The Bread of Life: The Cure for Discontentedness

The Bread of Life: The Cure for Discontentedness

All Readings T Lent 4

INI

“You can’t buy happiness” – they say. And it’s true. The 2025 World Happiness Index just released its report, showing that even though the US has the greatest economy in the world, it ranks 24th for happiness. Certainly there are a variety of factors that contribute these types of surveys. But the point is this: no amount of money in the world can make someone happy. Because no amount of money in the world can make someone content.

They say comparison is the thief of joy. But the Scripture reveals a different truth – discontentment is the thief of joy. Now, joy isn’t easy to come by. Joy is different from happiness. Happiness comes and goes dependent on life circumstances. Joy endures even in the difficulties of life’s circumstances, because it constantly puts its hope and trust in God.

Joy is a fruit of the spirit. We are to rejoice in the Lord, to rejoice in the hope we have in Christ, and to hold steadfast to the joy that He alone provides. That means joy is something that the Christian needs to carefully cultivate, because DISCONTENTMNENT STEALS THE JOY GOD WON FOR HIS PEOPLE BY TURNING OUR HEARTS AWAY FROM HIS GRACIOUS PROVISION. True joy is found in trusting and being content with the Heavenly Father’s sufficient provisions.

Imagine a little boy whose father gives him a cup of water on a hot summer day after working outside for a couple of hours. Instead of being grateful for the cool water he has, he complains – “Why isn’t it filled all the way up?’ He misses the gift he has right in front of him, failing to see that his father stands ready to refill his cup whenever he needs it.

This is what discontentment does – it blinds us to what we have and fixates us on what we think we’re missing. Rather than trusting that God will provide what’s needed for today, we focus on tomorrow’s worries and rob ourselves of joy.

We see this play out in the Old Testament lesson with the Israelites. God’s people had just been freed from Egyptian slavery. They were now free persons! Free from being treated as chattel. Free to worship Yahweh, the God of their father, Abraham. Free to establish themselves as a nation under the provisions of their Heavenly Father. Yet, the story starts with them grumbling against God as they wandered in the wilderness. They said “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

There’s no ‘thank-you’s’ for their new freedom. They only felt hunger and thirst – not joy. No trust in the God who claimed them as His own. As such, they felt the desire to return to Egypt – because even though they were treated as property, they at least got to eat.

Discontentment led them to forget that life is more than food and water. Life isn’t about merely having your base needs met. Life is about you belong to. Their focus was on what they didn’t have, and not on WHO they did have.

How often do we fall into the same trap? Where we focus on what we don’t have rather than seeing the abundance of God’s care? I mean, the Lord has provided for you this far, has he not? Has He not provided for YOUR daily bread? What should make you doubt that He won’t continue to do so?

Point is, there’s extreme joy in being a child of God. He’s adopted you to be His own through the waters of Holy Baptism. He’s purified you for himself, washing you clean, so that you might find contentment, and thus, joy, in the gifts He gives you to sustain you in this body and life.

But the fact of the matter is that the sinful flesh is always pulling us away from contentment. We covet bigger homes, nicer cars, better families, godlier spouses, obedient children, higher paying jobs, easy-going bosses.  It leads to all kinds of anxieties and worries about securing material carnal securities for ourselves. And the discontentedness of our hearts can lead to sin in the heart- like doubt in God’s ability to provide. Like covetousness and greed. And sin in the heart can lead to sinful actions of our hands – like theft, maintaining appearances of good with intentions of evil, and scheming to get things that God Himself hasn’t provided. But ultimately, discontentment robs God of our trust.

So, we aren’t much different from the Israelites wandering around in the wilderness. Yet, out of God’s grace and mercy, He provided His people with what they needed. He gave them manna each day – and they were given it till they were full! But they weren’t to collect more than what they needed for that day out of obedience and trust that God will provide the bread for tomorrow too.

The crowds in the Gospel reading had a similar problem. They had gathered around Jesus because they saw the signs that He was doing on the sick. It was around the time of the Passover, and the crowds were without food. Testing Phillip, Jesus asked him, “where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?” They found a boy with five barley loaves and two fish. But they saw that this wasn’t enough. They said – “what are these for so many?” The disciples doubted the provision of God – not unreasonably so. Would we not do the same?

Yet Jesus took what seemed insufficient and multiplied it. He fed them all, providing more than enough. Something changed for the disciples that day. They didn’t understand it fully, but they were beginning to see.. Later, Jesus told the crowds about how He was the bread of life, and those who eat His flesh and drink his blood will inherit eternal life. The crowds turned away at such a strange teaching. But the disciples didn’t. They didn’t question. Peter simply said “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

But many in the crowds were drawn to Jesus because He could provide for their physical needs. They wanted His gifts, but not Him. They were discontent with the eternal things Jesus brought, opting rather to cling on to the material luxuries.

And isn’t that the struggle of discontentment? Many seek Jesus because He will grant them comfort and carnal security in this life. He certainly provides for our needs of the body, but He offers something far greater than carnal comforts. He fills the needs of our soul.

Isn’t this where we find ourselves sometimes? Do we only pray or seek Christ when something is needed? Do we attribute the same worship, praise, and devotion when things are going well as when things are going bad? Do we trust His provisions through our health problems, financial struggles, and other times of distress, following Him on His path of righteousness instead of sinfully securing material goods for ourselves? Discontentment blinds us to the reality that Christ is enough. When we have Christ, we have everything we need. When we see this with the eyes of faith, we say along with stanza 4 of our hymn of the day – “Hence all earthly treasure! Jesus is my pleasure, Jesus is my choice. Hence all empty glory! Naught to me thy story told with tempting voice. Pain or loss, or shame or cross, shall not from my Savior move me since He deigns to love me.” And to the sinful flesh which draws us towards covetousness for things not given, the baptized Christian follows confidently behind the word and work of Christ, just as the next stanza says – “Evil world, I leave thee; though cannot deceive me, Thine appeal is vain. Sin that once did blind me, Get thee far behind me, come not forth again. Past thy hour O pride and pow’r. Sinful life, thy bonds I sever, Leave thee now forever.”

Yet where we fail, Christ is faithful. He did not seek His own comfort but took up the cross, enduring suffering, rejection, and death. And He did this not begrudgingly, but “for the joy set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2). What was that joy? It was the joy of redeeming you, of calling you His own, of securing for you an eternal inheritance where no discontentment can ever steal His love, peace, and joy for you.

Here at this altar, Christ gives contentment and joy. In bread and wine, He gives you His body and blood shed on the cross, and delivered to you through THIS miraculous meal. With this gift, you have enough. You have all that which you need. By sharing in the meal of the Passover Lamb, you are provided with an overabundance. God grants you contentment with whatever might be allotted to you in life – even if that should mean persecution and death like it did for the disciples. Thus, we rejoice in our sufferings, and are content with what the Lord provides.

Here, your heavenly Father feeds you with the Bread of life – sustaining you not just for today, but for eternity. And with this, you have enough – because you have Him. So rejoice, and be glad!

INI