Lent 4
Ex
16:2-21
3/31/19
Some people really enjoy
cooking. It’s basically a hobby for
them. They collect cook books and like to try out new recipes. They are willing
to invest time in making dishes that require extensive preparation.
There are probably many more people
who like to cook, but face the limitations of family life. Many evenings are a rush to get home from
work and get something on the table to eat before family members have to head
out for sports practices or games, church events, or other commitments. There
are days when culinary success is defined by simply having something for people
in the house to eat – when the ingredients present in the fridge and pantry
combine with an idea for a dinner in way that allows food to be on the table in
a timely manner.
No matter what the circumstances of
food preparation are, I am going to give you some sound advice this morning
about one thing you should never say
when another person has prepared a meal. Don’t esay: “What is it?” I promise you, this will not be well
received. “What is it?” does not
express, “This looks great and I can’t wait to eat it!” “What is it?” does not say, “Thank you for
your effort of making this delicious meal!”
Do yourself a favor, and just don’t go there.
In the Old Testament lesson for
today, “What is it?” is the response Israel gives the first time they see manna
on the ground. In fact the name “manna”
is derived from the Hebrew for this question: man hu The Israelites didn’t know what it was. They were puzzled. Their reaction was
certainly not one of enthusiasm or thanksgiving. Clearly, it is not what they expected or
would have chosen. Yet the manna was the
bread of heaven provided by God to give them life. And in the manna we learn
about Jesus Christ and what he means for us.
Our text takes place about a month and a half after
Israel had left Egypt in the exodus. All
the food the people had brought with them was now exhausted. The large number of people in the group meant
that the land wasn’t able to support them, even if it had been good for hunting
and foraging.
There was
no denying that the situation really was serious. But Israel’s reaction to it was not one of
faith. This is the people, after all,
that Yahweh had just rescued from Egypt.
In the Passover he had spared Israel while forcing Pharaoh to let Israel
go. At the Red Sea he had brought them through the water on dry ground, and
then had destroyed the pursuing Egyptian army.
Yet rather
than remembering these things and calling upon Yahweh in faith, they grumbled
against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness and 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.”
The
Israelites ignored what God had done for them.
In fact, they ignored God altogether as they focused blame upon Moses
and Aaron. Seemingly, they had forgotten
about the harsh conditions of their slavery in Egypt. Instead they remembered it as a time when
they were well fed and better off.
Instructed
by Yahweh, Moses and Aaron responded to the people: “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?” They
reminded Israel that their grumbling wasn’t really about Moses and Aaron. Instead, they were grumbling against Yahweh
himself.
The
grumbling of God’s people has not stopped.
We do it too. We grumble about
the circumstances in which the Church now lives – a culture that has turned
against the idea of truth itself. We
grumble about the way God is providing for us: Why don’t I have enough money to
go on a fun spring break vacation in Florida like those people I see on
Facebook and Instagram? We grumble about
the circumstances of our life: Why do I have these health problems that cause
discomfort, and require medication and doctor appointments?
Moses and
Aaron told the people, “the LORD has heard your
grumbling that you grumble against him--what are we? Your grumbling is not
against us but against the LORD.” Our grumbling too is against the Lord. It is a failure to trust and believe in him,
as instead we criticize the way he is directing our lives.
In response to the people Moses and
Aaron 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.” They said that
God was going to act. He would do something in the evening that would tell them
that it was Yahweh who had brought them out of slavery. He would do something in the morning that
would reveal his glory.
As soon as Aaron spoke to the people
of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness and saw the glory of the LORD as
it appeared in the cloud. Yahweh declared to Moses: “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.’”
That evening Yahweh delivered. Quail landed and covered the camp so
that people did receive meat. Then in
the morning dew lay around the camp. When the dew evaporated, there was left on
the surface of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the
ground. Israel’s response was to say,
“What is it?” They did not know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is
the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”
It was the bread that Scripture goes on to describe as the “bread from
heaven.”
God said
that in the morning they would “see the glory of the LORD.” He revealed his glory by giving them bread to
sustain life. Yet when they saw it they
weren’t impressed. In fact, they weren’t even sure what it was.
God’s gift
of manna was a type. It was something in
the Old Testament that pointed forward to what God would do in Jesus Christ,
for it is in Jesus the Word become flesh that we see the glory of God. In the Gospel lesson this morning we hear
about how Jesus fed more than five thousand people with five loaves of bread
and two fish. The next day that the
crowd sought out Jesus, and when he called them to believe in him they
countered: “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What
work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is
written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
Jesus
replied, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread
from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread
of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” When the people asked to receive this bread,
Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger,
and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
Jesus
Christ is bread from heaven. He is the
bread of life – the bread that gives life.
In our Old Testament text God says that he will give them bread and in
doing so he will reveal his glory.
However, this bread only sustained physical life. The people who ate it
eventually died.
God
revealed his glory in the incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, and he did so in way
that gives eternal life. Jesus said, “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.”
During Lent
we are preparing to again remember how Jesus gave his flesh in the suffering of
the cross. He came to be the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world. As
true God and true man he bore in his flesh the sin of the world – he bore your
sin. His flesh was nailed to the cross.
It was pierced with a spear as Jesus died to give you forgiveness. And then on the third day he rose from the
dead to give you life.
When the
Israelites first saw the manna, they were puzzled. Their
reaction was certainly not one of enthusiasm or thanksgiving. Clearly, it is not what they expected or
would have chosen. In the same way the
bloodied Jesus dying in the helplessness of the cross seems puzzling. It is not what we would have expected or
chosen. But by raising Jesus from the
dead, God the Father has revealed that it is through Jesus he has given us
forgiveness and life.
In order to sustain us in that life,
Christ continues to reveal his glory through bread. When Jesus said that bread he would
give for the life of the world was is flesh, the Jews disputed among themselves, saying, “How can
this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly,
I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal
life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
On the
night when he was betrayed to give his flesh for life of the world, Jesus used
bread and wine as he instituted the Sacrament of the Altar. He gave it to his disciples and told them
that he was giving them his body and his blood. We recognize that as the risen
Lord he continues to do this for us. In
the bread and wine of the Sacrament, Jesus continues to reveal his glory for it
is not merely bread and wine. Instead, because of the Word of Christ it is his
true body and blood given and shed for you.
Here we eat his flesh and drink his blood.
Because of
this we have eternal life. We have life
now – life as God’s children that will have no end – life that not even death
can stop. And we also know that Jesus
Christ will raise up our body on the last day. We may die before Jesus Christ
returns. Our body may be buried in the ground. I may be the one who buries you. But because this morning you receive the body
and blood of the risen Lord, you know
that your body will be raised too. You will share in the resurrection of the
body that has already begun in Jesus Christ.
