John 6:35-51
Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke Sunday, August 18, 2024
“Believe In the Bread of Life”
Do you get the feeling that some people today are confused about bread? Some people, certainly, have issues with gluten and know that the regular, everyday bread just doesn’t work for them. They need some sort of alternative without gluten. Others have found out that if they cut bread out of their eating habits, it makes it easier for them to lose a few pounds. Maybe they feel better, too. And if you’ve tried to figure out the best way to eat for certain goals, it can be pretty easy to get confused about all sorts of things— whether certain foods are healthy or not. It seems like every study contradicts a different study. It can be very confusing.
People at the time when Jesus lived in that area of the world were not confused about bread. Bread was a mainstay. It was a staple food. It was the thing that they ate as much as, if not more than, anything else. At the times when God told them for religious observation not to eat yeast, they still ate bread, just a different sort that didn’t have yeast in it.
The people were not confused about physical bread, but they were sure trying hard to understand spiritual bread. And as Jesus taught more and more about himself as the Bread of Life, as he repeated some points and added new thoughts, they were forced to think deeply. They were asked to confront their own thinking and ideas. In a lot of ways, they thought they had things figured out. But Jesus had more to say.
Let’s remind ourselves of some context for our reading from John chapter 6. Jesus had recently performed a miracle. With five loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus fed well over five thousand people and had leftovers to spare. When the people, a large crowd, followed him from there, he accused them of following him only because of the bread. They had eaten but knew they would be hungry again. They wanted Jesus to take care of their physical needs. They didn’t know that what they needed even more was for him to take care of their spiritual needs. So Jesus taught them that he was and is the Bread of Life. He is much more than a physical provider. He is what they need most. He is their Savior. Believe in him, and you will never be hungry or thirsty again.
The problem was that they didn’t believe in him. They still did not get it. They still did not really make sense of what Jesus was telling them. Jesus tells them even more. He talks about coming down from heaven. He talks about the people whom his Father has given to him. He talks about doing the will of his Father, not losing anyone but raising them up on the Last Day.
This is incredible news that Jesus was sharing with the people. Never being hungry or thirsty meant having everything that they needed spiritually. Jesus was giving them and offering them bread that would make them live forever. He was sharing details about what that meant, that he would bring back to life all who put their trust and confidence in him. This was the best news of all from God himself. And here’s how the people reacted: “This doesn’t make sense.” They knew Jesus, at least they thought they did. He didn’t come from heaven. He came from Mary and Joseph. They knew Joseph the carpenter. They knew Nazareth, the small-town hometown of Jesus. They knew it wasn’t heaven. They were doubting. They were rejecting. They were depending on their own intelligence, their own wisdom, their own insight.
And Jesus kept teaching that they needed more than that. They needed the Father to draw them. They needed the Father to teach them. Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the Last Day.
He even quoted from Isaiah about the Messiah’s work: “It is written in the Prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’”
Sinful people are not going to figure Jesus out on their own. Trying to is worse than trying to decipher contradictory dieting advice. We’re born enemies of God. Our intelligence can only handle earthly matters. We need God to overcome our stubborn unbelief and lead us to put our trust in Jesus. Our reason and our rationalizing get in the way. That’s not helpful. It’s not useful. What we need is to listen to the Word of God and hear the message. God reveals that he sent Jesus to be our Savior. God reveals that Jesus is true God in the flesh in order to live in our place. God tells us that Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice to take away the sin of the world. And through his Word he calls us to believe.
Jesus expresses this several times over in our verses. He says, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever.” Eating this bread means believing in Jesus as Savior. It is faith. Just look through the verses at how many times Jesus emphasizes faith: “The one who comes to me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty… you do not believe…For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life…Amen, Amen, I tell you: The one who believes in me has eternal life.”
It’s impossible to miss that Jesus is calling these people to faith. He wants them to believe. He has worked to take their eyes from earthly things, physical things, to spiritual and heavenly things. And he makes it abundantly clear why he is doing that, because there is a blessed and incredible, and amazing result. That result is eternal life. He will raise to life those who have fallen asleep. He will glorify all who have believed in him so that they may live with him forever. He would give his own life and be raised from the dead, and he would bring many in his path. “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
In this way, Jesus is even better than the miraculous manna in the wilderness. No one whose body was nourished by that bread is still on the earth today. But those who eat this bread do not die. They live forever. The other readings we heard today tell us that it is true wisdom to eat this bread. It is true wisdom to listen to what God teaches and humbly receive it and believe it.
These people grumbled. They questioned and doubted. They thought they had everything figured out. They were caught up in their own supposed wisdom. Like the world around us, they were focused on earthly wisdom, worldly wisdom. They wanted things to make sense to them. They wanted things to fit their logic. Tenderly, carefully, clearly, Jesus teaches them that his words are wisdom and his words give life. He came from heaven as the Bread of Life, and eating this bread, believing in him, gives heaven. It gives eternal life.
We read these words as warnings and encouragement. We face the temptation to only believe when we understand. There are times when we want God to listen to us and our wisdom, but that is the height of our foolishness. There is so much about God and so much about our own lives and the world around us that we cannot possibly understand. We can’t understand why God would love the world as much as he does. We can’t understand why God loves us as much as he does. But God has drawn us. He has taught us. He has made us his own and has fed us with the Bread of Life. And that is enough to make sense of the world. That is enough to keep our lives in perspective. It is enough for us to live forever with him.
And that means eating the Bread of Life. It means listening attentively to his Word and applying it not only in our hearts but also in our lives. It means we have something to share with others who are still confused and lost and hungry and thirsty as well.
We may still be confused at times, even about earthly things. With so many ideas out there, maybe it’s hard to know what sort of bread we should eat and how much of it. But we can never get too much of the Bread of Life. This is the one who came down from heaven for us, and he is the one who promises heaven to us. Believe in him.
The Text: John 6:35–51 (EHV)
35“I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus told them. “The one who comes to me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But I said to you that you have also seen me, and you do not believe. 37Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out. 38For I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me, but raise them up on the Last Day. 40For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the Last Day.”
41So the Jews started grumbling about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42They asked, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? So how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
43Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. 44No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the Last Day. 45It is written in the Prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46I am not saying that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He is the one who has seen the Father. 47Amen, Amen, I tell you: The one who believes in me has eternal life.
48“I am the Bread of Life. 49Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat it and not die. 51I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”