Jesus: The Bread of Life
Dr. Jim Wilson, February 10, 2008 Bread…Man and woman do not live by bread alone; but then they don’t live long without it either. Bread…Whole wheat, multi-grain, sourdough, white, pumpernickel, matzoth. Bread…Wonder Bread, Butternut Bread, Brownberry Bread, Rosen’s Rye. Bread…Manna in the wilderness, the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, the Bread of Presence, Five loaves, Bread at Emmaus. Bread…Jesus said, “I am the bread come down from heaven…”, Bread, Jesus said, “Take and eat, this is my body given for you...” We are always in the context of bread, whether as we are reading the Scriptures, offering our worship, or simply going about the living of our lives. Bread is the very stuff and staff of life. For much of the world, bread is the basic ingredient for survival. I confess that I have not met a bread I did not like. Pita, German dark rye, croissants, Italian, French, Char’s home made, it doesn’t matter. I enjoy bread. As I thought about our text and the significant role bread plays in it, our time in Israel and Egypt came to mind. I am what Char describes as “an unadventuresome eater.” I prefer the simple things like meat, potatoes, and a vegetable. I have graduated to some casseroles after a good deal of training. I will try other dishes if I know what they are and have time to work up to them slowly. So when we were in Israel and Egypt and often no one was quite sure what it was that was being served, I gave thanks for bread. Lunch most days consisted of a big piece of round flat bread and a bottle of water. It was great! On more than one occasion, I sat quietly with my bread and water and pondered the words of John 6, especially the words of Jesus, “I am the bread of life.” Granted that I was not I danger of starving, nevertheless, eating that flat bread, a bread no doubt familiar to Jesus, became more than lunch. It became a spiritual experience. Such I think is the point of the story John tells us, this story of one of great “I am” statements of Jesus. It is just a day or so since he had fed the five thousand with just five loaves and two fish. Once again Jesus seeks to find some seclusion by crossing the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum. Once again, however, the crowd follows and interrupts his plans. “Rabbi, when did you come here?” they ask. Jesus turns aside their greeting and pointedly challenges their motivation, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” Then he confronts them with a telling contrast: “Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” As is often the case in John’s Gospel, Jesus is talking at one level and the crowd is hearing at another. Jesus is talking about food that nourishes not just the body but more importantly the spirit; that is, the gracious love of God. In other words, the feeding of the 5000 was a sign of this food that endures for eternal life. The crowd, however, sees only a free lunch. They are stuck, unable to see beyond the sign. Jesus charges them with being willfully blind. They are blind in that they see only food to satisfy physical hunger and completely miss the deeper reality of food to satisfy the spiritual hunger. They are willfully so, says Jesus, in that they want to perform the “works of God,” that is be in charge of their own lives and futures. Now things get a bit testy. Jesus tells them that the “work of God” is believing in the One whom God has sent. The crowd counters with a demand for his credentials. “Show us as sign,” they demand, “Do something to prove yourself. After all, Moses gave our ancestors bread from heaven in the wilderness to eat…What will you do. Show us sign, We will weigh the evidence. We will draw the conclusions. We might even decide to believe.” Now just how twenty-first century does that sound? And some say the Bible is irrelevant!! Jesus too can get testy. And he does. He responds sharply. “It was not Moses who gave our ancestors bread from heaven, but it was my Father..Nor was manna the true bread from heaven. It was a sign---a sign of the true bread which gives life to the world.” Jesus reminds the crowd, and us that God is in the blessing business. While God does not ignore our physical needs, the hunger of our bodies, God is as concerned, and perhaps even more so, with our spiritual needs. Jesus makes this point as he offers a dramatic concluding declaration, one that again states unequivocally who he is and what he offers. “I am the bread of life,” says Jesus, “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” “Do not work for the bread that perishes, but for the bread that endures for eternal life…I am the bread of life.” How do you hear these words of Jesus? What claim do they make on your life? I hear both a challenge and a charge. The challenge has to do with how we see our lives. Is our focus confined to the material or physical level? One of the dangers folks like you and me face is to live seeking only the food that perishes, taking care of our physical needs and wants, a well-paying job, a nice home, a successful career, a sizable stock portfolio, thinking that is the totality of what life is all about. And we try to ignore that gnawing feeling at the center of our being or quiet it by having more. Will we ever come to conclusion that the bread that perishes cannot satisfy the hunger of the spirit---the hunger for meaning and purpose, hope and joy? It takes that other bread---the bread that endures to eternal life to satisfy that hunger A friend from Joliet is a serious bicyclist. I mean serious, not a ride around block but 75 or 100 mile rides. A few years ago, he thought he needed to lose some weight, so he went on the Atkin’s Diet. Carbohydrates were forbidden. Bread was eliminated from his diet. Well, Dr. Atkins is not an athletic trainer. After a short time on the diet, Craig noticed a significant drop in energy. He was fatigued after a short distance. Rather than riding or 50 or more miles on a Saturday, he could barely do five miles. The reason: he needed bread and other carbs for energy. I wonder if that is not a parable. When we focus only on the bread that perishes and neglect or ignore the bread that Jesus offers and is, we have no energy for living. We simply limp along. “I am the bread of life,” says Jesus. He is the source of life, life that is full and abundant for us. He offers the food that endures for eternal life for us. He calls us to see beyond what is to what God is offering in him. Our challenge is to receive this bread and know our deeper hungers satisfied. The challenge leads to a charge. As the Church, the body of Christ, I believe we are charged to be a community in which the bread of life is served in all that we do. In our worship life, our learning opportunities, our service projects, our fellowship, the bread of life, this gracious love of God in Christ, is to be shared in ways that individual lives and relationships our nourished and renewed. I would encourage all of our ministry groups planning programs ask, “How does this program share the ‘the bread of life’? How does this program move people from the bread that perishes to an encounter with the food that endures to eternal life?” You have heard me talk about our church becoming a teaching church. A focus on the bread of life in all that we do would be a missional directive for a teaching church. A teaching church is committed to helping people become faithful disciples and to continue to grow in that discipleship. To do this we must not focus on the food that perishes; that is, a survey of what people think their needs are. It is to help people encounter the Gospel in ways that rearrange those needs that move us from food that perishes to the bread of life. Tom Long tells a poignant story that speaks to such a distinction. I have told this story before. But it is a good story and deserves to be heard more than once. The story is of a rabbi who died in England. His obituary told of his life, how when he was a young boy, he and his family were prisoners in a Nazi death camp. In the camp, the prisoners were given just barely enough food to survive---some grain, a small piece of bread, and a few grams of lard each week. Despite the harsh environment, this boy’s family continued to observe the Sabbath. Somehow managing to scrounge up a piece of candle and a little food each week, they said the Sabbath prayers and pronounced the Sabbath blessings. One week, however, there was no candle. So, when the evening came and the Sabbath was at hand, the boy’s father took some of their precious lard and molded it around a piece of string. Lighting this makeshift candle, he began to lead the family in the Sabbath prayers and blessings. His son, the future rabbi, was enraged. When the prayers were done, he confronted is father, “How could you waste what little lard we have to make a candle? It’s the only food we have.” His father answered, “Son, without food we can live for several days. Without hope, we cannot live an hour.” And so it is, says Jesus, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.” This food is offered to us, in the One named Jesus, the One who introduces himself to us, “I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me, will never be hungry…” May we seek this food and know its power to satisfy our ultimate hunger. Thanks be to God! Amen. |
