Last week we continued our series on Lutheran Doctrine by hearing what we believe about worship and the Divine Service. Today we continue our series by being reminded of what we believe about our daily bread as we pray in the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer.
In the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” In our catechism we have Luther’s question and response, “What does this mean? God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” And we have his understanding with the question and answer, “What is meant by daily bread? Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.”
So, we might rightly understand our prayer for daily bread as being a prayer for bodily blessings. Certainly we have all been taught that this is the only petition of the seven that is asking for bodily, physical blessings where as the other six petitions ask for spiritual blessings and turning from evil, and yet in a moment we will see that not only does this petition speak to bodily blessings, but also to spiritual blessings.
When we prayer for our daily bread we will first recognize that all that we have in one way or another first comes from God. As we have been taught, what we are born with and what we take with us, meaning that nothing in this world, is truly ours. We can truly trace all that we have in this world back to God who is from eternity, who created all and gives all to us.
We will also recognize that God gives to the just and the unjust. As we look around the world we can see that even the heathen, even the pagans have food to eat, clothes to wear, shoes to wear, a roof over their houses and so forth. So, it is not simply our prayer that brings these needs to us from God. Even before we ask, God knows our needs and the needs of all and He lovingly provides for all whether all recognize such provision or not.
So, why do we bother to pray? We pray for daily bread in order to recognize and give thanks to God. Our prayer is an acknowledgment that all that we have is a gift from God, whether we believe we may have earned it or not. In other words, we can recognize that all that we have is a gift from God as we recognize that He has given us life, gifts, talents and abilities as well as a job or career in order to earn a living to purchase our daily needs. Again, all things first come from God and can be traced back to Him. So, our prayer is a prayer of recognition and giving thanks for all the good gifts and blessings our Lord gives to us.
Now, as for the spiritual bread for which we pray. On the night in which He was betrayed we are told that Jesus was celebrating the Passover Seder with His disciples and from that Passover celebration and the eating of the lamb, Jesus gives us Himself, the Lamb of God, to eat marking us as redeemed by Him. Remember, at the time of the Passover a spotless lamb was selected. When Jesus was beginning His ministry John the Baptist pointed to Him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Indeed, Jesus is the spotless lamb promised in Eden, reiterated to Abraham, pointed to by the ceremonial laws and born to give His life for ours. The Passover lamb was slaughtered and roasted and its flesh was eaten so that the people physically, not symbolically nor spiritually eat its meat, but actually ate the lamb. In the same way, when Jesus gives us the bread in His Holy Supper and says, “Take, eat, this is my body, given and shed for you,” we do not eat it symbolically or spiritually, but we physically eat the body of Christ so that He becomes a physical part of us.
In the same way, after the Supper, Jesus took the cup of wine. In the Passover celebration the blood of the lamb was caught in a basin and used to mark of the door of the house with the blood of the lamb, so that the angel of death would pass over those houses. Jesus took the cup of wine, blessed it and gave it to the disciples and us saying, “Take and drink, this is my blood.” Jesus gives us His blood to drink, not symbolically nor spiritually, but physically so that we are marked as His children. So that the angel of eternal death and hell will pass over us.
So, the main thing in the Lord’s Supper is the eating of Jesus’ body and the drinking of His blood through which He gives us forgiveness of sins, strengthens us in faith, gives us eternal salvation. He also promises that we are to do this in remembrance, that is in participation, meaning He becomes a physical part of us. His perfect life then becomes our perfect life. His perfect suffering and death become our perfect suffering and death and His perfect resurrection and eternal life become our perfect resurrection and eternal life.
As we began a few weeks ago, we were reminded that God created us to love us. In loving us He has provide for all our needs. Because we are conceived and born in sin, because every inclination of our hearts is evil all the time, because we are spiritually blind, spiritually dead and enemies of God our greatest needs are forgiveness of sins and faith. God takes care of our needs. He gives us faith through Holy Baptism. He gives us faith and strengthens our faith through His Word. He gives us forgiveness of sins through Holy Absolution. He gives strengthening of faith and forgiveness in His Holy Supper.
When we are born we are born naked, needing food, clothing, shelter. Again, God knows our needs and He well provides for us. He provides for the just and the unjust alike. Indeed, God needs nothing from us and we need everything from Him. Why do we offer prayers? Why do we come to church? Why do we give our offerings? Why do we worship? We do all that we do because of our own need to do so, to recognize all that God does for us and gives to us. Simply stated we do what we do because we cannot help to do so as the Holy Spirit stirs in us and works in us our response of faith.
Most certainly we need to continually recognize and give thanks for all that our Lord does for us and gives to us, again not because He needs such thanks, but because of our need to respond with such praise. God gives and we are given to. God does and we are done to, thanks be to God.
What does this mean? I cannot say it too much, God gives all and we are given to. God needs nothing from us, we need everything from Him. And our God created us in order to give everything to us, all that we need, and I would suggest even more than we truly need.
So now, because we can, we pray to God as our dear Father because as our earthly Fathers and even more, He loves us, He desires to hear from us, and He seeks to give to us. God created us to love us and we are loved and we rejoice in His love for us, recognizing His love especially in our prayers.
On this Maundy Thursday, the night in which Jesus was betrayed, the night in which Jesus was celebrating the Passover Seder, we rejoice that from this celebration He gives us the fulfillment of His promises beginning in the Garden of Eden. Our greatest need is forgiveness which is the first promise in Eden, that God would take care of ours sins by sending a Messiah, an anointed One, a Christ, a Savior, and that was the beginning of the Christian Church. Jesus is that Christ. Jesus came to do what Adam and Eve could not do, what all of Israel could not do, even what we can not do, live the perfect life demanded of us, for us in our place. Not only did He live for us, He took our sins upon Himself. He who was without sin became sin for us and He paid the price, the death penalty, hell for us in our place. And this evening we celebrate even more His giving us the greatest gift of His body and blood in His Holy Supper, marking us as redeemed by Him by His paying the price for our sins on the cross.
What a great God we have, what a gift giving God we have, what a loving God we have. A God who created us to love us, who gives us all that we need, who takes our sins and pays the price for our sins, who gives us faith, forgives our sins, strengthens us in faith, keeps us in faith and gives us eternal salvation. And He even stirs in us our response of faith, to rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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