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August 02, 2009
“The Bread of Life”
John 6: 25-40
Sunday, August 2, 2009
The staff of the Courtyard unit of Westminster Village has adopted a few families of Ducks. They have put a child- sized swimming pool on the patio outside the dining room (very close to where our sisters Mary Sholty and Margaret List take their meals). The ducks are fed by the staff of the Courtyard. The residents seem to enjoy seeing the ducks and ducklings as they eat their meals. But every time I see them, I announce, “If you feed them, you will never get rid of them.” This is true of every animal I know as well as many people.
Jesus seems to have realized this truth after he fed the 5000 with the 5 loaves of bread and the 2 small fish. In fact, when he returned to the area where he had fed the 5000, he recognized that several of the people there had come to him in the hopes of receiving another free meal.
This was frustrating for Jesus because he had done that miracle as a sign that he was the one greater than Moses who was to come after Moses. Apparently many people did not see the miracle as a sign or proof that Jesus was the Messiah, they saw only the free food.
According to John, Jesus said to them “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.”
These sentences should provide comfort for those who work in Christian ministries to the poor and homeless. They are often frustrated in trying to help their clients see that they are offering much more than a free meal or a bed for the night. They are also offering a connection with the almighty God and the way to eternal life as well as a path toward productivity and self-sufficiency in this life. It is comforting for those of us that are involved in Christian ministries to note that Jesus dealt with some of the same problems and frustrations that we deal with.
It is also helpful to all of us to notice that Jesus encourages us to set some higher goal for our lives than self-sufficiency or success in our lives. He wants us to invest ourselves in something that will endure for eternal life.
The folks who talked to Jesus that day wondered what the work was that lead to food that endures and eternal life. And Jesus replied “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom he has sent.”
In this answer, Jesus was saying two things. What God requires of us before we can receive eternal food and eternal life is Faith in Jesus. But that faith is not from within ourselves, it is a work of God that He gives us the faith so we can believe. If you believe in God and if you believe that Jesus is His Son who died to forgive your sins and give you entry to eternal life, then God has given you that faith to believe.
Those who were talking to Jesus that day were not easily convinced to stop trying to get Jesus to give them another free meal. They argued that if Jesus wanted them to believe he would have to do a sign, a miracle, and the one that came to mind was the miracle of the Manna in the wilderness. God and Moses gave their ancestors the manna-bread for 40 years in the wilderness. All Jesus had provided so far was one free meal. They were saying “Give us free food for the next 40 years and we will believe in you.”
Jesus then told them that His Father was already giving them the “true bread from heaven” and that God’s bread from heaven gives life to the world.
When they said “give us this bread always” he replied “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”.
Jesus gives us all we need to have eternal life, he is the food that will sustain us for all eternity. We need to take Him into ourselves by believing in Him and obeying Him. We don’t need to eat Him, we need to believe in Him.
Several months after this conversation, Jesus invited his Apostles to eat the Passover meal with Him. During that meal he gave them bread to eat and said “this is my body, broken for you.” He did not mean that the bread had become His body, how could it? He was still in his body at that moment. He obviously meant that the bread represented his body. He was using that opportunity to repeat what he had said earlier a few days after the 5000 were fed. He was telling them that He was the Bread of God from heaven, sent down to give them eternal life. He was encouraging them to eat the bread and through the Apostles and the church He is encouraging us to eat this bread as a way of saying that we have taken Jesus into our lives and yes, even into our bodies through our faith in Him.
Jesus gave us this sacrament as a way of announcing to ourselves and to each other that we believe in Jesus as the Savior God sent into the world.
Jesus also gave us this sacrament to help us understand that Jesus is not an external force or person in whom we have faith. As we take the bread and wine into our bodies, so Jesus is to become in us an internal force. We are to allow him to control our lives so it can be truly said that Jesus lives in us and through us.
When we eat this bread and drink this wine we are reaffirming our commitment to live our lives for Jesus, and as we do so, Jesus is present with us, not in the bread or the wine, and not along with the bread and wine, but within us and around us in a mysterious yet very real way.
Let us now participate in this sacrament as a way of reaffirming our faith in Jesus and as a way of recognizing that Jesus is within us, renewing us so we can be fit for his kingdom.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at August 2, 2009 06:24 PM