August 2 sermon

Partake of the Bread of Life
August 2, 2009

Our scripture lesson this morning is taken from John 6: 23 – 35. Here “the crowd that followed Jesus realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus”.

Jesus the Bread of Life

When they found him on the other side of the lake they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

Jesus 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. Do 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.”

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert, as it is written: ‘he gave them bread from heaven to eat’

Jesus 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. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

“Sir”, they said, “from now on give us this bread.”

Then 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.”

Notice, if you will that this crowd is not following Jesus to learn of his message and mission. They are following him because he had fed them. This was a group of people who lived from day to day and ate and fed their families only when they were able to get work as day laborers. Rome fed the poor daily. They distributed bread. This was an effort to keep the poor subjugated and to keep down rebellion. All Rome had to do to subjugate these people was to withhold their daily bread. When Jesus told them not to work for food that spoils but to work for food that endures to eternal life, they thought he was talking about day work they could do for God to obtain more food and food that would not spoil so they asked him what work God required. Then they asked for a sign of his ability to provide the bread they needed. Their ancestors had had a sign from Moses when he provided them manna from heaven following their captivity in Egypt.

Are we like that? This people were seeking one kind of blessing when a far more satisfying blessing was available. The crowd was so preoccupied with loaves, fishes, and manna that they lost sight of the blessing Jesus was teaching.

Jesus was trying, by his own example, to teach the people to take care of one another. None of them had much but by sharing what they did have, they could have had enough for all. His message of the Kingdom of God on earth would have helped them all to have their needs met. However, that would have meant that they would have to give up control of what little they had in order to share.

It was the day after Jesus fed the 5,000. The picnic was over and Jesus had taken his disciples to the other side of the lake. But the crowds of people who shared the meal with him yesterday and who then tried to turn him into their king are not about to let him go. They are hungry again.

We can understand their feelings. After all, Jesus is their meal ticket. In their minds he has the potential to do something unheard of, to lighten the fundamental burdens of life that plaque their existence. Who knows what else he can do? If he can provide food, perhaps he can do the same with shelter and clothing: he can protect them from the unending uncertainties of their lives. Who among us would not choose that sort of security? After all, in our time so much of our living is dedicated to the illusion that somehow our complete safety can be ensured and that we can be protected against all the ills and evils common to human existence. This delusional pursuit has become an obsession.

Soon the pursuing crowd catches up with Jesus and his entourage on the other side of the lake in Capernaum. There they greet him with a question. “Rabbi, when did you come here?” It sounds innocent enough, somewhat like saying, “Fancy meeting you here.” But it means much more. They know something about him, but they want and need to know more. Their question is not limited to temporal time and place; it’s a question about ultimate origins. They want to know where he came from and how he came to be. They remind us of a perplexed wine steward who wondered where the new wine had come from, or a women who asked a visitor for the living water that he kept telling her about.

Judging by what happens next, we might conclude that Jesus would not make it in a seeker friendly church. Although the people have been looking for him for hours and have crossed over the lake to find him, Jesus detects an ulterior motive and candidly calls their bluff. “You worked all night to find me”, he says, “because I represent a free lunch. You never read the sign; you missed the point completely.”

Most of us are afraid to be this forthright. In this case, Jesus takes the risk of doing something more pertinent and more useful than complying with the crowd’s misguided agenda.

“I know what you are up to,” he tells the crowd. “You came after me because of what happened yesterday when it was time to eat. You ate your fill and now you’ve come to see if you can exploit the situation. You aren’t really interested in knowing who I am. Your question is a façade to cover your true intentions.”

In other words, these people have followed Jesus for the wrong reasons. This should not surprise us today. It’s still common practice. The Emperor Constantine is still with us, and we follow his historic example of exploiting the cause.. Our culture has made an art of doing the same thing.

Jesus will have none of it. He abhors such crass opportunism. In this instance, he doesn’t even answer the people’s question, but instead moves the conversation in a new direction.

“The bread you are after,” he tells them, “will not last. Yesterday you assuaged your hunger. You ate the bread and now you are hungry again. There is food that perishes and there is food that lasts. God the Father has marked me to provide you the food that endures. So work for that food.”

“How do we do that?” they ask. “How do we perform the works of God?”

The answer is disarmingly simple. “This is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent.” He might have said, “Believe what I have taught you. I have taught you to take care of one another. That way all will have enough”.

The people aren’t sure they can do that. With the aroma of yesterday’s wonder bread still fresh in their nostrils, they have the audacity to ask for a sign. “Prove it,” they say and they recall their ancestors and Moses and the miraculous manna from heaven. Whereupon Jesus reminds them that Moses was not the author of that bread. Rather, it came from “my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.”

In one way or the other, each of us is challenged by a personal wilderness; painful loss, physical suffering, financial reverses, betrayal or bereavement. These are roads that we travel not by choice, but by necessity. A Spanish proverb speaks of this condition “With bread and wine, you can walk your road.” For us, Jesus message is that sustaining bread.

This is communion Sunday. We have an opportunity this morning to consider our covenant that we made in the waters of baptism. We can ask ourselves if we have done our very best to follow the path of Jesus. Have we given up control of our lives in order to let God lead us into the path of service?

Once more John has started with the literal meaning of a word and ended by having it point beyond itself to something more. The word itself becomes a sign: bread of life and Bread of Life. Then and now it all comes down to the same thing; it’s a matter of believing the one who said, “I am the Bread of life” and doing what he taught...take care of the needs of one another.