Jesus, the Bread that Sustains

Last week we talked about what this text tells us about God’s Work- what God would have us to. Today we are going to talk about Jesus- his sustaining power in our lives.

Jesus makes a comparison between the miracle he had done the day before and Moses’ gift of manna in the wilderness. Remember, the people are relating Jesus to Moses because of his bread-making.

So, the people ask Jesus to give them this bread that he speaks of always. One of the first images that jumps up in my mind is Peter with Jesus kneeling at his feet to wash them. Jesus says “I must wash your feet” and Peter responds “Not Jesus my feet, Lord! All of me!” Just like Peter, the people that day are missing what he is really trying to say to them. Just like Jesus was not talking about a literal bath, he is not talking about literal bread in this passage. He is talking about something much deeper, but using a physical action for the teaching.

So, today I want to look at what Jesus might have been trying to communicate to us in two of the three words of this phrase BREAD of LIFE.

Bread-

Jesus says that he is the bread of life, not the caviar or filet mignon of life that only the wealthy can have and the poor and impoverished dream of. He is not the left overs and rubbish of life that the rich throw away and only the poor need to survive. No, he is the bread, one person called it the every man’s food. Every culture and every people have bread as a cornerstone of the model diet.

Bread is the every person’s food- and Jesus is the every person savior. There is no one outside of the reach of Jesus. No one is too vile, too sinful, or too sickening. There is no one too rich or too poor, and no one unwelcome from this Jesus we serve.

And because everyone is welcomed in Jesus, everyone is welcome here too. Romans 15:7 implores us “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”

Broken past? You’re welcomed in Jesus, and welcome here

Struggling in sin? You’re welcomes in Jesus and welcome here.

Financially broken and Homeless? You’re welcomed in Jesus, and welcome here

Spiritually bankrupt and broken? You’re welcomed in Jesus, and welcome here

Jesus is the bread of life, meaning that everyone- yes EVERYONE- is invited to the table with him.

Ryan Johnson, minister in Glen Elder, Kansas, shares this story:

I was heading north out of Salina, Kansas when I saw him.

His name was Charlie.

Charles was sitting in the ditch with large army bags.

The cold misty rain was drenching him and his bags.

He wore his Vietnam jacket proudly. It laid over is 400 pound body like a tarp.

I pulled over and asked if I could help. He asked if I would load his bags (and man did he mean bags) on the car and drive them to the gas station that was a hundred yards away, he would appreciate it.

I did. He limped along following the behind my car.

For a few fruitless hours I tried to talk him into going to a rescue mission. I prayed with him and left

I continued to travel North on HW 81 to my home. That’s when Jesus started in. I said "Jesus, I can’t take him home. He could kill me. And Jesus, he really stinks…Jesus there is no way I am letting him stay the night… Now Lord, I prayed with him. I helped him."

I felt the words he said, echoed from Matthew 25, "When you welcome me in...not if you prayed with me..."

So, I made a u-turn on Highway 81.

I pulled up next to Charlie at the gas station. I said, “Charlie get in!”

Charlie said, “Getty up!”

For the next hour and a half, I rode with this 400 lb. man in my small car. I had to crack the window to be able to breath through the stench. I heard the story of how a once veteran becomes a misfits. It was the common dilemma of needing medicine to get a job and a job to get the medicine.

We got to my place. I laid a sheet on the couch. I washed his clothes and belongings.

The next morning I took him to the police station as part of the ministerial alliance agreement to get him a free motel room and a hot meal.

Later that day I received a call from the local hospital’s Social worker. She said that Charles has been admitted and wouldn’t speak to anyone but me.

I walked into room 104 and said, “Charlie what do you want. I’ve done everything.

He said, “I don’t want anything. I just wanted you to know that they told me my heart is bad and I am dying. They want to ship me to Wichita. But I can never hitch a ride out of Wichita, so I want to stay here to die. Last night was the first home I have stayed in in over 20 years. Because of that I felt welcomed. And I know Jesus is asking me to get my real heart right. I just want you to know preacher. I want you to help me accept the Lord."

That is not to say that Jesus is just like bread, because there are definitely some differences, right? Jesus will never grow stale, he wont get moldy or old, he wont crumble on you; he will fill you up for always, not just until the next meal. Jesus is much more than our bread, because at some level bread fails.

We are promised multiple times in the Bible about God’s unfailing love.

In Hebrews 13:5-6 we read:

English Standard Version Chapter 13

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say,

“The Lord is my helper;

I will not fear;

what can man do to me?”

We have hope in the unfailing-ness of our God. Bread will let you down. Money will let you down, power and privilege will let you down. But Jesus never will- his promise of bread is a eternal guarantee of his protection and provision.

The greatest single distinguishing feature of the omnipotence of God is that our imagination gets lost when thinking about it

Let’s just be frank, friends, we all have good intentions. I am betting that if you were recount all of the Christians who have let you down and ask each one of them why they let you down, not a single one meant to. I don’t know of a single Christian that knowingly or intentionally sets out to harm another person.

But we are all humans and we are all sinful and we all fail, and if you give it time every one of us will let someone down. As a pastor I am keenly aware of this- I try my hardest to be present for every member of this church, but I am one man, and I fail, and sometimes I let people down. That is why the Bible is so clear that we need to follow the bread of life, Jesus, because he is the only one who is fail-proof.

I once heard someone say that if you saw a Christian fail and it made you loose your faith you were following Jesus, you were following that person. That makes a lot of sense to me.

Life-

There are a few words and phrases that John uses over and over again in his Gospel- these form the framework of what John wants us to know about Jesus. Among those are the words- LIFE or the Greek Zoe and LIVE or in the Greek Zao- if you read through the entire book and counted every use of life/live you would find those words 57 times.

For John- life- or to live- is not a thing. Its more that something we have it is a way of being- fully alive.

The idea behind the word life is more than just breathing and existing in Johns ideaology; it is an all encompassing idea that speaks about the vitality that runs throughout all of us. The words Zoe and Zao speak to your thoughts, desires, opinions, and belife systems.

So, when Jesus says he is the bread of life, he is expressing his ability and desire to be your sustainer and keeper in the total of your life.

But how? How do we get this bread?

There is another word that layers itself throughout Johns Gospel, and it is found in v40- believe.

Jesus says that the bread of life is yours, not by picking it out of eth baskets as they pass by, but if you believe.

Jonathan Whitfield was preaching to coal miners in England. He asked one man, "What do you believe?" "Well, I believe the same as the church." "And what does the church believe?" "Well, they believe the same as me." Seeing he was getting nowhere, Whitfield said, "And what is it that you both believe?" "Well, I suppose the same thing."

So many people suffer from what I like to call “Shallow belief Syndrome” Sure, they believe in Jesus, but they never really go much deeper than that.

Spurgeon once said “I would recommend you either believe God up to the hilt, or else not to believe at all. Believe this book of God, every letter of it, or else reject it. There is no logical standing place between the two. Be satisfied with nothing less than a faith that swims in the deeps of divine revelation; a faith that paddles about the edge of the water is poor faith at best. It is little better than a dry-land faith, and is not good for much. - C. H. Spurgeon

Imagine, on the day that Jesus broke loaves and fish, that someone stood in the crowed- STARVING. They had not eaten all day. And as the bread passed they took merely a piece, barely bigger than a crouton. Looking at them you insisted, take and eat! There is plenty here! “No, this is enough” “But you can have your fill! All you need to fill you belly!” “No, no, no, this is enough bread to quiet my stomach, and that is all I need right now”

Can I tell you that as a pastor I fee like I have that conversation over and over again in my ministry…

The kind of belief Jesus is talking about is more than believing that you will have a good day, or believing that the waitress will get your order right. Jesus is looking for more than just a positive attitude concerning him.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else- CS Lewis.