11th
Sunday after Pentecost - John 6:35-51 - August 8th and 9th
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
Another
Sunday in John, another round of problems. To refresh your memory -
this section of John's Gospel happens the day after the feeding of
the 5000, and a bunch of those who were fed come up to Jesus, and
Jesus has a conversation with them. Last week, Jesus called them on
their greed, their desire for control, their desire for an "on
demand" sort of Jesus where when they said Jump He would ask how
high. And so last week Jesus taught and focused upon how God
provides material blessings as He sees fit, but more importantly, God
provides for eternal salvation. And it should be great, right? No -
there is another problem, one we see arise this week. Pride. Ego.
Let's see how this plays out.
Jesus
said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall
not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I say
to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe."
Now, you might have missed it, but there was a change from last
week. Last week folks were clamoring for a sign - show us a sign.
That's how manna in the wilderness first got brought up. And Jesus
finally says that He Himself is the bread of life... BUT you have
seen ME and yet do not believe. Not you've seen the signs and don't
believe - you've seen Me and don't believe. What's more important -
a sign, or what the sign points to? If I'm driving home one night,
and I see the sign that says "turn here for Herscher" I
don't stop the car and say, "Honey, I'm home." The sign is
good, it means I'm almost there - but it's not the destination.
Likewise, with Jesus - all the miracles and such that He did - these
were signs pointing out who He was, what He would do for the
salvation of mankind - but they aren't interested.
Now, for us in the Church - this is one of the great
frustrations - that folks don't get it. That even though they have
heard, even though they know, they don't believe. And scripturally
speaking, the Old Testament was clear on what this is - it's idoltry.
It's following false gods. That line about seeing but not getting
it - that's Old Testament idol talk. The way the prophets loved to
describe the idols was "seeing they do not see; hearing they do
not hear." Think about an idol - it's got eyes, it's got ears
-- but it doesn't really see or hear. And the folks bound up in
idols of their own creation - they no longer see the things of God,
they don't hear the Word of God. This is why Jesus so often says,
"He who has ears, let him hear." It's a call away from
idolatry.
And
there Jesus is, and He sees a whole heap of idolatry, and for a
moment He speaks to us - He speaks to the believers with comfort.
It's depressing being around folks who don't believe, who just don't
get the faith. So listen to the comfort Jesus speaks to Himself, to
you. "All that the Father gives Me will
come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never cast out. For I
have come down from heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him
who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should
lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up on the last
day."
Do you hear it? Even as He is being rejected and despised by folks
who should believe, folks He has done miracles for - Jesus puts
things in perspective. Even though there is rejection - the Father's
plan of salvation will not be thwarted. I'm not going to lose any
that are Mine. Those who will believe will come around in their
proper time. In fact, He plays off of an Old Testament example -
"For this is the will of My Father, that
everyone who looks upon the Son and believes in Him should have
eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."
There was a great story from the time in the wilderness about people
seeing and then living. The fiery serpents came and bit Israel -
then Moses put the snake on a pole, if they looked upon it they were
healed, otherwise they died. Yeah, some died - but many lived.
Likewise - yes, some do not believe - so be it. My Father will give
life to many through My death and resurrection, and so I will be
content there.
And do you see how this is a comfort to us as well? We
are stuck in life, in time - we don't see the end, how things work
out. God does - and guess what - it's all going to work out well.
It's all going to come out in the wash - and come the last day the
confusion, the sorrow we face now - that won't be there. Everyone
whom the Father has given to Christ will be there. It will be good -
God is in control.
But
before we get to the Last Day, we will face some rough sailing here
in this sinful world. And that's what Jesus runs into. So
the Jews grumbled about Him because He said, "I am the bread
that came down from heaven." They said, "Is not this Jesus,
the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now
say 'I have come down from heaven'?"
Well, here's your problem. Pride and ego kick in. When Jesus says,
"Everything hinges on Me, it's about Me and what *I* do for you"
- that's when people grumble. Well, who are You, Jesus, what makes
You so important? Because, in these folks' minds, it's not Jesus who
is important -- they themselves are the important ones. They didn't
want a focus upon Jesus, they wanted a focus upon their own desires,
upon what they thought they needed, what they thought was good. They
preferred a good meal on earthly bread to all this chit-chat about
bread from heaven. After all, they assumed that they were just as
good as Jesus, and if He isn't going to bring home the goods, what
good is He?
Now,
here is where we must pause, because while we may not be as outwardly
and obviously coarse as these folks are, let me ask the question.
Christ Jesus has just said that everything, when it boils down to it,
is about about Jesus Himself and the salvation He brings. And yet,
how often, in this very place, in God's own house - do our
discussions, our plans, and especially our complaints have very
little to do with Jesus? With the proclamation of Christ and Him
crucified? Is our discussion centered upon what best declares
Christ... or is there another little word that often takes the
foreground? *I*? I think. I like this. I don't like that. I wish
we would do this... and why? Because it points to Christ, Because it
confesses the truth of who Jesus is and what He has done... or
because *I* like it, or *I* don't like it? Now, do bear in mind,
this is not me giving direct commentary on any specific thing or
event - I haven't been here long enough, I don't know the history
well enough - so I'm going to have to have you folks examine
yourselves, because you know yourselves. How often are complaints
and grumblings, or even ideas and dreams, not centered around
proclaiming Christ, but rather our own wants, whims, and desires?
It's something I know I have to constantly watch out for myself, that
I have to guard against. We are taught and trained by the world from
a young age to judge everything by how it suits our own taste -
that's how we shop, that's how we vote, that's how we eat. What's in
it for me; what do I like. But that's not the focus here - it's not
about what any of us like - It's about Christ Jesus, Christ Jesus who
knows what we need. And just as the folks in the text didn't need
another belly full of bread, in spite of what we will tell ourselves,
we don't really need to have our wide-eyed dreams for this
congregation met or to have our every quibble fixed according to our
specification - that's all incidental, that's not the truly important
thing. We need the forgiveness won by Christ's death and
resurrection. We need the promise of the resurrection of the body,
the life of the world to come.
And
so Jesus responds to the grumblers, responds to us in our grumbling.
He says, "Do not grumble
among yourselves. No one can come to the Me unless the Father who
sent Me draws Him. And I will raise Him up on the last day."
Again, it's not about what you do, your wants, your whims - God will
call His people to Christ, God will call His people here to His
House. And it is here where we will be taught by God, taught by His
Word, taught to be focused ever more upon Christ. Here we will be
taught that right now, this moment, in Christ we have eternal life.
Jesus continues and says, "I
am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and
they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that
one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down
from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, He will live forever.
And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My
flesh."
To be honest - it would be a lot easier to preach this part of the
text if we had communion today. Bread of heaven works really well as
a theme when I can point to the Supper that we will have in just a
few moments - it kind of hits a fullness there. And frankly, we
really probably should have the Supper every time we get together on
a weekend here - but the point of this text isn't me being able to
wag a finger about every Sunday communion - if any of you want to
know I can tell the history of how we went from communion every
Sunday to where we foolishly stopped - but that's for another time.
The focus here is not the folly of history, but rather the truth of
what Christ Jesus does for you.
This
is the thing - Jesus keeps His focus upon the real problem. We have
a sin and death problem - and so Jesus comes down to be the bread of
life. The real bread of life. The first time bread is mentioned in
the Scriptures - it's the lousy substitute that Adam gets to eat
after the fall. No more fruit from the garden; now Adam having
sinned gets to work the fields by the sweat of His brow and then eat
bread. Our earthly bread, it's the bread of death. You can have a
slice of wonder bread every day of your life, and you will still end
up dead. Even manna, the best earthly bread ever - still dead. And
so Jesus comes down as the bread from heaven, the living bread, the
bread of life. Bread was a consequence and punishment for sin -- and
so Jesus Himself comes down from heaven to take up upon Himself all
the consequence and punishment for sin. By faith, that gift we have
received from God working through the Word and the Holy Spirit, we
have been called and drawn to Christ, and we trust Him, we receive
the Bread of Life - we are baptized into Him, we hear Him proclaimed,
and even feed on Him - and thus we have everlasting life now - even
though we should die, yet we shall live (that's a few chapters down
the line). Why? Because it's not about our wants, our whim, our
ego. Jesus is far better than we are - whereas we are sinners who
deserve to die - He is the living bread from Heaven who goes unto
death so that we have life in Him - all praise to Christ Jesus our
Lord. Amen. In the Name of the Father...
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