The Bread of Life - John 6:25-40

                            

This morning we’re reflecting on Jesus as the bread of life. As a former baker, the image of bread is powerful. There's nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked bread to make you hungry, and then there's the sight of a beautifully baked loaf sitting on the counter ready to eat, and the taste of fresh warm bread with butter soaking into the bread is amazing. There's the feel of tearing a piece of bread from a loaf because you can't wait. Bread satisfies hunger, and can bring deep enjoyment.

The day before, Jesus spent the day teaching the people about God. At the end of the day, the people were hungry and there was no food available for everyone, so Jesus takes a young boy's 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, using them to feed the 5,000 men and their families, filling their bellies. After eating, Jesus sends his disciples away in their boat to cross to the other side of the Sea of Galilee while he gets away to refresh himself by spending some time alone with God. Later in the night, Jesus catches up to his disciples by walking on the water to meet them in the boat and they continue on to the other side of the sea.

The people go to find Jesus again and they do. But they ask Jesus a rather strange question, "Rabbi, when did you get here?" You would think they would ask, "How did you get here," since they must have seen the disciples leave without Jesus and yet Jesus is here, on the other side of the sea. They’re focused on the wrong questions; there's a certain blindness here. It makes me wonder how often we're the same, focused on things surrounding God and Jesus that in the end prove not all that important, while missing the boat on the really important things.

Jesus doesn't answer their question, instead he addresses their motive in seeking him out. This made me wonder this week on all the times I thought God didn't answer my prayers, wondering if part of the reason was that my requests completely missed the mark. Jesus challenges them, "Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill." Jesus is telling them the only reason they're interested in him is because their bellies are full and they want more. Now before we get too critical of them, hunger was not uncommon and most of them probably had too many nights when they heard their children crying themselves to sleep because there wasn’t enough food due to high taxes, drought, and greedy officials.

Yet the challenge is there for us today. What are you looking for from Jesus? Is it because you've been told that if you follow Jesus, you’ll have all your prayers answered, you'll get a better job, find the perfect spouse, be protected from any hard times? Jesus pushes us to consider that we might actually be hungry for something more than baked bread and fish; heart and soul hunger. Jesus encourages the people, "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." The people have heard this before from rabbis and other Jewish teachers. Food to them was the Torah and Law; a way of life shaped by the rules and laws put in place by God. The people ask, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Yet following rules and laws don't nourish you, they don't feed those places in your heart and soul that are hungry. We obey Jesus out of love, but this often creates more hunger, we’ll touch on that shortly.

Jesus turns them away from doing works, Jesus tells them there’s only one work, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." This is the heart of everything, to believe in Jesus, the one who brings eternal life. Belief is not just knowing stuff about Jesus and accepting it as true; belief comes out of a relationship of faith and trust in Jesus and living his way rather than your way. Jesus points to your heart instead of your head. But the people are having a hard time believing so they turn to Jesus and ask, "What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Jesus isn't like any of the other Messiahs who had come before Jesus, military types who came to lead the people into freedom like the Maccabeus did a 100 years earlier, so they ask for another sign. The Jews are hungry for a warrior Messiah who will lead them into political freedom, but Jesus focuses on their soul hunger and relationship with God.

Because Jesus had just fed them the day before, the sign that comes to mind for them is manna. They challenge Jesus to permanently feed them. This isn't a surprising request since the Jews expected that God would one day feed them again with manna as he fed the Jews during the 40 years in the wilderness. In the wilderness, they were hungry and God fed them, saving them from hunger, just as he saved them from their slavery in Egypt. Baruch 29, a book found between the Old Testament and the New Testament, talks about the Messiah’s coming and what the kingdom of heaven looks like, "And those who are hungry will enjoy themselves and they will, moreover, see marvels every day. For winds will go out in front of ME every morning to bring the fragrance of aromatic fruits and clouds at the end of the day to distill the dew of health. And it will happen at that time that the treasury of manna will come down again from on high, and they will eat of it in those years because these are they who will have arrived at the consummation of time."

Jesus counters their small ideas of the Messiah with a grander vision. Even after having seen other signs, after having had their bellies filled, the people still can't see the spiritual significance of what they've experienced. Their minds and hearts are earthbound, looking to the things they can see and eat, looking for a king. Jesus speaks to those empty places in our hearts. Where do you turn to fill those places in your heart and soul that feel empty? Jesus declares, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." When Jesus tells us to ask for daily bread in the Lord’s prayer, the Catechism reminds us that we’re asking, “Do take care of all our physical needs so that we come to know that you are the only source of everything good, and that neither our work and worry nor your gifts can do us any good without your blessing. And so help us to give up our trust in creatures and trust in you alone.” This is a prayer of trust in Jesus, looking beyond food!

How can Jesus fill your hunger? As you listen to Jesus' voice from the Bible, you hear Jesus reminding you that he’s divine, and that you’re secure in his love and given eternal life. The Holy Spirit’s in the church and in us to remind us of Jesus' words and teaching so that we can grow in wisdom, to comfort us in the hard times, and to give hope, and strength. The bread of life brings new life by being broken on the cross; filling us with the Spirit, filling you with purpose and meaning as you believe in him. Belief in Scripture always leads to action, as James says, “Faith without deeds is dead.” We’re fed and filled in order to engage in the work of the kingdom of heaven. The call in your hunger is to seek out Jesus, to be filled with the things he loves and to be open to being led by the Holy Spirit to change the things that break the blessings and shalom of the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus echoes back to the Sermon on the Mount where he teaches that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. We look at the world around us, at the affects of sin, at the atrocities committed in the world where refugee camps of over a million people no longer seem unusual. We hunger for hope and for healing in the world, freedom from the pain and chaos humanity often creates. When poverty and addiction hurt so many families in too many communities, we hunger for change; this is hungering for righteousness. Inspired by Jesus and James, Christians everywhere feed those who are hungry, offer water to the thirsty, invite the strangers, visit those in prison, clothed the naked; living out Jesus' call to help others experience his love for them through being Jesus’ hands and feet.

We hunger for a world like the kingdom of heaven. Today we celebrated the Lord's Supper. In the bread we’re reminded that Jesus' body was broken like bread, and because of it, our sins are forgiven, and we have new life in Jesus. Jesus is returning one day and calls us to bring the Gospel news of hope to those he has placed in your lives, people you can ask to join you as you follow Jesus and are fed by his Spirit, leading us out of lives with no purpose to lives filled with service.

It may feel like it's a small difference you make by bringing a person to Jesus when there are so much injustice in the world, when even in our own communities there is much hurt and brokenness; but like a pebble's ripples in a pond, your own ripples of faithfulness spread as they then live out Jesus’ change in their lives by hungering for righteousness and working to grow the kingdom of heaven here. As people come to Jesus and find eternal life, the kingdom of heaven breaks through here on earth.