I Am the Bread of Life
I am the bread of life, the bread which comes down from heaven
It seems, at first, like a pretty fickle thing to be seeking after Jesus for food. Jesus had just fed 5000 people with 5 loaves of fish and 2 loaves of bread. The boats went across the Sea of Galilee without him and he walked across the water and calmed the storm. Now, a great multitude have followed him, surprised that he was able to get here, but nonetheless seeking him because he fed them. They weren’t seeking Jesus to understand who he was, what God was doing, what this meant for the world and them. Jesus wanted to give them far more than that, but they couldn’t or didn’t want to see what was really being offered to them. They were seeking Jesus to fill a desire. Here they had Jesus right in front of them, but they were so quick to settle and seek after lesser things, when eternity, when heaven was being offered to them.
We can’t really blame them though. What do we seek after Jesus for? Well, lets be honest. Most of the time in our life, in our every day, we don’t seek after Jesus. We don’t take the time to acknowledge his presence, to pray, to learn about him, to seek after him at all. Then when we do seek God we are often asking for our wants, maybe even our needs.
That’s what these people were doing - they were seeking Jesus for their needs. For many people in Jesus’ time, daily bread, and having enough to live off of would have been a continuous struggle. We can barely imagine the kind of hunger and thirst that most humans throughout history have experienced. The little hunger pains and desires that make us chase after food and everything else are little compared to those who worked and walked for a living and yet, as the feeding of the four thousand told us many had not eaten for three days. Here I am and I can get hangry if I miss one meal, or I struggle to fast for 18 hours. Yet, here they were working and walking in the heat of the day for three days without anything. I can’t blame them for seeking after Jesus for food, I think most of us would do the same thing.
Since most of the time, we are seeking fickle things like food, entertainment, comfort, and happiness, we shouldn’t be surprised that the things we get and our lives become very fickle. We all know that when we eat we will soon become hungry again, right? Well, it is the same way with our entertainment, our comfort, our happiness, our exploration, and even things like our health or personal relationships. When we have them, for a time, they are wonderful and fill us, but it isn’t long till those things disappear, aren’t enough, or we need to move forward. It is really important to recognize that everything we seek in this world, even if it seems like a fundamental need, even if they seem really good, these things won’t last and so they are all fickle. When we recognize this we then have the choice. Are we going to keep grasping after these fickle things and so make our lives more and more of a fickle chase, or are we going to seek after the lasting, enduring, eternal things that come from God?
Don’t get me wrong, it is good to ask and seek God for the things we need, but as Matthew 6 reminds us, if we seek after God, His Kingdom, and a right relationship with him, all these things will be given to us as well. In fact, if we seek God first, He will direct us toward what is truly good and what we need.
Everything we have in this world comes from God. We might claim it through our own effort, which has a part to play, but none of it would be possible if God had not given us that capacity or this world, or protected our life and more. It is God who gives us the good things. Again, this is important to acknowledge, because we can so easily turn to other things for solutions and blame them when they can’t measure up. The hard truth is that we can’t fully depend on ourselves, or the government, or friends and family. They may help, but they are not the source, they are fickle too. We must turn to the source, the sustainer, and the giver of all good things. God is the only consistent one and he is the only one we can depend on for a food that lasts, a food that leads to eternal life.
Now that we have had a chance to dig into what God is offering in contrast to what we seek after and what the world can offer, we can dig a little more into what it means that Jesus is the bread of life and the bread of heaven.
Jesus tells us to eat his flesh and drink his blood and he calls his flesh true food. The practical part of me has great challenge with this, even when I think about the fact that at least in part he was directing us towards communion because I know that Jesus also means more than this. We know Jesus isn’t talking about cannibalism, so how is his flesh true food? It doesn’t fill our belly, does it?
When Jesus calls his flesh true food, he is telling us that everything else isn’t true food. Even the mana that descended from heaven that fed them in the wilderness, wasn’t true food, even though it filled their stomach. So, what is true food, that our current food only points to? The food we know speaks to the true food of heaven because it fills us, sustains our lives, gives us nutrients, energizes, and feeds every part of our body. Food is also enjoyable, it is something we have to work for, something we need to take in, chew on, and digest. The true food that is Jesus, that is His earthly life, this God become flesh, is all of this and more. Jesus’ flesh is our true food because it can do all of these far better than the food we have and we are meant to depend on it far more than we depend on this food. He is truly our most basic need.
Yet, what is this food Jesus is offering? It is his life, it is his word, his presence, his actions, his way, it is everything about Him. He calls it His flesh because it is his earthly discoverable and so receivable manifestation. God has a physical and visible realization of Himself with us and so we can actually go to him and receive him. Even if Jesus has ascended into heaven, he is still discoverable. We can still meet him, know him, follow him, and even feel him, if we are truly seeking after him. So, we should respond like the disciples that stay. Jesus says to them, “aren’t you going to leave too?”. They respond, “Who else has the words of life?”
Where can we go now to seek these words, this physical presence, his life, actions and way? Well, one of the most obvious places should be the church. Even as we recognize that we are broken people who inhabit this community, we know that acts, lives, speaks, and is known through us. We know that this community has become one of the fundamental physical and accessible ways for us to meet, know and be filled by God. Like our daily food, we should be asking, “how can we be fed by this community daily?” There are a lot of possible answers and I would love to hear where God is leading you, because I would love to empower that.
God is discoverable in our daily lives too. God is always at work. He is always speaking. It is only because he lives that we live. We should be seeking him in prayer, by reading Scripture, by watching and listening for him. Yet, all of these, even Scripture require some help. God is so big and grand that we need to get to know him so that we might better be able to see him and know him in every situation. All of these things, especially the Christian community, are essential ways that we grow in this relationship and in our ability to perceive and receive Jesus.
Both those following Jesus and the Israelites who were being led out of Egypt missed what was right in front of them. Here was the God who acted miraculously 10 times in Egypt, who parted the sea for them to walk on dry land, and then who was leading them by fire and smoke. Yet, instead of reaching out and wanting to connect with the powerful, loving and delivering God, they begin to mistrust and complain as they were afraid there wouldn’t be enough in the wilderness. Those following Jesus had seen him heal, had heard some amazing teaching, had been fed and nourished, yet they were following Jesus not because they wanted to know Him or God or understand what all this meant, they wanted more food. They were missing what was right there in front of them. They were missing what they truly needed because they would rather have lesser things.
The problem isn’t just that we seek lesser things, too often when we want to be filled by something that isn’t God, it leads us to a worse life. The Israelites want to go back to Egypt so that they can have boiled meat and bread. They literally want to go back to slavery and death, because they don’t trust God and who he is. It might not be that obvious for us, but we can become slaves to our work, our entertainment, our vices and so much more, because we are seeking to be filled by them rather than God.
Today, Jesus, God Himself, is right in front of us offering us true food. Not a food that we will take and eat once and then become hungry again. He is here in our midst offering us food that lasts, food that will fill us, energize us, and give us life. This food is his flesh, his discoverable earthly presence, word, actions, life - that we can know and take in. Like all food it does require us to seek it, to take it in, to chew on it and digest it. As we do this true food of Jesus will incorporate itself into every part of us, so that our life, our body, our spirit, our hearts and minds are fed by the singular and eternal things of God. Nothing else compares. Only Jesus gives us the food that leads to an eternal, full, and lasting life. AMEN
