PENTECOST 9

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: PENTECOST 9
PROPER: 14 B
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: August 10, 2003


TEXT: John 6:37-51 – “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” . . . . . . . . “I am the bread of life.” . . . . . . . . . “I am the living bread that 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.”

SEE ALSO: Deuteronomy 8:1-10 – “He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”


ISSUE: We do not live by worldly bread alone, but through the awareness that Jesus Christ is the bread of life. In Jesus’ time, bread was of great importance to life. But the teachings of the early church emphasize the importance of Jesus as the bread of life, and of the importance of that spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ, Son of the living God. We need to have a spiritual life in which we pay close attention, as the bread of our life. That spiritual life carries us through the junk food and the difficult times of our lives.
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I have repeatedly mentioned how important the story of the Feeding of the Multitude must have been to the life of the early church. The story is repeated some six times in the four gospel accounts. And in the Gospel of John there is repeated reference to the fact that Jesus is the bread of life. We are still in our lectionary readings for this summer dealing with that issue. It is also significant, I think, that there are a number of references to Jesus eating with, and sharing meals with sinners, not to mention that some of Jesus’ well-known parables are related to feasting, wedding feasts in particular. His first miracle is at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, and his last meal is a supper with his disciples. The fact that Jesus is so involved in the meals and feasting of people was significant to the early church.
In the continuation of our readings from the Gospel of John, the important phrase that Jesus is to have said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” and “I am the bread of life,” and “I am the bread living bread that came down from heaven” is a constant refrain in this reading from John once again. Whether Jesus actually said these things, we can’t be absolutely sure, but we can be sure that John’s writings and his early church saw Jesus as bread from heaven, nourishment from God. The “I am” statement placed on Jesus’ lips is the name of God, Yaweh, or in the Hebrew, “I am what I am.” Another possible translation is that God is the living bread, and Jesus, is God’s gift of the living bread and bread of life.
To the early Christians, this concept of Jesus as the bread of life was extraordinarily significant. The phrases today do not carry the impact that they did in the 1st Century A.D. To appreciate the passage, you have to understand the context and the importance of bread in the period these phrases were written. Today, bread may or may not be part of a meal. In fact, if you are on certain diets these days, you are inclined not to eat bread at all because of its high carbohydrate content. We have such a significantly large selection from the market that bread does not play the significant part in the diet that it once did. We have so many choices of fruits, vegetables, meats, and pastries that bread is a small part of our diet. In fact we can easily do without bread. To say that Jesus is the bread of life means for us that Jesus may be just a small part of our choices in and abundant life.
In ancient times, and in the 1st Century A.D. the place of bread in the diet was of significantly greater value. Among the peasantry of this period at least, if not more than fifty percent of a person’s calories came from bread. In more elite circles there were more choices, but the peasantry, and those with whom Jesus seemed to be closest were people whose diet was largely bread. (I understand that bread is still a significant part of the Middle Eastern people’s diet.) People of this period didn’t give up bread. It was the main staple of their life. Without it was starvation and malnutrition, and possibly death. You had to have bread. Without it you died. Thus, when Jesus said, I am the bread of life, the statement made people take notice. It meant that he was the staple of life, eternal life. He is the living staple life giving food from heaven. To do without him, is to die.
Not unlike the Gospel of John, the people become argumentative. Who does Jesus think that he is? They know he is only the son of Mary and Joseph of Nazareth. He is son of a carpenter who has not place or standing. He dares to grab at honor above his status and birth rank. Who does he think he is? Nothing good came or was supposed to come from Nazareth. He makes such a profound statement, “I am the bread of life.” Jesus makes no claim to have made himself the bread of life. It is the Father that sends people to him, the Father who sent him. And everyone that comes to him he will not drive away or cast out. Everyone who comes to him may feed upon the essential life giving bread of life. It’s not his doing, it is in fact the work of God that sends Jesus Christ into the world and gives him as the essential food for living. God the Father directs his people to the Christ.
It is also very helpful to understand that Jesus is loosely quoting in this passage the prophet Isaiah 54:13: “And they shall all be taught by God.” Actually: “All your sons shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the prosperity of your sons.” The bread is the important teaching of Jesus Christ. There is also the passage in the Hebrew Scripture this morning referring to the Hebrews wandering in the wilderness, “He humbled you be letting you hunger, then be feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by (material) bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” For the Gospel of John, Jesus is the Word, the Word of God, the teaching and the instruction of God that is the spiritual life giving bread of life with all the significance and importance that is implied in this passage
We must reclaim from this understanding of Bread, that in the Scriptures it is the thing essential to life, and especially to sinners and outcasts, and for all the disenfranchised and expendable people. God invites them all to come to him, and provides the life giving Word, Jesus Christ, as the essential food of their lives. Herein is also the turning point for the Christian life. We do not live by material possessions alone, and by the status that we claim for ourselves or by the status others give to us. We are all sinners; we all need God to live a truly meaningful full life. We may well think in our time, that we can live without bread, but we really cannot live meaningfully without God’s bread, God’s teaching, God’s Jesus Christ. One of the things we have lost in recent years is the ability to fast. It used to be that people would fast before receiving Holy Communion on Sunday mornings. People would fast in Lent, a season now barely observed by the modern Christian world. We’ve become somewhat obsessed with the need for material food and consumption, that seeking the bread of heaven takes a lesser place, and the fasting that taught us that fact is being lost. We are giving to the diet of junk food. There is a significantly important spiritual life that is a part of our human essence that becomes starved, and it should not be.
One of the most outstanding things about the life of Jesus Christ was his ability to be accepting of the human condition in terms of his association with all kinds of people: sinners. Clearly Jesus was dreadfully frustrated with a few, and they were those who thought that they were not sinners. It was the so-called righteous, hypocrites and self-righteous Pharisees. These rigid people were annoying to Jesus, whose lives were defined by rigid observance of the law but in Jesus you saw a more a very sensitive kind of person, expressing the sensitivity and mercy of God. He was the expression of the God of mercy, of compassion, of unique understanding of the human condition. He saw blessedness and honor in the poor and those who experienced great loss, who were sick and considered, cursed. Jesus seemed to relish hospitality toward all people, teaching parables of invitation to the unacceptable folk. The strictest of Jews, St. Paul, after a confrontation with Jesus expresses not a long sermon on rigid affirmation of the law, but of the essence of love.
In Paul’s writing in 1 Corinthians 13, he spells out the stuff of which Christ’s love is made:
v Love does not give up. It is patient as hell, and doesn’t pick up its marble and run away.
v Love cares more for others than just for one’s own self and needs, and way of thinking.
v Love doesn’t want and demand, what it doesn’t have, or can’t control.
v Love doesn’t strut, or boast. I doesn’t have a swelled head and see one’s self as a hot shot.
v Love doesn’t force itself on others.
v Love doesn’t fly off the handle in a fit of rage and uncontrolled language and actions.
v Love doesn’t keep score, and hold grudges against others with which to hit them over the head. It doesn’t revel in the losses of others.
v Love puts up with a hell of a lot of stuff, with which it doesn’t necessarily agree.
v Love always looks forward and keeps going; love keeps plugging along, and lets go of old grudges; it is not vengeful or hateful.
v Love trusts, is loyal and is committed to the belief that God is indeed in charge, and has everything ultimately under control. (See The Bible in Contemporary Language: The Message, Eugene Peterson)
These teachings on love are the spiritual bread, the spiritual essence of our lives. Without this kind of bread we spiritually starve to death as human beings who are in the image of God. If we don’t have this kind of love, it doesn’t matter how right we are, whether we speak with tongues of angels or ecstasy. If we don’t have this kind of spirit we have nothing, and are spiritually starving. We are bankrupt without love. We can do all kinds of good and righteous benevolent things, but without the bread of Christ’s love that does not count for anything. The Bread of Christ; the teachings of love are truly startling to the thinking of much of the world. Yet, it breaks the bondage of doing the same old things that lead to constant rivalry, hate, vengeance, anger, self-righteousness. The bread of life in love paves the way to newness, hope, and to the full glory of God. We cannot live as God’s own people, in the image of God without our participation in the essence of God.
In the scene of Jesus on the cross what we see is the bread of life in all its glory: incredibly patient, self-giving, non-anxious, non-boasting, non-reveling, not giving up, not giving in, but dying for the brokenness of the world. Jesus is faithfully bearing witness to the love and forgiveness of God that brings about new life, resurrection, and fullness of the meaning of life, dying for all, and for each one of us.
We do not live by bread alone, but by the teachings of Jesus Christ. These teachings are not just something you can do without. They are the spiritual sustenance and the continuing hope of our lives. A spiritual life of prayer, of knowledge of Scripture, of fasting from the world from time to time is truly of the essence of paving our way with Christ to the Kingdom of God.