Sunday, August 4, 2024

"What is it?" The Bread of Life! - Exodus 16: 2-5 & John 6: 22-35

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

It all came about because the people were grumbling. Two months into the wilderness journey, just sixty or so days since they fled from the Egyptians and the wicked pharaoh, and the people were already lamenting how they left behind pots of meat and baskets of fresh vegetables. If you want to talk about romanticizing a situation, this was it. Back in Egypt, they weren’t shopping at Central Market, they were digging in the scrap bins. It wasn’t “Here Everything’s Better” – it was here, everyone was begging for their lives. It wasn’t “Save Money – Live Better,” it was save our necks and live one more day.[1] But their scrap stew and stale crusts of bread seemed like a 5-star Michelin meal compared to the hot air that they were dining on in the desert. What they had in Egypt wasn’t much, they could honestly say, but it beat starvation. And so they grumbled – they grumbled against God and grumbled against Moses. “It would have been better if we died in Egypt than to die out here in the desert,” they lamented.

No. It would not have been better had they died in Egypt. Nor would it do for God’s people whom He rescued to die in the wilderness. How terrible that would be. Could you imagine the laughter back In Egypt, anywhere where God’s name was spoken? “Oh, yeah…that Israelite God. He was strong enough to perform ten incredible plagues over Egypt and part the Red Sea, but he forgot His logistical supply train out in the desert…” No, that wouldn’t do at all. So the Lord, in His grace and mercy, reaches out His hand and rains down blessings upon His hungry, grumbling people.

Manna. In Hebrew, manach. We know what it is, sort of, because Exodus describes it. We talked about it Wednesday evening, trying to imagine it: fluffy like mixed feed for cattle; flaky like frosted flakes; light enough to be left like the dew, like cotton candy; something, somewhere in between. The ancient Israelites had no clue, so the name of this flaky, semi-sweet, coriander-like, bread-ish substance means exactly that: “What is it?” Vas ist das? It’s not exactly bread, lechem, at least not like the bread they had always known, but that’s what God called it. It came to the ground overnight, a left-over remnant after the dew. The Children of Israel were to harvest it in the morning, enough for each person in the family to have enough for three meals in a day – nothing more. If they tried to store up extras, to squirrel away a little manach for a rainy day, so to speak, they were left with a stinky, bug-infested mess. They were to only collect a day’s ration at a time, enough for each person in the household. It was as if God were saying, “I will provide. Do you trust me? You have My word and my word does not fail. Do you trust me? Every day, go collect the daily ration – with the exception of Friday when you collect a double portion for Sabbath – and you will not hunger.” And the Lord did as He promised. Every night the dew lay on the ground and every morning the manna was ready to be picked up.

Ah, yes. Every morning. Every morning for forty years the Lord provided perfectly for His people so their bellies didn’t growl in emptiness. Every morning, three times a day, seven times a week, 365 days a year, times forty. That’s over 45,000 meals of manna that were eaten over 40 years. Every morning, God’s blessing literally appeared on the ground and every day, mana in the morning, quail at night, and the people were fed.

But it was an every morning ordeal. Every morning they had to go pick it up. Every morning they had to go collect the manna so they would survive. That’s 14,000 mornings of going out and gathering manna, 14,000 nights of gathering quail, with a weekly day off. Every morning, baskets of manna to provide the day’s meals. Israel was experiencing God’s curse to Eve in a very personal way: “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground…” (Gen. 3:19). God was again using bread to save His people, but it was only a temporal salvation that had to be repeated every day until they entered the Promised Land. 

Daily bread. We know about daily bread, don’t we, and the work it takes to have it. Now, by daily bread, I don’t just mean Mrs. Baird’s finest. That’s part of it, sure, but daily bread encompasses much more. Luther says it’s everything that we need to support this body and life such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, family, employment, good weather and more. We know about this bread and we know about getting it. We get up in the morning and go to work. For some, that’s going to the plant; for others, that’s planting in the ground. For some, it’s an office or a classroom; for others, it’s an oilfield or a warehouse. For some, it’s driving a vehicle for sales or delivery; for others, it’s crawling under a car to service it. But every morning, except our Sabbath, it’s up and at ‘em, making hay while the sun shines, turning and burning, trying to gather the daily bread that the Lord provides through our work.

But daily bread is just that – it’s daily. It’s fleeting. It passes. Whether it’s the food in the pantry, the clothes on our backs, the health of our bodies, the money in our IRA and 401Ks, or the stability of our families, they don’t last forever. Do we work to live, or live to work? It’s tempting to become jaded. It happens to me, too. I’ve been there, myself. Some days, I understand the words of the writer of Proverbs 1 a little more clearly than others: “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”  What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?” (Prov. 1:1-3)

Jesus picks up on this in today’s Gospel lesson. “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” (Jn. 6:27). He is teaching the crowds that followed to stop following Him because of the miracles and the baskets of bread. Instead, follow Jesus to receive the gift that lasts into eternity.

The gift isn’t earned by going to work each day. This is a food that’s given you free, gratis, from the Son of Man, from Jesus, marked in His Baptism as the Son of God and Source of salvation.  Jesus alone, and there is no other.

Jesus our bread; Jesus our drink.  If you’re thinking Lord’s Supper, you on the right track.  But today it’s about trust in Jesus and His work to save you.  So that you don’t doubt, so that you don’t wonder if this bread is for you, He gives you a sign. It’s not changing a lunch into a massive potluck. It’s something greater: His death and resurrection.  That’s how this Bread of Life is baked - in the fiery furnace of God’s wrath against our sin and in the burning heat of His passion to save His fallen creation.  Like wheat ground up by the mill and put into the fire, Jesus endured the cross bearing our sin in order to be our Food, the Source of life.

“I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus said.  Think about it: bread.  Not croissant, not challa, not fancy, crusty gourmet loaves, not a delicacy to be indulged in once and a while.  Bread.  Daily, ordinary, earthy food.  Jesus is manna for sinners - those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  You, in all the ways that sin has left you empty and hungry.  There is food that endures forever.  A Bread that gives life forever.  A drink that quenches your thirst and soothes your parched soul.  Not “chicken soup for the soul,” but bread of life for your life.  And it is free.  Not earned but given, received.

When I was a student at the Seminary in St. Louis, there was a cooking show on the local PBS station that I loved to watch. The host was a Dominican monk from the nearby monastery in Illinois and his show was called, simply, BREAKING BREAD WITH FATHER DOMINIQUE. I guess I was a groupie – I got his cookbook for a Christmas gift. And, I have to admit, as I was writing this I googled “Breaking Bread with Father Dominique” and I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only is he still baking, but I also found both his blog and his video channel.

One of his first episodes, he was discussing the basics of how to bake bread. Apparently, a lot of people are intimidated by bread because of the yeast involved, and then the kneading process, and the time it takes to bake bread – about three hours, start to finish – so he was trying to soothe first time bakers. Short of killing the yeast, it takes a lot of work to really mess up a batch of bread.  He said, “Don’t worry about the bread. It is your friend. Bread is very forgiving.” 

That Bread is Jesus Himself - Jesus in the Word, Jesus in your Baptism, Jesus in the Bread and Cup.  Jesus, for the full and free forgiveness of all of your sins. Eat and drink, trust in Him, and you will filled with life forever.



[1] Slogans for HEB grocery and Wal-Mart, respectively.

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