` Lent 4 - 2006

Lent 4 - 2006



Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Laetare – Lent 4 (March 26, 2006)
John 6:1-15
On the Baptism of Richard Edmund Peperkorn
For an audio MP3 version of this sermon, please CLICK HERE



TITLE: “Heavenly Food for God’s Children”


Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text for today is the Gospel lesson just read from John chapter 6, Jesus’ feeding of the 5000.

There is never enough, is there?  There is never enough bread to pay the bills, feed your family, do what you want when you want and how you want it to be.  You can almost hear the disciples thinking this in their head, as they try to figure out how to feed over five thousand people with five barley loaves and two small fish.  It doesn’t add up!  It doesn’t make sense.  It won’t work.

That, of course, is the message that Satan constantly wants to fling at you and I this and every season.  Satan, the father of lies, always wants you to believe that God will not take care of you.  You won’t have enough money, family, time, or faith to make it through the trials of this earthly life.  The good times won’t last, and the bad times are what life is really all about.  That is the message of Satan, and it is the voice of unbelief that we face every day, in one fashion or another.

Have you been there?  Have you believed that lie?  Have you allowed Satan to convince you not to trust in the God of mercy, who provides for all our wants of body and soul?  It’s easy to do, when that’s what your eyes tell you, when that’s what your heart tells you, when that’s what the math tells you is true.

It’s what the disciples, even Jesus’ closest companions believed.  Jesus is preaching and teaching the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins to the multitudes, healing the diseased, giving the Word of God to one and all.  They go up on the mountain.  You can almost see the mount of Transfiguration and Mount Calvary both from this mountain.  They go up to the mountain, and the crowds follow.  They want Jesus and what only he can give.  It’s near the Passover, that great day where God fulfilled His promises to the children of Israel, stayed the hand of the angel of death, and delivered them from the hand of Pharaoh.  Then Jesus does what only Jesus can do.  He feeds them.  One and all he feeds them.  From the pittance of an offering God brings forth a multitude of blessing.  For only God can perfect and make right what is wrong and weak and messed up in this world.

Now if you haven’t figured this out, this isn’t just about Jesus taking care of a bunch of food for the multitudes.  The way God works is both simple and profound.  This text teaches us about two ways that God takes care of us.  First He works by His Word and Sacraments to give us what we truly need.  As the catechism teaches: God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.  You see, dear friends, God takes care of us whether we ask Him to our not.  His love and mercy extends to the whole world, apart from faith.
 Because God loves to take care of His people.  Now perhaps we may not understand or recognize how he takes care of us.   But just because we don’t understand doesn’t make it false.  God promises to take care of us.  Period.

Now we know this because of two things.  First because of that view of Mount Calvary.  His death on the cross demonstrates to you that His love for you knows no bounds.  He who spared not His own son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall he not with Him also freely give us all things? 

The second reason is perhaps even clearer.  Jesus gives us His own body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.  He gives you the Bread of Life and the Chalice of Salvation to forgive your sins, raise you from the dead, and set you in His Holy Kingdom.  The waters of Holy Baptism, given to Richard this morning, bring us to the Table of Salvation, where we feast on heavenly food, where the Priceless Treasure is given out to all those who trust in His Holy Word and Promise.

This is a great and glorious day.  Laetare Sunday is the day halfway between Ash Wednesday and Easter, where we view Mount Calvary and from there, the empty tomb for Jesus, for you and for me.

So rejoice this day with the Church in heaven and earth.  God’s kingdom is increased, His Word of forgiveness comes to you this day, and His body and blood are yours according to His gracious promises.  Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting.  Amen.

Edited on: March 26th, 2006 9:44 pm
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