John
6:24-35
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.
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.
·
Do you ever
find it interesting that so many expression of faith have to do with eating?
Among Christians, there is Holy Communion, an action we all hold in common even
though the understanding might differ from one person to the next, let alone
one denomination to the next. For the Jewish people, the Passover meal is
extremely important, since they hold that in this meal they celebrate the
Exodus and the freedom of all Jews, even to those living today.
·
Some of the
meals have a religious significance built in. Others take on a kind of
religious significance in that they are important for the unity of the group or
congregation. In this, I’m thinking of our own congregation’s “pot-luck” meals
and things like the pancake supper on Shrove Tuesday.
·
It should
come as no real surprise that meals take such a prominent place in the Gospels.
Jesus seems to be constantly attending a supper with this person or a meal with
that one… eating with “sinners” in particular. It might not be surprising that
Jesus uses “meal-time” references, especially in this portion of John’s Gospel.
This section of the Gospel is referred to as the “Bread of Life discourse.” It
goes on for quite a few verses and uses the feeding of the 5000 as a jumping
off point. We’ll be reading it over the next few weeks in our worship.
·
Jesus says
some things and makes claims that might be hard to beat. To say that anyone who
feasts on the bread of life will never hunger or thirst anymore is a big thing
to say. John uses the words “comes
to me” and “believes in
me” rather than a more “meal-time” word to say what he is about.
The further we read, the more it becomes clear that Jesus is not talking about
the loaves and fish he multiplied a short time ago. In fact, that miracle
appear to be a prelude to what he has to say here.
·
When the
crowd comes to see Jesus again, he says that they are more interested in
filling their belly with loaves than in understanding who Jesus is and what he
is about. You’ll remember that this is the reason that the crowd wanted to make
Jesus the king; they could then have all the bread they’d ever want! They stop
at the sign and ignore the substance.
·
They ask "What must we do to perform the
works of God?" What Jesus just spoke of is right in front of
them and they can’t see it. They want to know how to multiply the loaves for
themselves, doing the “Work of God.”
·
Instead of
teaching them the way to do such a thing, Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe
in him whom he has sent." They have missed the real meaning of
the event and the real meaning of the abundance of loaves and fish. It does not
mean a “free lunch”; it means the Kingdom of God has come near. I wonder if the
people referred to as “the crowd” wanted the Kingdom of God to come, but had
very fixed expectations as to what it would look like, how it would come, and
who would be part of it. It might seem that at least some of them were only
interested in the meal; still some of them would be concerned with the coming
of the Kingdom. As we’ll see later, there were those among the crowd who were
willing to see the Kingdom in Jesus.
·
If the true
work of God is as Jesus said, to believe in the one God has sent, then John’s
terms “come to me” and “believe in me” make more sense than any meal-time
words. The references to the “Bread of Life” are far more evocative and poetic
and, in truth, all of them apply.
·
You know
that there are people who eat to live and there are people who live to eat. In
the case of the Gospel passage, Jesus invites us to come to him, to believe in
him, and to eat of the bread that
endures for eternal life. This is not empty food but the food that
give life and life eternal.
·
It is not
simply the food we are talking about here. It is the meaning behind the food.
In my seminary days, I was taught that a sacrament is a sign that accomplishes
what it signifies. Baptism, then, is both a sign of the salvation of God coming
to us and the ordinary way that the salvation of God comes to us, particularly
in a way that is experienced. Communion is the way that eternal life Jesus
speaks of in calling himself “the
Bread of Life” is communicated to us is a very tangible manner.
Faith is needed to see the real meaning, but that meaning does not depend on
our faith. If everything depended on our faith, it would not be a gift of God.
·
This is how
the work of God is done in us, that we believe
in him whom he (God)
has sent. This is the grace of God – undeserved and unwarranted,
yet ours none-the-less.
·
So we come
to the Lord’s table today for the Lord’s Supper, a communal meal that has a far
deeper meaning than simply the eating and the drinking. As we eat and drink
together, we look beyond the bread and the wine to the one who is the Bread of
Life, the true bread from heaven, the food that endures to eternal life and
fulfills our real hunger for meaning and our deep thirst for the holy.
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.
(I'm going on holiday, so there will not be any entries on this blog until I return at the end of August. God be with you all until then... and after, too!)
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