John 6:35, 41-51
“I am the bread of life” …Jesus said…not once but twice. “I am the bread of life”
- When was the last time we ate the bread of life?
- I am not asking about the Holy Eucharist because I do not think that is what Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel.
- I am not denying that the eucharist is the bread of life.
- What I am saying is that the bread of life is the eucharist and more than the eucharist.
- What I am suggesting is that you and I are to become the bread of life…just like Jesus.
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
I mean…just think about all the people…relationships…and experiences that have fed…nourished…and sustained our lives.
- Think about a time when someone else fed and nourished our lives.
- I mean…more than that…they fixed our supper.
- I am talking about the people that spend their time and their presence with us.
- They love us…they teach us…they care for us…they encourage us.
- And our lives are fed and nourished by them.
- Sometimes it is not even what they say or do…but just being in their presence is itself bread.
- And when we spend time with them…we simply feel well fed and full.
Recall someone who offered us wisdom or guidance…
- Who really listened to us…or spoke a word of hope or encouragement that nourished and sustained our lives.
- They were bread for us…or maybe there was someone who helped us discover meaning or purpose in our lives.
- Perhaps it was someone who said: “I forgive you” and we were strengthened to move forward.
- Maybe someone believed in us when we were not so sure about ourselves.
- Our lives are nourished and fed by others in thousands of ways.
- How have we been fed by the life of another?
I believe that is what Jesus is talking about when he speaks of himself as the bread of life.
- Throughout the gospels we see him feeding and nourishing life in so many ways and circumstances:
- Through his love…presence…guidance…and teaching.
- Through his healing…forgiveness…and mercy…
- Through his generosity…compassion…and wisdom.
- This is the bread that feeds the soul.
Those qualities are not unique to Jesus.
- They can be ours as well.
- It is a way Christ shares his life with us.
- We both eat that bread of life and we become it.
- We partake of the bread of someone else’s life and our life is nourished…our life is sustained…our life is strengthened.
- Who would that person be for us?
- What is her or his name?
- What did he or she do or say that fed our lives?
And when have we been bread in someone else’s life?
- When have we fed and nourished them?
- When have we sustained them?
- When have we strengthened them?
- We so often hear Jesus say: “I am the bread of life” and we assume he is the only loaf in the basket.
- I believe Jesus is teaching us…here…what bread of life looks like…
- So…we can find it in this world…and become that bread…and be that bread for another.
Oh…most of us…at one time or another…have been given a starter batch of sourdough.
- It holds the potential to become bread…to feed and nourish.
- I believe Jesus is the starter batch in us.
- Rather than making an exclusive claim about himself…
- Jesus is giving us the recipe to become as he is.
- To become the bread of life for the world.
- That is just how Christ works in the world.
- Something in us gets leavened…rises…and becomes bread.
The religious leaders and authorities…in today’s gospel…complain because Jesus said: “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
- The issue is not that they do not believe that God provides or that God feeds.
- The issue is that they know Jesus and his mom and dad.
- They know where he is from.
- He is the snot-nosed kid from Nazareth…
- And he could never be bread from heaven.
- You see…they have made Nazareth and heaven mutually exclusive.
- He could never be from heaven because he is from Nazareth.
Lucky for us we do not have that problem.
- Our problem is that we know Jesus is the Son of God come down from heaven.
- Believers…like us…are often so sure of Jesus’ heavenly origin that he could not possibly come from Nazareth…
- Or St. Petersburg…or Bradenton…or Clearwater…or Tampa.
- That is often the problem for believers like us.
- We know just enough that we cannot know anything more or consider that there could be more to know.
We have been in the sixth chapter of John’s gospel for the last three weeks now.
- It has been three weeks of feeding…three weeks of bread…
- And we have got two more to go.
- Something is going on here.
- Jesus begins with the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish.
- And then he said we have got to know the difference between food that perishes and food that endures for eternal life…between bread that is perishable and bread that is imperishable.
- And then…he takes off on this bread of life stuff:
- The bread that lasts…the bread that endures…the bread that never runs out…the bread that never gets stale or moldy.
The reality is that there is a lot of bread in this world.
- And if you look through the Bible you will find references to all sorts of bread:
- The bread of adversity…the bread of tears…the bread of affliction…the bread of mourning…the bread of wickedness…the bread of idleness…the bread of the stingy…and on and on.
When you get right down to it…there is only two kinds of bread:
- The bread of life that feeds and nourishes and sustains.
- And all the other bread that leaves us hungry and malnourished.
- What kind of bread are we eating today?
- Does it fill and nourish us?
- Or does it leave us hungry and malnourished?
- Is it sustaining and enduring?
- Or has it become hard and dry?
The bread we choose to eat says something about our appetite and what we hunger for.
- What is our hunger? What is our appetite?
- Do we need a change in diet?
- The old saying: “We are what we eat.”
- If we want life…we need to eat the bread of life.
- If we want to bring life to another…we need to be the bread of life.