The Fourth Sunday in Lent (Laetare)

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The season of Lent has come to be thought of by many present-day Lutherans as a forty-day period of reflection upon the sufferings and death of Christ for our salvation. You have probably noticed that the Church’s historic lectionary gives a different flavor to the Lenten season—one focused less on justification and more on sanctification. And so, the first three Sundays in Lent have brought with them a focus on spiritual warfare. The devil’s temptation of Christ in the wilderness reminds us that he is on the prowl, seeking to inflict suffering upon God’s people. The story of the Canaanite woman reminds us that the devil is the real enemy in our earthly suffering. But in His infinite wisdom, God uses this suffering to test and prove our faith so that we might be strengthened. And our Lord’s words in last Sunday’s Gospel from Luke chapter 11 remind us that spiritual warfare is very real. But Christ preserves us from the devil’s efforts to scatter us by drawing us together in Him. But now we have come to a turning point in the season of Lent. The Fourth Sunday in Lent, which is known in Latin as Laetare, or rejoicing, is distinguished from the rest of Lent in some places by rose (or pink) vestments. For this day is a reprieve from the intensity of the Lenten season. The focus on spiritual warfare is behind us. The observance of our Lord’s Passion and death looms before us. But today, we are given a reprieve. Today we are given to see our Lord Jesus Christ as the one who sustains us on our journey through the wilderness of this life.

The first three Sundays in Lent have shown us that our lives in this sin-filled world could well be thought of as a time of wilderness wandering. Today’s Prophecy from Exodus 16 invites us to think of our own lives in parallel to the ancient Israelites. Just as the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, being oppressed, mistreated, and put to death, so too were we in bondage to sin, death, and the devil. All men are born blind, dead, and enemies of God. By virtue of our birth in this world, we are slaves to sin, and we are destined for God’s eternal wrath on judgment day. But God saw the affliction of His people. And He sent them a deliverer, Moses, who led God’s people out of slavery in Egypt that they might be brought to the Promised Land. Likewise, God has seen your affliction at the hands of sin, death, and the devil. And He, too, has sent you a deliver, His Son Jesus Christ, to lead you out of slavery to sin and to bring you to the Eternal Promised Land of the new heavens and the new earth.

Now, if the story ended there, it would be a lot easier (and less painful). But the story does not end there. Though they had been rescued from slavery, still the Lord needed to bring the Israelites through the wilderness so that they might finally come to the Promised Land. In like manner, the Lord does not bring us directly from the Font to Himself in heaven, as nice of an arrangement as that might seem to us. Rather, the Lord first leads us through the wilderness of this world so that He might finally bring us to the eternal Promised Land.

The wilderness is not a pleasant place. It is barren, brutal, and filled with any number of things that might kill you. And so, the Israelites complained: “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! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (Exodus 16:3). To a neutral observer, such as us, these words are theatrical and overdramatic—almost comically so. How could these people, who were being worked to death and whose children were literally being killed in Egypt—how could they utter these words with any amount of seriousness? And yet, suffering has a way of bringing out the drama queen in us all. How often do we make similar overdramatic and exaggerated statements when we are experiencing real pain and loss? The wilderness of this world is a brutal place. It has a way of bringing out the worst in everyone.

And yet, Christ entered the wilderness of this sin-filled world so that He might join us in our suffering and pain. It’s not that Christ’s presence with us decreases the sufferings of life or makes them go away. But His presence in our earthly sufferings does give them meaning as He sustains us on our journey through this life. This is why our Lord Jesus Christ led the multitude that followed Him in today’s Gospel text into the wilderness. They went up a mountain, far from civilization, far from any source of food. And there, Christ taught the multitude that He is all they need. For He will sustain them.

Notice how Christ is present with the multitude in the wilderness. Just as the Lord God led Israel into the wilderness in the pillar of cloud and fire, so too does Christ lead this multitude. He does not send them off on a journey by themselves. No. He accompanies and leads them. He suffers the pangs of hunger with them. For He will not leave them alone. He has known the fullness of human pain and suffering as He has borne our sins unto the cross. For there, on Calvary’s cross, He has overcome the power of sin, death, and the devil. They no longer have ultimate power over us. Though we will suffer in this life, though death will take our loved ones and cause us to one day draw our last breath, still sin, death, and the devil do not have ultimate power over us. Therefore, our suffering in this earthly life has meaning. As it was for the Israelites, so too is our suffering a part of the journey—it is not the end. As the Apostle says in his second letter to the Corinthians: “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthains 4:17). The more you suffer in this life, the sweeter eternity will be. For Christ is with you, leading you to the sweetness of this eternal Promised Land.

But Christ is not only present with the multitude to suffer alongside them and to lead them to their eternal home. He is also present with them so that He might sustain them in their wilderness wanderings. The Lord God provided manna from heaven for the Israelites so that they could be sustained in their journey through the wilderness. He likewise provided bread from heaven for the five thousand. These men, women, and children who had no other food to eat had their hunger satisfied by our Lord’s miraculous sign. In the same way, He provides daily bread to all men by giving us clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all that I have (cf. Luther’s Small Catechism – First Article of the Creed and Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer). As we journey through the wilderness of this world, Christ provides us with all of the bodily nourishment and sustenance that we need.

But Christ’s provision for us in the wilderness of this world in not merely bodily. He says to the crowd later in John chapter 6:

“I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (John 6:48-51).

Christ does not merely sustain us in a bodily way on our journey through the wilderness of this life. He sustains us in both body and soul unto life everlasting by giving the bread which is His flesh that has been given for the life of the world. See, on the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ did not only atone for the sins of the world. He also made a way for us to eat of the fruit of the cross and so live eternally. His Body has been given and His Blood has been shed upon the cross so that He may give them to us under the forms of bread and wine for our forgiveness, life, and salvation in His Holy Supper. And so, the Feeding of the Five Thousand is a foreshadowing of the Sacrament of the Altar. For today’s Gospel tells us in language eerily similar to the Words of Institution:

And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down (John 6:11a).

Dear friends in Christ, this world is not your home. We await the new heavens and the new earth, which will be brought to fruition when Christ returns in glory on the Last Day. Until that day, we live in the wilderness of this earthly life. And in many ways, this world is not a pleasant place. It inflicts suffering upon us at seemingly every turn. But Christ is with you. He is leading you to your eternal home. He sustains you bodily in this life. And He gives you His very Body to eat and His very Blood to drink in the Holy Communion so that you might be sustained not only in body but also in soul until the day comes when we leave behind the wilderness of this life and we are fed by Christ at the feast which has no end.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.