Sermon: Jesus - The Bread of Life - Harvest Festival

Date Preached: Sunday October 7th 2007

Bible Reference: John, Chapter 6, Verses 25-35

Try and imagine the scene if you will – it’s right after the astonishing event where 5,000 people were fed out of practically nothing - Jesus at the height of his popularity - the crowds wanting to take him - by force if necessary – to make him their King. Jesus even tries to get away from their demands by crossing the lake – only to be followed the next day when they’d figured out where he might be, and a huge flotilla of boats follows him across the lake.

It’s at this very point – to a record-breaking crowd that he says these amazing words that we have as our harvest text today: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35)
John chapter 6 goes on to tell us the people’s reaction to what he had to say to them – interesting… - they grumbled, complained, argued, whined, and ultimately left - apparently in droves. Oh – the fickleness of hero-worship – adoring Jesus one minute and demanding his crucifixion the next…

So what on earth is going on to account for this reaction? And what does it say about us today. Let’s have a quick look at some clues we get from our gospel reading.  

Well for one thing, the MATERIALISTIC folks just couldn’t stomach it when Jesus shifted from physical food to all this spiritual talk. Many of the people who were following Jesus up to this point were hoping for a political Saviour. They wanted political solutions, free handouts, and material benefits. Under Roman oppression there were a lot of hungry, jobless, homeless people. The government had tried to avoid riots by buying the locals off with handouts but the plan had backfired, and the demands of the people simply grew and grew.
Jesus knew that he faced a similar problem the day after he’d fed the masses with barley cakes and salt-dried fish. In fact, when the crowd arrived, these are the words with which he greeted them: "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” (John 6:26)

Missionaries in developing countries often talk about “Rice Christians.” - people who quickly convert to Christianity in exchange for food or some other benefit. But I don’t think we’re so very different in the West: people using church for business contacts or community status; people only looking to God for what they can get out of him. And boy, aren’t we quick to turn our backs the first time he fails to deliver.

But the MATERIALISTS weren’t the only ones to turn away from his message. There’s a second group that we could call the LEGALISTS.

Some of them asked Jesus: "What must we do to perform the works of God?" (John 6:28). We live in a performance-obsessed culture that assesses and measures us – and gives us marks or stars to say how valued we are. Perhaps that’s behind these folks’ response too. And even if there was nothing people could actually do, they at least wanted a list of rules they could hang on to. Isn’t it amazing that religion, by its very nature, draws some people who are actually looking for someone with power and charisma to dominate them, to call the shots; to take over their lives. There seems to be a new cult on every corner these days led by some control freak or other who commands unthinking obedience from his followers. (Remember the Jonestown mass suicides or Waco, Texas)

Throughout Christian history, the church has often fallen into this big hole of making rules than building relationships. Yet Jesus wants to make his home in the heart of every individual believer; calling every one of us to know him for ourselves – to study his word for ourselves and learn from Him. Here in St. Barnabas we want to teach and hear what’s on God’s heart – we don’t want to be publishing lists of dos and don’ts, and we don’t want to exclude people, because in God’s upside-down kingdom everybody’s welcome – and it doesn’t work the same as the world’s pecking order.  

But some people simply don’t want the kind of relationship with God that actually changes them inside - they’d almost prefer to memorize a set of rules, because it keeps God at arms length. But Jesus made it quite clear that he came to build relationships, not rules that tie people up. So that when the crowd demanded such a list, he gave a surprising answer: "The work of God is this: to believe in the One he has sent." (John 6:29)
As amazing as it sounds, Jesus wants a genuine love relationship with every one of us -. the kind of relationship that can’t be bought, and isn’t dependent on rules. The MATERIALISTS wanted to be made to feel better, more than they wanted God. The LEGALISTS wanted the LAW but not the GIVER of the law. And then there’s just one more group that walked out on Jesus that day – we see human nature represented. Can you identify them? They’re the SENSATIONALISTS. "What miraculous sign are you going to give us that we may see it and believe you?” (John 6:30)

(Oh boy) Just think about it. Jesus had just fed over 5,000 people with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread – and here they are, the very next day, asking him for a SIGN! Yesterday’s miracle wasn’t enough to last until the next morning.

Believe it or not, there are incredible pressures on Christian ministers these days to keep their congregations entertained or “wowed” (as my American friends might say). Do this and you’ll keep them around; bore them and they’re gone. We’re part of a consumer society; used to shopping around and our Churches tend to be filled with this kind of insatiable appetite for spiritual entertainment. Isn’t it a sad truth that as believers we can be so very fickle – that if church doesn’t suit – we’ll hop from one to another? I think I’ve said this before, but I heard a wonderful response recently to that old chestnut – “I’m not going there they’re all hypocrites” Someone said – “Yes – and there’s always room for one more! “Ingenious!!

“The real food that lasts; the  bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

Not surprisingly his audience said: "Sir, from now on give us this bread."

And then Jesus points to himself. What was it that Jesus said in response? "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” 

I think the different responses of the crowd tells us a lot about ourselves; about the difference between what people WANT and what people NEED. So often the very thing people actually need the most is the last thing they look for. And so we have the sad response of the crowd:

When you think about it, the people who walked out on Jesus considered what he was offering them in much the same way as a customer might demand a product for payment. Sure they wanted to do business with Jesus the provider of welfare, Jesus the charismatic cult leader, Jesus the political saviour, and especially Jesus the entertaining miracle-worker. But Jesus, the Bread of Life – the Person I need to get to know and feed on every day – nah that just doesn’t do it for us – too much like hard work. So they walked away….

We’re even told that some of his closest followers “From this time turned back and no longer followed him.”
And it led to what I think is one of the most poignant moments in the Bible. Jesus, - totally God, but also totally human - felt what any of us would feel. Can you imagine the tone of his voice when he turned to his close friends the apostles and asked: "You don’t want to leave too, do you?" Thankfully, good old Peter came through for his Master, speaking for the group: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." (John 6:67-69)
(Q)I wonder at this harvest-time is he all we think we need? Is he OUR Bread of Life? If we’d been there that day when Jesus preached his Bread of Life sermon would we have walked away, or would we have echoed Peter’s words, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Jesus hadn’t come to feed the world with bread that was just about physical existence. He’d come to give himself as the Bread of eternal life and in trying to explain this to a fickle crowd, he pointed to the Communion Service – the Eucharist - that he would institute just before his death. "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

So let’s remember these words as we come to the Communion rail today – either to take the bread and wine if that’s what we’re used to, or to feel his touch as we come up for our blessing.

If we come to him, place our trust in him, believe on him, feed our souls on his Word, and enter into a close relationship of dependence on Him, then he will become for us the bread of eternal life.