I am the bread of life Tom Cowan Interim Lead Pastor English Congregation Vancouver Chinese Baptist Church Vancouver, British Columbia Sunday Sermon for 12 February 2012 Scripture Passage John 6:26-35, 48-58
People who are sadly trapped by an addictive lifestyle may do so for many complex reasons. One reason is that they are seeking an immediate gratification for a deep inner hunger. Addictions are often an unhealthy solution to a genuine need. People long to be satisfied while many of us may avoid addictive lifestyles. We still often hunger to be satisfied in spite of having so much. In another church we knew a lady who used to lock her credit card in her safety deposit box when she felt depressed because she knew that she tried to satisfy her inner desires by buying all kinds of stuff to satisfy her inner hunger. Then the bills came in which made her even more depressed. We hunger to be good in spite of our propensity for evil. We hunger for the divine although we seldom know what that really means. It is to this inner hunger that Jesus says John 6:35: "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” Bread is a staple, an essential. Jesus is saying you cannot make it without me. Cake is a luxury. Bread is a necessity. Like every statement and claim Jesus makes, there is a context. Actually there are 2 levels. It is triggered by an incident. An overview. It starts at the beginning of John 6, what we usually call the feeding of the 5,000. This is the only miracle in all 4 gospels. It is a gigantic miracle, a miracle on massive proportions. Even more than a healing to one person, one blind person, one lame person, one sick child. Here 5,000 people are involved. The people have listened to him. Getting towards the end of the day, they are getting hungry, perhaps a little restless. We, in different accounts, Jesus asks the disciples what they can do. John says, he did this to test them. He wanted to see what solution they will come up with. In John’s account, Philip calculates it will take 8 months salary to feed everybody since you cannot charge this on Visa. In other words, we cannot afford to do anything. In another Gospel, the solution from the disciples is, let’s send them home. Anyone could have thought of that. Jesus’ solution is to take a small basket from a small child, loaves and fishes, bless them and then start to feed everyone. An immense miracle, and at the end of the miracle they gather up basket after basket. Then there is a grass roots movement to make Jesus king. There was this messianic hope that the real king of Israel would come and take over the land. Jesus withdraws from this situation. He is a king, but not on these terms. So he gets into a boat, crosses the lake. This leads to the incident about a storm on the lake. The next day we pick up the story, the crowd have not forgotten what they were part of, what they witnessed. This is where they find Jesus and they want to continue this whole issue. John 6:26-35 26Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval." 28Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" 29Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." 2 IAMTHEBREADOFLIFE
30So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?31Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'[a]" 32Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." 34"Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread." 35Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. Then onto verses 48-58 48I am the bread of life. 49Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." 52Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 57Just 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. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." This puts this affirmation, I am the bread of life. Now in its next context, the context of an OT story. Here is the story, Israel had come out of Egypt, but now is hungry, so hungry in fact that the people tell Moses that they would rather go back to the good food and all they got in Egypt. It seems they have short memories, as we have also. We say, remember the good old days, and to be honest, some of it was not all that good. So in the desert God provides a miraculous provision of daily food, manna, a Hebrew word which means = what is it? Can you imagine all the recipes for manna that began to circulate among the wives, all the ways to cook and serve manna. You only gather what you need for that day, and if you gathered for tomorrow, it went bad, except then the next day was the Sabbath when it was fine. It did not go bad. It was teaching that you had to depend on God every day, no freezers, faith cannot be stockpiled. Lord’s prayer teaches us to pray, give us this day our daily bread. God’s faithfulness comes to us every day. We are not to go back and live on manna that is stale which means what God did in your life 10 or 15 years ago, nor can we store it up for the future. We receive it every day. We need it every day, fresh and warm. So this great affirmation, I am the bread of life, is set in the context of a massive miracle, and takes the people back to a story etched into their life as a nation. What might it say to us today? JESUS INVITES US TO SOMETHING ETERNAL – NOT IMMEDIATE. John says, this miracle is a sign (verse 26, 30) that is a technical word in John. A sign means something that looks ahead. It looks beyond itself. It is not just about what is right before us, the immediate. It is about what it points to. In John, miracles are called signs. John 2:11 water into wine. You may hear a TV preacher declare, just come to Jesus, he will bring instant healing. He will solve all your financial problems, name it and claim it. It is often called the health and wealth gospel. The emphasis, you can have it all now! 3 IAMTHEBREADOFLIFE
John 6:26-27 26Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” They were attracted to the immediacy of the miracle as any of us would be, but tomorrow they would be hungry again. God may chose in his grace and mercy to break into our lives at one point, bring renewed health, answers to family struggles, financial help, money comes from some unexpected source, but it is wrong to see this as the reason to believe in Christ. This is an immaturity and childishness in us that needs to give way to a greater maturity that loves God and Christ just for who he is. Some of the blessings of Christ may be felt here and now, and we are grateful for that, but the real blessing and inheritance for us always lies ahead. The signs point the way into the future, into eternity. 4 times in this dialogue, Jesus says those who believe in him will be raised up at the last day. Jesus invites us to an eternal banquet. Let’s just not settle for a picnic. JESUS INVITES US TO SOMETHING SPIRITUAL – NOT JUST PHYSICAL. The bread that the people ate in the wilderness fed their bodies. The water that they drank from the rock satisfied their thirst, but Jesus says, John 6:49. 26Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. One of the unseen tragedies of the lives of many in our affluent society is that they have so much to live with and so little to live for. You know the saying, he who dies with the most toys wins. It was followed up by this response: he who has the most toys still dies. Jesus understood the essential issue when he faced Satan in the wilderness, looked him eyeball to eyeball and said, man/people does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. We know that we need bread for each day, shelter to sleep, all these physical needs, God knows that also, but he also knows that we need more, we need those things that we cannot touch and cannot see. We need faith to live, we need hope to get up tomorrow, we need love to sustain our hearts. I know and you know that sometimes life is not easy. People we love die. Some days we are not sure where the sunshine is, or if it will ever come back again in our lives. Some years ago, a young person in one of our churches committed suicide. My message to the hundreds of young people who came to his service was this, don’t do in the dark what you cannot undo when the light returns. Perhaps whatever is going on in your life, you feel like the sun has stopped shining, days are cold, you wonder if the sun will ever come back again. 2 Corinthians 4 16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Jesus invites us to an eternal banquet – lets not settle for a picnic. 4 IAMTHEBREADOFLIFE
JESUS INVITES US TO SOMETHING PERMANENT – NOT TEMPORARY. The manna came, day after day, for 40 years. Can you imagine, what are we having for supper tonight dear, Manna again! Jesus says, you forefathers ate manna in the wilderness and died, but he who feeds on the bread of life will live forever.” One of the signs and marks of immaturity in our lives today is when we try to find and apply short-term solutions to permanent problems. We think we can answers today’s deep problems only to find that the same struggles re-appear tomorrow. We often call these band-aid solutions. We just get by for that day. One of the reasons that people end up in addictive lifestyles is that they are seeking short-term solutions from their problems and their pain. Addictions are an unhealthy solution to a genuine need. Jesus is not a band-aid solution, nor a temporary remedy. Jesus is a permanent solution. He is the one who says that he and he alone can feed and nourish the deep needs of the human soul. The invitation of the psalmist (psalm 34) taste and see that the Lord is good. It is not the invitation to a snack. It is the invitation to be nourished at the very depths of our soul by Jesus himself. Unless Jesus is the bread of life to us, we will die of spiritual starvation. In these last moments, Jesus takes us far from the wilderness and the miracle of feeding the 5,000 to the this miracle into communion. John 6 54Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Bread and wine. Bread is only made when the grains of wheat are crushed into flour. Even the loaf feeds us only when it is broken. The grapes have to be crushed to make wine. So when you take bread and wine this morning, can you ask to be nourished in some special way for your life by Jesus? Can you bring some hunger you have to God? The answer may not be immediate, but the reward will be eternal. The remedy you seek may not be physical. It needs to be spiritual. The solution may not be temporary. It needs to be permanent. Jesus does not invite us to a picnic. He invites us to a banquet. The invitation says, Taste and see that the lord is good.
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