We’re staying in John chapter 6, which is all about bread. Last week we heard the story of the feeding of the five thousand, immediately followed by the story of Jesus walking on the water. As in the other three gospels, these stories are a turning point in the gospel. Up until this point, the disciples are largely on board with Jesus, as are the crowds.
But after these events, which most clearly point to the divine origin of Jesus’ power and authority, in all four gospels, Jesus confronts his disciples with unexpected and unwelcome teachings. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, it’s here that Jesus finally tells his disciples that his destiny is betrayal, crucifixion and resurrection, a teaching they find impossible to understand. From that point on, the disciples lose the plot.
John is very different, but the impact on the disciples is very similar. In John, Jesus compares himself to the manna God sent to feed the freed slaves in the wilderness, as God reshaped them into his holy people. This manna, however, will feed them once and for all and forever. This manna will give them eternal life.
I think there’s a fair amount of humor in John’s Gospel. The crowds who chased Jesus into the wilderness for healing were fed with the five loaves and two fishes, and ate all they wanted. Jesus then escaped from them sensing they were about to crown him king. After catching up with his disciples in Capernaum, the crowds, waking up hungry, chase after him. When they find him, they ask the weird question: Rabbi, when did you come here?
Like, “imagine our surprise to find you here in Capernaum, Jesus. We just happened to be walking by. Amazing coincidence eh?”
But Jesus knows their agenda. “You’re looking for another free meal.” The Roman Empire was famous for quieting the rebellious poor with what one historian ultimately called “bread and circuses”. By periodically bringing cartloads of bread into poor areas, they gave the impression that they actually cared for the people they were oppressing. It was in essence a form of propaganda.
But Jesus isn’t like the Roman Empire.
In Isaiah 55, the prophet, speaking for God, asks why we labor for bread that doesn’t satisfy, and Jesus nearly quotes him in today’s passage.
You’re hungry again so you’re back with me. What if you could have bread that fills you forever, so that you never got hungry again?
This sounds a little like the dialogue with the samaritan woman. Back in chapter 4, verse 14, Jesus offers her water that will quench her thirst forever. This is the central theme of John, returned to again and again: Jesus is the word of God, the only begotten Son of God, that has come down from heaven to give eternal life to all who believe.
The people ask Jesus what works they must perform. Jesus tells them only one: to believe in the one whom God has sent.
Still the crafty leader of the crowds finds a way to angle for more bread. “Well, we’d love to believe in you, so why not give us a sign, like, well, Moses, who gave us manna in the wilderness?”
Here John lifts up a conflict that we see in the synoptics. The Pharisees and the other religious leaders of Israel are said to believe in Moses more than they believe in God. Their devotion to the law had become burdensome and oppressive, rather than liberating and life-affirming, as it was intended to be.
And so Jesus says something that will end up driving a significant number of his disciples away, just as his announcement in Matthew, Mark and Luke, of his crucifixion and resurrection alienated the twelve.
He says “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
The number seven is important in John’s Gospel. It’s the number of fulfillment, of completion, of wholeness. The divine and the human have become one in Jesus, and Jesus invites us to enter into that wholeness. While Matthew, Mark and Luke testify to a future fulfillment for which we are to prepare ourselves by coming together into a new community, John’s Gospel says that the fulfillment has already come, and we only need to believe in order to enter into the new reality, which is eternal life for those who believe.
The first half of John’s Gospel tells of seven signs, water into wine, healing the official’s son, making the lame man walk, feeding the five thousand, walking on water, giving sight to the man born blind, and raising Lazarus from the dead. And in the midst of his many discourses, there are seven “I am” statements that Jesus makes, with the clear intent of describing Jesus as God, whose secret name is “I am.”
“I am the bread of life” is the first.
John’s Gospel does not include the last supper, with Jesus instituting communion. Instead, it has chapter 6, which uses the feeding of the five thousand as a springboard for declaring Jesus himself as food for eternal life. The chapter, which we will be reading through this month of Sundays, ends with a large contingent of disciples leaving Jesus. What kind of evangelist preaches people out of their church? We will find out.
For now, the good news is eternal life for those who believe in the one God sent. This is the main message of John’s Gospel, which is repeated again and again in a number of different ways.
In the second half of John’s Gospel we learn a great deal more about what it looks like for a disciple to believe in Jesus, how eating the bread of life transforms us into children of God.
Amen.
Sermon on John 6:24-35
But after these events, which most clearly point to the divine origin of Jesus’ power and authority, in all four gospels, Jesus confronts his disciples with unexpected and unwelcome teachings. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, it’s here that Jesus finally tells his disciples that his destiny is betrayal, crucifixion and resurrection, a teaching they find impossible to understand. From that point on, the disciples lose the plot.
John is very different, but the impact on the disciples is very similar. In John, Jesus compares himself to the manna God sent to feed the freed slaves in the wilderness, as God reshaped them into his holy people. This manna, however, will feed them once and for all and forever. This manna will give them eternal life.
I think there’s a fair amount of humor in John’s Gospel. The crowds who chased Jesus into the wilderness for healing were fed with the five loaves and two fishes, and ate all they wanted. Jesus then escaped from them sensing they were about to crown him king. After catching up with his disciples in Capernaum, the crowds, waking up hungry, chase after him. When they find him, they ask the weird question: Rabbi, when did you come here?
Like, “imagine our surprise to find you here in Capernaum, Jesus. We just happened to be walking by. Amazing coincidence eh?”
But Jesus knows their agenda. “You’re looking for another free meal.” The Roman Empire was famous for quieting the rebellious poor with what one historian ultimately called “bread and circuses”. By periodically bringing cartloads of bread into poor areas, they gave the impression that they actually cared for the people they were oppressing. It was in essence a form of propaganda.
But Jesus isn’t like the Roman Empire.
In Isaiah 55, the prophet, speaking for God, asks why we labor for bread that doesn’t satisfy, and Jesus nearly quotes him in today’s passage.
You’re hungry again so you’re back with me. What if you could have bread that fills you forever, so that you never got hungry again?
This sounds a little like the dialogue with the samaritan woman. Back in chapter 4, verse 14, Jesus offers her water that will quench her thirst forever. This is the central theme of John, returned to again and again: Jesus is the word of God, the only begotten Son of God, that has come down from heaven to give eternal life to all who believe.
The people ask Jesus what works they must perform. Jesus tells them only one: to believe in the one whom God has sent.
Still the crafty leader of the crowds finds a way to angle for more bread. “Well, we’d love to believe in you, so why not give us a sign, like, well, Moses, who gave us manna in the wilderness?”
Here John lifts up a conflict that we see in the synoptics. The Pharisees and the other religious leaders of Israel are said to believe in Moses more than they believe in God. Their devotion to the law had become burdensome and oppressive, rather than liberating and life-affirming, as it was intended to be.
And so Jesus says something that will end up driving a significant number of his disciples away, just as his announcement in Matthew, Mark and Luke, of his crucifixion and resurrection alienated the twelve.
He says “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
The number seven is important in John’s Gospel. It’s the number of fulfillment, of completion, of wholeness. The divine and the human have become one in Jesus, and Jesus invites us to enter into that wholeness. While Matthew, Mark and Luke testify to a future fulfillment for which we are to prepare ourselves by coming together into a new community, John’s Gospel says that the fulfillment has already come, and we only need to believe in order to enter into the new reality, which is eternal life for those who believe.
The first half of John’s Gospel tells of seven signs, water into wine, healing the official’s son, making the lame man walk, feeding the five thousand, walking on water, giving sight to the man born blind, and raising Lazarus from the dead. And in the midst of his many discourses, there are seven “I am” statements that Jesus makes, with the clear intent of describing Jesus as God, whose secret name is “I am.”
“I am the bread of life” is the first.
John’s Gospel does not include the last supper, with Jesus instituting communion. Instead, it has chapter 6, which uses the feeding of the five thousand as a springboard for declaring Jesus himself as food for eternal life. The chapter, which we will be reading through this month of Sundays, ends with a large contingent of disciples leaving Jesus. What kind of evangelist preaches people out of their church? We will find out.
For now, the good news is eternal life for those who believe in the one God sent. This is the main message of John’s Gospel, which is repeated again and again in a number of different ways.
In the second half of John’s Gospel we learn a great deal more about what it looks like for a disciple to believe in Jesus, how eating the bread of life transforms us into children of God.
Amen.
Sermon on John 6:24-35
