Pastor Scott Jonas
1/14/18
John 6
I am the Bread of Life
We
are journeying through John. Take out
your Bibles, your bulletins or your phones and turn to John chapter 6. One of the themes of John is the mystery of
Jesus. You’ve heard the typical Stories
about Jesus’ life and teachings from the other Gospels but John adds to the
story. He asks the reader to rethink
your understanding of Jesus. John is
just following his rabbi’s methods.
Jesus took people’s understanding of God and gave it a twist. He made his listeners uncomfortable. Likewise that is part of my job in the Pulpit
and in Bible class. I want to take your
grasp of your faith and twist it, make you look at Jesus from another angle. Our faith should never be static. There are more and more levels of mystery to
dig through. Some people do not like
this. Just give me the same familiar
information. I want all of my
perceptions of God to be reaffirmed.
Don’t upset me. Sorry.
John
chapter 6 is very upsetting. But it
doesn’t start that way. It begins with
the most comforting of stories, Jesus feeds the 5,000. Who doesn’t love the feeding of the
5,000? There is no controversial
teaching. It’s just Jesus blessing
people. A crowd of thousands follows him
because of his reputation as a healer.
Jesus has the throng sit down. He
asks a boy to share his meal, takes the five loaves and two pickled fish and
creates a bounty that fills the tum tums of everyone. Can you imagine how good Jesus bread must
be? We’ve all had fresh baked bread. Now imagine Jesus making bread from
scratch. Ummm, Jesus bread. You may not like fish but I’m pretty sure you
would like newly made Jesus fish. Can
you imagine a finicky kid near Jesus?
And a tired parent with in ear shot of Jesus saying, “Now eat your fish
dear. The nice man just created it for
you. Put it in your mouth. Swallow it.
I’m going to count to 3. 1, 2,
3. Aside from that possibility, everyone
loved the Jesus bread and the Jesus fish.
They even had enough left over for the disciples to eat for days. The people were satisfied. Fat and Happy. Even Atheists who enjoy picking apart the
Bible like the story. They may not
believe Jesus is the Son of God but they like that Jesus feeds to poor and food
insecure. Believers read the story and
think Jesus if the miracle man who takes away the rum rum from my tum tum. Surely he is a prophet! Atheists read the story and think I can get
on board with generous Jesus . Everyone
wins. The End.
The
story ends with an ominous line. One that’s
prepares the reader that something is about to go down. There is going to be a twist. Luke doesn’t have this line follow the
story. Neither does Matthew or
Mark. Here’s the ominous line,
“Perceiving then that they were
about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to
the mountain by himself.”
The
other Gospels conclude with and “They ate and were satisfied.” John concludes by saying “Jesus has to book
it out of there or the people were going to kidnap him.” Big difference.
They
just had a lovely picnic with Jesu bread and pickled sardines. Miracles.
Amazing generosity and conversation.
Yet the reaction was “get that guy.”
Why?
Let
me explain it this way. You and I have
the same impulse in us that that they had.
Human nature hasn’t changed. I
will explain the impulse a little later in the story. The “get that guy” impulse.
Then
evening comes and Jesus walks on water.
It’s almost as if John is using this well known episode as a bridge
between his two main narratives. It
links the Feeding of the 5,000 with the I am the Bread of Life teaching.
The
next day people are trying to find Jesus.
They travel by boat across the sea.
The crowd who was there yesterday told family and friends so now the
crowd has grown. Jesus knows right away
why they came. Did they come to hear his
teaching about the Father? Boring. Did they come to see a sign that the kingdom
of heaven was near? No. Did they come because they love Jesus? Not even close. He says, “You came because you ate your fill
of the loaves.” They came for the free
buffett. Pathetic.
Are
we any better? I’m going to ask you a
question. If you’ve never asked it
before it will cut you to the core. It
is a self awareness test to see if you are any better than the crowds who
followed Jesus for the happy meal.
Here’s the question. Do you
follow Jesus because you love him or do you follow Jesus because of the good
things he gives you? I’m going to ask
that again, Do you follow Jesus because you love him or do you follow Jesus
because of the good things he gives you?
There
is a difference between the person Jesus and the gifts that come from him. I’m not just talking about physical gifts
like food, water, shelter, health for you and loved ones. I’m including the spiritual ones like
forgiveness, eternal life, acceptance, and
love. Is God just a cosmic
vending machine? You put your prayers in
here and the spiritual gift comes out here.
Totally depersonalized. Another
way of saying it is, “do you love Jesus because of who he is? Or do you love him for what he can do for
you.”
It’s
easier to put our human relationships to this test. Do you love your mom because of who she is or
because she pays for your cell phone service?
Do you love your kids because of who they are or because they give you
the best hugs? Do you love your pastor
because of who he is or because he preaches a lively sermon? That’s really the most important one.
Jesus
knows that we do this. “Perceiving then
that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus
withdrew again to the mountain by himself.”
This means that the crowd wanted to force him to be the golden goose who
laid the golden eggs. We never have to
be hungry again. The Jesus machine can
spit out bread and fish and who knows what else out for everyone. We’ll put him in a little white room and make
him create things for us. Imagine what
life would be like. We never have to
work again. I people are sick, we bring
them to his little white cell and make him heal them. If someone has died, we bring the body to his
room and make him resurrect them. If a
citizen of Israel has sinned then they can go to his cell and we will make him
forgive him. Imagine all the
blessings. It’s grotesque when you think
of it that way.
But
at this point in the story Jesus has not tested them. They are still in the glow of the free
buffett. The fish probably tasted like
bacon and that is why they are so excited.
Jesus
brings the twist to the story. He says,
“You came because you ate your fill. I
tell you that there is food that brings eternal life. Only I can give it to you, Not Moses, just
me. Because the bread I’m talking about
is me. I am the bread of Life that came
down from Heaven.”
Can
you imagine the reaction? They came for
lunch and instead Jesus says “I got something better, me.” The happy meal is no more. They started grumbling. “Does this mean there is no more
buffett?” “I didn’t come here for
this.” .
They are feeling like this is a bait and switch. They are starting to get rowdy. Jesus could calm the crowd, instead he takes
it up a notch.
“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. Whoever
feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” You can see the looks of disappointment turn
to revulsion.
You
might be tempted to interpret Jesus’ words as purely figurative. “Eat the Flesh of the son of man” just means
“Take me in” or “Injest my ideas.”
That’s not how the Jews saw it.
Jesus uses the greek word “to eat” which is used for animals
chewing. “Unless you chew Jesus, you
have no life in you.” It gets
worse. Jews were not only forbidden from
eating human flesh but also any blood, even animal. Jesus says “Drink my blood.” Cannibalism and vampirism. The crowd couldn’t listen anymopre. He turned their stomachs. John even records that his own disciples
started complaining about this teaching and some did not believe. This is a hard teaching.
Jesus
wants you to eat and not be hungry. But
he wants more than that for you. He
wants you to receive his very body and blood.
He comes to us in communion. John
doesn’t have the traditional Last supper story.
This is his Last supper story.
Jesus came to give you life to the fullest. That doesn’t mean a full belly. A full life doesn’t mean that you obey the
rules. A full life doesn’t mean that life is a picnic. It
mean a full relationship with the Father through the Son. Jesus gave all of himself for you. He
didn’t just give you wise stories to eat up.
He didn’t just give you clever parables to consume. He gave you himself.
The
faith is not about accessing the gifts from God. It is gross to say that I’m a Christian so I
can go to heaven. That’s like saying I
had kids so they would take care of me in my old age. That’s disgusting.
He gives himself
to you not so you will love him. He does
it because that is who he is. God is by
nature a generous being. He creates
because wants to give to his creation.
He comes to earth as a baby so that he can save his creation. He allows his flesh to be torn up by the
Romans so he can save them. This world
chewed him up and spit him out but that was by design. So that we could receive him.
He wants us to
receive him, not just at the communion rail.
He gives himself to you every day.
There is another way in which we talk about eating someone. Have you ever seen someone play with a baby
and said, “I love you so much I just want to eat you up!” ? We aren’t shocked when we hear someone say
that? We know that the person loves that
baby so much that they don’t know what to do with it. They want to make the baby a part of
them. Here’s a twist. What if I told you, “ Jesus loves you so
much, he just wants to eat you up.”