Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Tone of specific sentences
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Food for Eternal Life
John 6:35, 41-51
You'd be surprised at how often we link food with something that's simply divine!
What if Jesus said, "I
am the peach of life"?
Not the bread - the peach.
"I am the peach of life, whoever comes to Me will never be
hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty."
The communion services in churches around the
world would be forever changed.
Instead of squares of bread, we'd be eating slices of peaches.
Of course, the
breaking of the bread would be a bit of a problem.
Kind of hard to break a peach.
But peaches have a
connection to eternal life, at least in China.
The peaches grown in the garden of the goddess Xi Wang-mu
[pronounced Shee Wong moo] are an example of godly food.
According to Chinese mythology, the gods are nourished by a steady diet of special peaches that take
thousands of years to ripen.
Called "the peaches of immortality," they come from Xi Wang-mu's garden, and
give long life to anyone who eats them - in fact, 3,000 years from a single peach.
The goddess was famous for
serving these peaches to her guests, who would then become immortal, so they say.
Well, so much for Chinese
immortality; good luck with that.
But Jesus doesn't say, "I am the peach of life."
Instead, He asserts, "I am the bread of life.
Whoever
comes to Me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty."
The person who eats this
bread is promised endless satisfaction - freedom from hunger and thirst - and life everlasting.
Consume this
bread, and you're eating for eternal life.
But not everyone believes what Jesus says.
Some people listening to Him on the shore of the Sea of
Galilee are very skeptical, much as we are when we hear the myth of the Chinese peaches of immortality.
In
particular, the Jews complain about Jesus because He said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."
They
know that He's the son of Joseph and Mary, a couple of regular Galileans that they know personally.
With the
two of them as His parents, they wonder how He can say, "I have come down from heaven."
Good question.
If
the 10-year-old daughter of your next-door neighbor claims, "I have come down from heaven," you're going to
assume that she has an active imagination.
If the 30-year-old daughter of a neighbor says, "I have come down
from heaven," you might recommend a visit to a mental health professional.
She's not peaches.
She's bananas.
The Jews in this passage aren't necessarily opponents of Jesus.
There’s no evidence that they're as antagonistic
as the religious authorities who plan to kill Him and hand Him over to the Romans for crucifixion.
These Jews
2
are not arrayed against Jesus.
They are just confused and concerned.
Maybe Jesus has been spending too much
time with the Gentiles.
After all, Galilee was a multicultural place.
As a resident of this region, Jesus might
have heard about the Greek gods who ate sweet ambrosia, a heavenly food consumed on Mount Olympus.
Some scholars think that ambrosia was honey, while others speculate that it was psychoactive mushrooms.
But
whatever it was, it bestowed immortality on whoever consumed it.
Was Jesus on a high?
But Jesus doesn't say, "I am ambrosia."
Instead, He claims, "I am the bread of life."
He goes on to say,
"Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes in Me has eternal life."
This is the first clue to understanding what
He's talking about: Belief is the key to receiving the benefits of the Bread of Life.
Immortality does not come to
those who eat peaches, or to those who get their hands on some sweet ambrosia, or to those who grab a loaf of
pumpernickel.
Instead, eternal life comes from putting faith in Jesus Christ.
It's not about the bread.
It's about
having the belief; having faith in Jesus Christ.
Just a few centuries after Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life," Saint Augustine preached about the
connection between faith and the Bread of Life.
In a sermon on Holy Communion, he says, "What you see is
the bread and the chalice; that is what your own eyes report to you.
But what your faith obliges you to accept is
that the bread is the body of Christ and the chalice holds the blood of Christ."
With your eyes you see bread, of
course.
But with your faith you receive the body and blood, that is, the life of Christ.
So Jesus is inviting us to believe in Him and to receive the eternal life that He offers us.
"I am the Bread
of Life," He says to the Jews by the Sea of Galilee.
"Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they
died."
The ancient Israelites ate the bread that God gave them, but it was physical bread, the kind that you can
see with your eyes and taste in your mouth.
In contrast, Jesus offers the gift of Himself, living bread, much like
the living water He offered to the woman at the well.
He asks that we take the bridge from the physical to the
spiritual meaning of His words.
"This is the bread that comes down from heaven," He explains, "so that one
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