Feast on the Bread of Life

Text: “35 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’” (John 6:35)

Today we turn away from the Gospel of Mark for a moment (actually today and the next three weeks) and turn to the Gospel of John. Over the past two weeks we’ve heard Mark’s description of the feeding of the 5,000 and what followed. Now we see, in a sense, the rest of the story. We turn to this discussion between Jesus and the 5,000 Jesus had fed the day before. And what we read there is profoundly reassuring to any preacher.

It’s profoundly reassuring because even Jesus, who taught so powerfully and backed up His message with miracles like the feeding of the 5,000, had people turn back—turn away—because they could not accept His teaching. They had eaten their fill of the loaves and fish and, in response, came chasing after Him. But it was their stomach they were following, not faith in their hearts and minds. When He insists that He is the Son of God, come down from heaven, that they cannot accept. No, no, we know your family. Some of us watched you grow up. That they couldn’t ‘swallow’. Literally yesterday their hunger had led thousands of them to follow—more than follow, to chase after—Jesus. Today they show that bread is the only thing they’re hungering for and those thousands disappear back into the wilderness.

The Bread of Life Himself is here and says, “whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” So let me simply ask: What are you hungering for? Do you thirst? Do you desire what you do not have? It’s easy to quickly respond: “No, of course I’m content. I hunger after Jesus alone and therefore I’m satisfied.” But what do your heart, your stomach, and your mind say? They tell a different story, don’t they? They hunger, they lust, they envy, they desire, they must have don’t they? You hunger and thirst after what you feel is rightfully yours. Whatever it is that you think will finally make you happy. Hunger that, yes, goes far beyond food. Especially in the 21stcentury, food is almost nothing for most of us, it’s everywhere, in practically whatever form we’d like. No, we have other desires. And we’ve created entire industries devoted to creating and feeding those desires. Yes, there are the illicit ones that feed our lusts. But there are also subtle ones. Like HGTV. Those kitchens! And those bathrooms! And the landscaping! And the waterfront locations! That’s what’s missing in your life, isn’t it? Go ahead, try to tell me that some of those images don’t take control of our minds and imaginations just as much as the most illicit pictures.

And there’s the newest phone, tablet, or gadget. A better job. More power. More money. More reputation. Children who are professional athletes or Rhodes scholars or budding philanthropists. Or perhaps it’s simply pleasure that you hunger after. Those far too rare moments of blissful release when we can forget everything else for a little while and loose ourselves.

Do you hunger? Do you thirst? If your lips say ‘no’ they lie. Don’t you feel that lust for possessions, people, happiness, health? Maybe you don’t feel it because we are all so accustomed to it? We live with those hungers and thirsts every day. We hunger after these things and they never fill us for long.

These are the things you chase after. No wonder it’s so hard to drag yourselves out of bed on Sunday mornings and come here. No wonder you just don’t have time to hang around for Bible Study and Sunday School. There are other things that you don’t hunger or thirst for, aren’t there? “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6). “Lord, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells” (Psalm 26:8). “10 With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! 11I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. 12Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes! 13 With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. 14 In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. 15 I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. 16 I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word” (Psalm 119:10-16). That’s not what you hunger for, is it? A holy life? The presence of God? His Word? No, you don’t hunger for that.

There are lots of things that you hunger for, a long list of things that you come looking for Jesus to give you. And the problem is: it won’t be long before you’re disappointed—just like the crowds were soon disappointed in Jesus—because He didn’t come to give you whatever your heart desired. They chased after Him that day because He had filled their stomachs. And they were soon turned away because He would not just be their bread dispenser, because they could not accept His teaching. What will lead you to turn away when you don’t get it—more than that! when He tells you that you need to give up those appetites.

It’s true. Still today, Jesus tells you what you don’t want to hear. He confronted the crowds in today’s reading because they were following Him for the wrong reasons. His Word still confronts you, too: He tells you that you must stop hungering after your own sinful lusts. He tells you to be holy as He is holy. And when you don’t measure up because of your lusts He condemns you. You and I are just as sinful as the people in the Gospel lesson who had Jesus right in front of them and thought Him to be just a man, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother they knew.

It’s worth pointing out that ‘sin’ here is not simply a transgression of an arbitrary set of rules imposed upon us by a cruel god. As another pastor put it: sin breaks stuff. When Adam and Eve hungered after the forbidden fruit on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, it broke the perfect paradise that God gave our first parents; it breaks relationships; it breaks lives. That is, ultimately, what your sinful appetites are hungering after as you seeking your own needs and wants above those of God and others.

Christ did not come to give you every desire of your heart. He is the Bread of Life. He came down from heaven to fill your true and greatest need. He came to take upon Himself all your evil thirsts and hungers and pay the full price for them, the wages of your hungers, of your sin: death eternally in hell. That horrible price that was meant for you. He drank the cup of God’s wrath down to the dregs. Every last drop of God’s wrath over your sin was poured out for Him—not just to leave the cup empty, but to fill it with blessing for you, filling it until your cup overflows.

In the process, He prepares a feast for you. There, on Calvary, He “6 [has made] for all people a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. 7 [Because He has swallowed] up on [Mount Calvary] the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. 8 He [has swallowed] up death forever…” (Is 25:6–9).

Repent. Repent of your sinful appetites. Repent of your good appetites that take priority over God. Repent and feast on Christ. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” Jesus said, “for they will be satisfied.” This is most certainly true. He is the Bread of Life that has come down from heaven that you may eat of it and never die. You who once were dead in your trespasses, walking in the lusts, the passions, the hungers of your sinful nature—and HGTV—have been fed with the Bread of Life. The great feast of His Word is ready to satisfy the hunger that goes far beyond food with the assurance that you are a child of God, putting all of those other things that you look to in order to find your happiness and satisfaction back into their rightful place. In the process, they once again become true blessings from God, enriching your life.

He offers you the feast of His body and blood, the true manna in the wilderness of this world, to strengthen and sustain you, day by day and step by step on your way to the Promised Land. He offers you the feast of His body and blood, the bread of life, the medicine of immortality, with the assurance of Job that even after your “skin has been destroyed” along with every evil hunger and thirst, He will raise you up on the Last Day to live bodily with Him.

“1 [T]herefore… walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:1–5).

“35 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst’” (John 6:35). Grant this, Lord, unto us all.