Bread of Life

Scriptures:     Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15                           Psalm 78:23-29

Ephesians 4:1-16                               John 6:22-40

Today’s Gospel reading takes place right after the feeding of the five thousand.  Remember that after all at eaten, the crowd wanted to take him by force and make him a king – so he hid from them.  Later the disciples went by boats across the lake to Capernaum, and Jesus walked on the water to meet them as they were nearing shore.  The next morning, the crowds realized Jesus and the disciples were no longer with them – and some boats had been left behind – so they took the boats across the lake and caught up to Jesus in Capernaum. 

At this point a conversation starts that reads a bit oddly, as if Jesus and the crowd are talking past one another.  They ask, “Teacher, when did you come here?”  Instead of answering their question, Jesus responds, “"Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal."  And so Jesus begins by questioning their motives, telling them, in effect “You’re only looking for me because you want another handout of loaves.”  But then he goes on to tell them that he has more to offer than loaves – food that perishes, spoils, goes stale – but food that endures for eternal life, which he offers them.”   The crowd misunderstands:  Jesus had just told them not to work, and that he would give them food that would endure – but the crowd asks, “What work must we do?”  Jesus responds, “The work you must do is to trust in the one God has sent.”  The crowd asks a really strange question:  “What sign can you give, so that we may believe you?” – totally missing the reality that Jesus’ feeding them the day before was a sign, even though they themselves reference Moses giving them the manna in the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt.  Jesus reinterprets the manna story:  He tells them that the manna is not just something Moses provided in the past, but that God continues to provide in the present.  And, taking Jesus literally, they ask, “Sir, give us this bread always.”   And at this point Jesus said the words we sang as our opening hymn:  “I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.”

When the crowd crossed the lake on boat and found Jesus, he told them, “You are looking for me because you ate your fill of the loaves.  Do not work for food that perishes, that rots and spoils, but for the food that endures for eternal life.”  The impoverished crowds were stuck in survival mode, just wanting enough bread to stop, at least for a while, the pangs of hunger that nearly always gnawed at them.  And while most of us aren’t as impoverished as the crowds that followed Jesus, we may still live in survival mode, mostly obsessed with earning enough money to provide for ourselves and our families.  When we’re living so close to the edge that a medical bill or a car repair can send us over, it’s hard to think beyond getting from paycheck to paycheck.  But Jesus invites us to step back and take a larger view, to move our focus beyond just making a living to having a life.  Jesus wants us to have life, and have it abundantly – not necessarily an abundance of wealth, but an abundance of meaning and purpose, and most especially an abundance of love

Jesus’ words invite us to self-examination.  Even in coming to worship Jesus, our motives may be mixed, and we may be settling for food that perishes.  There are many reasons to come to church – to meet our friends, to receive assistance.  But, like the bread, these are intended not to be ends in and of themselves, but signs that point to Jesus; means of grace, channels for grace, not grace itself.  Even the things we do to support the church and reach out to the community need to be thoroughly rooted and grounded in our faith in and love for Christ.  Otherwise, we’ll run out of energy and grow weary.  And the satisfaction we get from doing the work will grow stale, may even curdle into resentment.  We can’t live in a way that feeds the spirits of those around us if we’re starving spiritually ourselves.   We need the bread from heaven that Jesus offers.

There are many ways to be hungry.  We may hunger and thirst for food and drink, yes.  But many who rarely miss a meal are still hungry in other ways – hungry for a sense of purpose and meaning to their lives, hungry for connection to others, hungry for healing from trauma, hungry for love, hungry for salvation from our own brokenness, our addictions, our sin.  Jesus says he is the bread of life, able to satisfy all these hungers.  Let us take him at his word.

Jesus spoke to the crowd with words that should bring us comfort:  “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’”   And so Jesus gives us this assurance:  Anyone who comes to me I will never drive away….I will lose nothing of all God has given me, but raise it up on the last day.  Despite whatever life throws at us, it can not separate us from Jesus.  Similar to what Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, chapter 8: “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

When we know these things – when they have become a part of us – it will change the way we live.  And so Paul wrote to the Ephesians:  “I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift.”  He speaks of the various gifts God gives those who love him – to be apostles, prophets, pastors and teachers, and so forth.  And then Paul writes: “We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”  And so Jesus gives us himself as bread from heaven, to feed us so that we may grow to maturity, to be more Christ-like.

In a few moments we’ll approach the table of the Lord.  We come, together, to be fed spiritually, to receive the body and blood of Christ so that we can be the body and blood of Christ in the world.

“Bread from heaven, bread from heaven, feed us till we want no more.  Feed us till we want no more.”  Amen.