Bible Text: John 6:1-15 | Preacher: Pastor Andrew Richard | Series: Lent 2021 | Each Sunday of Lent so far we have had a stark reminder that the devil is real and hates Christ and man. When Jesus was in the wilderness, the devil assaulted him with all manner of temptations. We heard about the Canaanite woman’s daughter, who was severely oppressed by a demon. Last week Jesus cast out a demon who was mute, and then he spent quite some time teaching us about demons and the nature of the devil’s kingdom. The devil is real, and he is malicious.
It is good for us to remember that the devil is real. We would not want to be oblivious of such a foe. So the Apostle Peter warns us, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” The devil does a great deal of damage to those who turn a blind eye to his existence. “This foe with hidden snares May seize me unawares If I should fail to watch and pray. I walk in danger all the way” (LSB 716:1).
The season of Lent is marked by conflict with the devil. And if conflict with the devil marks the season of Lent, it certainly also marks our life in this world. It’s easy to see human powers and authorities at work. “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us’” (Ps. 2:2-3). But we must keep in mind the words of Ephesians 6: “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” When we see wickedness around us, we’re not seeing some nebulous dark force, nor are we merely seeing the power of men. We’re seeing the work of the devil himself.
We see the devil inspiring the mass murder of the unborn. We see the devil perverting marriage: stirring up strife between husband and wife, promoting sexual immorality and promiscuity and adultery, bringing up the wrongs of the other and encouraging bitterness and grudges. We see the devil corrupting children, indoctrinating them into wickedness and unbelief under the guise of education. We see the devil at work forming certain laws and seeking through the civil authorities to overthrow man’s very nature.
The devil is a liar and murderer, as Jesus says in John 8. And the things I just mentioned aren’t even the worst of it. The devil spreads false doctrine that makes people trust in themselves instead of Christ. He promotes a thousand ways of becoming righteous, all of which leave men in despair and on their way to hell. He propagates false worship, getting men to put their hope in mammon and the state. Most personally, he tempts you to sin, and his temptations are almost unbearable. Sometimes you fall prey to his temptations and you sin, and then he gloats over you. And even when you withstand temptation, the devil brings up your past sins and torments your conscience with them and seeks to lead you into utter despair.
It is good for us to remember that the devil is real. Nevertheless, the devil plays a special trick on those who acknowledge his existence: he tries to focus them entirely on his own evil devices and designs and so take their minds off of Jesus. It’s not enough for him that the wicked are obsessed with wickedness. He wants to make the righteous obsessed with wickedness as well, and if he can’t get them to commit wickedness, he tries to preoccupy their minds with wickedness. And he is rather good at it, isn’t he? The devil’s forces are like the storm and the wind and the waves, and the Church is like the little boat about to capsize on the Sea of Galilee. The devil’s forces are like an invading army besieging Jerusalem and about to breach the walls and flood into the city. The devil boasts, “My might is great, and you Christians are nothing. Who can deliver you out of my hand? You cannot withstand me. I loom over you and I will soon destroy you.” And against such boasting we pray to the Lord from Psalm 55, “Attend to me and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and I moan, because of the noise of the enemy, because of the oppression of the evil one.”
Our forefathers in the faith understood that it’s good to be aware of the devil. They also understood that it’s all too easy for Christians to become preoccupied with the devil’s rage. We can become so wrapped up in the power of the strong man that we forget the greater power of the stronger man who has delivered us from the devil’s kingdom. And therefore some brilliant man gave us the Fourth Sunday in Lent, Laetare. This Sunday is called Laetare after the first word of this week’s Introit: “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad in her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her” (Is. 66:10). Do you find yourself mourning over Jerusalem? Do you find yourself afraid for the future of the Church or quailing at the devil’s wickedness? Then you’ll love this Sunday.
This Sunday we don’t have Satan in our Gospel reading. This Sunday we have people in the wilderness, but they aren’t being tempted by the devil. This wilderness has a beautiful mountain and green grass. In this wilderness Jesus takes his people’s mind off of the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places and focuses them on himself and his teaching.
The feeding of the five thousand is a very significant event. It is one of the few events that is recorded in all four Gospels. And it is so significant because it is the fulfillment of a great prophecy recorded in Ezekiel 34. I’ll give a little context. The people of Israel had been unfaithful to the Lord, and he had sent Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to destroy Jerusalem and take the people into exile. God’s gracious promise to his exiled people was that he would bring them back. Even though his people had sinned against him, the Lord was not going to let the enemy gloat over his people. For the sake of his holy name, he would gather his people back to himself and they would have peace once more.
And so the Lord foretold in Ezekiel 34, “I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.”
In the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus does what he had promised. “Jesus went up on the mountain” and “There was much grass in the place,” as we heard in the reading. Jesus gathers his people to the grassy mountain heights of Israel and there he feeds his people as a shepherd pastures his sheep. Jesus draws them and their thoughts away from the devil and their former captivity and their sins and he grants them to delight in their Good Shepherd. The people reclined and ate and were satisfied.
Now the evil one had not disappeared, nor had demons ceased to exist. Christ and his Church still had plenty of persecutors and were surrounded by lies and murder. But these things don’t have to disappear in order for Christians to have peace. “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies” (Ps. 23:5).
But if the Christians in today’s reading had happiness and peace in the Lord, we have these things to an even greater degree. For at the time of the feeding of the five thousand Jesus had not yet conquered the devil. Certainly his people had no reason to doubt that he would do so. Jesus could cast out demons with a word. Yet the cross loomed before. The sternest combat still remained.
And now we can say: our Lord has fought that combat. He has endured the cross. And he did so with the happiness that marks this Laetare Sunday. Jesus takes great joy in redeeming sinners. When he finds his lost sheep, “he lays it on his shoulders,” not “begrudging,” not “lamenting,” but “he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing” (Lk. 15:5). This is he “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2). If Jesus was happy in the midst of his suffering, if he granted the five thousand to be happy in the midst of a fallen world ridden with peril and with devils at every hand, then certainly God grants us happiness as well, and all the more now that Jesus has defeated the devil and secured our redemption.
So “why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God!” (Ps. 42:11). Hope in the stronger man, Jesus Christ! He has destroyed the works of the devil. He has forgiven all your sins. He has undone death and given you life. He has chained up the devil. All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Jesus. He has set a limit for all his enemies. The nations rage and the peoples plot in vain against the Lord and against his Anointed, and “he who sits in the heavens laughs!” (Ps. 2:4). Laugh with him, O my soul! Laugh with him, dear saints! For though we are conscious of the devil, we are more conscious of Jesus, the conqueror of the devil. The devil shall not have his way. He never has. When the devil thought he was having his way with Christ on Good Friday, he laughed and frolicked and rejoiced, and suddenly he was caught in his own snare and his plots doubled back on his own head and he was put to shame in a moment as Jesus said, “It is finished,” and all of the devil’s schemes proved vain. “Satan, I defy thee; Death, I now decry thee; Fear, I bid thee cease. World, thou shalt not harm me Nor thy threats alarm me While I sing of peace” (LSB 743:3).
Therefore, today we sing, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’” (Ps. 122:1). For here are the mountain heights of Israel. Here are the green pastures and the good grazing land. Here is our feast in the wilderness. In the Gospel reading we heard, “Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand,” and we might wonder, “Why does John bother mentioning that?” He mentions it so that we’ll connect the feeding of the five thousand with the Passover at which Jesus instituted the Holy Supper of his body and blood. For the gathering and return of God’s people does not mean that Jesus relocates all his people to the land of Israel. But the gathering happens in connection with the bread, as Jesus says, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”
So Jesus continues to fulfill the prophecy of Ezekiel 34 in the Sacrament of the Altar. Here Jesus gathers us to himself, gathers us by his Holy Supper. Here he reminds us that we’re no longer captives in Babylon, no longer prisoners in the house of the strong man. But he, Jesus, the stronger man, has come and rescued us and set us free from cowering before the devil.
It is good for us to remember that the devil is real: Be sober-minded; be watchful. But it is even better for us to remember that Jesus has triumphed over the devil: be glad; be at ease. “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation,” we sing. And today the Lord does. He says, “Don’t take the devil quite so seriously, for he is disarmed and bound. It’s not worth being preoccupied with his wickedness. Here, I will occupy you with my righteousness. So long as I’m with you, it’s safe to brush the devil aside and be at ease and eat and be satisfied.”
Hence, all fear and sadness!
For the Lord of gladness,
Jesus, enters in.
Those who love the Father,
Though the storms may gather,
Still have peace within.
Yea, whate’er
I here must bear,
Thou art still my purest pleasure,
Jesus, priceless treasure!
(LSB 743:6)