Preparing for Worship - March 15, 2026

March 15, 2026, is the Fourth Sunday in the Lenten Season. Lent is usually a very somber time of repentance for our sins, and of remembering that it took the great, sorrowful sacrifice of Christ on the cross to pay the penalty for those sins and to earn forgiveness for us. This Sunday is called Laetare Sunday, a Sunday for some rejoicing, singing, and remembering in true faith that the celebration of Christ’s joyful resurrection is coming soon.

The psalm is Psalm 132:8-18. Twice the saints, the faithful people of God, are called to “shout for joy,” for one day coming the Lord would keep His “sure oath,” His promise that someone from the line of King David would be “set on God’s throne forever.” That One will be the Lord’s “Anointed One,” His Messiah, and those who do not turn His face away from them,” but trust Him, by God’s grace, and keep His “New” Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-14) and “the testimonies He will teach them,” will enjoy “His resting place forever.” They will be “clothed with righteousness” and “salvation,” as their “Horn” (Luke 1:68-69) and “Lamp” ( Luke 1:78-79 and John 1:9 and 5:33-36,39 and 8:12, etc.) comes, whose “crown will shine” forever (Hebrews 2:7-9). All these are references to our Lord Jesus and His coming as the Son of God and Son of David. He had His enemies, who put Him to death, but He eventually “clothed them with shame” in His mighty resurrection and victory. See His promises in 1 Peter 2:9-10 to “the priesthood of all believers,” who are brought to faith in Him. See also the Lord’s promise in Psalm 132:15 of provisions and bread that satisfy His poor and needy people, as Jesus is “the Bread of Life” (John 6:35,47-51).

The first possibility for the Old Testament lesson is Exodus 16:2-21. The children of Israel were about a month and a half away from Egypt when they grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. They imagined life in Egypt would be much better and expressed fear of starving. Maybe their provisions were getting lower, or maybe they just complained. The Lord was ready to rain bread from heaven for them, manna, day by day, just enough for them for each day. On the sixth day of each week, they could gather twice as much and rest on the seventh day, the Sabbath day. If they tried to gather too much bread, it would spoil. The Lord was teaching them to trust Him to care for them, as we have been taught by Jesus to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” God also provided quail for meat at times and showed that it was all from Him by revealing His glory in a cloud they could see. He provided this food, manna, for all the forty years until they reached the Promised Land. This was also a prediction of what Jesus came to do and was able to do, as a part of His saving work.

The alternative Old Testament lesson is Isaiah 49:8-13. If you look earlier in Isaiah 49, you will see a prophecy of the coming Savior, the Redeemer and Holy One, who would be a light for the people of Israel and for all nations throughout the earth. In 49:8-9, this is predicted to be a “day of salvation” (see Paul’s quotation of 49:8 in 2 Corinthians 6:2), as this coming One would bring in God’s “New Covenant” and call out those in the prison and darkness of sin and affliction into a whole new life, with the promises of eternal life, where there will be no more hunger or thirst. Portions of 49:8-10 are quoted in Revelation 7:16-17 as a picture of life in heaven itself. Jesus also uses words very similar to 49:12 in Luke 13:29, where he promises that through His saving work, “people will come from east and west and from north and south and recline at table in the kingdom of God” - non-Jews, too. All this is reason for rejoicing, for “singing for joy,” 49:13 says, as the Lord will bring “compassion” and “comfort” to “afflicted” people, with the coming of Christ Jesus. See how this happened for Simeon, who was “waiting for the consolation of Israel” in Luke 2:25-32 and predicted that the Savior would be for “all peoples,” including Gentiles and his own Jewish people. This great comfort also came to Anna in Luke 2:36-38, who “thanked God” and spoke about Jesus to those “waiting for redemption.” Even as we, too, confess our own sins, needs, and struggles this Lent, there is also comfort and rejoicing in Jesus our Savior and in what He has done for us.

The Gospel lesson is John 6:1-15. A large crowd followed Jesus because they had seen signs (miracles) that He was performing among the sick. The Jewish Passover was near, and John mentions that in this Gospel reading because the Passover was a celebration and remembrance of God’s rescue of His people from slavery in Egypt in the Old Testament and His providing special bread, manna, to sustain them during their journey to the Promised Land. Seeing the large crowd coming, Jesus asked Philip where they could buy bread to feed so many people. This was a test for Philip, as Jesus already knew what He would do. A denarius was an average day’s wage, and Philip knew that even 200 denarii would not be enough to feed all these people. Andrew suggested that a boy had five barley loaves and two fish, but asked what good would that do for so many. Jesus simply had the people sit down - about 5,000 men. (In Matthew 14:21, we hear that there were also women and children there.) Jesus took the loaves and fish of the boy, gave thanks to God, and, in a miraculous way, fed all those people as much as they wanted, and 12 baskets of leftover food were gathered up as well. This was a great miracle, reminding us of the manna provided in the Old Testament. The people saw this sign (this miracle), though, and thought that Jesus must be the Prophet who was to come into the world. How wonderful it would be to have a king who could continually provide food for them, they must have thought. Jesus realized that they were about to take Him by force and try to make Him king, and so he went away by Himself to a more isolated mountainous area nearby. Jesus knew that His primary mission was not to feed people and take care of their physical needs. He was to be their Savior and deal with their sins and spiritual needs, which could affect them eternally. He knew and had used the Scripture which says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3 and Matthew 4:1-3). Jesus also knew that attraction to Him simply because of the signs and miracles He could do was not a saving belief in Him. See what Jesus already knew in John 2:23-25. The commentator, Martin Franzmann, says, “The faith that feeds on signs is an appetite that grows by what it feeds on; it cannot simply rest in the revelation of the given sign but demands another (and another).” That is “the self-seeking will of natural man.” It cannot be satisfied that “the Heavenly Father (alone) makes Jesus both King and Lord” by His own way and plan (Acts 2:36).

There are two choices for the Epistle lesson, too. The first is Acts 2:41-47. This passage shows that the early Christians did care for one another and tried to help each other with their needs by sharing. They did so with “glad and generous hearts.” But they also knew what was most important: “receiving the Word of God and being baptized” and then “devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (the Word of God) and “fellowship” (worshiping together around that Word and “the breaking of the bread” (the Lord’s Supper) and prayer and “praising God.”

The alternate Epistle lesson is from Galatians 4:21-31 and is not an easy passage to understand. Paul is dealing here with people who talk about Jesus, but especially want everyone to live by the Old Testament laws and rules and regulations, including circumcision and other ritual laws, which often went far beyond Scripture itself, and ignored Christ’s own teaching about the New Covenant in Him. Paul reminds us that Abraham had two sons. If you remember the story in Genesis, Abraham and Sarai grew tired of waiting for a son by God’s plan, and Sarai talked Abraham into having a son by her Egyptian female servant, Hagar. This son was named Ishmael, and yet Sarai treated Hagar and Ishmael badly. It was about 14 years later when Abraham and Sarai (now called Sarah) had the child Isaac, who would be the child of promise about whom God had spoken to them. (You can read about this contrast between Isaac and Ishmael in Genesis 16 and Genesis 21:1-21.) Paul says that these two represent two covenants. The Old Covenant is Hagar, who was a slave, like Judaism, with its focus on Mt. Sinai and laws, and is still in slavery to such laws. The New Covenant is a Covenant of Promise and is represented by the free woman, Sarah, and her child of promise, Isaac, through whom our Savior, Jesus, would eventually come. Note that Paul then quotes Isaiah 54:1, right after speaking of the New Jerusalem above. This Isaiah passage then speaks of the enlargement of the tent of God’s people, including “the nations.” It also comes right after Isaiah 53 and the great prophecy of the work of the Servant Savior, Jesus. Jesus came to set us free from the condemnation of the Law, which we could not keep, and brought us a new freedom through Him and His perfect life for us, and forgiveness of all our sins through His suffering, death, and resurrection for us. Paul says that our hope is not now in the Jerusalem of his day, with its rejection of Christ and its trust in its own keeping of laws, rules, and regulations (which it never fully keeps). Our hope is in “the Jerusalem above,” won for us in and through Christ, and the eternal future we have in Him. (See Galatians 5:1 and passages like John 8:31-36 and Galatians 2:15-21, etc. See also Hebrews 12:18-24, where the same picture image, contrasting Mt. Sinai and the Old Covenant Law with the heavenly Mt. Zion and Jesus and His Gospel and the New Covenant centered in Him.) As always, Paul focuses on salvation by the grace of God through faith in Christ and His saving work, not in ourselves or our faithful keeping of God’s Law. In Christ and what He does for us is our hope.