(Audio)
But with their patience worn out by the journey,
the people complained against God and Moses,
"Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,
where there is no food or water?
We are disgusted with this wretched food!"
A more modest version of this disgust can creep upon us toward the last days of Lent. We've tried to delight ourselves upon the LORD alone in order to receive the desires of our hearts (see Psalm 37:4). We've tried to make doing the Father's will our bread (see John 4:34). Jesus really is the bread from heaven who contains within himself all sweetness. But if we let ourselves, the journey can wear us out. We need faith to find nourishment on our Lenten journey. We can find deeper fulfillment than we have ever known but if we choose to continue to trust God even when the journey grows long and we grow tired.
It is likely that we have indulged in complaining. Maybe not explicitly about God, but implicitly as a part of our general dissatisfaction with his universal governance. Such complaining does to our spirits what the Seraph serpents do to the people of Israel. Let us look to the one who endured all of our complaints. Let us see that it is our complaints that raised him upon the cross. We do this not in order to feel guilty about complaining, but because the love he showed can heal us.
When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM
It is realizing who Jesus is that saves us. It is his revelation of love on the cross that reveals this to us. Our complaints have within themselves the seeds of their own healing through the wisdom of God most high. Let us receive that revelation and therefore that salvation this morning.
"The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die."
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