Proper 15 (August 18, 2024)

ETERNAL LIFE IS A PRESENT TENSE

John 6:35–51 NIV84

35 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. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” 41 At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” 43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It 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. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51 I 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.”

THEME: Jesus is the Source of all life and provides, by grace through faith, an everlasting life that begins right now.

GOAL: That the hearer cling to Jesus in absolute confidence that your eternal life has already begun.

MALADY: Many think they can find their own way to life, and even true Christians can forget that their life in Christ never has to end, from this moment on to eternity.

MEANS: Our Savior’s gracious gift of His own life (the “bread”), which He makes available for the eternal life of everyone.

There are many different theories about the healthiest way to eat. There’s the old food pyramid, built on a foundation of whole grains. There’s the Mediterranean diet, the Atkins diet, the Paleo diet, and many others. We can debate which is best, but what is undebatable is that whatever your diet, you are going to die. Perhaps a vegetarian diet is indeed easier on your heart. Still, your heart is going to stop eventually. But in his Bead of Life discourse, Jesus offers food that enables us to live forever.

There are foods you might never have tasted without someone working hard to convince you to try them. Likewise, this spiritual food that Jesus describes is something no one finds appealing at first, but distasteful. And so today Jesus explains that we need God to work within us, so that we have the wisdom to see that this food gives life and the faith to find this bread most delicious.

Today is Week 2 of our “Bread of Life” series, and today builds upon last week by stressing the superiority of spiritual blessings above temporal ones. Contrast an eternal life in glory to a very short seven or eight decades in a world that is so fundamentally broken that it is destined to be incinerated.

However, today’s text builds upon the fact that the “eating” Jesus is calling for (faith in him) is something that fallen man would never do of his own volition. Jesus speaks of the Father drawing in the elect. Jesus is the Source of all life and provides, through faith, eternal life that begins even in this life. This happens only through a relationship of faith with the true “Bread of life.” What’s more, this life is available right now, continuing into eternity even as physical life ceases. It is a thoroughly Christian and completely heartening truth to announce that ETERNAL LIFE IS A PRESENT TENSE

Jesus provides more than physical life.

Bread for the body is necessary.

Jesus did not turn the multitude away when it was time to eat.

He provides everything we need and more to sustain our physical existence.

Bread for the body is temporary.

The wandering nation of Israel ate the provided manna but still died (v. 49).

The multitude of 5,000 ate the bread given but were not permanently satisfied.

The world today also cannot endure by “bread alone.”

Jesus offers more than future hope.

Eternal life is not simply a future hope.

The Savior promises that those who trust in Him have it (not will have it, v. 47).

The Savior assures that those who share in His body live forever (v. 57).

Eternal life begins right now.

The Father draws us

John 1:18 “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”

Believing in this Jesus, trusting in this flesh and blood man, you have eternal life as a present reality. For in clinging to his humanity, you are clinging to God himself, who is the source of life.

John 12:32 “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” — We are drawn by the atoning death of Jesus His Son.

“I believe that I cannot by own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel” (Small Catechism). It is not human power and choosing but divine power and choosing that makes someone a Christian.

We cling to Him by faith

Jesus gives us His body and blood in the Sacrament

The Sacrament is something tangible that we can cling to.

It is only by virtue of his humanity, by virtue of his presence in the world as a man who speaks and acts and suffers, that I can cling to him by faith at all; it is with respect to his humanity that he is, so to speak, “graspable.” Were I told that I must find a “divine nature” somehow above and beyond his humanity, faith would no longer have a certain object, something or someone tangible to which it could cling. If I am to find and cling to God by adhering to Christ, then it must be possible to find and cling to God simply by adhering to this particular flesh and blood. (David S. Yeago, “The Bread of Life,” St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, vol 39, no 3, 1995, 267.)

This Gospel is meant to be heard in the context of the divine service. Therefore, in this particular chancel, on this particular altar, the words of Jesus are fulfilled: “Here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.” Indeed, the same flesh given sacrificially for the life of the world at Calvary is now given sacramentally for you in Holy Communion. Faith eats him who is the bread of life not merely inwardly and spiritually but also outwardly and concretely through hearing the preaching of Christ with the ears and receiving the supper of Christ with the mouth.

Jesus gives more and permanent life.

His way to life cannot compare with any human way to salvation.

His way to life is the only way and more abundant way (10:10).

His way to life does not diminish, deteriorate, or fade away.

His way to life depends on His all-atoning and once-for-all death (6:51).

The “world”' may carry a vague hope that life does not end with death. We have the sure conviction that not only do we have everlasting life in Christ but we also have it right now. Nourished by the eternal Bread of life, Jesus, we are filled now in this life and forever in the life to come.

We live in the strength of the bread of life during our trek through this worldly wilderness until we reach the eternal mountain of God.