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You see, it’s all about
“bread.”
John’s sixth chapter begins with
the feeding of the five thousand. It’s an incredible event
when you think about it. One version says it was five
thousand men, but there were probably an equal number of
women and children in the crowd who didn’t get counted, so
it could have been anywhere from five thousand to ten
thousand people or more. A phenomenal crowd for the times.
John says Jesus fed them with five loaves and two small
fishes from a little boy’s lunch, and when they had all
eaten their fill, they still collected twelve baskets of
leftovers.
And the reaction of the
crowd?
Of course, it meant immediate
popularity. Politicians and preachers still seek popularity
with bread, don’t they, or perhaps we call it “pork,” but
whatever — you can always draw a crowd by promising bread.
Feed them, we say, and they will come. Well, John says the
crowd was so excited, they were ready to take Jesus by force
and make him king. He says:
1. “THE PEOPLE CAME
SEEKING JESUS BECAUSE OF THE BREAD.”
And really…can you blame them?
I mean, at some level, isn’t
everyone looking for a “free lunch”? But especially in this
stark, harsh, desert place where making bread involved hard,
back-breaking work. Every day, day after day, sifting the
wheat, kneading the dough. Every day building the fire,
baking the bread for basic sustenance. Then doing it all
over again the next day and the next and the next. Can you
blame them for taking after Jesus for the sake of the bread?
If he could do it once, he could do it again, and at least
it would be one more day when they wouldn’t have to struggle
just to survive. I can’t blame them, can you?
And I can’t blame the multitudes
of the world who struggle for the bare necessities of life:
-
those for whom basic bread
and water demand overwhelming toil
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teeming throngs of refugees
living in tents, struggling for food
-
starving masses hungry for
bread
-
the poverty-laden inner city
single mom who barely makes enough from day to day to
put food on the table.
I guess I can’t entirely blame
them if they run to the latest politician or preacher or
prophet who promises bread, willing to make him king; if
they follow the TV evangelists who promise a great harvest
if you just send in your money…like a seed; if they turn to
Jesus in hopes of bread.
But I do find fault with
the well-fed of the world, those whose bellies are already
filled but want more and more.
I do find fault with the wealthy
of the world who consume more and more of the earth’s goods
while others starve for lack of daily bread. I do find fault
with a nation which, as the President says, is addicted to
oil and unwilling to do what is necessary to reduce our
consumption and share the world’s resources with others. I
do find fault with those who have been fed to the fill and
still have twelve baskets of leftovers, but come to Jesus
hoping to get even more.
Writing in the 1920’s during a
time of economic expansion, the industrialist Walter
Henderson Grimes offered a lament which could have been
written today. He said, “It is perfectly clear that the
middle-class American already buys more than he needs.”
Interestingly enough, he was concerned that people would
become satisfied and stop buying and that, in turn, would
decrease the economic growth of the time. They dubbed it
“the new economic gospel of consumption.”
Wayne Muller says:
Thus, intentionally or not,
we canonized consumption as the essential human impulse that
would drive the machine of civilization.
The result? Americans now
consume twice as many goods and services per person than we
did in 1945. Muller concludes:
To want more and more, to grasp
and desire and need ever-increasing amounts of goods and
services, this has become our Gospel, our vision of Eden.
(Wayne Muller,
Sabbath, pages 129-132)
It’s all about bread...
Maybe Jesus’ words of judgment
are as appropriate for the 21st century as they were for the
first:
Truly I say to you, you seek me
not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of
the loaves. (John 6:26)
We want to talk about “bread” —
seeking more and more of the world’s goods — but Jesus wants
to talk about “BREAD.”
2. JESUS SAYS, “I AM THE
BREAD OF LIFE, WHICH COMES DOWN FROM HEAVEN.”
Now, it’s no wonder the people
got confused. In John’s Gospel, Jesus teaches in puns and
metaphors. It’s a style which contradicts our western
literalism and analytical minds with double meanings and
intended mystery; imagery which sometimes reveals, sometimes
conceals.
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a poetic turn of phrase here
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a creative question there
-
a seemingly simple parable
which leaves you wondering for days or even centuries,
“Just what did he mean?”
In the heat of the day, he
stands beside a city well in the middle of a dusty town
talking to a Samaritan woman about water, and she, of
course, thinks water: well water but Jesus means
water: living water.
He points to the great Temple
and says he will tear down the temple in three days. The
crowd is aghast — destroy the temple! They think, Temple:
Solomon’s Temple, the Temple Mount but Jesus means
Temple: His temple, his body, his own life.
He invites them to eat his body
and drink his blood, and the immediate reaction is
cannibalism! (That’s what Biblical literalism will get
you!) But of course, Jesus means his shared body of
sacrifice and the cup of redemption in his blood.
In this passage, following the
dramatic feeding of the five thousand, all the people want
to talk about bread but Jesus is talking about
BREAD — not just the bread which fills the belly, but
the bread of life which feeds the soul; not just the bread
of yeast and wheat, but the bread of grace and love. Jesus’
hearers may have truly needed bread for the body, but
Jesus knew they also needed BREAD for the soul.
Really, for most of us, the
problem is just the opposite: our bellies are full, and even
so, all we can think about is more bread, while our
hearts are empty, our inner souls are starving and what we
really need is BREAD, the bread of life. We are, in
the words of the hymn writer, “rich in things, but poor in
soul.”
Well, today is the day for
new commercials!
The Super Bowl has introduced us
to some of the best and worst, a veritable
orgy of advertising….upwards of $6 million a minute to try
to sell us everything imaginable. And some years, it’s been
the best part of the game! In 2004, Pontiac came out with a
campaign with an incredible theme: “Pontiac: Fuel for the
Soul.”
Now just think about that. For
the sake of our economy, I hope GM’s advertising campaign
works, but for the sake of our souls… You see, we want to
talk about “bread,” but Jesus says,
I am the bread of life; those
who come to me will never be hungry and those who believe in
me shall never thirst. I am the living bread which comes
down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, they shall
live forever. (John 6:35, 51)
True “fuel for the soul.” And
isn’t that the bread we really need?
It’s all about bread, and
this table is all about bread....
We gather around this table to
share in the breaking of a common loaf, one in our need and
one in our nourishment. Frankly, as a meal goes, this little
bit of bread isn’t worth much. But as BREAD, the
bread of life, it can sustain us for our journey. This
little dip of grape juice won’t quench your thirst, but it
can be for us the wine of mercy, the cup of forgiveness, the
flow of new life.
It’s interesting to note that in
John’s Gospel, he spends more time at the Last Supper table
than any of the other Gospel writers, but he says nothing
about the bread and the cup. John includes more of the Last
Supper table dialogue than the others, but the only
reference to breaking bread is in the betrayal of Judas.
Instead, he places it here, near the beginning of his
Gospel. Jesus offers his life as broken bread and he offers
his spirit like spilled wine as the metaphor which will be
the setting and the context for all that is to follow:
“Truly, truly, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his
blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and
drinks my blood has eternal life.
For my flesh is food indeed, and
my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks
my blood abides in me and I in him…this is the bread which
came down from heaven.”
And the disciples said,
“This is a hard saying.”
No wonder they were confused.
They wanted “bread,” but Jesus offers them
“BREAD.” They hear “blood,” but Jesus offers the
wine of heaven. They are thinking “flesh,” but Jesus
offers himself, his very life given for them. No wonder they
were confused. And I suppose it’s no wonder we are confused.
You see….it’s all about the bread.
Here, O My Lord, I see thee face
to face;
here would I touch and handle things unseen;
here grasp with firmer hands eternal grace,
and all my weariness upon thee lean.
Here would I feed upon the bread
of God,
here drink with thee the royal wine of heaven;
here would I lay aside each earthly load,
here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiven.
Too soon we rise; the symbols
disappear;
the feast, though not the love, is past and gone.
the bread and wine remove; but thou are here,
nearer than ever, still my shield and sun. (U.M. Hymnal,
page 623)
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