begins, He went so far as to tell them, to their faces, that, in truth, they were neither children of Abraham, nor children of God, but children of the devil himself, because they didn’t believe in Him, as Abraham did, and they were trying to kill Him, which Abraham never would have done.

“Which one of you convicts me of sin?” Jesus asked. And none of them could. And if I am telling the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears God’s words. That is why you do not hear, because you are not of God. What truth was Jesus telling that the Jews refused to believe? He told them the truth that He had been sent directly by God the Father. He told them the truth that He was the Light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. He told them the truth that He had the power to free them from the slavery to sin and to make them into true children of God, through faith Him, the true Son of God. The truth Jesus told was a gracious invitation to be saved through Him. But their unbelief revealed the truth about them: that, for as much as they claimed to be children of God, they weren’t.

And that upset them, to hear that from Jesus. Who in their right mind could claim that these religious Jews were not acceptable to God? The only conclusion they could come to was, “Do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and that you have a demon?” Jesus doesn’t react to their racial slur—something people often resort to when they have no actual argument—but He does respond to their charge that He has a demon, because that was outright blasphemy against Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and who judges.”

People often think they can dishonor Jesus and get away with it, disparage Him and get away with it, fail to listen to Him and get away with it. Because He lets them get away with it for a while. As He said back in John 3, God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. But ultimately, no one will get away with dishonoring Jesus, disparaging Him, or failing to listen to His teaching. God the Father’s patience will run out, and when that happens, if a person hasn’t repented of dishonoring the Father’s beloved Son, that person will wish he had never been born. Because death is not the end. It’s something that’s experienced forever.

But for now, there is still real hope for those who do repent. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. What a claim!

But first, what does it mean to keep Jesus’ word? What had He just said? He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. To keep His word is to follow Him. And to follow Him is, first, to leave behind the place where you were—living in sin, living for yourself, living for this life, hostile to God and His Word and His commandments. You leave that behind by repenting of it, recognizing the ugliness of your sinful heart, and by turning to God for forgiveness through His Son. That’s what faith is. Believing in God for forgiveness for Christ’s sake. At that point, according to Jesus, a person goes from dead to alive, from condemned to justified, from enemy of God to child of God. Such a person, living in the light of Christ, will then go on to live as a child of the light, struggling against sin and the deeds of darkness, being a light in the world, hearing the word of Christ, gathering with fellow believers, and doing all these things all the way through this life, until the end. That’s what it means to follow Jesus, and to keep His word.

Those who do that will never see death. What does He mean? Everyone knows that believers in Christ still die! Well, if you mean the temporary separation of body and soul, then, yes, believers still die. But to “see” death (or to “taste” death, as the Jews put the question back to Jesus) is much worse than that. To see death is for the soul to suffer in hell after that temporary separation of body and soul, a suffering which the one who keeps Jesus’ word will never see. To see death is to suffer it forever, to be raised from the dead on the Last Day only to be cast out of God’s presence into eternal condemnation and death. The one who keeps Jesus’ word will never see that. As He says a few chapters earlier, He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.And on the Last Day, Jesus says, the one who fell asleep in Him will hear His voice and come forth from the grave into the resurrection of life.

Of course, the unbelieving Jews were oblivious, as usual, to Jesus’ true meaning. They never were able to see the spiritual meaning behind His words, because they rejected the working of the Spirit of God. As the Apostle Paul wrote, The natural man, that is, the man without the Spirit of God, does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. So they said to Jesus, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets. And you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died. Who do you make yourself out to be?”

Even though they were wrong in their interpretation of Jesus’ words, they were right in their conclusion, that He was claiming to be greater than Abraham, and greater than all the prophets.

But before presenting His boldest claim of all, Jesus challenges them one more time. Jesus answered, “If I honor myself, my honor is nothing.” In other words, I’m not claiming this honor for Myself, this honor of being greater than Abraham and the prophets, this honor of being able to keep a person from seeing death. It is my Father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. You do not know him; but I know him. If I were to say, ‘I do not know him,’ I would be a liar, like you. But I do know him and keep his word.” Jesus, the Son of God, isn’t boasting when He claims that the Father honors Him. He isn’t boasting when He claims to know the Father. He’s simply speaking the truth. He’s also speaking the truth when He accuses those who do not believe in Him of not knowing God. And, if they claim to know Him, He is simply speaking the truth when He calls them “liars.” Whenever anyone claims to know God, you have to test that claim. Now, Jesus says elsewhere that not even everyone who calls Him Lord, or who calls himself a Christian, is actually a child of God, because there are many hypocrites who bear the Christian name without truly believing in the Lord Jesus. But of this you can be absolutely sure: Anyone who claims to know God, but who does not acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, most certainly is a liar.

Finally, Jesus made His boldest claim—for which they took up stones and were ready to kill Him on the spot. Your father Abraham was glad that he would see my day, and he saw it and rejoiced. These Jews who claimed Abraham as their father, but who hated and rejected Jesus, must have been livid to hear Jesus claiming that their father Abraham, who lived 2,000 years before any of them were born, loved Jesus and rejoiced in Jesus. How so? By believing and rejoicing in God’s promise that, one day, an offspring would be born to Abraham in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Jesus was that promised Offspring, the true Son of Abraham, the Savior of the world, to whose coming Abraham looked forward with all his being.

But Jesus was more than just the Son of Abraham. Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old! And you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” Not only the promised Son of Abraham, but the God of Abraham, who existed before Abraham was born, who was there interacting with Abraham during His earthly life, who will be there on the Last Day to call Abraham out of his grave, just as He will call all men forth from their graves. “I AM,” Jehovah God, or Yahweh. That’s who Jesus claimed to be.

So remember, dear Christians. Either Jesus Christ is the God of Abraham, the only true God, through whom alone salvation and eternal life come, who ought to be worshiped by everyone, or He was a kook, a blasphemer, a liar, and a fraud who doesn’t deserve to be followed by anyone. There is no middle path.

By the grace of God, you are among those who confess Jesus as the God of Abraham, and who hope in Him for this life and for the next, which means that you Christians are the true spiritual descendants of Abraham, who have been given the right to live, not on an earthly piece of land, but in the heavenly country, which is far better. Hold fast to Jesus as your God. Be among those who keep His word and do not turn away from it. And knowing His greatness, prepare to stand in awe, again next week, of the lowliness to which your God once stooped for us men and for our salvation. Amen.

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Introduction to the harshest sermon ever preached

Posted on March 18, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the week of Laetare – Lent 4

Isaiah 9:8-17 + Matthew 23:1-12

Turn your minds back to Holy Week again. It’s Tuesday afternoon. Soon Jesus will go out to the Mt. of Olives, to the Garden of Gethsemane, where He’ll give His disciples some final instructions about the coming destruction of Jerusalem, and about the difficult times leading up to the end of the world and the signs of His return for judgment. But first, He has one last sermon to preach to His followers about the scribes and Pharisees, the leaders of the Jews. It takes up a whole chapter, Matthew 23, which I’ve never preached on before at Emmanuel, first, because it doesn’t come up in the Church Year, but second, because it’s the harshest sermon Jesus ever preached. And it isn’t directed at believers in Him; it’s directed squarely at the wretched ministers of the Old Testament Church of Israel—at the very ones who would have Him killed by the end of the week. The words of this sermon were the last thing Jesus said to them before they would arrest Him on Thursday night, and how these words must have rung in their ears!

We’re going to review this whole chapter together tonight, next week, and on Monday and Tuesday of Holy Week—not because you’re Pharisees who need to have a harsh sermon directed at you, but because Jesus preached this sermon also in the hearing of those who believed in Him, for three reasons: (1) So that they could watch out for the false teaching of these unfaithful teachers, (2) so that they themselves would never fall into similar sin, and, most importantly, I think, (3) so that they could see just how zealous their Good Shepherd was for them, how angry their God was at the worthless shepherds who dared to mislead His beloved sheep. While those shepherds were destroying Jesus’ flock for love of themselves, He, the Good Shepherd was about to lay down His life for them.

Jesus introduces His harsh sermon by leveling two charges against the scribes and Pharisees.

Charge #1: They were teaching things to others that they themselves did not follow, thus setting a horrible example for the flock.

Charge #2: They were seeking to be acknowledged and revered by men as great teachers, turning the people’s focus toward themselves and away from Christ.

Let’s look at charge #1: Jesus spoke to the multitude and to His disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do that. But do not do according to their works. For they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders. But they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

To sit in Moses’ seat was to be a teacher of Israel like Moses was, a teacher who taught, not their own ideas or their own traditions, but the Word of God to the people of God. They were to teach the people what God had commanded them, through Moses, to do, and to not do. They were to teach the people both God’s justice and God’s mercy. They were to teach the people to ponder the sacrifices that were required for sin, and to look ahead to the coming Messiah to save them from their sins. As long as they were teaching in accord with Scripture, the hearers were to do what the scribes and Pharisees told them to do.

But, at the same time, the people were not to imitate the scribes and Pharisees in their behavior, because the scribes and Pharisees weren’t living according to their own teaching. Jesus calls them out for their open hypocrisy. “Keep the Law!” the Pharisees commanded. “Keep the whole thing! Keep it perfectly!” Yes, you should do that, Jesus says. But the Pharisees themselves don’t keep the Law.

Teaching people to keep God’s Law was not the problem. The problem was that the Pharisees believed that a person could earn himself a place in heaven by keeping the Law. So they preached it in all its severity to the people, laying a heavy burden on their shoulders, loading them up with guilt before God. But no one, including the Pharisees, was able to keep the Law well enough to earn God’s favor. And the Pharisees offered no solution to the people. “Just keep at it! Keep working at obeying! Harder and harder and harder! Make yourselves worthy of God’s attention!” But no one could.

The Pharisees should have directed the contrite sinners to God’s mercy in the promised Messiah, who would be the true sin offering that would atone for their sins and through whom sinners would have access to God. But, no. The Pharisees didn’t preach the Christ, much less Jesus as the Christ. And so they were leading all who followed them straight to hell.

Now on to charge #2: But they do all their works to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the best places at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’

Phylacteries were little boxes in which people kept some Scripture verses. It was a visible symbol people invented in memory of what Moses commanded: You shall bind my words as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Moses’ command was figurative, but by the time of Jesus, the Pharisees were using these phylacteries and hanging them from their forehead and binding them on their arms, and they made them large, so that everyone could see how obedient they were.

They had also “enlarged the borders of their garments.” That’s a reference to something God did actually command through Moses: Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them. Those little tassels on their garments didn’t have to be large. They were just supposed to be personal reminders of God’s commandments. But the Pharisees made them extra large and visible, so that everyone could see how obedient they were to God’s commandments. Everything they did was to be seen by men, and praised by men. They chose the best seats at feasts and in the synagogues. They were desperate to be revered and respected by everyone around them. Rabbi! Rabbi! That was music to their ears.

But God hates that kind of self-importance. He hates it when people lift themselves up above others, or, even worse, when they exalt themselves in God’s presence. Instead, He counsels His own disciples and followers to behave differently from the wicked scribes and Pharisees: But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ For One is your Master, even Christ, and all you are brothers. And do not call any man on the earth your father, for One is your Father, who is in heaven. Do not be called masters, for One is your Master, even Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”

This isn’t an absolute prohibition against calling anyone Rabbi, or teacher, or master, or father, from that moment on in history. We know that from the rest of Scripture, where all these terms are used for people, where God calls upon us to “honor your father and your mother.” The problem is when titles are used, or insisted upon, to bring glory to oneself, to lift oneself up in the eyes of men, instead of pointing men to Jesus, and to our Father in heaven. In other words, don’t be like the Pharisees, stealing God’s praise for yourselves, seeking prestige and honor and glory, walking into a room and expecting everyone to sit up straight in your awesome presence. That’s the opposite of what any child of God is supposed to do, much less a minister, who is called to imitate the Lord Jesus by being a servant to those who need his service, who is called to preach Christ, and not himself.

Now, none of this sermon from Jesus has been terribly harsh, so far. It will get much harsher as the verses go by. But hear in these words the voice of the Good Shepherd, who is fed up with the ministers who lead His sheep astray. Let His words bring comfort to the humble, and let them serve as a warning to those who would leave humility behind. Amen.

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What we really need from Jesus isn’t bread

Posted on March 15, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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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.

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