Sermon for July 29

John 6:22-40

The Bread from Heaven

 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the lake saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.’Then they said to him, ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’

Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’ So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” ’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’

 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’

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If you were watching the Olympics yesterday, you saw over 100 men ride 155 miles on their bicycles. The women get their chance today. The man who won did this is just under six hours. The math works out to around twenty five miles an hour. If, by some strange chance, I ever lost a bet and had to ride 155 miles, I certainly wouldn't be moving at close to 30 miles per hour by the end of the race—I'd be moving so slowly that you'd be able to walk alongside me. That, or I'd be dead.

But I couldn't help but think about how that cycling race relates directly to the topic at hand today—Jesus as the bread of life. The reason for this is that I was wondering what these guys all ate for breakfast. If I was going to go ride my bicycle for almost six hours at 25 mph, I'd want to eat a hearty breakfast. I wouldn't spend a lot of time eating Frosted Flakes. I'd want the proper nutrition to ensure that I was prepared for the race.

Moving away from the Olympics back into our own lives, what we eat matters. Eating healthy food makes us feel better and gives us energy for the day. Eating unhealthy food has a negative effect on our bodies and on how we feel. Sometimes we'll eat a big meal of unhealthy food and know we'll feel bad later—and when we do, we wonder why we ever chose to do that, as good as it may have tasted at the time. What we eat has a direct result on our lives—if we fuel ourselves well, we'll be better off. If we choose the wrong things, we will pay the consequences for that.

As we turn now to this week's Scripture, let's keep this simple relationship in mind—good food makes us healthy, bad food makes us ill.

Just before our Scripture from today, Jesus has fed 5,000 people. They're amazed at his ability to do this, and they also really like the idea of free food because, well, people love free stuff. Have you ever noticed how much better food tastes when it's free?

So in the beginning of our Scripture, Jesus has disappeared from where the crowds thought he would be. They went in search of him and when they find him, they ask him how he got there. Rather than tell them that he walked across the lake, he delves into a much deeper conversation about bread. In summary, Jesus tells them that they came looking for him because he fed them with a bunch of free food, but then he goes on to tell them that they need to come to him for more than that. He moves from a conversation about physical bread into one about spiritual bread.

To have an honest conversation about what it means for Jesus to be the bread of life, we have to define both of these terms, bread and life. They're both pretty basic until Jesus gets hold of them—then they take on a whole new meaning, and Jesus challenges us to live into these meanings, rather than just the basic meanings. Jesus wants to address a deeper hunger in people that goes beyond a simple physical hunger and a physical life. He wants to talk about our spiritual lives.

So when we talk about life, what is life? Culture would define life as growing wealthy, as being popular and well-known, as being surrounded by people who adore you, as gaining power. Culture defines life as going to the grave with the most toys.

That's not what we were created for, though—we were created for an abundant life, for an eternal life, for a life lived in the fullness and richness of communion with God. We were created to live free from fear, free from anxiety, and in the wealth of God's love. We're supposed to be rich in good works, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to love and serve God in everything we do. It doesn't mean everything will always come up roses, but it means that we can tackle whatever is before us because God is with us, and that we won't fear death because we'll trust that it has been defeated. This is the life that we were created to live, and this is the life that Christ is trying to get us to turn back toward. So when Christ says he's the bread of life, that's what he means by life.

What does he mean by bread?

Well, just like we talked about how important it is to eat good food if we want to be physically healthy. It's important to eat the right spiritual food if we're to be spiritually healthy. How can we expect our spiritual lives to develop as they're intended to if we don't feed them with the right food? It would be like expecting to be healthy even though we never take a bite of healthy food in our lives. It just doesn't make sense.

So Jesus is the bread of life—he is the nutrition we need in order to live the life that God has created us to live.

How do we do it?

Lucky for us, the crowd asked Jesus the same thing, and there was someone around to write down the answer!

They ask him exactly this—“what must we do to perform the works of God?”

Jesus' reply? That you believe in him who he has sent.

The crowd goes on to ask for assurance so that they'll know Jesus is truly the Son of God, and Jesus replies that he is the one who gives life to the world. In his death and resurrection, we see the ultimate sign of his identity.

So our task is to believe. Most of us want to complicate this, to figure out a way to try and earn it, to work so hard that we are given the bread of life as compensation for our labors. But Christ tells us here that our task is to believe.

Believe. Believe that the food Christ gives us is ample enough to provide for us. We don't need a plan B—we don't need to purchase some external security that will be there in case Christ falls through. Christ spends the remainder of this passage assuring us that he will never let us down, he will never disappoint, he will never lose or forsake us. If we believe in him, that is enough—we won't find ourselves out in the cold—but will have eternal life, just as he promises. Everything else in life may abandon or disappoint us, but Christ assures us that whatever storms in life we may face, we will endure, because he will not leave us.

Our work is to believe—Christ's work is to secure a place for us, to provide life to us, to lead us beside still waters and nourish our souls. The more time and energy we invest in drawing ourselves closer to Christ, the more we tap into this abundant life. The more of our life we spend focusing on him, the richer our lives will be. The more we trust in him and the less we trust in the world, the stronger our communion with God will be.

Christ has done the work for us. Think about the food you eat for breakfast—do you spend your time worried and anxious about whether or not it will do its job? Do you try and break it down in your stomach, or do you simply trust that the food will digest and provide you energy?

In the same way, trust Christ to hold up his end of the bargain. Our work is to believe, to trust in the God who has come to bring us to life, and to abundant life. Trust in him, and the food of life will feed us from now until eternity.

Let us pray