BREAD OF LIFE

Sermon Summary, “Bread of Life” (John 6 (selected))  (May 3, 2015)

We’re in the Gospel of John.  One of the amazing things that John did NOT include was the Institution of the Last Supper. But when you think about it, his Greek audience would have had no knowledge of the Passover meal, no understanding of the loaf and the cup.  They needed another approach to understanding the meal that we find so spiritually nourishing.

So John builds on the story of the feeding of the 5000 which even in the other Gospels has echoes of the Eucharist (“Jesus taking the five loaves and the two fish, .. looked up into heaven, blessed and broke the loaves and gave them…) (Matt 15:19).

So John begins Chapter 6 with the feeding of the 5000, but we soon find that the crowds did not understand (Jesus later admonishes them, “You are looking for me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” (They got a belly stuffer!)  After the feeding, Jesus withdraws to the mountains.  The disciples return by boat to Galilee and encounter a life-threatening storm; and even more terrifying, they see Jesus walking to them on the water!  Jesus says, “It is I.  Do not be afraid.”  (The correct translation from the Greek is “I AM. Do not be afraid.)  I AM—words from 1400 years earlier, God speaking to Moses from the burning bush.  This appearance is far more than a miracle of walking on water, it is a Theophany, an appearance of God.  John is clear throughout his Gospel and he’s clear in this story, Jesus and God are one.

The next day, the crowds again surround Jesus, “What must we do to perform the work of God?” Jesus replies, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”  Then astoundingly, they ask “What sign are you going to give us?”  They had just been fed from five loaves and two fish! 

Jesus shocks them by telling them, “I AM [there it is again] the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.  Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty...I AM the bread that came down from heaven.  Whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I give for the life of the world is my flesh.”  The crowds miss the spiritual message and the next one even more: “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.”  The crowds say, “This is too difficult a teaching” and fall away.  But Peter say, “Lord, where could we go? For you have the words of eternal life.”  Indeed!

See and believe.  And give thanks.  That’s what the Eucharist means, the Great Thanksgiving.  He is present with us.  Amen.