Bread of Heaven.
Look for the right food for life otherwise you’ll die before your body dies.
John 6: 22 – 51
Look for the right food for life otherwise you’ll die before your body dies.
John 6: 22 – 51
Our Scripture reading began with the words, “The next day”. These words link our reading to the feeding of 5000 people by Jesus on the day before. Jesus took a boy’s lunch – five barley loaves and two fish – and fed 5000 people. Such miracle stories challenge our Western scientific minds. During the sixties it was popular, but cheap theology, to describe the feeding of the multitude as Jesus inspiring others to share their lunches. This interpretation left Jesus as nothing more than an inspirational speaker.
The Gospel writers believed it took place. After pages of scholarship one is left with no convincing evidence that it did not take place except for the prejudice of a scientific mindset, and no evidence that it did take place other than blind faith. I find more reasons to believe it took place than to dismiss it. But neither side can prove it conclusively. The feeding of the multitude is found in each of the Gospels and walking on water in three. [Mt 14: 13-21 et.al.]
John makes a strong connection between Jesus’ lordship over nature and Jesus being the true bread of heaven [John 6: 41]. The crowd, not surprisingly, wanted to make Jesus king. John tells us that when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. [6: 15]. And later when the people find him he says to them; “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” [6:26,27] Jesus knew that meeting people’s physical needs is good up to a point, but ultimately shallow and useless, if it doesn’t lead to a relationship with God the Creator. We should ponder the truth that our physical needs do not ultimately satisfy.
I recall hearing the Australian soprano, Marina Prior, speaking about her faith. She said she had been brought up a Christian. In her teenage years she came close to God and made a commitment. As her singing career unfolded busyness intruded and she went less and less to worship until she stopped. Then she recalls that at the height of her career when all was going very well she would wake up in the wee hours of the morning depressed. Yes, here was a person who had everything. She is beautiful, has a beautiful voice, is a successful singer and has a very attractive bank balance. All seemed perfect. But she was missing something. She was moved to turn to Christ and found peace. This is not an uncommon story. Marina’s story mirrors many of our stories. We have come to God in Christ Jesus because we sense something is lacking in our lives.
Jesus is saying that if we had all the bread in the world we would still not be full. We would still experience the emptiness of a spiritually barren life. Jesus uses the metaphor of bread to drive home his true place in our lives. As bread is essential for our physical health, Jesus is essential for our spiritual health. His language is almost barbaric. He says unless you eat my flesh you will never be satisfied. Eat of me and you will be fulfilled [6:51]. I find these words uncomfortable. They only make sense if we take them in their context and as a metaphor. John records Jesus saying, ‘I am the bread of life’. ‘I am the bread of heaven.’ He leaves no doubt that he is referring to feeding us with spiritual food saying, ‘the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world’. [6:33] ‘I am the bread of life.’[6:35] ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ [6:50,51]
Jesus is saying that if we had all the bread in the world we would still not be full. We would still experience the emptiness of a spiritually barren life. Jesus uses the metaphor of bread to drive home his true place in our lives. As bread is essential for our physical health, Jesus is essential for our spiritual health. His language is almost barbaric. He says unless you eat my flesh you will never be satisfied. Eat of me and you will be fulfilled [6:51]. I find these words uncomfortable. They only make sense if we take them in their context and as a metaphor. John records Jesus saying, ‘I am the bread of life’. ‘I am the bread of heaven.’ He leaves no doubt that he is referring to feeding us with spiritual food saying, ‘the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world’. [6:33] ‘I am the bread of life.’[6:35] ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ [6:50,51]
Let us play with this metaphor that Jesus is the bread of life. We know that bread is a part of our staple diet that keeps our bodies functioning. Now we all need bread or the equivalents like rice, corn or potatoes in our diet. These foods form the staple part of our diet. We get hungry and we need to eat. In fact our bodies get hungry on a regular cycle. Our bodies tell us when they need food. We get hunger pains, or feel faint or weak. For us there is no problem finding bread. We eat, and if there is no bread, like Marie Antoinette (Louis XVI’s wife), we eat cake. We are the fortunate ones of this earth. We eat at regular intervals of our choosing.
Let us reflect on what we do when we eat our ‘bread’. The first thing we do is prepare to eat. Preparation involves our purchasing the bread or the ingredients and then preparing the bread bought or the bread to be made. Our preparation involves thinking about what we do and how we do it. It is true that most of this preparation we accomplish automatically. But it might be good to think about how we prepare our food.
Secondly, we eat. Eating involves many things and not least chewing our food. Chewing is a necessary part of consuming food. We know what happens when we don’t chew carefully. We feel uncomfortable and depending on our bodies we react negatively one way or another.
Thirdly, our bodies digest the food. That to me is a mystery. But I do know that chewing carefully, not rushing a meal helps digestion. Note that we take most of our meals in the company of others. I think this is more important for our well-being than we think. I appreciate some might be eating alone a lot more than usual. But that proves the rule that most of our lives we eat in the company of others.
Finally we complete our meal and feel satisfied. A good meal may leave us feeling drowsy while the body digests, but ultimately we are energised to carry on with our living. Without food, or enough food, we would grow weaker and consequently unwell.
Now do you see the spiritual lesson? How do you attend to your spiritual nurture? What is the ‘bread’ of your spiritual diet? Are you one of those terribly busy people rushing around being taken up by this or distracted by that? You grab a meal here and there. That’s enough you say. But is it? How long do you really last by rushing your meals or eating intermittently? A healthy person pays attention to healthy food, healthy eating and appropriate digestion. They’re the energised and the healthy.
Spiritually are you eating intermittently? Or do you take the time to prepare for consuming spiritual nourishment? Do you prepare you spiritual food thoughtfully? What nurtures you best? I think a spiritual diet is like our physical diet where we eat a range of foods some of which are not always to our preferred likes but necessary. The spiritual equvalent to eating and chewing is engagement. We engage in prayer, worship, learning and fellowship. We eat things that are good for us but not always the tastiest. I think it is very important to take time to chew and digest our spiritual food. And I think that spiritual food always taken alone has the potential to be unhealthy. My experience is that my spiritual diet needs others around to make the spiritual meal more wholesome and enjoyable.
Thirdly we need to digest our spiritual diet. I suggest that will be a mystery as to how that works. But I do know that I get very little value by rushing into a quick prayer or worship service, then rushing off to something else and forgetting about what happened. Reflection is a key part of digesting our food. Often reflection in the company of others is most valuable. I know that I, and I suspect it is true for all of us, can sustain for a while a few rushed physical meals, but after a while it catches up with me. I feel uncomfortable, lethargic and lack the zestful energy for life. I strongly suspect that it applies to ‘eating the bread from heaven’, maybe more so. The digestion of my physical food requires reflection and time and likewise my spiritual food requires reflection and time. Consequently we grow in Faith.
Jesus is saying that he is the essential part of our spiritual diet. He is as essential to our spiritual life as bread is to our physical life. He is speaking in the context of people whose staple food – very first food – would have been bread.
That wholeness of being is essential to a great life. It is essential to an eternal life. Look for the right food for life otherwise you’ll die before your body dies.
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Peter C Whitaker, Leighmoor UC: 09/10/2016
pgwhitaker@tpg.com.au
/ www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au
pgwhitaker@tpg.com.au
/ www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au
