Lent 4
Ex
16:2-21
3/15/15
How are leftovers viewed in your
house? When I was growing up, I can
remember my mom at times almost being apologetic about having leftovers for a
dinner. Now my dad and I always thought
this was silly. Since it tasted very good
the first time around, we weren’t going to complain about eating it a second
time.
I still like leftovers for the same
reason today. However now I also
appreciate them for a reason that I never could have grasped back then. When you are growing up, you just take it for
granted that mom and dad make sure there is a meal. You don’t worry about whether there is going
to be one. Instead the concern is how
much you are going to like what is served – whether it is a real favorite or
not.
Now that I am a parent I have come
to understand that those meals don’t “just show up” on the table. Someone has to plan what you are going to
have. Someone has to go grocery
shopping. Someone has to prepare the
meal. It’s a lot of work. Amy does the
vast majority of it in our house, but given our schedule it also often falls on
dad’s limited culinary skills to get a meal ready. There are times when things don’t go as
planned, and Amy and I will look at each other and ask that dreaded question:
“So what’s for dinner?” How nice it is
to know that on a given night there really isn’t anything we have to do except
warm up leftovers – that a good tasting meal is ready to go.
And along the way I have discovered
something else about leftovers. There are dishes that actually taste better
as a leftover. There are dishes like
Amy’s Cincinnati chili, chicken tetrazzini, chicken chili, and potato casserole
which taste even better the second day.
The juices and flavor soak into everything when they sit overnight and
it is a pleasure to look forward to eating them again.
In our Old Testament lesson today we
hear a story about leftovers. However, in this case Yahweh commands that there aren’t
to be any. And in this unique
situation, leftovers turn out be worse than the first time around – a lot
worse, as the manna kept overnight breeds worms and stinks. Israel is to trust Yahweh to provide manna
for each day as he gives them the bread of heaven.
Our text takes place just after God
had rescued Israel in the Exodus. He had
brought them through the Red Sea on dry ground.
Moses and the people had sung: “I will sing to the LORD, for he has
triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The
LORD is my strength and my song,
and he has become my
salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will
exalt him.”
They had then gone three days into
the wilderness and found no good water.
We learn that because of this the people grumbled against Moses. So Yahweh had Moses throw a log in the water
and it became good tasting and drinkable.
Now Israel had journeyed out into
the wilderness away from Egypt. We learn
in our text, “And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled
against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to
them, ‘Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt,
when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us
out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’”
It’s not exactly what we would
expect after God had just dramatically spared them in the Passover and rescued
them in the Exodus; after he had destroyed the pursuing Egyptian army in the
miracle at the Red Sea. God does these mighty things for Israel, and then they
don’t trust him to provide them with food.
Of course, you do the same
thing. You see, God has done mighty
things to rescue you from slavery as well. He did the mighty things that we
celebrated at Christmas as the Son of God came into our world in the
incarnation. And now, during Lent we are
preparing to remember the dramatic things God has done to redeem you from
slavery to sin, death and the devil.
Jesus Christ suffered and died for you.
God the Father made him who knew no sin to be sin in your place in order
to give you forgiveness. And then on the
third day he defeated death as he raised up Christ.
This is the rescue that God has
worked for you. And yet your response is
doubt and worry about whether God is going to care for you – whether he is
going to provide for you. You worry
about paying your bills - even though many of those have been produced by
things that go far beyond daily bread.
You worry about your future and the course it will take. Worry so easily consumes your life about so
many different things. And yet worry is
a failure to trust God.
In our text, Israel failed to trust
God as they grumbled about how they were going to get food. And so the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am
about to rain bread from heaven for you.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the
people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought
you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the
LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against the LORD. For what are we,
that you grumble against us?”
Yahweh said that he was going to
rain down bread from heaven. And then he
had Moses and Aaron announce something very interesting. He said that in the evening the people would
know that he was the One who had brought them out of slavery in Egypt, and that
in the morning they would see his glory.
The events to which he refers are the quail that would begin to cover
the camp in the evening and the manna that would be on the ground in the
morning.
The proof - the evidence – that
Yahweh gives the people that he is the One who had rescued them is not a call
to remember what they themselves had experienced in Egypt and at the Red
Sea. Instead it was the provision of
meat and bread from heaven that he was going to provide. Yahweh then did reveal
his glory in the cloud, but when he did so he said, “I have heard the grumbling
of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in
the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the
LORD your God.’” Once again the meat and
the bread was the focus – it was the meat and bread that revealed Yahweh was their
God.
In our Gospel lesson, Jesus Christ
uses five loaves of bread and two fish to feed more than five thousand
people. This prompts a discussion the
next day in which Jesus says, “For the bread of God is he who comes down from
heaven and gives life to the world.” When the crowd asked, “Sir, give us this
bread always,” Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me
shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” Our Lord promises to give life – life that
satisfies in the deepest sense. And then
he goes on to say why: “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in
the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven,
so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down
from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread
that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
As the incarnate Son of God, Jesus
Christ has given his flesh for the life of the world – for your life. He gave himself as the Lamb of God on the
cross who takes away the sin of all.
Through faith in the crucified and risen One you have forgiveness. And
through faith in Jesus Christ you have life – eternal life already now.
In our Old Testament lesson God had
redeemed Israel – he had rescued them from slavery in Egypt. In the wilderness they worried about food.
But the real issue present there was not a lack of food, but rather a lack of
trust in God. The real issue was that
they had forgotten who Yahweh was and what he had done for them. And so Yahweh gave them meat and manna. But as we have seen his explanation of what
this meant was not about providing food.
Instead he said, “At evening you shall know that it was the LORD who
brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the
glory of the LORD.” He said, “Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.”
God calls you back to these same
truths, so that in turn you can trust him to care for you in his way. He calls you back to Jesus the bread of life
for it is through Jesus that you have been brought out of the land of slavery
to sin. It is in Jesus that you have
seen the glory of God revealed. It is
because of Jesus that you know God is the Lord your God.
What God does in our
text this morning is a miracle, but in many ways it was not impressive –
especially the manna. We learn that in
the morning dew lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on
the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the
ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is
it?” For they didn’t know what it was. In fact Moses had to explain to them,
“It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”
The same thing is true today. Here in the morning we see bread and wine on
the altar. When we ask, “What is it?”,
Jesus says, “This is my body. This is my blood.” Because of this body and blood given and shed
for you, you know that you have been freed from the slavery of sin. You experience the glory of the incarnate
Lord in our midst. You know that the
Jesus Christ is the Lord your God.
Because of Jesus’ body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar you know
what you have now, and what will be yours in the future. For Jesus says, “Whoever eats my flesh and
drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Jesus gives you this bread from
heaven; this bread of life so that in faith you can trust God’s presence and care
today. The One who has rescued you and
given you eternal life; the One who comes to you in this miraculous fashion
will not cease to care and provide for you.
So receive the bread from heaven for this day, and entrust today and all
of the tomorrows to him.
Excellent sermon
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