Living Bread

John 6: 35-51

 

 

          The people of the Exodus are in the wilderness, aptly named the wilderness of Sin. The going has gotten tough and the newness has worn off. Now they are grumbling. Why did we leave? We had food in Egypt. Now we are dying of hunger. We should have stayed. They are only six weeks out of slavery in Egypt, but already they are grumbling and ready to throw in the towel.  They have decided for themselves what they want to do. They want to play God.

          God says to Moses: I’ve got this. I’m sending bread from heaven. You will call it manna. But listen. This is also a test; it is both a loyalty test and a faith test. Each day, I will send just enough to get by for the day, and if it is not gathered in the morning, it will melt. On the day before the Sabbath, I will send two days’ worth. If the people are loyal and faithful, they will be fine.

          The people gathered the manna, that is, most of them did. The ones that gathered it late found it full of worms and stinking. The ones that didn’t gather two days’ worth on the sixth day went hungry. There was something else remarkable. Those that properly gathered their two day portion found that it did not stink on the second day. Those that followed their own plan? You guessed it. They wanted to play God. Guess how that worked out!        

           God’s people moved on from the wilderness of Sin to a place called Rephidim, but they were out of water. You know the drill. Moses, why did you do this to us! God, why did you do this to us! We were better off where we were! Following God’s instructions, Moses strikes a rock and water gushes forth—enough water to sate the thirst of all the people. That’s roughly a million people who got something to drink that day.

          In the book of Exodus, the people of God are being shown who God is and who God isn’t. They are provided with food and water, the sustenance of life on earth. They have no reason to take credit, any more than does their leader Moses. They have God to thank for their lives and their full bellies. In the gospel of John, the crowds who come to hear Jesus are also hungry. He feeds the five thousand on a hill one afternoon and they follow him across the lake for more.

They remind Jesus that their forefathers received manna in the wilderness; literally, bread from heaven. They like being fed.

But Jesus tells them they’re on the wrong diet. They need to get rid of all those carbs and try the true bread from heaven.

          At first, Jesus’ words evoke a great desire in those who follow him. “Sir, give us this bread always,” they cry. But then, Jesus begins to explain. “I am the bread of life,” he says. “Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall not thirst,” he says.  Jesus goes on to explain that this time, the bread that comes down from heaven is designed not just to get us through the afternoon or the day, but through the rest of our lives. This bread that Jesus described is bread of the Spirit. It will fill our hearts and our lives in a way much more important and lasting than the next meal.

          The people have trouble believing. Many of them know him as the carpenter’s son from Nazareth. Hardly a claim to fame, much less divinity. Jesus tells them not to grumble among themselves. Don’t you know he is remembering their ancestors doing the same thing in the wilderness of Sin and at Rephidim.  They grumble because they don’t want to be told what to do. They want to play God.

          This week I tried to play God. I call it playing Dad. Not a good idea with grown children, especially if you raised them to think for themselves. One daughter needed a piece of equipment, which I helped her to acquire. It immediately proved defective. She called to tell me of her plan to deal with it and I promptly tried to change it. Another daughter struggles with what she will do next in her teaching and mission. I gave her my thoughts and suggestions. A third daughter is on severe water rationing while her husband is away on deployment. I told her to come home. Want to know my batting average on those three decisions? 000.  I got absolutely nowhere. My advice wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t asked for my advice. I just wanted to play God. Guess how that turned out!

          We shouldn’t feel bad when we do this. It’s been going on from the beginning. Adam started the ball rolling and we’ve been going downhill ever since. We want to be God or at least play God. I really think God put it right in our DNA. After all, he tells us that we are made in his image, in his likeness. I don’t think he’s talking about our looks. We are like God.  We just can’t be satisfied with being like God. Too often we would rather play God. Too often it is hard to follow God. We would rather go our own way or take a detour and hope we end up back home without too much effort. No, we shouldn’t feel bad for our sinful nature. But we should change course and hand the wheel over to someone who can get it right.

          So Jesus offered all those would be disciples a taste of heaven. He was giving them a chance at living bread, the kind that never molds, never goes sour, never gets consumed. Jesus said to the crowd gathered at the sea: “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died…I am the living bread…If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.”

          The thing about Jesus, the thing about being made in his image, the thing about gaining eternal life, is that there is one thing we have to do. We have to believe. We have to believe that he is that living bread and that we cannot get there from here without him. In order to believe that, we are going to have to quit playing God and let Jesus be sovereign in our lives. “Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever,” said our Savior.

          John’s gospel tells us that many who heard Jesus that day found his message too hard, his direction too confining. Many who heard him that day turned back and no longer walked with him.  In fact, it was the beginning of a falling away that, in spite of all his signs and miracles, was to be the trend as Jesus continued his march toward Calvary. His own disciples, the chosen twelve, fell away as he got closer to the cross.

          Cindy and I talk a lot about all the gluten and carbs in our diet. As we age, we become more concerned with all the bad stuff we have fed ourselves over the years. She has tried a no carb diet before. She tells me that it’s really hard for a week or two, but then something new begins to happen. Once your body is cleansed, the things you used to crave become unimportant to you. What she describes ironically has to do with giving up bread, among other things. More importantly, I hear a metaphor for Jesus and what he offers us.

          What if we treated our Christian walk like a no carb diet? What if we just quit playing God for a couple weeks and tried to really turn it all over to him? What if we stayed on a strict diet of living bread for just a few weeks? I’m thinking that once it becomes a diet, we will feel so healthy that we just will not want to go back. Temptation will never stop coming, but it just won’t have the same effect.

          Think about it. Think about a life filled with living bread. Jesus gave us that option. He said to the people that day: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.”   The disciples hanging out in that upper room in Jerusalem the day of Pentecost found out exactly what Jesus had been trying to tell them. Although they had fallen away and had become scared and timid, they found their courage in a New York minute when the Holy Spirit came into their lives.

          This day, why don’t you decide to turn it up a notch? Why don’t you just bow your head and say a silent prayer. Why don’t you change your diet? If you invite the Holy Spirit in, look out, because if you are serious, he will come. Once he does, it won’t take long for you to forget the way you were before. You won’t even miss it.

          And Jesus said: “I am the bread of life…The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”