Jesus, Our Bread of Life

 

Messiah Lutheran Church, Fargo

Pentecost 10/August 1, 2021

John 6:24-35

 

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

I’ll bet that many of us have been watching at least some of the summer Olympic Games being played out in Tokyo, Japan.

It’s really quite the deal:      over 10,000 athletes from more than 200 countries, competing in 339 medal events, all of them hoping to take home one of over 1000 medals that will be awarded.

What you might not realize is that the Tokyo Olympics are taking place at the same time as another sort of Olympics—what I’d like to dub the John Chapter 6 Bread of Life Olympics.

Whereas the athletic Olympics roll around every four years, the Bread of Life Olympics take place in late summer every three years….

….Because that’s when our Revised Common Lectionary--the “official” list of scripture texts read during worship services in many churches—our lectionary hands us not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE straight Sunday gospel readings all from the 71 verses that make up John chapter 6….a super-long chapter that starts out with the Fourth Gospel’s version of the Feeding of the 5,000--the only one of Jesus’s miracles that is recorded in all four gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  

Now what makes John’s version of the feeding story unique is the fact that—following the miracle itself (which Pastor John Jorgenson preached about last Sunday)—this miraculous banquet kicks off a long, winding conversation between Jesus and folks he fed—five thousand hungry souls who feasted on just five barley loaves and only two fish, with 12 baskets of leftovers to boot!

This morning’s gospel reading, begins with Jesus, having left the location where the feeding took place, Jesus travels to the other side of the Sea of Galilee—perhaps to have some time alone to rest and reflect and pray!...

…we see, here in our gospel lesson, Jesus being confronted by the crowd who lead off sort of a dumb “doorknob” of a question:   “Rabbi, when did you come here?”

But Jesus sees right through their curiosity about his itinerary, probing instead what’s really on their minds:  “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”  

Thus begins an awkward conversation in which Jesus and members of the crowd seem to be talking right past each another, almost as if they were speaking two different languages--operating on two different wavelengths.

Here’s what I mean.

1.     First of all, as the crowd wants to know when Jesus arrived at his current location, Jesus discerns what’s really on their minds:    the fact that they want another free lunch—they hanker for a repeat of the previous day’s bread-and-fish banquet.  

Jesus filled their bellies once—can he?—will he do it again?

But Jesus tells the crowd that he’s not interested in setting up his own Old Country Buffet or 24/7 catering service. 

And Jesus says so rather bluntly--not because the crowd is asking too much of him, but because they’re expecting too little. 

“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.”

2.     Second, as the members of the restless crowd ponder what they’ve just heard, they become fixated on one of the words Jesus used:   the word “work.”  

“What must we do to perform the works of God?” members of the crowd ask.

 But Jesus, rather quickly and nimbly, pivots away from their question to reply that “this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

But just what sort of work is Jesus talking about here---and who exactly is the one who does the working?

It’s as if members of the restless crowd are laboring under the delusion that Jesus has come to offer them a grand D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself!) project, when, in fact, that’s the LAST thing Jesus wants.  

The work that matters, Jesus clarifies, is the work of God….which is about what God (not you or I) are doing—but how God is working in and through us for our life and for the life of the whole world.

The work of God—God’s work--isn’t what people do for God…but it’s about what God does for them…what God accomplishes for us, in us and through us—giving us—graciously, abundantly bestowing on us the gift of faith, hich a trusting faith that lays hold of and believes and counts on God’s work being done for us and our salvation.

3.    Third, the restless crowd here in John 6 picks up on yet another word that Jesus had used here—and that’s the word sign.  

“What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you?”   

The crowd hankers for a hint or a clue or some proof that will assure them—that will remove all their doubts and questions.   What dramatic evidence can Jesus give them to believe and lay hold on what he’s offering them?

But here’s the kicker:  Jesus declares that he himself is the proof they long for.   Jesus—in his very real presence, right then and there with them—Jesus offers himself as the sign par excellence….the only one who can align their their past, their present and their future…..

….in other words Jesus doesn’t just provide Bread, he actually is the Bread of Life, having come down from heaven for the life of the whole world.

Even though the crowd seems to ask all the wrong questions, Jesus somehow graciously offers them all the right answers…all the faith-nurturing, life-giving, future-opening answers….answers for the original crowd here in John 6…..but also answers for everyone who has come after them, right down through the centuries to you and me,today, as we drink in Jesus’ words, here in Fargo ND!

In doing so—lo and behold!—Jesus feeds us once again—just as richly and generously as he had fed the 5,000 with the loaves and fishes.

Jesus feeds you and me, my friends, with overflowing good news and death-defying hope this morning.

·      Jesus nourishes us with the assurance that he is always ready to give us more than we realize we need.  

When I was a little boy my dear mother often warned me not to get my hopes up too high (especially when Christmas Day or my next birthday were coming around)…my mom wanted me to be realistic in what I was hoping for in terms of gifts and presents I might receive.

But such wise, down-to-earth realism has no place when it comes to us approaching God in Jesus Christ.    That’s because of the sturdy hope we have in Christ, the hope that (as it says in Ephesians chapter 3) God is “able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.”

·      But there’s more here:  Jesus strengthens us with astonishing promise that you and I are never, ever left “on our own” trying to produce even an ounce of faith—but that Jesus is always at work with us, through us and in us…freely giving us the faith that sustains us…graciously bestowing on us the faith that saves us.

 ·      But that’s not all.   Finally, rather than pointing us toward hints or clues about what he’s up to—“signs” that we might be seeking—Jesus lavishes upon us what we need the most:   to see and believe and stake our lives on Jesus himself…who doesn’t just give us bread, but who in his very being is our Bread, the Staff of  Life that will never let us down, the Provision that will see us through all the days of our lives!

So it is…every time we hear God’s Word…and every time we taste God’s goodness in the bread and the wine, the Body and the Blood of our Lord’s Supper.

When that happens, as it is happening to us this morning!—we simply echo the fervent request made by the restless crowd here in John chapter 6:  “Give us this bread always—give us your very self, Lord, Jesus, because we know we can count on you.”

In the name of Jesus.   Amen.