When April and I would greet people at one of the previous churches we were a part of, we would say, “Hello!” or “Good morning.” And then we would often ask people how they were doing that day. There was one individual who always liked to say, “I can’t complain, but I probably will anyway.” We’re pretty good at complaining. I like my coffee to be “burn your tongue” hot. And I will sometimes complain when it is “too cold,” mostly to myself or to April. But I complain nonetheless. April, on the other hand, likes her coffee to be less scalding and more what I would call “too cold,” or what other people might call “warm.” So she will sometimes complain that hers is “too hot.” We complain about summers being too hot, winters being too cold…having too much rain or not enough rain…how poorly the Huskers are doing…how high the gas prices are…how far it is to the kitchen when we are tired but really need a snack. We can find a way to complain about almost anything.

The Hebrews, in the days of Moses, were no different. In our story from the book of Exodus, we see the Hebrews entering the Desert of Sin. It had probably been less than a month since they had crossed the Red Sea where God had miraculously parted it to save the Hebrews from Pharaoh and his army. But things have changed a lot in that time. The food that the Hebrews had packed for the journey was quickly running out. They forgot to bring their GPS, so they were wandering a bit haphazardly. And they were beginning to miss their terrible, yet familiar, life back in Egypt. The text says, “The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.” As is often the case, the leaders took the blame. “The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’” They sound a bit like teenagers. “There’s nothing to eat. Why didn’t you get us more snacks before taking us on this terrible trip? Ugh, I wish I was dead.” We’re good at complaining.

Now, the Hebrews had good reason to complain. They were wandering in a desert, running out of food, probably hadn’t bathed for days, and their Uber camels hadn’t arrived. We’d probably all be a little grumpy, too. And God seems to understand that. God hears the people’s complaints and responds. The Scripture says, “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day.’” God sees the people’s needs and provides. While we don’t know exactly what manna was, it seems that it offered them enough to sustain them for the day. Then we are told that in the evening, God provided the people with quails. And that provision of manna in the morning and quail in the evening sustained the Hebrews for their forty years of wandering.

In the text we read for this morning from the gospel of John, Jesus and his disciples are in Capernaum. The disciples had just experienced two miracles performed by Jesus. First, Jesus had taken five barley loaves and two fish and managed to feed a crowd of 5,000 people with it. Then, when the disciples went out on a boat to head toward Capernaum to flee from the crowd, Jesus came walking toward them on the water. The first miracle was surprising, the second was disconcerting. They were on dry ground now, though, and unfortunately, the crowd had caught up to them. And they immediately began asking Jesus questions. In a way, they were just like the hungry, hungry Hebrews in the wilderness. They needed something and they thought Jesus would be able to provide it, so their first question to him feels almost more like a complaint. “Rabbi, when did you come here?” they ask. What they really want to know is probably why are you running from us? We are hungry to see more of your magic. We want to see what other miracles you are capable of. They’ve become, to use a popular 90s term, Jesus freaks.

Jesus sees through their veiled complaint though and addresses it directly. He responds, “Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.’” Jesus knows their true motives. The miracle Jesus performed satiated their physical hunger, but aroused in them a different hunger. They saw how Jesus could take very little food and multiply it. And they thought that if he could do it once, then why couldn’t he do it more. Why couldn’t he do that for them all the time? Or with even larger amounts of food? They were hungry and they saw Jesus as a way to get more food. They were looking back on the miraculous feeding the way the Hebrews looked back on the food in Egypt. It had been great and they wanted to go back to it because going forward was unfamiliar and hard.

Jesus says to them, “’Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” The people don’t seem to like this answer. They seem to see Jesus’ response as a rejection of their hope for more miraculous feedings from him. So instead they ask Jesus how they can do these miracles too? They say, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” How can we do what you did? And Jesus replies, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” I read this as Jesus saying, “The thing you should do is believe that I am sent from God and all that I am able to do is from him. You cannot do these miraculous things by your own power.” But they still don’t get it. So they ask him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?” They want proof of Jesus’ connection to God, proof that Jesus truly was sent from God. They want to keep the dog and pony show going. They want Jesus to be their personal miracle man. To solidify that idea, they turn to the manna story. And they say, “Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” The implication here is that the “he” in that statement refers to Moses.

But Jesus replies, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Moses didn’t give the manna, God did. The true bread of heaven comes from God and it gives life to the world. But the crowd still doesn’t get it. They say to Jesus, “Sir, give us this bread always.” They still don’t get that Jesus is talking about more than bread. They don’t see that Jesus is more than a magician. Jesus is more than their personal DoorDash. They are still not looking for him because they see what he truly provides.

So, finally, Jesus makes it as clear as he can. John writes, “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’” The miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 was about more than those 5,000 people leaving with their tummies full. The manna in the desert was about more than the Hebrews being well fed. Those miracles were about God. They were about God’s desire to give life to God’s people. God’s desire to sustain us “not by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” We are talking about more than having food on our tables and stomachs that aren’t grumbling. We are asking God to give us life. To give us that which makes our lives worth living. To give us the bread from heaven that fills our souls. In Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, he breaks down the Lord’s Prayer and when he talks about “Give us this day our daily bread,” he says this:

What is meant by this Petition?

God gives indeed without our prayer even to the wicked also their daily bread; but we pray in this petition that he would make us sensible of his benefits, and enable us to receive our daily broad with thanksgiving.

What is implied in the words: “Our daily bread”?

All things that pertain to the wants and the support of this present life; such as food, raiment, money, goods, house and land, and other property; a believing spouse and good children; trustworthy servants and faithful magistrates; favorable seasons; peace and health; education and honor; true friends, good neighbors, and the like.

“Give us this day our daily bread” is a prayer, not only for God to reach out to us, but it’s also a prayer for us to recognize our blessings and to go out and gather them, without hoarding them all for ourselves. The true bread that comes down from heaven is from God…and gives life to THE WORLD. May we rely upon God for our daily sustenance and may we remain cognizant of the fact that God’s sustenance is for the whole world. AMEN!