Laetare Sunday

Written By Fr. Michael

THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER LENT

THE REV. DAVID NORTON

Today is the 4th Sunday in Lent, otherwise known in the Church’s liturgical calendar as ‘Mothering Sunday.’ This title comes from today’s epistle reading, where we heard these words read to us a moment ago: “…we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free” (Galatians 4:31 - KJV) In Paul’s allegorical presentation of Galatians 4, hope is encountered by all Christians, as the Apostle reminds us of our true identity in Christ: we are people of the Promise, not the Law – children of Sarah, not children of the bondwoman Hagar – our life comes not from Mt. Sinai where the law of perpetual sacrifice was given to Israel, but our life comes from Mt. Moriah, where the final substitutionary sacrifice was paid once and for all, for those that spring from the line of Abraham by faith, and whose true citizenship is of the Heavenly Jerusalem.

Another name given to this 4th Sunday in Lent is ‘Laetare Sunday.’ On this mid-Lent Sunday, the rigors of the Lenten fast are permitted to be relaxed, and the propers of the Mass display a note of rejoicing and festivity. Some churches will honor this Sunday with the liturgical color of ‘rose’ blended into the penitential color of purple. Some churches on this Laetare Sunday will even place flowers once again on the altar, but only for this Sunday. For in Lent, in recognition of our pursuit of Christ into the wilderness ‘to lament our sins and acknowledge our wretchedness,’ the signs and symbols of the Church’s rejoicing are removed.

‘Laetare’ means - “rejoice’ – and so, on the 4th Sunday in Lent we pause to consider the True Life that will come on Easter morning and the cost laid down for its purchase. “For while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us … the righteous for the unrighteous.” (cf. Rom 5:8 & 1 Ptr 3:18) In today’s epistle lesson, St. Paul quotes Isaiah 54, causing the Church to consider what it means to partake of Christ’s righteousness and His Resurrection Life. Isaiah paints a picture of a glorious future reality, when the barren, dry, and rebellious Israel would one day be whole, and would “Mother” again, Mothering many children, and expanding her tents. He says, “For it is written, Rejoice (or Laetare), thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath a husband” (Isaiah 54:1). This … is the economy of Grace of our Great GOD.

Today, St. Paul’s consolation and call to Laetare is for us - for the Church. Laetare, Mothering, Rejoicing Sunday gives us a glimpse of hope and joy, for though the betrayal, loneliness, suffering, torture, and death of our LORD Jesus Christ is rapidly approaching, the Church is to remember … so too, is Easter morning.

Today’s Gospel reading also gives us a reason to rejoice, as we read about the miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. And here, the inexhaustible riches of Christ increase beyond all human understanding, to bring relief to GOD’s people.

One historian reminds us of the importance of this miracle, by pointing out that “The early Christians saw in the miracle a prefiguring of the Eucharist, wherein the Lord made Himself known to them ‘in the breaking of bread’…[and the blessing of the fish.]”1 The narrative of the miracle of Christ’s feeding of the Five Thousand, the refreshing of the people in their wilderness journey, is most appropriate for today’s Lenten introspection and should produce is us ‘Rejoicing’.

In St. John’s Gospel, chapter 6, the LORD Jesus had returned to the north part of Israel, to the Sea of Galilee. The LORD often went here when He needed refreshment from the stresses and strains of His earthly ministry. And while our LORD sought refreshment in fellowship with the Father at the seaport town of Tiberias, in solitude, the people came to Him, seeking refreshment and fellowship from Him.

Thousands of people had gathered unto Jesus, the text says, “because they saw His miracles which He did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there He sat with his disciples” (St. John 6:2-3).  St. John constructs a vision for us of Jesus sitting on a mountain with His disciples, with throngs of weary and heavy-laden travelers below Him. They had come to Him, bearing their spiritual and physical burdens. Yet, the LORD recognized that the people needed to understand something more important about Him and His relationship to them…His relationship to us.

1Sheppard J., Massey H., The Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary, (New York : Oxford University Press, 1950), 131.

From the vista of one looking onto the scene from overhead, the narrative of St. John pivots, turning to Jesus’ perspective, the Great Shepherd of the sheep. The text says: “When Jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw a great company come unto Him, he saith unto Philip, ‘Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?’” (St. John 6:5).

The LORD Jesus is not ignorant of the people’s need for He said in St. Luke’s Gospel, “Your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things – [food, drink, and clothes]” (St. Luke 12:20b), but the LORD did not come from Heaven to bandage our scuffs and scrapes and feed our bellies – He came for something much more significant.

It is important to emphasize this point, for it will help us to understand the greater theological truth of Jesus’ miracle. Christ is not a genie sent by the Father to give us three wishes. Some of the people thought this very thing after they were fed. For the LORD Jesus says later in this chapter, “Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled” (St. John 6:26).

Let us be clear: Jesus is not one of many saviors – He is not one of many lords – He is not our personal, leprechaun - He is the LORD of Lords and the Savior of the world. We are to seek first His Kingdom, and then all the provisions of our earthly existence will be provided unto us. When we seek Him and His Kingdom first, then we will find the Bread of Life that feeds more than our bellies - we will find the Salvation that heals more than our scrapes and bruises. When we seek His Kingdom first, we will begin to live the Resurrection Life that Jesus has promised to give to those who will believe.

Looking out on the mass of people milling around, Christ Jesus sees the physical and spiritual condition of all mankind: suffering, broken, lost in the wilderness, spiritually malnourished and without a Shepherd - without a Redeemer … without GOD. Jesus, conscious of this fact, shows His concern for the people by saying to St. Philip, “Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?’ But Jesus said this to test him” (St. John 6:5b). To this, the quick-witted Philip replied that two-hundred pennyworth could not feed the number of people there that day. In other words, they did not have enough money to feed them, and neither did the resources of the local industry have enough capacity to produce the food needed at that moment. Philip is describing something we know well in our 21st-century context – a 1st-century ‘supply chain’ deficiency.

St. Andrew accentuates the seriousness of the situation when he steps forward and brings with him a lad. This boy possessed a very meager lunch of 2 small fish and 5 barley loaves - mere morsels for one or maybe two people. Accurately surmising the situation, Andrew says, “but what are these among so many?” (St. John 6:9b). But let us recall that the text tells us that Jesus had laid the responsibility of feeding at the Apostles’ feet to ‘test’ them. And in their response, the Apostles showed how little they understood about who their Master was. The responses of Philip and Andrew show us that mankind’s salvation is impossible without GOD’s gracious intervention. No one had the money to buy lunch for all the people, nor was there enough food in the local markets to feed them. There was only one true Hope for them all – there was only one portion of Heavenly Bread that the people could eat that would save them. And so, the LORD Jesus had the people sit down that they might wait upon the miraculous expansion of GOD’s Grace, until every single person sitting there was filled by the Source of Christ’s Life.

The miracles of Christ amaze us, just like they did the people that were following Him that day. The LORD, with divine ability, often re-ordered the physical universe and its natural sciences according to His will, accomplishing great and awe-inspiring feats: turning water into wine, healing the paralytic, and raising the dead. And when we read about such things we often exclaim, along with the people that were there that day, “This is of a truth – [this is] that prophet that was to come into the world” (St. John 6:14). But, before we fall prey to labeling the miracles of Christ as extraordinary or even magical, let us remember that within the economy of GOD, that, under the sign or symbol described¸ a greater spiritual reality awaits to be revealed.

What Jesus did with the bread and fish is a very Jewish thing. In St. Matthew’s telling of this miracle, Matthew tells us that Jesus “took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples and the disciples to the multitude’ (cf. St. Matthew 14:19). Christ’s actions are reminiscent of what the Hebrew father was to do at the ancient Passover meal, as he prayed for and distributed the food to his family. In verse 4 of St. John chapter 6, we learn something very important, which to us Gentiles may seem insignificant, yet to the Hebrew, it has great meaning. We read, "And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh" (St. John 6:4). “The Passover … was more than an earthly meal. It represented the supernatural Covenant of Life between God and his Chosen People … The Passover was a prophetic meal, (and this is particularly important) … [it was] not an end in itself. The [Passover] meal spoke for God, not only in recalling the Exodus from Egypt but also in promising the manner of mankind’s liberation from sin and death.”2 The Passover meal was given by GOD  as a sign and symbol of the spiritual reality that would one day come to pass when the True Lamb of GOD would come to rescue all humankind from the bondage of sin and death. Let us think again upon John the Baptizer’s words when he said of Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (St. John 1:29b).

Therefore, we should see the meal of the Five Thousand, which Christ celebrated, as a type of Passover meal that pointed toward the sufficiency of Christ to relieve the entire world with the ever-expanding sufficiency of His flesh and His blood. In other words, Christ made known to the disciples and to the people who He truly was, when He took, blessed, broke, and gave the bread and the fish to them. In this meal, Jesus reveals that He is the true Passover Lamb! And under the signs and symbols of the bread and fish, the LORD Jesus revealed how His salvation would come to all those that would believe in His Name.

When Jesus asked His disciples how they were going to feed the people, the LORD was asking by what means the people were to be saved. The solutions that Philip and Andrew offered were earthly, temporal, powerless, baren, and desolate. To reveal the Truth, the Way, and the Life, Jesus showed them how True Life comes to mankind. Christ celebrated The Feeding of the Five Thousand meal to recall the Passover meal, but also as a prophetic meal to point toward the Eucharistic meal that the Church celebrates whenever she gathers together. This meal, just like the Passover meal, speaks for God, but this time, not of GOD’s deliverance from Egypt, but of Christ Jesus’ liberation of mankind from sin and death by the giving of His Body and Blood for the world.

In the feeding of the Five Thousand, Jesus shows us that He is the True Source of Life, “the Bread of God … which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world” (St. John 6:33). In a few moments, we will re-enact the meal that Jesus pointed to in the miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. That meal was Christ’s Last Supper that he celebrated with His disciples the night before He was forsaken, condemned, tortured, and crucified. The language used to describe Jesus’ action in that meal closely resembles the actions and words that Fr. Michael will say in the celebration of the Eucharistic meal we celebrate today. Listen for them. We are to participate in this prophetic meal that speaks for GOD’s salvation through Christ … by faith. As one theologian has said, “To take the bread [and the wine] that Jesus Christ offers, trusting in Him, is to make visible the gift of faith [GOD has given to us as the means of our salvation].”3

 So dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Eucharist meal, let us hopefully expect, by faith, GOD’s relief that comes through His Grace - Because of the Eucharist meal, let us believe in the promise of Christ’s salvation and deliverance from sin and death, which are given and received under the symbols of Bread and Wine - And with the Eucharistic meal, let us Laetare and rejoice in the fact that this question must no longer be asked … ‘Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?’ Amen.

 

Fr. Michael https://www.stbenedictanglican.com
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