St. John 6:22-35
Dearly beloved,
If only we had manna, then things would be better. I could
use some heavenly manna right about now. How about you? How often have we
been in situations that call for a manna moment?! But is it good to be in a
manna moment? That is the question. If we look at the history of Israel,
then we should conclude that it’s not so good.
The people of Israel were in the desert. They were hungry,
thirsty. It was a bad situation. They get to the land of Edom, ancient
ancestors from Jacob’s brother Esau. The land of the Edomites was fertile.
It had water and food. The Israelites asked if they could cross through. The
Edomites said no. This left the Israelites with only one option: they had
to travel through the Wilderness of Sin. It was a barren desert--Little
water, no food, nothing but burning snakes and a hot thirst that would stop
the people.
The people enter the desert and immediately begin to
complain. The Israelites had just been freed from Egypt, but what is the
response? “Oh that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt,
when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full!” They
liked the idea of slavery now. But they forgot how harshly they had been
treated. The trouble is that they forgot what miraculous thing occurred
with God’s parting of the Red Sea.
Sadly, this is like all of humanity. Jesus says that no one
is worthy of the task when they take hold of the plow but then look back. But
we all do it. We take hold of the plow and trudge forward in the Christian
faith, but then when it gets tough, we often look back at how great
spiritual depravity was. This happens to Christians all the time. Someone
will start coming to church. They decide they like getting into the Bible.
Then comes a sermon. They enjoy being spiritually fed with God’s word.
The person goes home feeling pretty good. They feel that
they have really done something positive for themselves and they rejoice in
it. This may go on for a while, but eventually its stops feeling so good. So,
the person decides to serve in the church. Maybe the person helps out by
ushering, or providing a meal with the ladies aid. Then they feel good,
again. It feels good to serve. Maybe you talked to someone about Christ
and helped them during the week. This Christian stuff feels good. This is
no doubt how the Israelites felt when they crossed the Red Sea on dry land.
Things were looking up. God was saving them. But then, the
person who was enjoying church and feeling fulfilled through serving,
suddenly loses that emotional charge. It starts to feel like the same old
thing. Then something bad happens in the person’s life. Maybe it is just a
series of frustrating road blocks and detours. What happened to all the
wonderful things God was doing, the person asks. The person, then, does
what the Israelites wanted to do: they go back to spiritual slavery that is
native to the world.
This happens all the time. Churches in America see so much
turnover. Most growth in congregations are really just church hoppers. Few
people really enter as new catechumens. If they do, they have a high rate
of going through the scenario I just described. There are a few reasons for
this. First, we don’t really understand Jesus. We think that Christianity
is equaled to emotional charges. When the emotional charge is gone, so are
we.
Second, we don’t like hardship. The Israelites didn’t like
it. They were not at all pleased with Moses and Aaron because things
weren’t going the way they had envisioned it in their minds. This happens
all the time, too. We come into the church knowing exactly how things
should go. The problem is that we forgot to check with Jesus to see if He
would do it our way.
But we see a merciful and loving Lord, even in the midst of
the people’s unwarranted complaints. What did the complaints of the
Israelites equate to? A lack of faith. A lack of trust and obedience to the
Lord. God was merciful to them and said that He would rain down heavenly
manna. It was unusual. It was like a fluffy pastry. In fact, it was so
difficult to describe because it was so absolutely unique, to the point that
the name “manna” in Hebrew means, “What is it?”
Jesus then takes this and spins it around and speaks
concerning Himself in the gospel. “I am the living bread come down from
heaven.” “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger,
and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” Jesus is making an analogy
for us to ponder. We are in the desert. The desert is this world. We get
thirsty and hungry. When we do, we complain about it. We don’t like it.
We wish things to be the way they were before. We may wish
for things to be easier, but it wouldn’t be good for us. We complain about
hardship—this is a spiritual hunger and thirst. We go through our weeks and
wonder when things will change, but God is testing us. The Lord wants you
to be obedient. He wants you to trust; He wants you to love. The Lord
wants you to have your gaze fixed on heaven while you prayerfully call upon
Him while on your knees. For your grumblings and your sin, you are to
repent and ask for forgiveness.
Jesus will feed you with Himself. He gave you a different
kind of manna that rains down from heaven and is the true heavenly food. It
is Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. The Lord is merciful and
loves you very much. With this food of His, Jesus strengthens you in the
faith and enables you to love, to serve, and to look to heaven for His
blessings. His blessings will flow, and He will continue to do His good
work in you that comes from the cross and the empty tomb. Amen.
--
Rev. Chad Kendall
www.frchadius.blogspot.com
Trinity Lutheran Church
Lowell, Indiana
www.trinitylowell.org
