“Food to Sustain You in the Wilderness of Sin”
Exodus 16:1-4, 17:1-6

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Third Sunday in Lent—March 19, 2017

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

Today’s Old Testament Reading from Exodus begins, “The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Wilderness of Sin.”  What a great irony it is that the Israelites actually wandered in a wilderness by the name of “Sin,” “S-i-n”!  It doesn’t actually have any etymological connection to our English words “sin,” “sinner,” “sinful.”  But, the wandering of the Israelites in the Wilderness of Sin is a profound reminder to us of the parallel these events have to our own lives.

Because of our sin and humanity’s rebellion against the Lord, the entire world in which we live has become an inhospitable wilderness, in which we all must wander throughout our lives in this world.  Just as the Israelites wandered through the Wilderness of Sin on their way to the promised land, we too are wandering in the wilderness of this sinful world on our way to the promised land of heaven.  Just as Exodus records, over and over again, how they rebelled against the Lord in the Wilderness of Sin, we sinfully rebel against the Lord, over and over again, in our own lives.  Just as the first generation of Israelites, because of their sinful rebellion, were all condemned to die in the wilderness, and not allowed to enter the promised land, ALL of US deserve NOT to enter the promised land of heaven, but to be condemned to eternal death and damnation in hell.

The Good News is, instead of the eternal punishment that you deserve, the Lord promises you will receive eternal life—in the true promised land of heaven.  Because, Jesus your Savior made up for your rebellion by his perfect obedience; Jesus himself suffered the punishment for your sin, in your place, on the cross.  As Hebrews says, “We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all.” 

Before their exodus from Egypt, God’s people of old sacrificed for the first time the Passover lamb, on account of which God would “pass over” their sins.  St. Paul explains in 1st Corinthians, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed for us.”  The Passover sacrifice of the Old Testament pointed forward to Jesus Christ, “the Lamb of God,” who by the sacrifice of his life, death and resurrection “takes away the sin of the world.”  As St. Peter says, “You were redeemed . . . with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

Your sins are all forgiven, as St. Paul declares in today’s Epistle Reading, “Therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Right now you already have eternal life—not just a hope and maybe, but sure and certain.  For, Jesus has prepared a place for you in his heavenly Father’s house.  Yet, for a time, you still must wander in the inhospitable wilderness of this world, the true wilderness of sin, until the Lord takes you to be with him.

Today’s Old Testament Reading records how, “The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came . . .  to the border of the land of Canaan,” and how the Lord commanded Moses to strike the rock so that water gushed forth in the wilderness. 

St. Paul explains in 1st Corinthians the symbolic significance of the manna from heaven and water from the rock: “For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.  They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.  They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink.”

Just as the Israelites passing through the Red Sea symbolized the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, the manna from heaven and water from the rock symbolized the Sacrament of Holy Communion.  The Lord gave his people of old miraculous food and drink from heaven to sustain them physically on their long journey through the Wilderness of Sin to the promised land.  In the Sacrament of Holy Communion, the Lord still gives his people today miraculous food and drink from heaven, to sustain you spiritually on your long journey through the wilderness of this sinful world to the true promised land of heaven.

Jesus describes saving faith in him like spiritually eating and drinking:  “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. . .  I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. . .  I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.  I am the bread of life.  Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died.  But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. . .  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 real food and my blood is real drink.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.  Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.  This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.”

Just as the manna from heaven and water from the rock sustained the Israelites wandering through the Wilderness of Sin to the promised land, the true body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will strengthen and preserve you steadfast, through the wilderness of this sinful world, in the true faith, unto life everlasting, in the true promised land of heaven.