BREAD OF LIFE
Bible Text: Ephesians 5:15-20 and John 5:51-58 | Preacher: Rev. Bruce W. Kemp
It comes as no surprise to me that there are probably some among you who find today’s passage from John to be quite puzzling. How on earth are we to make sense of the words of Jesus? This passage in which Jesus speaks of himself as the bread of life is the end of a long narrative in chapter six of John’s gospel that begins with the feeding of the five.
Jesus then seems to disappear only to reappear on the other side of the lake. When the people find him, they wonder how they managed to not see him cross the lake. But to their surprise Jesus instead says to them that they have been looking for him because they were all fed through the miracle of the loaves. Then Jesus encourages them to look beyond the physical to the spiritual. They are to work for the food that never spoils. But they still are focused on the physical miracle and so the challenge to believe in Jesus who has been sent by God the Father does not hold truth for them. They are still seeking a sign. They remembered the manna that God sent which provided food for the people as they passed through the wilderness. In their minds, bread from heaven was still a physical sustenance. And even if Jesus was indeed the new manna, the new bread from heaven for that generation, they still could not imagine that Jesus was the one sent by God from heaven for he was known to be the son of Joseph the carpenter from Nazareth; and as no good thing ever was considered to be capable of coming from Nazareth, the idea that Jesus could indeed be the bread of heaven seemed implausible. Even more so was Jesus’ assertion that this bread of life was his flesh and that his blood.
Bread and water are two of the most common of staples for so many people in the world. And while water shortages are a reality for many the idea that we can substitute some other liquid for water does not have a lot of support. Of all the liquids that we have available to us, even if water is the primary ingredient, there really is no beverage that does a body better than water. Water is the only beverage we are encouraged to drink 8 glasses of each day and it is the one beverage that we are so careful about ensuring it is safe and tastes refreshing. When it comes to bread we have far more choice but we choose to find the most nutritious bread to consume. In fact bread and water are probably the two elements which we use for the sustenance of our physical selves that we can’t imagine being without and that we take great care to savor.
When the people of Israel were thirsty, God provided water from a rock.
When there was no source of food, God provided manna that appeared with the morning dew. Provision for the physical had always been at the heart of the Jewish experience of God and thankfulness for such a provision had ever remained a part of the ritual of the people from the earliest days through the temple period into the exile and right through the time of the restoration and even during the Roman occupation.
The challenge that came with Jesus was showing the people that God was not only making provision for physical daily sustenance but that he was making provision for spiritual sustenance. Furthermore, this spiritual sustenance was not just for the duration of this physical time on this planet but it was a sustenance that would take them into a life with God that would have no end. For this bread and water were not just elements from the earth to nourish a present physical need and then be released back to the earth to be drawn forth again; this bread and water were physical in that they could be touched and pondered but spiritual in that they were symbols to draw us into a deeper and more lasting relationship with God.
The bread of heaven that Jesus brings to earth is in fact his body for he embodies within him the words and works of God. Symbolically, as we listen to the words of Jesus, as we follow his footsteps, as we study his encounters with people, we ingest the bread of life. It probably never really occurs to us in terms of our relationship to God, but when we learn lessons in school or at home, we are eating life lessons. We are ingesting truths which will guide us through this life. Jesus’ desire for us to share in his flesh as the bread from heaven is for us to understand that we need to ingest the truth of what that God means. Through this ingestion we digest and process in our minds, hearts and spirits what it truly means to be the people of God. Through this we develop our spirits as they are nourished by the words of God in Christ. As the bread of the soil nourishes our physical beings, so the bread of heaven nourishes our spiritual beings.
Both are needed for us to live a complete life. And just as water energizes our physical bodies and restores our organs to their full capacity, so the blood of Jesus, the water of eternal life energize our spirits and restore us to that full and lasting relationship with God for which we were created.
Jesus describes his flesh as being real food and his blood as being real drink for that which come from God and is given to us for the nourishment of our souls is that which finds our very center, the core of our being and fills a spot in us that no earthly food or drink could ever reach. And the gift of the body and blood of Jesus which we remember when we share in the Lord’s Supper is a tangible reminder to us that God has shared with us a truth that is meant to not only sustain us for as many years as this body may give us but to carry us forward into the future that God assures us is waiting for those who are prepared to eat the bread of heaven and drink the Is this a great mystery? Of course it is but not necessarily one that is like an abyss but rather one that is fantastic and compelling. John is speaking to us not about rules and regulations, moral codes and traditions; rather, he is speaking to us about the essence of life, about the ultimate purpose and destiny of life. He is speaking to us once again about our relationship with God, one that encourages us to listen for and discover for ourselves the Is it a strange thing to imagine eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood?
Of course. But to think of deepening our relationship with God by absorbing his words and ways and lapping up his truth so as to be filled with his grace, forgiveness and love, that is a whole other thing. And that is what Jesus is seeking for us to understand!
Eat of his body and drink of his blood knowing that through this you are being filled with the knowledge of God, a knowledge that will remain with you both now and forevermore.