Bread

I have a question – what do you think of when you hear the word “bread”?  Do you think of warm homemade bread fresh from the oven or the bread-maker?  Do you think of the 79 cent grocery store variety?  If you are on a special diet, does bread make you think of calories, carbohydrates, gluten, and whole grains?  Do you think of bagels, sandwiches, toast, bread pudding, dinner rolls, and hamburger buns?  Maybe if you were hear last week and you have a good memory, bread might make you think of Jesus feeding thousands of people with bread and fish.  Or, as you look at the communion table, perhaps bread makes you think of the Last Supper that Jesus shared with his disciples. 

Does thinking about bread make you hungry?  Maybe it should.

Background

Today’s Gospel story takes place the day after Jesus fed the crowd, but it really began many centuries before, during the Exodus.  If you remember, the Hebrew people had been slaves in Egypt for hundreds of years.  God heard their grief and their cries for help.  So the Lord raised up Moses to be a prophet who would lead the people.  God also provided Aaron and Miriam to help Moses.  The Egyptian Pharaoh did not want to release the Hebrew slaves, but God worked through Moses to perform many miracles and to bring plagues on the Egyptian people.  Finally, Pharaoh relented and the Hebrew people began their journey to freedom.  At the last moment, however, Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his armies to chase down God’s people.  The people were trapped between the Egyptian army and the Sea.  Once again, God saved them by miraculously parting the waters through the sea.  When the Egyptian army tried to follow, the water rushed back in, drowning the army.  The Hebrew people escaped to freedom.

Bread from Heaven (in the Desert)

These people saw God’s power first hand – they should have been grateful for their escape.  Instead, they quickly began to turn away from God and to complain.  They often forgot the One True God and worshipped the false God’s from Egypt and the lands that now surrounded them.  They complained about danger, hunger, and thirst.  They grumbled against Moses and against God.  The Israelite people even wished that they were back in Egypt.  They seemed to forget the hardship of slavery.

On one such occasion, the people were hungry.  They came grumbling to Moses and Aaron, saying, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt!  There, we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death!”

At this point of the story, the Israelites sound incredibly whiny.  I suppose that hunger does make people hard to live with… just think about how frustrating a very hungry three-year-old child can be!  Even hunger is not a good excuse for their ingratitude, though.  Thankfully, God is much more patient than I am.  Instead of giving up on the people and leaving in the desert, God provided for them.  The Lord sent quail so the Israelites could eat meat – there were so many birds that they were easy to catch.  God also provided manna – thin flakes that covered the ground each morning.  The people used it to make bread.  They ate manna for 40 years while they wandered in the desert.  They called it bread from heaven.

Bread from Heaven (in the Synagogue)

These experiences shaped the Israelite people.  Centuries later, when Jesus spoke with the Jews in Galilee, they still remembered the Exodus and the bread from heaven.  God’s gift of manna was one of the stories that defined who the Jewish people were.  So when Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fish – when he gave the people bread – many Jews began to sit up and take notice.  The next day, when Jesus was at the synagogue in Capernaum, the people had some questions.

First, they wanted to know when and how Jesus arrived in Capernaum.  Now, that seems like a reasonable question, considering that Jesus walked on the water in the middle of the night to get across the lake.  But Jesus did not wow the people with a miracle story – he didn’t even answer their question.  Instead, he challenged their motives. 

Jesus claimed that the people wanted to talk to him because they saw him feed the crowd, but not because they really understood who he was.  They saw the miracle, but not the sign.  They saw what happened, but not what it meant.  So, Jesus told them, “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.”  Now, unfortunately the Jews missed the point entirely.  Jesus was telling them something about himself, but the people did not recognize it.  Instead, they wanted to know what they should do in order to satisfy God.  So Jesus pointed them in the right direction: “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.”

Now, this answer was surprising and probably a little disturbing.  How could a good Jewish rabbi like Jesus talk about the works God requires without at least mentioning the Law?  After all, the Lord gave the Law to Moses so that the Israelites could follow it.  Jesus didn’t even give a summary of the good works that people should do and the rules they should follow.  Instead, he implied that he was the Son of Man who was sent and approved in a special way by God.  It seemed that Jesus might even be saying that belief in him was more important than following the Law.  As far as the Jews in Capernaum were concerned, Jesus was claiming to be greater than Moses.  They figured that Jesus should support his claim with miracles.  Yesterday Jesus fed the crowd with only a tiny bit of food and that was impressive, but the Jews wanted more.  After all, Moses fed the people manna – if Jesus’ claims are true, he should be capable of even more spectacular things – right?

Now, Jesus could have performed another sign, but I think he knew that the people still would not believe in him.  Once again, instead of giving the people what they demand, Jesus questioned their misunderstanding.  First, it was not Moses that gave the people manna.  It was God.  Secondly, the true bread from heaven was not manna and it was not yesterday’s lunch.  It is Jesus himself.

Jesus began to explain this, but at first, the people still did not get it.  So Jesus became very specific:  “I am the bread of life.  Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, but they still died.  I am the living bread that comes down from heaven, which people may eat and not die.”

Bread from Heaven (in Our Lives)

The Jews were right to think that Jesus claimed to be greater than Moses.  Moses was a prophet and God worked through him in powerful ways, but he was simply a human being.  Jesus came from heaven.  He is fully human and absolutely God.  The Jews were looking for a miracle that was more impressive than manna.  They did not recognize that Jesus himself was the greatest miracle.  God had come to earth.  But as Jesus said, the people saw him and they still did not believe.

We have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.

Have you listened to what Jesus says here?  It’s amazing!  Jesus, the bread of heaven, has come to give us life.  In another place, Jesus says that he came so we could have abundant, full life.  This is more than just existing.  This is better than being busy.  Jesus came to bring us love-filled, peace-filled, joy-filed, laughter-filled life!  Does that make you hungry?  Are you hungry to experience more and more of that God-given, Spirit-filled life?  Whether you have followed God faithfully for many years, or you do not yet now Jesus in a real and personal way, you have the opportunity to experience more of that life.

“I am the living bread,” says Jesus.  “Whoever eats of this bread will live forever.  This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”  The wonderful truth is that because Jesus died on our behalf, this life is freely available to us.  The Jews wanted to know what they should do to fulfill God’s requirements.  We would never be able to earn or deserve the bread of life.  Jesus says that we simply need to come to him and believe.  Jesus encourages us” “my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”  If you have never done so, I urge you to turn to him and to believe that he died for your sake and returned to life so you can have life.  Jesus promises that if we come to him, he will never drive us away. 

Have you already come to Jesus?  Are you feeding on the bread of life?  Then let’s celebrate!  Let’s remember and be thankful for all that God has done for us.  Let’s live like we mean it. 

The gift of life that we have been given is safely in God’s hands.  Our current experience and enjoyment of that life, however, depends on our willingness to come to Christ daily.  We need to continue bringing our failures, our needs, our hopes, and our desires to Jesus.  I believe that is what Jesus meant when he told us to work “for the food that endures to eternal life” – we cannot earn our salvation – it is a freely given gift.  We do, however, need to live it out so that our faith affects every day of our lives.  Jesus has saved us and the Holy Spirit lives within us… we should live lives that honour God and continue growing in our relationship with Him... not because we must, but because we may.

Are You Hungry? (Transition to the Lord's Supper)

In a short time, we are going to share the Lord’s Supper.  We will share juice that reminds us of Jesus’ blood.  We are also going to eat the bread that reminds us of Jesus’ body – the true bread of life. 

Are you hungry?  Hungry to experience life?  Hungry to know God?  The Bread of Life has promised to satisfy that hunger.  Let us come to Jesus today during communion and every day of our lives.  Let us celebrate his goodness to us, his death on our behalf, and the life he has given us through his resurrection.  Thanks be to God!   

Pastoral Prayer

Adoration

Living Bread, thank you for giving us life.  God, you are amazing.  You are holy and powerful, and awesome.  We praise you because you are good.  You are our God and we worship you.  Thank you, God the Father, for sending Jesus to us and for giving us to him.  Thank you, Jesus, for promising that you will not turn us away when we come to you.  Thank you for being the Living Bread.  Thank you for your death on our behalf.  We praise you because you are bigger than death and you live today.  Thank you, Holy Spirit, for coming to live in us and for helping us to know God.

Confession

God, we confess that there are times when we do not turn to you… times when we do not believe… times when we disobey… times when we complain and grumble like the Israelites in the wilderness.  God, we recognize our sins and we know that you do too.  In these quiet moments, we confess our sins to you, desiring to turn back to you and to turn away from the evil in our life.

Thanksgiving

Jesus, you have said, “All whom the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.  Your death made our forgiveness possible.  Thank you that when we come to you in confession and repentance we know that our sins have been forgiven.

!!Supplication

God, thank you for each member of this congregation who is able to be with us today.  Help us to grow in our faith and in our knowledge of you.  Please be with those who are away right now, including Pastor Elaine and other church family who are enjoying vacation time and the long weekend.  Help them to know that you are present with them. 

{any additional requests}

We also pray for our friends and family who do not know you.  Please draw them to yourself and help them to know your love and your saving power.  God, thank you for the many churches around our country and our world who are worshipping together today and sharing in the Lord’s Supper.  We pray for those who are affected by war in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other parts of our world.  Please, God… bring your peace into their lives.

Conclusion

God, you are good.  Thank you for the Bread of Life. 

We love you.

Amen.