3 weeks ago for the first Sunday in Lent, the Devil proposed that in His hunger, Jesus should make bread for Himself; the next week, the Caananite woman whose daughter was oppressed by demons said that even a crumb from the bread of the master’s table is all she asked for in order to be satisfied. Today in both the Old and the New Testament reading we hear about bread yet again. Jesus feeds the crowds with bread and fish in the wilderness, and in the Old Testament God feeds the exodus pilgrims in the wilderness with bread from heaven.
“What is this?” This is the question the Israelites asked when they first encountered the bread that God had so graciously given them from heaven; bread that literally covered the ground in amounts large enough to satisfy every single person with the dew of the morning. Yet they asked, “What is this?” “Ma ana?” From which we get the word: Manna.
Set within the immediate context of this lesson, it’s very easy to hear a “snotty voice” accompanying these words. “What is this?” You call this bread?! Are you serious?! Is this a joke!” The text tells us very plainly that the Israelites had been grumbling and complaining about how bad they had it as freed children of God, and how much “better” they had it as slaves when they were living under Pharaoh.
Keep in mind, this is only about forty-five days after leaving the bondage in Egypt. They had just witnessed ten plagues; they were being led by pillars of cloud by day and fire by night; they probably still had dirt from the bottom of the Red Sea in the treads of their sandals after that miraculous crossing just a few weeks earlier. As fresh as it all was, none of that was registering. “That’s all great, but where’s the food?”
But what if the Israelites were actually asking their question out of genuine ignorance? What if they were genuinely hungry? I’m trying to put the best construction on all this. What if as they beheld the flaky stuff on the ground, they really, truly didn’t know what they were looking at? After all, it’s not like manna had ever appeared before. This was an entirely new and strange gift from God.
Now, these are the same people who will go on to grumble that they “have no bread, and they hate the bread they have.” They quickly come to hate the manna God so graciously gave them. How can you not look on these people with pitiful, angry disgust? But this is precisely why I want you to give honest thought to the fact that maybe, just maybe, at this moment they were asking ‘what is this?’ out of genuine ignorance and lack of understanding.
Look in the mirror. Are you really any different in your entitled ingratitude and ignorance and forgetfulness of His gifts? Are we always contemplating the goodness of God? Sadly, I know that I’m not any different. I do not appreciate fully what it is that gives in all the plenteous ways He provides. I can confess this. Am I so snotty, bratty, entitled, and unbelieving so as to take such an arrogant stance against God and grumble and complain that I deserve so much better? Well, I wish I could say ‘no,’ but that’s not the truth. I have had my share of crosses that I was convinced I didn’t deserve, and just like the Israelites, I did grumble and complain to God about it…just like all of you have done too. It’s an ugly, sinful truth that nobody wants to admit to.
How many times have you struggled and despaired and not recognized God’s gracious abundance in your midst? How many times have you missed or overlooked or just plain ignored the fingers of God at work in your midst, in your life, simply because you were looking for or expecting something very different; something more grand, more powerful, more showy? How many times does God show Himself in very real and tangible ways, and you just don’t get it? You don’t see it. You don’t recognize it.
Sadly, if we’re honest, it happens. It happens to all of us, and there’s nothing snotty or bratty about it. Maybe we miss it because we’ve been blinded by grief or worry. It happens. Maybe it is because we are distracted by something else in our selfishness. In the end we don’t see what’s right in front of us. We don’t recognize Immanuel: God with us in all His bountiful goodness.
What’s truly sad and regrettable is the fact that we do this with things that we’re already well-acquainted with. It’s one thing for the Israelites to ask ‘what is this?’ with the manna. As I said, it was an entirely new and strange gift from God. But what about us? God provides us with food and drink, house and home, family, friends, all that we need to satisfy us, but it’s not enough. We don’t see it as a gift. We want more. We all too often do not appreciate what we have been given. Then suddenly, things happen. Then, we struggle and despair; life gets tough; things get a bit sideways; things don’t shake out the way we want or expect, and we turn to God looking for some sort of miraculous sign or proof of His love or His presence as though it was never there. “God, where are you? Help! Why me? Why now? Don’t you care? Give me a sign and let me know that it’ll be alright.” You know, it’s easy to forget all the good that He has given us when things aren’t good or calm if we never had thought to appreciate it before. But even in the trouble, turmoil, pain, that may befall us in this sin plagued world, in those times when the devil is near to whisper doubts in our hearts, the Lord is still providing for our bodies and our souls.
God gives us proof of His love in the midst of our troubles by pointing us to the cross where the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, died on that cross reminding us of the weight of our sin and that by that sin we have never deserved anything but death and destruction… but we look at this gift, and we say, that’s great, but how does that help me now?
May God have mercy on us!
And the Lord does have mercy upon you and me even in our ingratitude even as He did to those wilderness pilgrims both in the Old Testament and New Testament lessons. Many of those people who followed Jesus did not understand who Jesus was but God had pity on them and fed them nonetheless.
But dear friends, we are not so ignorant. We are not called to remain in ignorance and unbelief. We are called, gathered, and enlightened to repent and receive from God His grace and forgiveness, to grow in wonder at His mercy and grow in appreciation, and not just for those things that keep our bodies living and breathing in its mortal frame. No, Jesus came, and Jesus died so that these bodies, our souls, may live forever. He gives us bread, meat, and life giving gifts to you and me far greater than the feeding of the Israelites at the time of Moses or in the feeding of the 5000.
Here and now God is raining down the dew of His gifts. The true manna from heaven is here in Jesus Christ. In the Word proclaimed in the liturgy, the hymns, the preaching, in the baptismal font as you entered the sanctuary reminding you when you entered into Christ’s Church. He is speaking to you the message of life. He is here, right where He tells you to look and listen; right where He has promised to be until the very end of the age.
‘What is this?’ In the words of Moses, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.” In the words of Jesus (words which He will speak just a few verses later in chapter 6), “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.” It doesn’t get any clearer than that. Here is Christ. Here is the Bread of Life in the bread and the wine, with His body and blood, the rich meat, bread and drink which help us in our body and blood. It is He who opens our eyes of faith so that we can be truly satisfied body and soul, mind and heart.
God opens your eyes and ears of faith to not only recognize, but to hunger and thirst for this righteousness; the righteousness of Christ that avails to everlasting life. Jesus Christ has been crucified and raised for the forgiveness of your sins, for your eternal life and salvation. This Christ-centered peace—this Bread of Life—will completely fill and satisfy your soul so that no matter what life may bring, richer/poorer, sickness/health, feast or famine, you will always be satisfied in the over-flowing abundance of God’s mercy, grace, peace, and love in Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.
Pr. Aaron Kangas