The Bread of Life
John 6.22 – 35
Dr. Matthew M. Fry

As we continue to experience The Word of the Lord together, Let us Pray. Lord, Open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that, as the Scriptures are read and Your Word Proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you have to say to us today. Prepare our heats, O God, to accept your Word. Silence in us any voice but your own, that, hearing, we may also obey your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

As I mentioned last Sunday, over some of the summer the sermons will be based on the gospel of John, specifically the 8 times that Jesus uses the statement, “I am.” Today we approach the first of those sayings, as found in the Gospel of John. Listen to God’s Word for you today. John 6.22-35.

22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 Then some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" 26 Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 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." 28 Then they said to him, "What must we do to perform the works of God?" 29 Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." 30 So they said to him, "What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" 32 Then Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." 34 They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always."
35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

The Grass Withers, The Flower Falls, but The Word of The Lord endures forever…Thanks be to God.

Right before this section in John, Jesus has fed 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and two fish. He even references this in his discourse with the following masses. And it is such an interesting dialogue between Jesus and the crowd.

They wake up the morning after the meal in which 12 baskets of leftovers were gathered, and they notice that Jesus is not around. So they get in some boats and look for him. When they find him, they ask when he left, and he accuses them of simply following him because they received full tummies the day before.

So they press on. Maybe they felt guilty because Jesus had just caught them with their collective hands in the cookie jar and was dead right, or maybe because they were interested in doing God’s works, like the bread miracle, or maybe because they were sincere and wanted to do what God wanted them to do. Perhaps it was some combination of those with a few other motivations thrown in as well that caused them to inquire about what to do to be able to do God’s good works. Either way, Jesus tells them to put faith in him, since the Father had sent Jesus.

And then they ask the strangest question. They ask for a sign. It doesn’t make sense. They have been asking to do the work of God just like Jesus, he tells them to believe, and then they ask for a sign.

Maybe believing is more difficult than doing for some people. Nobody in here, of course. For us, believing is just about the easiest thing in the world. Never a doubt, never a pause, never a moment of uncertainty. But maybe for some people, whoever they are, maybe they could be in the very presence of a miracle, and want more to do than to believe.

Maybe it’s an issue of control. If I do, then I have control over what the results are. If I am simply called to believe, then all my control goes to that in which I believe. And sweet cheeks, that ain’t easy for any of us.

And it is in this context from which the Bread of Life statement comes. Jesus says to the people around him that he is the Bread of Life. In the Old Testament, and for the original hearers of this statement, Bread was a symbol of salvation. The Garden of Eden was fertile with bread trees. In Egypt, the people ate unleavened bread, or Matzo, and they were saved from death. For 40 years in the desert, the Hebrew people daily gathered manna, bread from heaven, and it saved them from starving. In fact, there has been some recent debate from Old Testament scholars that some of the words used for salvation in Hebrew could also be translated as another word for bread, so that when foreigners request that the Hebrews, “Show us the way to salvation,” the meaning might be that they were hungry travelers living in hard times, asking for some good food. And it was clear, the Old Testament scholars report, that the call from God was for the devout Hebrew to give the weary traveler some good bread. Therein was salvation for giver as well as receiver of the bread.

In the Old Testament, bread and salvation are closely linked. Whenever there is the mention of bread, it is accompanied with a sense of salvation. My guess is that some of the people would have understood this when Jesus says “I am the Bread of Life.”

Jesus accuses them of just wanting more food. They say they want a sign. Which we would understand as another miracle that would benefit them. What Jesus is saying is that what really matters is not what can Jesus do for you, nor what has he done for you lately. Instead, what matters is who Jesus is.

For in the gospels, Jesus is declared as the fulfillment of the work that was begun by God in Abraham, the work that was moving through Moses, the prophets, the judges and the kings. Salvation has come, the bread of life has arrived. Jesus the Messiah has come, and salvation and bread spring forth from him, and from everything he touches.

Salvation and bread spring forth from Jesus, and from everything, and everyone, he touches. Which brings us back to the call that Jesus gives, the answer to the question that the people ask in verse 28, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” The triune God, three in one, made manifest on earth in the person of Jesus Christ has never once called anyone for the purpose of privilege. Instead, The Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of all that is, through Jesus Christ calls all people for the purpose of performing the works of God. Once you believe that God offers salvation in the person of Jesus Christ, which is one of the main points of Jesus saying, “I am the Bread of Life,” then belief moves to performing the works of God which are caring for people, and being part of the way that God shows love to everyone.

I’ve known numbers and numbers of Christians who have, in my opinion, contorted the gospel message to make it seem like the better of a Christian you are, the more God loves you, the more blessings you receive. These “blessings” are almost always of a tangible nature; bigger house, better car, more and nicer toys, that kind of thing. And the dangerous place this can go is to take in all of these so called blessings, and hoard up the resources that God gives in order to take care of these things and to continue on to get more, bigger, and better things. The blessings go in, but they never go out.

Which is just like the difference between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Both fed by the River Jordan, one, the Sea of Galilee receives water from the river and has water flow out of it. The other, the Dead Sea, only takes water in, does not send anything out. And the name is the Dead Sea.

We are called to receive the blessings of God’s love and grace and kindness and mercy and care, and to give those same blessings to every being and every part of creation. This is our gift as well, to perform the works of God.

What a blessing that is, to be entrusted with the ability to show God’s creation how much God cares for creation, and how much love God has and the grace which flows from God. For that wonderful gift, we should all be thankful.

Amen.