John 6:35-51 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost Sunday, August 18, 2024 “Believe In the Bread of Life”
Do you get the feeling that some people today are confused about bread? Some people, certainly, have issues with gluten and know that the regular, everyday bread just doesn’t work for them. They need some sort of alternative without gluten. Others have found out that if they cut bread out of their eating habits, it makes it easier for them to lose a few pounds. Maybe they feel better, too. And if you’ve tried to figure out the best way to eat for certain goals, it can be pretty easy to get confused about all sorts of things— whether certain foods are healthy or not. It seems like every study contradicts a different study. It can be very confusing. People at the time when Jesus lived in that area of the world were not confused about bread. Bread was a mainstay. It was a staple food. It was the thing that they ate as much as, if not more than, anything else. At the times when God told them for religious observation not to eat yeast, they still ate bread, just a different sort that didn’t have yeast in it. The people were not confused about physical bread, but they were sure trying hard to understand spiritual bread. And as Jesus taught more and more about himself as the Bread of Life, as he repeated some points and added new thoughts, they were forced to think deeply. They were asked to confront their own thinking and ideas. In a lot of ways, they thought they had things figured out. But Jesus had more to say. Let’s remind ourselves of some context for our reading from John chapter 6. Jesus had recently performed a miracle. With five loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus fed well over five thousand people and had leftovers to spare. When the people, a large crowd, followed him from there, he accused them of following him only because of the bread. They had eaten but knew they would be hungry again. They wanted Jesus to take care of their physical needs. They didn’t know that what they needed even more was for him to take care of their spiritual needs. So Jesus taught them that he was and is the Bread of Life. He is much more than a physical provider. He is what they need most. He is their Savior. Believe in him, and you will never be hungry or thirsty again. The problem was that they didn’t believe in him. They still did not get it. They still did not really make sense of what Jesus was telling them. Jesus tells them even more. He talks about coming down from heaven. He talks about the people whom his Father has given to him. He talks about doing the will of his Father, not losing anyone but raising them up on the Last Day. This is incredible news that Jesus was sharing with the people. Never being hungry or thirsty meant having everything that they needed spiritually. Jesus was giving them and offering them bread that would make them live forever. He was sharing details about what that meant, that he would bring back to life all who put their trust and confidence in him. This was the best news of all from God himself. And here’s how the people reacted: “This doesn’t make sense.” They knew Jesus, at least they thought they did. He didn’t come from heaven. He came from Mary and Joseph. They knew Joseph the carpenter. They knew Nazareth, the small-town hometown of Jesus. They knew it wasn’t heaven. They were doubting. They were rejecting. They were depending on their own intelligence, their own wisdom, their own insight. And Jesus kept teaching that they needed more than that. They needed the Father to draw them. They needed the Father to teach them. Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the Last Day. He even quoted from Isaiah about the Messiah’s work: “It is written in the Prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’”