Sunday, August 8, 2021

Drawn to the Bread of Life


 

Messiah Lutheran Church, Fargo ND

Pentecost 11/August 8, 2021

John 6:35, 41-51

 

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

 

“Home, home on the range,

Where the deer and the antelope play,

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, and

The skies are not cloudy all day.”

That old familiar verse pretty much sums up the mood that prevails in the first half of John chapter 6 which we’ve been exploring these last few Sundays.

A crowd numbering 5,000 has been miraculously fed with a very limited menu:  just five barley loaves and two dried fish.    Everyone eats until they’re filled, after which the clean-up crew collects 12—mind you!--12 big baskets of leftovers.  

In the wake of this amazing meal, the mood is buoyant and hopeful, the crowd is eager and curious, and there is even talk about drafting Jesus to become their king.

As those who were fed engage with Jesus, their benefactor, they’re captivated by what he has to say about wanting to give them—not just here today/gone tomorrow bread, but bread that endures for eternal life, “wonder bread” that reminds them of the miraculous manna their ancestors ate in the wilderness,  “bread from above…the bread from heaven”…all of it culminating in Jesus’ stirring claim that he—in his very being—is the Bread of Life…Bread that will assuage all hunger forever.

No wonder the mood here in the first half of John 6 is filled with hope and promise….

until….until we come to today’s portion of  this chapter….where all of a sudden some discouraging words are heard, and there’s some grumbling like the complaining Moses put up with while leading the ancient children of Israel for 40 years through the wilderness….

When we listen closely to this grousing in John 6, we recognize another old familiar tune…a melody of grievance, jealousy, and complaint.

“Who does he think he is—this fellow who fancies himself the Bread of Life???   We know his pedigree and it’s nothing special.  Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?  How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

That, my friends, is the unmistakable sound of familiarity breeding contempt.   It’s the sound of doubt creeping in and stealing away the joy and hope Jesus had planted in the hearts of those whom he had fed so lavishly.

It’s the kind of noise that’s made by the spiritually elite—self-appointed guardians of religious purity--whenever someone crosses the line between human and divine.    For Jewish religious leaders in the first century A.D., you could be one or the other—either human or divine, but never ever could you be both at the same time….

Even though Jesus had filled their bellies…even though Jesus had done the kind of thing only God can do….he still looked  and sounded like an average ordinary human being….folks knew where he came from….and they were familiar with his family tree…

So how dare Jesus cast himself as somebody who’s more-than-human?   What gives him the right to say, “I have come down from heaven?”

To talk that way, in that time and place, was to engage in blasphemy—a crime punishable by death.

Knowing how risky this was, you’d think Jesus might have toned down his rhetoric and made his claims more easy-to-swallow—lest he wind up in hot water with these guardians of the Jewish orthodoxy.

But Jesus, instead of backing down, rebukes these members of the religious elite, commanding them to stop their complaining….and then doubling down on them by declaring:  “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.”

Instead of softening some of his claims, rounding off the rough edges on his rhetoric, Jesus repeats what he has already said and he even ups the ante“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.”

That last word “flesh” must have stopped those guardians of Jewish doctrine dead in their tracks…by confronting them with their own aloof, hyper-spiritualized understanding of God.

If they just took Jesus him at his word, they’d have no choice but to say that Jesus is God—but God garbed in flesh and blood—God with skin on!   Such a notion was so shocking, so jarring to Jews in the 1st century that they simply could not believe it (at least, not on their own!)….which is why Jesus insists that “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.”

Now that word—translated here as “drawn”—piqued my curiosity this past week as I prepared this sermon. 

In the original Greek language of the New Testament, this word can have an earthy flavor.  It’s used toward the end of John’s gospel to describe fisherman dragging or hauling in a net filled-to-overflowing with fresh-caught fish (John 21).

But this same word can also mean—more metaphorically--to draw in or to attract.

That’s how Jesus uses it here in our text:  “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me.”

In other words:  coming to faith in Jesus is never about us choosing Jesus.  Rather, it’s about discovering that Jesus is so appealing, so alluring, so attractive that we’re simply drawn to him.

And just what makes Jesus so attractive, so appealing?   It’s the depth and daring of Jesus’ love for us, his fearless determination to suffer and die on a cruel Roman cross for us—and, in so doing, Jesus draws us toward his love--love that will not let us go!

Jesus’ journey to the Cross begins with stories like this one here in John chapter 6, narratives in which the religious leaders of his day take aim at Jesus and push back against his fierce determination to sacrifice himself for those he loves.

This rejection of Jesus begins here in John 6 and it keeps crescendoing over the next thirteen chapters until Jesus’ enemies stir up another crowd who shout:  “crucify him, crucify him!”  (John 19:6)

On the one hand, what a tragedy that those angry voices prevailed!

But, on the other hand, what a triumph that Jesus won in his death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave three days later!

My friends, this is the irony of all ironies:   that Jesus’ rejection by the religious leaders of his day led to his astonishing victory over sin, death and the power of the devil.

This is what makes Jesus so profoundly appealing, so amazingly attractive.   It’s what draws us to Jesus, enabling us to believe in him and depend on him for everything we need.

In just a few moments we’re going to experience a dramatic demonstration of how this happens….as we see sweet baby Mara being drawn to Jesus by God’s promise through the saving water of Holy Baptism.

As this happens right before our eyes, may it remind all of us of how we have been drawn, attracted to Jesus and his love…and  how God uses us as his tools for drawing others to the Bread of Life, as well!

In the name of Jesus.   Amen.