INTRODUCTION
Do you know why
we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”?
It’s because in
ancient times—and even up to modern times in Europe and the Near East—bread was
the main thing people ate.
I have read in a
history of Medieval Europe that in those days the biggest part of an ordinary
family’s income was spent for bread—maybe 70%--not food, in general, bread.
Historians estimate that 82% of the daily calories consumed in pre-industrial
times was from bread.
Getting enough
to eat was the main concern of people down to modern times.
Bread was so
important that the Greeks called the part of the meal that wasn’t bread opson, which means “condiment,” or
“relish,” or “seasoning.”
The meal itself
they called “bread.”
Of course,
ancient people ate fruits and vegetables in season—grapes, beans, dates,
olives, a little fish. People rarely ate red meat or poultry. People didn’t
usually eat sheep, except when they were sacrificed at the Temple. Sheep were
raised for their wool—and when they died, their skins were used.
Bread, made of
wheat or barley were the most useful of all foods because grain could be
stored. With no refrigeration, or canning, or freezing, bread was the only food
available every day.
If there was a
drought or flood and the wheat or barley crop failed, people would starve.
“Give us this
day our daily bread” was a real important prayer, something that people thought
about a lot.
This is all
background for one of Jesus’s most famous sayings. And you know this saying.
Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to
me will not hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (6:35).
And again,
“I am the Living Bread which came down from
heaven; whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will
give for the life of the world is my flesh” (6:51).
I. What happened before.
A. In the first part of John, chapter 6, we read about how
Jesus had fed a multitude of 5000 men—and we don’t know how many women and
children with a little boy’s lunch that consisted of five barley loaves and two
fish.
That was the end of the story according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But
John tells what happened next.
B. The “guests” at Jesus’s picnic were so pleased
with the free meal that they determined to take Jesus by force and make him
their king.
They thought: This man can make bread out of nothing! He
will be a great king. They weren’t thinking about following Jesus as their
Lord; they were thinking about free food.
So Jesus ditched the crowd and sent his disciples back
across the lake in their boat. He then went up into the hills to pray.
During the night, when it was almost morning, Jesus came
walking on the water and met his disciples—on the lake. They took him into
their boat and immediately reached the other shore.
C. But the people who had been fed with the
miraculous bread and fish ran around the lake and caught up with Jesus, still
intending to make him their king.
Jesus said to them:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but
because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food which
perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man
will give to you” (v27).
And then he said the saying I quoted before, “I am the
Bread of Life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me
shall never thirst.”
II. So how is Jesus the Bread of Life?
A. Just as physical bread gives life to the body, Jesus is
the spiritual bread that gives life to our souls.
Jesus gives us life—not the life that we have because we
have been born on earth—but a new and more wonderful life which connects us to
God and brings into our souls forgiveness,
joy, and peace.
St. Paul describes our new life this way: “If anyone is in
Christ, there is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has
come.”
And the new life that Jesus gives lasts, not just for a few
years, but forever!
Just as the physical bread sustains the life of our body,
Jesus is the spiritual bread that sustains our soul—our inner being.
Jesus gives us strength to live for God.
And we live for God as we feed on Christ—as we take him
into our life—as we let his goodness nourish our souls—as we go forth and live
our lives with the energy he supplies.
B. Jesus, as the Bread of Life, nourishes our souls.
Jesus, the Bread of Life, nourishes our souls when he fills
our life with meaning and purpose.
Jesus nourishes our souls when he gives us the sure hope
that this life is not all there is but that there are far, far better things
ahead than anything we leave behind.
Jesus nourishes our souls when he gives us a joy that the
world cannot give and the world cannot take away, when he gives us the peace
that passes understanding, when he satisfies us with good things.
Jesus nourishes our souls when he fills our hearts with
love for him and love for all our neighbors on earth.
Jesus nourishes our souls when he puts us into his family,
when he gives us the will to forgive those who have hurt us and even to pray
for our enemies.
Jesus nourishes our
souls when he gives strength to bear the disappointments, the sicknesses, the
regrets of life—and even the pains of old age.
Jesus nourishes our
souls when he gives us the assurance that whatever happens, he will be with
us—even in the valley of the shadow of death—until we reach the Father’s House
and see him face-to-face and share his Glory.
III. Many people treat their religion as a
hobby—something they add onto an already satisfying life—sort like frosting on
the cake of life.
A.
They have their work to do…and their recreation and their refreshment.
But their
religion is for Sunday morning…or maybe a daily page read from a devotional
booklet…something they take in small doses to make them feel better about
themselves.
They are
content with nibbles on the Bread of Life.
They don’t
realize that Christianity doesn’t work unless Christ becomes all important to
us.
Jesus needs to
be Lord. He wants to be at center stage in our life?
Is it because
Jesus is proud?
No, Jesus is
humble. He died for us. He lives for us. And he knows that we can never
experience his love to the fullest unless he has our whole heart.
Jesus wants to
bless us, and the only way he can bless us is to give us himself.
St. Paul wrote
in his letter to the Ephesians: “Blessed
be the God and Father of us all, who has blessed us with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, even as he chose us in him before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in
love.”
B. People are
hungry. Mostly they are not aware of what they are hungry for. They only know
that they feel empty. They know that life is disappointing, that something is
missing, and the older they become the more they feel it.
There is an
emptiness inside—an emptiness they try to fill with things that can never
really satisfy—pleasures, worldly wealth, travel, books, amusements.
They are like
the Prodigal Son in the far country. When the famine came he sought to fill his
belly with the husks that the swine did eat.
So people
without Christ seek to fill the emptiness in their hearts with things that can
never really nourish their souls. Only Jesus can do that. Because Jesus is the
Bread of Life…the Bread that gives life…the Bread that sustains life.
If we have no
appetite for God in this world, we will have no appetite for God in the world
to come. Heaven, as it’s depicted in the Bible would have no appeal to us. We
would feel out of place in worship with the angels.
C. Let me tell you a story—a parable:
A beautiful swan alighted by the banks of the water in
which a toad was waddling about seeking snails. For a few moments the toad
viewed the swan in stupid wonder and then inquired: “Where did you come from?”
“I came from heaven!” replied the swan.
“And where is heaven? asked the toad.
“Heaven!” said
the swan. “Haven’t you heard of heaven?” And the beautiful swan went on to
describe the grandeur of the Eternal city. She told of the streets of gold and
the gates of pearl and walls of precious stones; of the river of life, pure as
crystal, upon whose banks is the tree with its twelve kinds of fruit. In
eloquent terms the swan sought to describe the bright angels who live in the
other world. But the toad didn’t share the swan’s excitement. In fact, the toad
seemed bored.
Finally the
toad asked, “Well, are there any snails and slugs there?”
“Snails and
slugs!” repeated the swan. “No, of course not!”
“Then,” said
the toad, as it continued to search along the slimy banks of the pools, “You
can have your heaven; I want snails! I want slugs!”
CONCLUSION
Jesus said, “I
am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever
believes in me will never be thirsty.”
To come to Jesus
is to open our heart and mind to Jesus, to invite him to share our life, to
welcome him as a heavenly guest within our hearts, to let him be the one around
whom we build our life.
To come to Jesus
is to rest all our hopes on him… to seek to please him in all we do…to be
always thankful…always aware that we are loved...always mindful that we have a
work to do on earth…and always mindful o our glorious destiny.
The physical
bread that we eat becomes part of us. “We are what we eat.”
The food we eat
becomes muscle and bones and blood and skin.
Our food becomes
part of us, not by our talking about it…or looking at pictures of it…or by
collecting recipes.
Food becomes
part of us when we eat it.
And Jesus
becomes the Bread of Life for us when we take him into our lives by faith.
He becomes part
of our thinking... our loving…our living…our giving.
At our last
service here we sang this very old hymn, written in Latin almost 1000 years ago
by the great saint, St. Bernard of Clairvaux:
Jesus,
thou joy of loving hearts,
Thou
Fount of life, thou Light of men,
From
the best bliss that earth imparts,
We
turn unfilled to Thee again…
We
taste Thee, O Thou living Bread,
And
long to feast upon Thee still;
We
drink of Thee, the Fountainhead,
And
thirst our souls from Thee to fill.
O
Jesus, ever with us stay,
Make
all our moments calm and bright;
Chase
the dark night of sin away,
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