Jesus, Bread of Life
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Mark spoke to us on Jesus being the Bread of Life.
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Sermon notes
So, if you weren’t aware, we’re following on in a series of sermons that have, and will, help to develop our understanding of who Christ is and of His significance. A few weeks ago Ruth spoke on Jesus as the Lamb of God, and last week Dave Latham spoke on Jesus as the Son of God….
…interestingly, to do this, Dave took us through an exceptional whistle stop tour of the gospel of John.
…and that’s interesting because this morning, as we come to explore Jesus as “the bread of Life”, we do so also with a focus on John’s gospel.
In Dave’s sermon last week, he used the phrase “craftsman” to describe the way in which the gospel writer, the one of whom it was said, “Jesus loved”, draws to one incredible conclusion… That Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter’s son, is none other, than the Son of God!
Let’s pray:
Father, as we come to your word, as we try to learn more about your Son, would you reveal yourself to us – would you grant us insight into your character and nature that we may find assurance of our great hope in you. In yours Son’s precious name. Amen.
So, if you have your bibles with you, then I want to invite you to turn to John’s gospel it might be helpful for you to put a finger on John 1, but then also to have in you’re mind that we’re going to flip a few pages and spend quite a bit of time in John 6 as well as our primary passage.
…but first things first, last week, Dave did an excellent job of walking us through John and giving us an insight into its author and audience… and really, just as a short reminder I want to echo some of that.
Firstly, as Dave highlighted, as an author, John is a craftsman! There’s layer on layer of interest and meaning in his wording. He reminds me a little of the designer Robert (Mouseman) Thompson, if you haven’t heard of him, you might have seen some of his work, He was a local furniture maker from Kilburn. I remember going to a church in my youth and sitting on these great big ornate wooden pews and being impressed with the carving, but then looking around the edges, or on the legs of the pew trying to find the mark of the craftsman, which was a small wooden mouse that he would carve into each piece.
To me, John’s like this – it’s clear he has this incredible knowledge of the Jewish world, but at the same time he’s more than clued up on the popular philosophy and thinking of the Greek thinking, Roman world!
It’s like he wears these two hats and somehow walks a tightrope, drawing from both of these world views to demonstrate to Rabbi and Greek philosopher alike that Jesus Christ is someone for the whole world to take note of!
Matthew, Mark and Luke, begin their gospels with a nativity story, with elements of genealogy – (so and so descended from so and so), and with a story of virgin birth… confronting the reader with the mix of human emotions that comes with it.
But John gives us something different – something “bigger picture”, something a little more removed from something as basic as human emotion, and instead something grander, something philosophical, something cosmic!
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.
To us, in the 21st century, hear those words, and with the benefit of hindsight, know what’s coming. We know exactly who the “Word” that John is referring to, the Word that was there in the beginning, that was not only with God, but that WAS God…
But to John’s original audience, reading this for the first time, they’re on tenterhooks!
To those of his readers coming from a Greek world view, they’re reading this as an odd way of referring to the “Word” of wisdom!
You see, the Greek philosophy of the day, was that there was a physical part to the world – our flesh, and the physical world around us, that was considered as dirty, bad and unclean…
…but there was also a spiritual world that was considered good and pure…
…and the purest form of this ‘spiritual world’, the purest of the pure, was “wisdom” itself – a conscious entity, so perfect that it did all it could to keep itself at a distance from the physical world of men… something that the Greeks referred to as logos, which is translated into: “Word”.
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To his Jewish readers, they’re reading John’s introduction as an odd way of referring to the Torah – the written Word of God!
Breathed forth by Him, and so believed by many to be of God and as God as a physical representation of Himself on earth.
The first port of call for receiving the wisdom of God in our world.
Whether Jew or Greek, as readers, they’re hooked! The cosmic light, the creative genius, the divine Wisdom – the eternal and pure power that John calls ‘the Word’, has, according to John, ‘been revealed’…
…and oh my gosh gasp those first readers, it looks as though we might have missed it!
They’re gripped, holding on for the big unveiling that humanities been waiting for!
And when it comes in verse 14, it wasn’t what they were expecting by a long shot:
Let’s check that out…
14 The Word became flesh…… and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The readers are in shock – not so much that there’d even BEEN a revelation (although that was certainly news of epic proportions of itself)…
…but at the nature of the revelation!
As all good Greeks know, the physical world, the flesh, is base, it’s earthly and basic and corruptible, a thing with a beginning and an end. It’s finite, and it’s given to rot and decay and death…
But logos, wisdom, the Word. This is something that keeps itself at a healthy distance, avoiding the petty concerns of humanity…
For the Word to become flesh is like saying that up became down, north became south, and left became right!
It defies logic and blows the mind.
Any respectable first century Greek reader is thinking: “this cant be right!”
But it IS RIGHT says John, and what’s more, this “wisdom of the universe” has a name, and his name is Jesus Christ!
For John, our master crafts man – the stage is set! “World - The Word became flesh – He made His dwelling amongst us, and among others, I had front row seats, let me tell you about Him!”
His audience are gripped, and we should be too. Let’s turn to John 6.
The chapter opens with Jesus crossing the sea. That’s the sea of Galilee to those in John’s Jewish audience, and the sea of Tiberius to his Roman/Greek readers…
A great crowd has followed him, and in verse 2 onwards we’re told that they’re following Him because: “they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick”.
3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples.
5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages[a] to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
Now, what’s interesting hear, is that in Matthew account of this same story in Matthew 14, Matthew points out the reaction of the disciples to this problem, in v15 they say:
“Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food”
In other words, Matthew’s keen to point out that to the disciples, whilst this was a problem, it wasn’t Jesus’ problem!
In John, he doesn’t need to do that. Knowing what they do of the Logos, the wisdom, the word made flesh, the readers are already painfully aware that the problems of this world hold no consequence to the ‘word made flesh’!
But again, the readers are in for a shock. Because the shocking happens… The divine one of heaven does something unheard of: “He cares!”
He cares about the earthly needs of the earthly beings in front of him.
…and not only that, he cares enough to do something about it!...
11 Jesus then took the loaves of bread, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted.
14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
The crowds following Jesus were growing in their confidence in who they thought he was. They thought he was simply the promised Messiah, a promised prophet, coming to save the people from a cruel dictator government.
They thought He was in touch with the divine. They had realised that HE WAS the divine!
Because of this, they looked for signs, they looked for signs he would perform pointing them in the direction of God – not realising that the signs they’d seen actually point to the fact that he IS GOD!
Sense that they’d missed who he was, and their intentions, he withdrew.
…
The disciples crossed the lake ahead of him to Capernaum – the crowds followed, and in cover of darkness and a storm Jesus demonstrates his true nature walking on the water to join his disciples enroute.
Eventually, the crowds, having sought Jesus out, missing not only WHERE he was, but WHO he was, finally catch up with him in Capernaum, and this is what happens, from vs 26:
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’[c]”
32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
THIS. IS. NEWS!
Remember, as readers, we benefit from the lens that John has given us through which to see Jesus.
The divine Logos! God Himself come down!
But whilst we’re in on the secret of who Jesus truly is, the crowds aren’t.
Where you and I would be drawn to Jesus, not because he’s kept us fed for a day, but because He’s the definition of all that is Holy and spiritual and true – in existence before creation, the crowds were there for what they could get!
…and Jesus knew it!
Jesus points out the error of their ways, saying to them:
Don’t work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life!
In response, the crowd asks the question that we all want the answer to:
“What must we do to do the works God requires?”
What do we have to do to get the food that leads to eternal life?
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
They reply asking for another sign – demonstrating that the crowd have already missed just WHO JESUS IS!
You see, Jesus IS THE SIGN!
The people refer to bread in the desert, forgetting that just the day before he’d fed 5000 from a few loaves and fishes!
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life
And here’s where it get’s interesting! Here’s where we get to see some of the marks of John’s craftmanship, the little wooden mouse on the edge of the pew of his Gospel…
To begin with, in this little phrase, we see the first of the “I am” sayings of Jesus in John’s Gospel.
Jesus says, “I AM” the bread of life…
….and in so doing, the minds of the crowds, and the minds of His Jewish readers are transported back to Exodus 3:14 and the account of the burning bush where God reveals something of His constant, timeless, nature, saying to Moses to tell the Israelites: “I Am who I Am”… and “I Am has sent me to you”!.....
“I Am the BREAD of life”
He refers to himself as the bread of life,
…as well as being a simple symbol for life and for sustainenace
…bread in the wilderness certainly recalls God’s provision in the wilderness during the Exodus
The most basic metaphor in comparing Jesus with bread is that it’s nonother than Jesus who “sustains life”.
But beyond this, in both Greek and Jewish thought at the time, alongside the physical bread made of flour, water and salt was the use of the word “bread” as being metaphor for heavenly truth and wisdom!
…Wisdom was like heaven’s “bread of understanding”
…again, the mind of the reader is transported back to Moses and the Exodus…
In Deuteronomy 8:3 Moses says of the Israelites:
3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you (and get this) that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord
Again, Jesus says: “I am the bread of life”!
Jaws hit the floor – and some in the crowds catch up with the head start John has given us as his readers, that Jesus is saying of himself, that HE is the embodiment of the Word of life!
The bread of wisdom and the giver of bread for your belly…
He’s bread for today and He’s bread for the age to come.
In him you receive your daily sustenance in life, and in him you receive sustenance for eternity.
Many in the crowds desert him saying: we need proof, and, this is a difficult teaching, but to those who remain, to those who accept his message, not by works, but by faith, by simply believing that Jesus IS WHO HE SAYS HE IS, he gives eternal life, promising to raise them again at the last day!
Do you get it church?!
Jesus is the bread of life!
He’s the bread of life! In these times of uncertainty, where folk are fighting over the last bag of hovis he reminds us that “man does not live on bread alone”…
…he reminds us of a different way to live and to find our sustenance…
…Matthew 6:25
25 “…do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?
We have a father in heaven who knows our needs, and for that reason He sent His son that we may find our provision in him….
The sustainenace of who Christ is, and of who He can be for you through faith is a promise, not only for the day, but never to hunger or thirst again, not just because He’s the one who cares enough about our physical, fleshy needs enough to multiply loaves and fishes for our daily food, but because He’s the eternal bread of life!
And It’s because He’s the eternal bread that we can feast on him, and in doing so have the promise of eternal life as a result!
The Son of God, the divine logos who’s power and wisdom stretches on for ever and ever!
He says in his discourse in John 6 that not all will grasp who He truly is… but hear the words of the Apostle Paul about who He saw Christ to be, as one who clearly did!
He says in Colossian 1 that:
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him
Then in Romans 8:
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You see, to paul, the coming of Jesus, the bread of life, demonstrates not only that He knows our needs (in this life and the life to come), but that he is uniquely placed to meet them!
His provision is ultimate, persistent, unstoppable and everlasting!
And all we’re called to do to receive it is to “believe in Him”.
…………………………….
And it’s on that note that I’m going to close
: Jesus says: “I am the bread of life” – and He calls to “eat”!
Yes, he’s the heavenly bread of wisdom… the satisfaction of lofty ideas and ideals sought after by the philosophers of the day.
But Christ is more than that, he’s something essential. When alls said and done, Bread is bread! It’s simple, it’s primal, and it’s essential to life!
…put it before the smartest person alive, or least, and they’ll know what to do with it!
…Put it before someone who’s starving and they’ll pounce on it!
The thing about bread, is that it doesn’t NEED to be understood, it just needs to be received!
And so my hope for you and my prayer for you this morning is that…
…in this time of shared and personal struggle, may you find yourself stretching out in faith to Jesus of Nazareth, finding in Him bread for the day, and the hope and assurance of the bread of eternal life.
Amen