The Bible: What's in it FOR ME? Jesus. (John 6:63-69)

What’s In It For Me?

Remote office work became the trend during the COVID pandemic. A recent survey from just a couple of months ago suggested that many workers in the younger demographics would rather take a paycut or lose their job entirely rather than return to the office fulltime. And that is happening. Faced with office mandates, employees are asking “What’s in it for me?” and when the response is “you get to keep your job”, they start looking for employment elsewhere. “What’s in it for me?” has always been a question that every ad you see on TV is answering. Now that question is being used by employees not satisfied with their job arrangements.

The Bible: What’s In It for Me?

Beginning this morning, we will begin a six week series on "The Bible: What’s in it FOR ME?” We’re going to take a look at just what the Bible is, why we emphasize the Bible here at The Table, and how the Bible impacts the way we believe, think, and act. This six week series is a setup for a series that will begin in November that will take us through the end of 2024.. The Bible Binge. We will walk through the entire Bible in 14 months. This should be a big help and a lot of fun. Our mother church, St. Paul in Harlingen, will be doing the Bible Binge as well.

The Bible is a big deal. You often hear us refer to our worship service here as Word and Sacrament. This places the Bible at the center of everything we do. Jesus is with us in Word and Sacrament.

Jesus, The WORD, is present among us three ways when we gather here:

The Word read.

The Word proclaimed.

The Word received in Baptism and the Table.

And it is through His written Word, the Bible, that God answers the important questions about life, death, and salvation. More importantly, Jesus, the WORD, is God's revelation to us and the Bible is His story. So, over the next six weeks, we're going to equip ourselves with God-given tools to help us understand His story.

We begin our series where we began our Word and Sacrament four years ago. In John 6. If there is a Bible passage we should all memorize and take to heart, it's John 6. John 6 for me is the magna carta for The Table. Over the past four years, we’ve found ourselves coming back to this passage again and again.

John 6 is the story of the Bible

John 6 has the entire story of the Bible wrapped up in one chapter. This chapter is a grand summary of the story of Jesus. If this chapter is the entire story of the Bible and a summary of the story of Jesus, then it is a summary of what it means for the Table to be the Table.

At the beginning of John 6 we find huge crowds following Jesus wherever he went… to the point of interrupting a personal moment with his 12 disciples on a mountain. We're going to begin our short study in verse 4:

John 6:4-6: Now the Passover, a Jewish festival, was near. (by the way… hang on to that thought… that becomes important a little later) So when Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we buy bread so that these people can eat?” He asked this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.

The crowd imposes itself on Jesus and the disciples and Jesus brings up food. Classic setup. Before anyone says anything about food, Jesus goes there. Where will we buy bread so that these people can eat? And those of us who grew up in Sunday school know the rest of the story. One of the most spectacular of Jesus' miracles… he feeds the 5000… and there are many baskets left over. Truly spectacular. 5 loaves and two fishes… feeds a crowd of probably around 15-thousand… twice the size of Bert Ogden Arena just down the road here.

And the way it was taught in Sunday School was…. that was it. Yay. 12 baskets left over for the disciples to eat. End of story. Let’s go walk on the water. But it's not the end of the story. Next thing you know, Jesus is walking on the water… which is pretty cool… we're not going to get into that….and…. then… the crowd is back the next day… on the other side of the lake.

Jesus has a conversation with them and it doesn’t go well. He tells them that they missed the point about his miracle of feeding thousands with a small lunchbox.

John 6:35 “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.”

So that wasn't all there was. The story doesn't really end with the 12 baskets. This, and the rest of chapter 6 is an explanation of the meaning of the miracle of feeding the 5000. they come looking for more bread. And Jesus points out that they are looking for the wrong kind of bread. They are looking for bread that comes from good ole Kansas wheat. They are looking for Wonder Bread that “builds strong bodies 12 ways”. They want bread that satisfies immediate hunger. Food that perishes. They are not satisfied with what Christ has done… they are not satisfied with Jesus. They want more of the same.. and Jesus says… you missed it. You missed the point. What you should have seen on the mountain is the True Bread from heaven… the Real Bread that gives life that is not of this world.

Where do you get your bread?

It’s all about where you get your bread from. The crowd wants bread that they can produce. They want to be self-sufficient. Their salvation is bound up with what they can do for themselves. It’s all about getting what they can, from their own intuition, their own smarts, their own wit. And the reality is that we do this all of the time and we find that it cannot satisfy our hunger.

A couple of British philosophers writing in the 60s captured the sentiment of this crowd that came to see Jesus in their famous line: "I can't get no satisfaction." That line is iconic because it dared say what all of us are thinking. They speak for humanity in all times and in all places.. I work, I play, I eat… in a relentless pursuit of satisfaction…. only to be left with: I can't get no satisfaction. And when we aren't satisfied, we not only pursue more but faster. "Instant gratification" is a symptom of pursuing satisfaction anywhere, anytime, anyplace.

Jesus confronts this relentless pursuit of satisfaction in this chapter and presents himself as the only one who can satisfy. Bread, throughout the Bible, represents sustenance, and provision, and satisfaction. In the Bible bread gives life. Bread is God’s provision for life itself. These are the same themes that present themselves in the Old Testament stories regarding the Manna sent from heaven to feed the Israelites who were wandering in the desert, a story that is referenced here. That manna, that physical bread… this crowd equates with Moses and the law. They’d rather have Moses than Jesus.

But Jesus turns the table on them and us. The manna given to the Israelites in the wilderness… is just like the 5 loaves that were used to feed 15,000 people. That manna and that bread points to a greater reality that we are always dependent on Jesus to sustain us and provide for us what we cannot do for ourselves. And Jesus does that through His Word.

Remember the Israelites and the manna in the wilderness? Here’s what Moses said about why God allowed them to go hungry in the first place:

Deuteronomy 8:3 “He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then he gave you manna to eat, which you and your ancestors had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

The Word is more important than bread

More important than bread is the Word of God. And that becomes the story of Jesus with these people. More important than 5 loaves and 2 fish and a miracle is Jesus himself, the Bread from heaven who has the words of life for those dead in sin.

Where we get our bread, where we get our satisfaction is a big deal. We either try to produce it ourselves, or we must have bread from heaven… satisfaction from Jesus who does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. And only then will we ever truly be satisfied. And that satisfaction is provided through Word and Sacrament.

Here’s what Jesus says:

John 6:63: “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

If Jesus is only one who can satisfy us, only one who can give us life.. that life is found in His Word. The Word in the Bible, the Word Proclaimed, the Word in Sacrament. Notice what he says.. My words ARE life. It’s very easy for us to read that and think, what he means is that the Bible is where I can find eternal life. But that’s not what Jesus says. Jesus says His words ARE life.

Jesus’ words ARE life

Jesus is giving you life when we read the Gospel promises. Jesus is giving you life as you hear and receive His Word proclaimed in our Bible talk. Jesus is giving you life as you receive his body and blood at The Table.

Peter gets it. The crowd doesn’t. The crowd can’t believe Jesus and they leave and Jesus asks his best friends if they are leaving too and this is what Peter says:

John 6:68: “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Jesus, you have the words of eternal life. Peter isn’t saying Jesus, you gave us the words of eternal life so we are sticking with you. No, Peter says exactly what Jesus just said: You HAVE the words of eternal life. Every time you open your mouth, Jesus, you are giving us eternal life. Where else would we go for that?

If we ever stop giving the words of Jesus here at The Table, we no longer have a purpose or meaning. We are simply a club at that point. We have no reason to meet, no reason to worship.

I don't know what you have planned for the rest of the week. A job. School. Family commitments. Conversations to have…plans and decisions to make… work to be done… lessons to learn… responsibilities to carry out… food to eat… and at some point even tomorrow, I am going to reach out and make a grab for satisfaction… I am going to go looking for bread from earth… bread that I can produce. And I am going to find myself internally frustrated.. someone or something will let me down… and I will find myself saying.. I can't get no satisfaction. And then I will wrong someone. I will hurt someone's feelings. I will take advantage of someone. I will slight someone because it's inconvenient not to.

It's the devil's lie. The relentless pursuit of satisfaction. It's an apt description of hell… always desiring and never satisfied. Yet we all do this. Quite often in fact. I want my own way. I want to find or create my own satisfaction… and find… it doesn't work.

If you're like me, you'll find yourself spinning yourself silly at some point this week…. in the impossible pursuit of never being satisfied. I can't get no satisfaction. And into that frustration and into that futility speaks the One who alone can satisfy with His words:

I am the Bread from heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread, they will live forever. My words are eternal life.

That’s the Promise I need today, and tomorrow and the next day and the next day.

Jesus is our bread. Jesus is our word. Jesus is our life. That's the meaning of the feeding of the 5000. That's the meaning of life. That's the meaning of world history. That's the meaning of the Table of Los Fresnos. We have a lot of activities planned for the next year. We have a lot of people to talk to. We have a lot of relationships to continue to build. The Jesus who is our bread, is the Jesus who is their bread. Their word. Their life. Their meaning. If we have anything to offer Los Fresnos, we always will be feeding people Jesus, the Bread of Life. The Bible: What’s in it FOR ME? Jesus is in the Bible. Jesus is in it FOR YOU. And for Los Fresnos.

Let’s Pray…

The Table

In verse 51 of this same chapter 6 Jesus says this:

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” At that, the Jews argued among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly 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, because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

Eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood… straight out of the Passover story and the Last Supper. Only it's here in John… the conclusion to the story of the feeding of the 5000. We participate in the real meaning of this miracle every time we receive the Lord's Table. This Table is the Word proclaimed that provides life for you. The only one who can satisfy everything we ever wanted feeds us of himself in the bread and the wine.

And He offers himself in the Sacrament at the Table. He promises forgiveness at the Table. Here at the Table, Jesus says, You can't. I can. I am the bread of life. You want life. Find your satisfaction in me. Receive all that I can and will provide for you in faith. That work, that food, that relationship… cannot satisfy… but I can. I died and rose.. Be satisfied with me and in me. Receive what I have done for you and receive my promises in faith. This Table is bread, the Word from heaven.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26 “May the Lord bless you and protect you;

may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.”