Bread from Heaven
First in the "I Am" Series for Lent through Easter
John 6:25-58
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
Harry G. Winsheimer
March 1, 2009

Do any of you bake bread, or does someone in your house? (Show of hands.)  Even if you do not, you have been in a bakery.  Is there any aroma that makes us salivate more than that of freshly baked bread? 

My mother baked bread every week -- high loaves, browned crust coated with butter.  One of my favorite memories is of coming home from school, and finding the house flooded in the aroma of freshly baked bread.  Ohhhh, I can taste it!  Then, she would let me have a slice, still warm from the oven.  I would melt real butter on it.  Then dress it in grape jelly or apple butter.  And, be in heaven!   (The bad part was that she would not let me eat the whole loaf!)

Bread is tempting, delicious and nutritious! 

Early, as he was preparing for his ministry, Jesus was led into a wilderness area by the Spirit.  There he fasted for forty days and forty nights.  Afterwards he was famished – that has to be the biggest understatement in the Bible!  The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”  Do you remember his answer? He quoted scripture: “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”  Matthew 4:1-5  Those words from the mouth of God were given to our ancestors and they recorded them in the Holy Scriptures.  That is why we say before and after reading the Scripture: “This is the Word of the Lord.”  Often we refer to it as the Written Word of God.  Jesus believed that we are to live by the Written Word.  “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Later Jesus made a surprising statement – a very shocking announcement: I am the bread!  The bread was not just God’s spoken word written by human hands.  He was the bread!  He – his person, his teaching, his actions – he was the bread.  That was an incredible statement, confirmed by the experience of believers.

A large crowd kept following Jesus wherever he went.  They really liked him, or at least he was the most exciting persona around.  They stayed with him for so long that they became hungry.  So, Jesus, being the compassionate person that he was, thought that he should feed them.  Andrew said to Jesus, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.  [The boy was prepared, a good Scout; he brought his lunch.]  But what are [five loaves and two fish] among so many people?"  Then, Jesus had the people sit down.  He took the loaves and fish, and what did he do next?  He thanked God.  He offered grace before they ate. 

My father did that, too.  When I was growing up, before every meal--breakfast, lunch and dinner--my father had us bow our heads while he offered thanks.  He followed Jesus' pattern.  It is a good practice.  We may offer thanks before we eat a Big Mac or a pizza.  We will come to the Lord's Table in a few minutes.  Before we eat the bread and drink the wine, what will we do?  We will offer thanks.  (Some churches call this the eucharistic prayer, which translates as thanksgiving.)  Look at your bulletin.  What is listed between the "Invitation" and "The Serving of the Bread and Wine"?  God wants to hear our thanks. Jesus offered it.  We will before communion.

Then what happened?  He multiplied those five loaves and two fish to feed all those people.  

Then, Jesus left the crowd.  He was bushed.  He needed a break.  They chased him down.  They wanted more.  They came on like beggars, "Hey, how about another free meal, Jesus?"

Jesus said, in my words:
            You crave chocolate, Pepsi and pizza.  But, you are hungry for other things, too, even though you may not realize it.  Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food of eternal life that will not perish.  I am that food.  I am food for your soul.  God has sent me as bread from heaven. 

            You need more than food for the stomach.  You need food to nourish your person and make you whole.  You need to be loved; you need forgiveness and acceptance; you need reconciliation; you need values; you need community; you need purpose; you need hope in death.  Believe in me; take me into you.  Let me be your food.  Let me nourish you and help you grow.

Jesus said, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If you eat me, you will have eternal life."  Eat me?  That sounds gross, doesn't it--eating Jesus?  What is this, some kind of cannibalism?  The word in the Greek language of the New Testament that is translated according to the context as `eat' may also be translated as absorb, memorize, read, take-into-oneself.  So, what is Jesus saying to us in this image that sounds uncouth to our ears?  "I am food for your soul to nourish you and make you grow, in this life and the life hereafter."

How so?

Let's switch images.  How many of you have eaten in a restaurant where there was a bunch of teenagers?  Joe Harding wrote of eating in a restaurant with another couple.  There were some high-school students in a corner booth.  The students got tickled about something and started laughing.  Their laughter got louder and louder.  Soon they became aware that some people were listening to their laughter, and they tried to stop.  Can you stop when you get into a laughing fit?  The harder you suppress the laugh, the more you laugh.  They giggled and laughed until their bodies convulsed.

Dr. Harding said that the entire booth was shaking with laughter and joy.  Then something began to happen.  The laughter moved out from that one booth to another.  People started to smile, and then they, too, began to laugh. 

Then Dr. Harding said, "I saw it coming toward us!  Soon we found ourselves caught up in the whole atmosphere of laughter and joy.  We didn't even know what we were laughing about.  But our conversation was interrupted as we smiled at each other and then broke out in laughter.  It was an amazing moment."

That is taking another person's emotions and values into oneself.  We usually say that we `catch it.'  Jesus did not say to catch food from him, but that we take him into ourselves so that he affects who we are.

He speaks to us of a desire to be intimate with us.  The kind expressed in phrases like: "Oh, I could gobble you up," or "swallow you whole."  Of course, contrary images prove the same point, namely, as when we say, "I can't stomach him," or "she sticks in my craw."

We know that people can influence our moods and outlook, lift or depress our spirit, make us despair or cause us to take heart, make us want to give up or raise our confidence.  Jesus has that power!

            You strong people, hop onto Jesus' lap and learn the value of becoming trustingly dependent, like a small child. 

            You who are looking for purpose in your daily routine, read his story of the Good Samaritan and serve someone who needs support. 

            You who are feeling lonely, hear his promise that he is with us and join a small Christian community.

            You who are estranged from former friends or from God, hear his offer of forgiveness and reconciliation.

            You who are into self-destructive attitudes and behaviors, maybe drinking too much because you want to be accepted by a frat or urging destructive behaviors onto others just to come across as macho--you who did something last night that you wish this morning you had not done, go to the cross and stick your regrets and sins onto his broken body.  He suffers for you.  Let his pain be enough.  Then, take his love and acceptance into you and realize his life-giving nurture. 

            You who dread your death or resent the death of an eighteen-year-old, go to the empty tomb and take into your consciousness his resurrection and know that you are in his will to receive eternal peace and meaning.

“I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” 

We take him into ourselves.  We invite him to become part of our lives.  We allow him to modify us by his presence.  His words and life are to be assimilated into our consciousness.  In the words of the Apostle Paul, we then would have the “mind of Christ.”

The metaphor implies a genuine union, a fusion, with Jesus.  Will any of you watch golf or tennis this afternoon?  Did you catch the verb that I used, watch?  We watch a golfer play. We watch a ball player play.  Jesus did not intend that we watch him.  He intended to get inside our psyche.  This is not a spectator experience.  This is real.  This happens.

WHY?  Why was Jesus sent to be the bread of life?

One answer is to fill our empty lives.  Just as bread fills our empty stomachs and nourishes us, Jesus fills our empty souls and nourishes us.

Immediately after World War II Elton Trueblood wrote his “Alternative to Futility.”  Pointing out that his contemporaries suffered from a spiritual emptiness, he commented upon some things which we do to fill up the meaningless spot in our souls.  As societies he suggested that war is desired:
In our efforts to build enduring peace, people of good will often go on the gratuitous assumption that most people hate war and wish to remove it from the world.  We ought to be able now to see that this is a serious error in judgment.  We like [war] because it saves us from boredom, from mediocrity, from dullness.  It is instructive to note that great numbers of people in Britain say openly that they look back to 1940-41 with nostalgia.  [The time of the London Blitz and Battle of Britton]  Those were the days in which they really lived!  There was the constant danger of invasion and all the resultant horror; there was the bombing; but there was more.  People stood shoulder to shoulder, united by a common pride.  They were sustained by great rhetoric and by great deeds.  Life had significance.   Now [seven years later] all is different.  Now there is no danger, but only a constant round of petty restrictions; life has become humdrum and commonplace. Pp.16-17

I read his comment with fascination.  Do we try to fill our days with vicarious excitement?  Are the blow-em-up movies, the savage TV shows, the interest in war, all an effort to feel full?  Do we read about and watch the lives of stars, down to what they wear and how they live, so that we may feel satisfied?  Do we try the chemicals -- the alcohol and drugs – because something is missing?  Do we need to gamble or to buy or to eat too much to quiet an inner discontent?  Do we do many things because deep down inside we are empty?  We sense that life has too little significance to make us feel alive.  Is that craving driving us?

I hear Jesus advising us, “All of those things will never be enough.  You will be dissatisfied until you take me into yourself.  I am the bread the fills.  I am the bread that nourishes, not just for your daily lives but for all eternity!”

. Dr. Joe Harding, "The Real Christian Scandal," (Dallas, TX: Feb. 9, 1997), as quoted in "Homiletics," (Oct.-Dec., 1997), p. 53.

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