Pious Lutheran

Feeding the Five Thousand, Marten van Valckenborch, 1580-1590 Looking at the Unseen We spend too much time looking at the apparent problems Jesus pushes us to see beyond what is seen, so that we may see Him and His providence “What is this country coming to?” “I’m worried my children and grandchildren won’t have anything for them in this country.” I hear sentiments like that with some great regularity. There is much to worry about, or at least it feels like that when you pay enough attention to the news and politicians. But even before things like the news we’re pretty good at worrying. In some ways I think we might actually like worrying and being upset about the state of things, we like to complain and grumble. Afterall, that’s the kind of news we see most often, not because there’s only bad news but because that’s the news which sells and is most profitable. However, it’s not just that bad news sells, it’s also true that bad news is the easiest and most obvious to see. Apparent prob...

Four Loaves and Two Fish , Mosaic at Church of the Multiplication in Tabgha, 5th Century More than a Bread-King Jesus is the King of all creation and provides for His hungry people He provides food to nourish our bodies Most importantly, He provides Himself as the Bread of Heaven, and nourishes our souls Last week we talked about the Exodus out of Egypt in which the Israelites were rescued from their bondage to Pharoah. Nevertheless, in spite of their rescue, they did as we often do: they grumbled. “ The whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. ” When it says they grumbled against Moses and Aaron, they were really, in all actuality, grumbling against God, not truly Moses and Aaron. ...

Israel Fed and Given Drink in the Wilderness,  Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld When things aren’t going as expected and you’re having a bad day, what’s your general demeanor, attitude, and behavior? Typically we’re not full of smiles and joviality, instead we’re grumpy and sour, we lash out at others, we fill our minds and mouths with grumbling and complaining. In this state of mind we follow the path of least resistance, and it’s easier to tear others down than it is to think constructively.  We see the Israelites doing this in our text today: “ And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” ” They were having a bad day, their stomachs were growling, and they didn’t know ...

The small catechism teaches us: “God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” God provides for the needs of all people. The Lord’s providence is always sufficient. Even when we seemingly go without and suffer starvation and deprivation, the Lord is providing us with what we need. Thus our prayer, “give us this day our daily bread” is a prayer to receive God’s providence with thankful hearts, instead of grumbling hearts. A beautiful illustration of this is in the captivating tale of Robinson Crusoe. As a young man he was dissatisfied with his lot in life, so he set out to sea to seek his fortune. Time and again during his pursuit of wealth, he would find it and disaster would strike. Eventually, he was shipwrecked and washed ashore a deserted island, where he lived alone for nearly 30 years. During his time as a castaway, he ...

The Christian prays with the psalmist: “ The eyes of all look to you, O Lord, and You give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. ” We see quite clearly in our readings today that God feeds His people. In the Old Testament, when the people were in the wilderness, after being brought out of Egypt, God spoke to Moses saying: “ I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.’”   Likewise in the New Testament, when the people were gathered around Jesus in the wilderness without food: “ Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. ” Christ nourishes His people with food both for the body and the soul. Our Lord wants us to realize this in our day as well. God not only fe...

The past few weeks this Lent we’ve been considering how the Christian life is a battle that we’re engaged in. We’ve discussed how Jesus goes to battle for us against our enemies of sin, death, and the devil, thus triumphing over them in His crucifixion on the cross. We’ve also considered how we are engaged in this battle daily; facing temptations, our sins, this world, and even the devil himself; we are at war.  This war is no little skirmish that will be soon ended either, but it’s a daily battle which won’t come to an end until we die. Something we often take for granted in long wars has nothing to do with fighting the enemy, but it’s nonetheless crucial for us to claim the victory: nourishment, food, daily bread! Without sustenance, our enemy doesn’t even need to fight us, because we will simply starve ourselves and die without even having to pick up a sword.  Our Lord who goes before us into battle knows this important detail, and so He feeds us. While He has provided...