John 6:51-69 Pentecost 14 Pastor Ron Koehler
Are you familiar with Ancient Grains? If not, you can get familiar with them on your next Costco trip. Costco will take $10.49 in exchange for 35.3 ounces of them. Then you can fill your belly with grains like spelt and kamut and amaranth. Whether you like them or not, your dog might. Costco will sell you Kirkland brand Ancient Grain dog food too, so they can get their barley and chia and quinoa.
So, is your bread made from Ancient Grains better for you than other breads? Some say yes. Is the term simply a marketing ploy to sell supposedlyhealthier food? Maybe more that. It’s worked so well that they’re even able to market it for your Golden Retriever!
For a few weeks we’ve been hearing Jesus refer to himself as the Bread of Life. Perhaps when we hear what Jesus said about being sent from heavenby his livingFather and bringing eternal life, we might think of Jesus as the Bread of Life made of truly ancient grain the stuff of eternity! You can argue about the value of Ancient Grains, but Jesus says that there is no debate about the necessity of the eternal Bread of Life.
Like paparazzi chasing after a rock star, a crowd from the 5,000-plus of Jesus’s followers, who had listened to him teach and eaten miracle-produced food, chased him around the Sea of Galilee, finding him in Capernaum. The last two Sundays we’ve heard some of what he taught them as he called himself the Bread of Life. Today we hear him continue that imagery to explain that it is necessary to believe in him that he is the only “food,” so to speak, that is needed in order to have eternal life. So, he says…
EAT THE BREAD OF LIFE
1. Sent by the Father
2. To Bring Eternal Life
Still today people ask, “WhyJesus?”Why is he the one to listen to when it comes to what happens after we die? People are as confused about Jesus now as they were then and maybe we can be too. We’ll talk about what might sound super weird to you as it did to those who first heard Jesus say it eating his flesh and drinking his blood but first let’s notice something he said about who he was and where he came from. This is key to understanding why anyone would listen to him.
As you scan these words of Jesus, there are some things about them that stand out. Like we’ve seen the last couple weeks, Jesus says something then circles back to it and maybe even a few times. That he was sent by the Father and is God himself is one of those things. He said:
I am the living bread which came down from heaven.
A little later: Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven.
And then later: What if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
He is God. That’s what Jesus was saying about himself. Yes, the part about eating and drinking raised questions for those who were listening, but the bigger reason they said, “This is a hard teaching! Who can listen to it?” was because they rejected the idea that he came from the Father, from heaven, and that eternal life came through him.
What he said sounded strange. That he came from heaven, they could not accept. That eternal life came from him, they didn’t want to hear. Besides, he was not the kind of Messiah they wanted. Their people had been waiting thousands of years for God to send a Savior to his people. The problem was that by this time, all that many were looking for was a “bread king,” one who could give them their country back and bring prosperity you know, the kind of leader who could take a little boy’s lunch and multiply it so that it fed a massive crowd.
It’s unfortunate that this was their approach to Jesus. Tragic, really. That kind of Savior was not what God had promised he had given his word that he would send them a Savior from sin , which was so much more important! Like two people dating who break up because one of them realizes they’re not looking for the same things, many of them did not find what they were looking for in Jesus, so they broke up with him.
We may not like to see it, but sometimes we can be a lot like those in that crowd. All sorts of everyday concerns pile up around us.
We’re sorting through stacks of troubles and sifting through files of responsibilities and our concerns deepen and our worries grow.
When we remember, we look to God to take away our problems. That’s a good thing because we know he has the power to do it, but it’s not good if that’s all we’re looking for.
So, if you’re just chasing Jesus down in prayer because all sorts of things that come with school starting are stressful or because you just want peace in your house for a change or financial security or better health or a more settled mind, or better political voting options, you’re acting like those who left the Lord. If we’re only “chasing him around the lake” looking for everyday help, we are exactly like them!
Jesus is a much greater problem-solver than that! He came into the world to give his flesh and blood to save us from our sins. He has taken care of what ought to be our greatest worry and concern the damning sin that is part of our nature and the eternal life in hell that awaits sinful people! That the Father would send his Son from heaven to do that for us and that Jesus would actually do it that’s what should consume our minds and dominate our prayers and be the basis of our faith. Everything else means very little in comparison.
Jesus says that he is the true Bread of Life from heaven. He is the one true, eternal Son of God, sent by the Father to enter this world, not to provide every earthly wish we might have from breadbaskets and belongings to bank accounts, but to be the Savior from sin, the “Bread” that a person eats to live eternally. They should have listened and looked at Jesus that way above all else. So should we.
Many found it offensive for Jesus to say that he was sent by God and even more that he actually wasGod who had come down from heaven. It was even moreoffensive for him to say that people who want to go to heaven must eat his flesh and drink his blood. They were very upset at this. And they argued about it. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Now, either they really didn’t understand his figure of speech or they didn’t like what he meant by it. There was likely a little of both in the crowd.
Because they were looking for the wrong kind of Messiah, they were looking at the wrong way to gain eternal life with God. They felt they could win God’s affection by doing good things. We might say that they preferred to “make their own bread” rather than rely on Jesus, the Bread “already made for them”. In other words, trusting in Jesus to make the sacrifice for them and give them eternal life was too simple. Surely, they had to dosomething.
So, they would not tolerate him saying If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Jesus wanted them to see his flesh and blood as the sacrifice made so that sinful people could have their sins washed away and might come to live with God after life in this world.
This is the way he explained that he was giving his body and his blood for our salvation: Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the Last Day. Eating the Bread of Life is a metaphorical way of saying that we take Jesus in by faith, we consume what he has done for us by faith. Like a person eats to sustain physical life, a person sustains spiritual life by continuously feeding their faith by taking in the truth of Jesus’ sacrificial life and death. This “eating” the Bread of Life is how we can be certain of our eternal life in heaven. But the opposite is also true, by not consuming Jesus, an eternal death in hell is a certainty. There is no life without eating of the Bread of Life.
Some have wondered if what Jesus says here has something to do with the Lord’s Supper. It’s kind of a natural question if you know about Holy Communion. But that’s not what Jesus is talking about. It’s not super obvious, but he talks about his “fleshand blood” here. But God always talks about his “bodyand blood” when it comes to Holy Communion. The Greek word is different. Also, keep in mind that Jesus would not institute the Lord’s Supper for another year yet. And nowhere in Scripture does it say that we MUST have Holy Communion in order to be saved, just as nowhere in the Bible are we given the guarantee that you are automaticallysaved just because you physically take part in the Sacrament.
So, just rule that out completely and understand that this is a spiritual eating and drinking. He is encouraging an ongoing closeness between you and him. To “eat and drink” his “flesh and blood” is to believe in Jesus as your Savior from sin with all your heart. Total faith in him. Total trust in his life, death, and resurrection.
Just how “hungry” does Jesus want us to be for that connection to him? In the Bible’s original language, the word that’s used for “eat” gives us a graphic image. It might better be translated “gnaw” or “crunch”. It’s a word used to speak of the way animals eat. It’s a ravenous eating, an enthusiastic eating! We are to chase down and devour all that we can learn, all that we can know about Jesus and our eternal life through him, with the kind of energy we would have if we hadn’t eaten for a week and wouldn’t eat for another! Jesus promises us that this is eternal, life-giving eating: the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
He circled back to the people’s challenge for him to prove himself worthy of being trusted by miraculously providing food again like God did through Moses with the manna. His answer was, “Yeah,thathappenedandtheystillultimatelydied.YoueattheBreadofLife, andyouwill liveforever.”
Jesus is telling you and me the same thing today. Don’t be distracted by and more interested in the here and now than you are in the most important thing life after here. And don’t try to challenge Jesus, insisting that your faith in him is dependent on how he handles your perceived needs. He's bigger than all of that. He offered himself all of himself to save you from hell. He does say that he cares for us and provides what we need for daily life. And he proved that he can with the miraculous feeding those people experienced, but to get into all of that requires another sermon on another day.
For today, focus on this: Jesus tells you to EAT THE BREAD OF LIFE. Constantly devour the words of Scripture that tell you about our Savior and how he gave himself for you body and blood to take away your sins and give you eternal life. EAT THE BREAD OF LIFE and be satisfied every day until you receive the eternal life Jesus promises to you. Amen.
Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.