“LAETARE 2024”
Saint John 6: 1-15
Laetare: 10 March Anno Domini 2024
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
He, and the other two Persons of The Godhead hovered over the face of the deep—the waters—as all participated in a Trinitarian way in creation. Ever since, The Son of God, has been intimately connected with water. Water the source of life. But so too, food, “meat” as the King James text usually renders it. But the genuine “staff of life” is the staff from the ground bearing wheat. Bread. The Bread of life sustains man here, and in The Blood, there is life hereafter. So, in the true Bread there is the True Body—with The True Blood of God—Christ—The God/Man.
From primordial oceans to the rivers flowing from Eden. From the world-wide deluge to the Red Sea. From the Jordan River to the Sea of Galilee (the Sea of Tiberias) to every Baptismal + Font. Your Jesus keeps you moist, cool, hydrated, refreshed, and green (even in the violet, or rose of Lententide).
Yes, there are sins every day, in every way, due to the condition of your fallen nature. There are sins, spontaneous against all the commands of the second table. But the greatest sin, is the sin against the greatest law—“You shall have no other Gods…you should fear, love, and trust, in God, above all things.”
“A great multitude followed Him, because they saw His miracles which He did on them that were diseased.” That was normal. It made sense according to the eyes. But the “signs” which The Christ performed were not so much to relieve suffering and to garner both approval and a great following, as they were to show Who The Nazarene really was. They were to demonstrate to His Disciples, to The “12,” that He was Messias—the fulfillment of all Hebrew Scripture. The He was The Truth—The Living God—and that the fullness of time had come.
When you think deeply, you know your food does not really come from DoorDash, McDonalds, or from your local supermarket. You know it does not come from ConAgra or Monsanto ‘Franken-food’ laboratories. You even know it ultimately does not come from local farmers and community markets. And if you are trying to feed yourself with your own gardens and livestock you REALLY know it does not come from your efforts. You are fed by God. And you know this.
The Israelites were fed angel’s food—miraculous Mana from The Lord—sweet and nourishing honey cake/wafers. They grumbled. You give your children healthy vegetables and they grumble. You yourselves constantly grumble about your food, your spouse, your children, your jobs, all of your daily bread. You grumble, well, at least your “old sinful nature” murmurs about hearing this same old “feeding of the 5,000” text year-after-year. And “old Adam” desires a bit of novelty. At least the pastor should try and “open it up a bit” to new exegetical flowerings. Maybe a Greek word, or even better, some philological and morphological glimmer from Aramaic, Hebrew, old-English, or Sanskrit. No. No.
It is The Lord’s Word and His Word in Flesh. It is The Lord’s Word and His Word in Blood. His Word does what it says and is what it is. No typological explications this morning on numbers, grass, pastoral mediations, or whatnot.
There were people that needed real—natural—food. They did not have it. Christ in His Mercy and love provided it. Something from nothing and certainly an abundance from a real scarcity. A miracle. A sign that Jesus of Nazareth was LORD and God.
There are people here today that need real—Supernatural—food. You may not “feel” it or desire it, but you need it. You are sinners, as you have confessed, and you need both more forgiveness, assurance, and strength for you long Lenten journey—to the grave—and to the Resurrection.
If you do not feel a real and palpable hunger and thirst for The true Mana, The true Body of Jesus and His real Blood, then I pray for you and I urge you to pray yourself—for repentance of weak faith and Holy Spirit worked faith in Christ’s Word.
But this is not a force-feeding as some prisons and governmental agencies will do to keep someone on a hunger-strike from dying. No. You may not feel hunger for the spiritual Mana of Life eternal, but The Holy Spirit calls you by The Gospel. You are The Shepherd’s pre-destinated flock and you are brought to the pasture of Peace.
“Two hundred pennyworth of bread…” And I don’t care what your Study Bibles or Commentaries say about what that would be in today’s money! I say two gazillionworth of worldly natural bread is worthless in the end. As Christ told the woman at the well in Samaria that no matter how many times she lowered and raised the bucket from the well she would always be thirsty again. Only The Water that Jesus gives—His Blood for forgiveness; only The Bread of heaven which Jesus gives—His Body for forgiveness; is that which brings comfort and home-coming.
The Sacrament of The Altar; The Holy Communion; The Lord’s Supper; The Blessed Mass; The Eucharist; this even greater than daily bread at the home table. This is THE Daily Bread of life and light unto eternity. Supernatural bread? Yes. But more so—supra-natural bread…ABOVE bread. The wafer is there; the wine is there; but after Jesus speaks that is so “beside-the-point.” The Lord never says “Take eat, This is MY Body---in, with, and under—bread.” Because He wants you to focus on what the bread and wine are Sacramentally communing to you—HIS TRUE BODY and TRUE BLOOD. That is, his veritable, actual, true, real, BODILY Body and Blood.
THE Prophet is in the world. He is at Augsburg. His “sign” at your altar shows you Who He is and who you are—in Him. That is The Good News. That is enough.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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