The Third Sunday of Lent A, March 12, 2023
The Third Sunday of Lent A, March 12, 2023
The people thirsted. On their wandering through the wilderness, a dry desert wilderness, the people ran out of water. They needed a drink. Their children needed a drink. Their livestock needed a drink. All suffered. There was no water to be had so the people grumbled against Moses (vs. 2) and their grumbling tested the Lord, “Is the Lord among us or not?” (vs. 7). Now this grumbling, quarreling, and testing might seem petty to us who look back on the people’s situation with the broad perspective of history. Surely, the Lord was among his people. He led them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Ex. 13:22). He provided manna for bread (Ex. 16:31) and quail for meat (Ex. 16:13). Their clothes and their sandals did not wear out because the Lord intervened (Dt. 29:5). Surely, the people knew by these blessings that their Lord was among them.
Yet, let them get a little thirsty and they are quick to complain. Complaint and lament are a common condition among those who live in the flesh… among those living in this mortal, sin-broken creation. The people complained, even lamented having left Egypt… The people cried out, Moses cried out, and the Lord answered them. Moses struck the rock and water came forth: water plentiful enough for the people’s satisfaction.
The people thirsted. That statement calls to mind another who declared, “I thirst” (Jn. 19:28). Yes, Jesus on the cross, suffering and dying, thirsted, too. In his cry of dereliction—”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt. 27:46)—Jesus lamented from the depths of his humanity. As Jesus Christ bore the sin of the world on the cross, bearing its weight for every person… you, me, the entire mass of humanity… carrying the weight of all that sin, Jesus legitimately lamented the perceived absence of God. Such is the human way… the way of sinners… sinners like me… like you… in the suffering and affliction put upon us by this world broken by sin, sinners do not perceive the presence of God. They must be told that God is with them and that he is for them.
Table Talk: Discuss the human condition of complaint and lament.
Pray: Heavenly Father, hear my prayer and relieve my thirst. Amen
Exodus 17:1-7 English Standard Version
All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”