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Sermon - Christ: The Bread of Life - 13th August 2006
St Aidan’s West Epping 8:30am
Readings: 2 Samuel 18:5-9, 14, 31-33; Psalm 130; Ephesians 4:25-5:2; John 6:35, 41-51
It is quite difficult for us as comfortable Australians to understand the importance of bread unless we turn on our TV and watch what is going on in so many parts of the world today. When there is no staff of life there is suffering and famine. A simple loaf of bread in certain parts of the world means life itself.
It is only as we comprehend that situation that we really begin to understand the importance of bread not only now but also in the time of Jesus.
Just think for a moment how so many significant theological events in the Bible revolve around the subject of bread. The most important event in the Old Testament was the Exodus event, the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. What caused the Hebrews to be in Egypt in the first place? It was for want of bread. The wheat crop had failed due to drought, and the Hebrews had migrated to Egypt because there was a surplus in storage there. It was bread, or the lack of it, that initiated this whole chain of events.
Later, when the Jews were on their way to the Promised Land, and they were facing starvation in the bleak wilderness, God rained down bread from heaven in the form of manna.
When Jesus began his ministry, he went into the desert where he was tempted. As the hot sun bore down upon him, he looked out with sweaty eyes at the round white rocks and we are told that they took on the appearance of loaves of bread. Satan was tempting Jesus to give bread to the people and end the suffering of world hunger. Yet, Jesus spurned that temptation because, as he said, humanity cannot live by bread alone.
Jesus’s disciples implored him to teach them how to pray. It was in the midst of the Lord’s prayer that he reminds them and us of the importance of the staff of life. He prayed: Give us this day our daily bread.
Perhaps supremely we remember bread, because at the Last Supper, he took a loaf of bread and broke it and gave it to the disciples and said: This is my body, which is broken for you.
Then after his resurrection when he met some disciples on the road to Emmaus, it was in the breaking of the bread his true identity was discovered.
Two weeks ago we read the story of how Jesus fed a vast crowd with a small amount of bread. His miracle generated controversy.
A group of scribes approach Jesus and say, in effect, if you are the Messiah prove it. There had been a strong rabbinic belief that when the Messiah came he, too, would bring manna from heaven. This had been the superman act of Moses and surely, they reasoned, the Messiah could surpass that.
The messiah, it was thought, would out perform the signs of Moses. He who was to come would do the superior work.
Jesus says that they had misinterpreted the Moses event. First of all, he reminded them that the bread had not come from Moses but from God. They were putting the emphasis in the wrong place. Secondly, they failed to see that the real bread from heaven was not manna at all. That was only meant to be a symbol of the true bread and sustence. The real bread from heaven comes down and feeds not only man’s physical needs but also his spiritual hunger as well. It was at this point Jesus said: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst.”
To satisfy our hunger for meaning in life we cannot only eat the bread of earth. Supplying physical needs is important. However, here is a deeper aspect to this whole issue? If Jesus were not careful, this whole thing of giving bread could quickly degenerate into a tool to win friends and influence people. He would become as just another demagogue, just another politician. Bread can be used as a weapon. On the surface feeding the world’s hungry sounds like such an ideal thing, but when this whole issue is examined it becomes much more complex.
In the novel “The Brothers Karamazov”, a scene that takes place between an old church cardinal who is engaged in the Spanish Inquisition and Jesus, who supposedly has now come back to earth. The crooked old cardinal chastises Jesus for missing his golden opportunity in the desert when he did not give bread to the people. “Mankind would have run after you, grateful and obedient, though forever trembling with fear that you might withdraw your hand and they would no longer have loaves. You did not want to make men slaves but here too your judgment was too high for all men are slaves.”
The temptation to give bread to the world may have been the greatest that Jesus ever experienced, because of his compassion for those who were hungry, so many of whom were children. With the snap of a finger it could have been done. Jesus understood the ramifications of this and did what he had to do by refusing to fall into that tempting trap.
Bread plays a significant role in every country and in every life but we must understand that to satisfy our hunger for heaven we must eat the bread of heaven. While life in its most elementary form depends upon bread, bread only sustains life, it does not make life what God intended it to be.
Bread has power but in the end its power will fail. Bread can buy you land but not love; it can buy you bonds but not brotherhood; gold but not gladness; silver but not sincerity; hospitals but not health; three karats but not character; houses but not homes.
You can trade bread for commodities but not comfort, real estate but not righteousness, hotels but not heaven.
To satisfy our hunger for spiritual sustenance we cannot eat the bread of earth, we must eat the bread of God. That bread is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
The crowd said to Jesus: Give us the bread from heaven. Do what Moses did and we will be satisfied. However, Jesus is saying: I am the bread from heaven. He who comes after me will never hunger. As bread nourishes us physically, so Jesus nourishes us spiritually.
That is what Jesus Christ ultimately provides for us, quality of life, a way to get beyond ourselves and mere existence and experience life and an intensity of life that comes from being sustained by the bread of heaven.
Let us today partake of that food which does not perish. Let us take the bread that is here today and forever. Let us share in the staff of life, which nourishes us for all of eternity. To satisfy our hunger for heaven you must eat the bread of heaven.
What is this bread? It is Christ Jesus our Lord. He is the bread of life, now and forever more. 1
[i] This sermon prepared with the assistance of www, esermons.com, “I am the bread of Life” Sermon by Brett Blair and Staff.