Lent IV: Laetare - March 15, 2026

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

The crowd of over 5,000 people were hungry.

They had no food. So Jesus multiplied enough bread and fish to feed the people.

It was a wonderful miracle.

But Jesus used this miracle to point forward to something that is greater.

Namely himself, for Jesus is the living bread.

Bread is a central part of our diet.

It's used in toast, bagels, muffins, hamburger buns, pizza, and the list goes on and on.

Bread is oftentimes called the staff of life. Just as a staff or a cane helps

a person walk straight or upright So also the bread is our staff of life It keeps us alive,

it keeps us living It sustains our physical life The breadwinner in the family

is the one who provides for the family The so-called breadbasket of the world

is areas where it produces a lot of food.

Bread sustains the body. It is essential for living, but there's something greater, namely Jesus.

Jesus gives bread for eternal life.

It's not surprising that bread appears often throughout the Scriptures.

So, for example, after Adam and Eve sinned, ate the forbidden fruit,

God said to Adam that cursed is the ground because of you.

By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.

God meant that in this fallen world, it'll be toilsome to provide food for the table.

When God instituted the Passover meal, unleavened bread was one of the contents for the Passover.

When the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness and ran out of food,

God gave them bread from heaven.

They asked, what is it? In other words, it's manna.

Moses said, it's bread from, this is the bread which the Lord has given to you to eat.

And after Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, he was led up in the wilderness

to be tempted by the devil.

And what did the devil tempt Jesus with?

Bread. Turn these stones into bread, the devil said to Jesus.

But Jesus said, no, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that

proceeds from the mouth of God.

Bread is important for life, but God's word is absolutely necessary.

In the fourth petition of the Lord's Prayer, we pray, Give us this day our daily bread.

What is meant by daily bread? Luther says in the small catechism that daily

bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body,

such as food, drink, clothing.

Shoes, house, home, land, animals, goods, and the list goes on and on.

All of these things come to us from God.

On the night in which Jesus was betrayed, he instituted the Lord's Supper.

And just like the Passover, unleavened bread is one of the contents for the

Lord's Supper And of the bread, Jesus says, take eat, this is my body So bread is important,

it sustains our physical life But Jesus gives something greater than earthly

bread He gives eternal life and he himself is our living bread.

When Jesus asked Philip, where are we to buy bread that we may be able to feed everybody?

Philip should have said, why, Lord, you just perform miracles in Galilee.

You healed the centurion's son. You healed the man at the pool of Bethsaida.

I believe that you can supply enough food for these people.

But unfortunately, Philip never said this. He thought that it was impossible

to buy enough bread to feed all these people. We just don't have enough money.

Andrew should have said, Lord, you are the son of the living God.

You are life and you sustain life. You are able to satisfy the hunger of these people.

But Andrew never said this.

He said that this boy's lunch of bread and fish was not enough to feed everyone.

So both Philip and Andrew failed

the test. They failed to see Jesus as the solution to their problem.

They failed to see him as a giver of life.

They failed to see him as their source of life.

We are no different. As sinners, we try to solve our own problems.

We try to take matters into our own hands.

And after we have failed, well, then we will turn to prayer.

Now, there was much grass in the place. And Jesus had the people sit down in the grass, sit down.

And Jesus took the loaves. And when he had given thanks, then he distributed

the bread and the fish to the people.

And it was a miracle. The bread and the fish just kept multiplying.

And the people ate until they were satisfied.

Then Jesus told his disciples to gather up the leftovers.

Why? Jesus said in verse 12, So that nothing may be lost.

Gather up the leftovers so that nothing may be lost. the Greek word for lost,

can also be translated as perish.

Gather up the leftovers, for these will not perish.

In other words, don't throw the leftovers in the garbage to rot.

It's miracle food from Jesus. You don't treat it that way.

Gather up the fragments. Furthermore, the disciples were to gather up the leftovers

so that they may not perish from hunger.

So that they may have food for another day.

Jesus went on in John chapter 6 to say, Do not labor for the food that perishes.

John 6 · chapter mention

But for the food that endures to eternal life, which is the Son of Man, he will give to you.

Earthly food perishes, but the

food that Jesus gives us endures to eternal life, and the food is himself.

Regarding the word perish, we cannot but think about John 3.16.

For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

To perish means to be lost eternally, to fall into death and judgment.

But Jesus does not perish.

Think about the manna in the wilderness. God fed Israel with bread from heaven for 40 years.

Yet that the manna that they kept overnight perished.

It stank with worms that perished.

It's spoiled.

And even though they ate the heavenly bread, the people themselves died in the wilderness.

The manna perished, but Jesus' bread does not perish.

The people of Israel perished in the wilderness, but those who believe in Christ will never perish.

There will be eternal life.

Jesus said, I am the bread of life. And again, he said, I am the living bread

that came down from heaven.

Whoever eats of this bread will live forever. And the bread that I will give

for the life of the world is my flesh.

Jesus died upon the cross for our sins, yet death could not hold him in the grave.

Life itself cannot remain in the grave. So on the third day,

Jesus rose from the dead.

Jesus is called living because he was able to rise from the dead and he lives forevermore.

Whoever feeds on Christ will live forever. Jesus fed the 5,000 with ordinary

bread so that they may learn about the true bread.

He still feeds us with earthly bread so that we may hunger for the bread that gives us eternal life.

When we pray before meals, we recognize that this food comes from God.

Every piece of bread, every bite of meat, every drink of water, comes from God.

He feeds our bodies because he cares for us, but he also feeds our soul with his precious gospel.

Woe to the person who only cares about the body, about food,

comfort, money, sinful pleasure, and not about Jesus.

Martha worried about serving food, whereas Mary sat at the feet of Jesus, listening to his word.

Woe to the person who worries about work, about money, about the future,

about your health, and not about the one thing needful, namely the word of God.

Our sinful flesh says, I must work. I must make more money.

I don't have time for church, for prayer, or for scripture. But this is backwards.

This is terrible. It makes no sense to abandon the giver of all good things

while chasing material things for more comfort, for more pleasure.

Yet Jesus does not stand in the way of what is good for us. He warns us about

the sin which will destroy us.

And without faith in Christ, we will then perish eternally.

Christ will never bless your greed, your pride, your lust or selfishness.

But everything good comes from God.

Our food, our meal, our home, our family, our friendship, our joy in life, all comes from God.

So it makes no sense to abandon the creator and chase after things that he created

Why run after stuff that perishes while neglecting the one who provides for both body and soul?

Jesus, again, Jesus said, do not labor for the food which perishes,

but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.

In other words, earthly food is important, but Jesus, our bread of life,

is absolutely necessary.

Dearly beloved, do not see Jesus only in earthly terms. Do not see Jesus as

someone whom you will follow, only if he blesses me materially.

Don't work for earthly bread alone which perishes, and ignore Jesus,

your source of eternal life.

As sinners, we hunger for a righteousness that we cannot produce.

We thirst for the forgiveness of sins which we desperately need.

Just as Jesus satisfied the Israelites'

hunger by sending bread from heaven So also God satisfies your hunger for righteousness

By sending Jesus down from heaven, our living bread.

God sent manna to save the Israelites from starvation, and he sent his only

begotten son to save us from damnation.

The Israelites ate bread in the desert and died, and we who partake of Christ's

body and blood will live forevermore.

Jesus once said, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies,

it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain.

In other words, Jesus is the grain of wheat.

He died. It was planted, if you will, buried into the earth,

but death could not hold him in the grave. He rose from the dead and lives forevermore.

Therefore, Jesus is rightly identified as bread which is living.

The resurrected Christ produces much grain, and you, the baptized, are part of his harvest.

The man in the wilderness was free. The bread that Jesus gave the crowd of 5,000 was free.

And so also, salvation for us is completely free. It's by grace and not by works.

Faith simply receives what Christ has done for us.

Jesus said, man shall not live

by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Jesus also told Peter, feed my sheep.

And he is to feed the flock with the word of God.

Today, the word of God is living and active. As you hear it read and preached, you are being fed by it.

It gave you life in the waters of baptism, and it sustains your life even now.

Never skip church. It is our source of sustenance for our faith in Christ.

So also you receive Jesus, the bread of life, here at the altar.

Jesus here gives his body and blood for the forgiveness of all your sins.

Jesus once said in John 6, Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal

life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

Earthly bread sustains the body, but heavenly bread sustains the soul.

Earthly bread costs money. We work for it by the sweat of our brow,

but heavenly bread is free.

Daily bread is temporary, but in Christ, God satisfies our hunger and thirst for righteousness.

God provides bread that lasts forever, and that bread is himself.

He is your living bread In Christ you shall never perish You will live with

him eternally Thanks be to God Amen.