The Bread of Life

I went to lunch at Amerigo’s this week with a friend. We ordered and as we finished giving our order, she remembered to tell our waiter that we wanted bread. In just a few minutes, he returned with our drinks, and setting them down he told us that he had some bittersweet news. He had no bread for us, but in just a few minutes he would bring fresh, hot bread from the oven.

Bittersweet news – I don’t have what you asked for, but I am going to offer you something even better. Jesus had bittersweet news for the crowd. The crowd has been following him. And excitement is building. They think they are at the turning point! And they are, but they don’t know what is around the bend.

They have been trying to put the pieces together. To understand this passage, we need to back up and gather the pieces that the crowd had gathered over the few days they had been following Jesus. It started in Jerusalem. They saw Jesus heal in Jerusalem on the Sabbath, and it was like he claimed to be equal to God, saying that the Father was working on the Sabbath and he was too. After the healing on the Sabbath, John records some additional teaching s that Jesus shared with the crowd. Perhaps these were shared as they traveled because they left Jerusalem and followed him back to the Sea of Galilee to Tiberias, just over 70 miles. And Jesus talked about who he was and said to them that they were searching the Scriptures because they thought they could find eternal life in them. But, that they refuse to come to him to have life. Jesus said to them, “I do not receive glory from human beings. I know you – that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.”

And John says that when they got to Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee, a large crowd was following Jesus because they saw the signs he was doing for the sick. And this crowd was hungry. The only food they had was one little boy’s lunch. He had five barley loaves and two fish…and Jesus gave thanks for them and distributed them. And everyone ate until they were full and there were twelve baskets leftover. And when the people saw the sign that he had done they said, “This is indeed the prophet who is come into the world.” And they are ready to make him king.
So, Jesus withdraws to the mountainside alone. The disciples head home across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, about a 3 mile journey by boat. And the next day, the crowd can’t find Jesus, so they follow in their boats to Capernaum and find Jesus there with the disciples because he had walked on the water to their boat in the storm the night before.

The pieces are all coming together. He is a prophet. He heals. He supplies us with bread like Moses supplied manna. He crosses the water like Moses crossed the Red Sea.

John begins to record the dialogue between Jesus and the crowd with a series of exchanges that are on two planes – with a common meaning and a profound meaning. The crowd asks Jesus, “Where did you come from?” In one sense they are asking how he got from Tiberias to Capernaum, 3 miles across the lake without a boat. In another sense, their minds are racing with all the possibilities for who this is and what it could mean for them. Are you a prophet or a king or a judge? Are you a liberator like Moses? What is your story? Who are you, really?

And Jesus responds by asking them why are you seeking me, really? And the word he uses also means craving. What are you craving, really? You really weren’t eager to find me because of the signs. You are really interested in me because you got your fill of bread.

The crowd is confused. What do we have to do to get more bread? Can’t you do some more signs? Moses took care of God’s people for 40 years. Aren’t you going to take care of us?

I have bittersweet news for you, says Jesus. I am not going to feed you again. I am not going to do any more signs. It wasn’t Moses who gave God’s people manna. It was God.

I am not going to be your baker-king with fresh bread daily. “Do not work for the food that perishes,” he says, “Work for the food that endures for eternal life.”

It is so easy to slip into focusing on the common meaning in our life and miss the profound meaning all together. It is easy to focus on putting food on the table, getting ahead, catching a break, …and to miss the profound meaning of life altogether.

“Work for the food that endures for eternal life,” says Jesus. Remembering that they did not have a concept of heaven, what was Jesus saying to them? The Greek word is aionion, 1) without beginning and end, that which always has been and always will be, never ceasing, everlasting.

What has no beginning and no end, has always been and will always be? God. Work for the food of God. That is what will truly satisfy your hunger.

It is no less work to work for the food of God than it is to work for the food that perishes. And I think the puzzle piece that unlocks the profound meaning is what Jesus said to them when they were travelling with him from Jerusalem to Tiberias. Jesus knew they were thinking that he might be their prophet, or their king, or their supplier of the “good life.” But, remember what Jesus said to them, “I do not receive glory from human beings. But I know you that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.”

It is work to have the love of God in us. It is work to see with God’s vision. It is work to respond with God’s heart.

But here is the sweet part of the bittersweet news, the Father gives you true bread. Christ invites us to his table to eat the food of eternal life. Here at this table, we come to receive the bread of life, and we are filled with the love of God and we will never go hungry. Amen.