Scripture: John 6:25-35 & 47-56
Structure:
- Introduction
- Material v. spiritual
- Literal v. metaphorical
- Conclusion
Introduction:
Good morning everyone.
If you were to ask what bread is, most people would say that it is a staple food, made of flour and water and usually leavened with yeast. That is a literal definition of bread.
In Ireland they have a very specific legal definition for bread, which has to do with their Valued Added Tax (VAT) system (similar to New Zealand’s GST).
Ireland’s Value Added Tax Act of 1972 says, for bread to be tax exempt it cannot have more than 2% sugar in the flour. Other baked goods, like cinnamon scrolls and cream buns and the like, are subject to VAT.
The sandwich making franchise Subway found this out the hard way. They didn’t think they should have to pay VAT on the bread they baked but the court ruled against them. Apparently the flour in Subway’s bread contains 10% sugar (5 times the amount allowed for tax exempt bread). In other words, the court deemed Subway’s bread to be legally closer to cake than bread, which might be why their sandwiches taste so good.
As well as the literal and legal definitions of bread, we also know that the words bread and dough can be used as metaphors for money. We make a crust (we make our income) by working.
Bread is one of those words which is a bit elastic in its meaning, depending on the context in which it is used.
Today we continue our series on the I am sayings of Jesus in the gospel of John. Jesus uses a number of I am statements to describe himself. These sayings tell us about Jesus’ being, his identity. What we notice is how closely Jesus identifies himself with God the Father.
Please turn with me to John chapter 6, verse 25, page 126 toward the back of your pew Bibles. This morning we hear what Jesus means by bread when he says: I am the bread of life. From John 6:25-35, we read…
25 When the people found Jesus on the other side of the lake, they said to him, “Teacher, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “I am telling you the truth: you are looking for me because you ate the bread and had all you wanted, not because you understood my miracles. 27 Do not work for food that spoils; instead, work for the food that lasts for eternal life. This is the food which the Son of Man will give you, because God, the Father, has put his mark of approval on him.”
28 So they asked him, “What can we do in order to do what God wants us to do?”
29 Jesus answered, “What God wants you to do is to believe in the one he sent.”
30 They replied, “What miracle will you perform so that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, just as the scripture says, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32 “I am telling you the truth,” Jesus said. “What Moses gave you was not the bread from heaven; it is my Father who gives you the real bread from heaven. 33 For the bread that God gives is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they asked him, “give us this bread always.”
35 “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty.
May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.
In a nutshell, John chapter 6 is saying that faith in Jesus satisfies our deepest hunger for God. Or said another way, Jesus is the bread that sustains eternal life.
John 6 also acts as a kind of sieve, separating those who major on material things from those who see life in spiritual terms.
Material v. spiritual
Recently I had to replace the tap handles for our kitchen sink. Without handles we aren’t able to get access to the water.
The relationship between that which is material and that which is spiritual is a bit like the relationship between tap handles and the water that comes out of the taps. (And just to be clear, the handles in this analogy represent that which is material and the water represents that which is spiritual.)
We need the handles to turn the taps and release the water but the handles are not the most important part. The most important part, the thing that gives the handles their meaning and fulfils their purpose, is the water itself. It doesn’t matter how fancy your handles are, if they don’t work you are going to be thirsty.
Now most of us understand what is meant by material things because we deal with material stuff all the time. Material things are physical. You can see, feel, taste or hear material things. Like cars and houses and ice-cream.
Material things are not bad in themselves. We need material things in this life. But if we make material things more important than spiritual things we run into problems.
Spiritual things are a little harder to think about because that which is spiritual is not usually seen with the naked eye. Spiritual things require the intuition of faith to be sensed.
In practical terms, spirituality has to do with relationships. Our relationship with God, our relationship with the different aspects of our inner self and our relationships with other people.
You can’t physically see a person’s relationship with God but you can get a pretty good idea about the character of their relationship with God (or their spirituality) by the way they handle themselves and treat others.
Prayer is spiritual because it is about communicating with God. Reading the Bible is spiritual because Holy Scripture shows us how to relate with God. Forgiveness is spiritual because it is part of the process of restoring right relationship. Practicing hospitality is spiritual because eating together helps to create and sustain friendship.
Earlier in the service we heard a reading from the beginning of John chapter 6, retelling how Jesus multiplied five loaves of barley bread and two fish to miraculously feed a crowd of well over 5,000 people. In doing this Jesus was holding the material and the spiritual together.
The miracles of Jesus are a bit like tap handles. They are not the most important thing but they are material; they are helpful for accessing the water of Jesus’ teaching. The miracles are not the water itself but they do give people a handle on Jesus’ meaning. Unfortunately, most people seemed more fascinated with the handle (or miracle) than with the water of Jesus himself.
When Jesus miraculously fed the multitudes in the wilderness, the people could not help but make a connection with Moses and the feeding of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.
The people find Jesus the next day and are a bit puzzled as to how he got across the lake. We know that Jesus walked on water but Jesus does not draw attention to this fact. Instead he points out they have misunderstood what is most important here. They have focused on the material stuff rather than the spiritual stuff. They have given too much attention to the tap handle of the miracles, and not enough to the spiritual water of Jesus himself. From verse 26 Jesus says…
“I am telling you the truth: you are looking for me because you ate the bread and had all you wanted, not because you understood my miracles. 27 Do not work for food that spoils; instead, work for the food that lasts for eternal life…”
In a manner of speaking Jesus was basically telling the people they were materialists. A materialist is someone who is blind or insensitive to spiritual things. A materialist is more interested in the physical tap handle (a superficial feature) than they are in the water inside.
If your only tool is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail. A materialist only has one way of looking at the world. They look at the way Jesus fed the multitudes and think, ‘Wouldn’t it be good if we could get Jesus to do that all the time. We could use that to start a political movement and fix a lot of problems. Right a lot of wrongs.’
Verse 15 of John 6 tells us that is, in fact, what the people wanted to do. They wanted to make Jesus king by force. But Jesus refused to go down that path. The real issues are not physical or political. The real hunger is spiritual. Deep down people need to have a good relationship with God. That is why Jesus came, to satisfy people’s spiritual hunger and thirst for God.
When we attend to spiritual things (and when I say ‘spiritual things’ I mean our relationship with God, our self and others) then we get our priorities right and find that most of the material things work out.
If you know, deep down in your inner most being, that God loves and accepts you, then you are better able to love and accept yourself. And when you can love and accept yourself you find the freedom and energy to love others.
But if you are always feeling guilty, always looking over your shoulder, always fearful of God’s punishment, then you will find you don’t have the same resources to love God, yourself or others and your spirituality (or the quality of your relationships) will suffer.
Although the people in John 6 are materialists they at least believe in the existence of God and have the perception to realise that Jesus is claiming to be the one sent by God. They just don’t have the faith to trust Jesus. They are not ready to swallow the idea that Jesus is from God, so they ask for a sign (even though Jesus has already given them many signs), suggesting that Jesus replicate the miracle of manna from heaven.
The people’s request for a miracle was based on the Jewish expectation that when the Messiah came he would renew the miracle of the manna. Having tasted the loaves Jesus provided, the multitude challenge Jesus to give them a permanent supply of bread. [1] They figured, since Moses provided a whole nation with manna in the wilderness for 40 years then, if Jesus was the Messiah, he could do the same.
The thoughts of the people are earthbound and materialistic. Jesus tries to get them thinking spiritually or heavenward. From verse 32 Jesus says…
“I am telling you the truth, what Moses gave you was not the bread from heaven; it is my Father who gives you the real bread from heaven. 33 For the bread that God gives is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they asked him, “give us this bread always.”
35 “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty.
Literal v. metaphorical
One thing we notice here is that God gives the bread from heaven. It is not earned by us. We don’t need to work for it, nor do we need to grovel and beg or try to manipulate the situation to get the bread. Jesus (the bread of heaven) is simply given by God.
Some of you may remember the story of The Little Red Hen from when you were children. It’s an American folk tale which is meant to teach the value of hard work and initiative.
In the story a hen on a farm finds some seed and decides to make bread with it. She asks various other animals on the farm if they will help her. ‘Will you help me plant the seed? Will you help me water the seed? Will you help me harvest the wheat? Will you help me grind the wheat into flour? Will you help me knead the dough? Will you help me make the fire to bake the bread?
And at each stage the animals all say ‘No, we won’t help you.’ Then at the end of the story, when the bread is freshly baked, all the animals are eager to help with the eating. But the little red hen refuses to share her bread because no one helped her to make it.
That’s capitalism in a nutshell. While it is generally good to teach children to use their initiative and to work, so they don’t grow up with a sense of entitlement, the story of The Little Red Hen is not really the gospel of Jesus.
Unlike the little red hen, Jesus is saying the bread of heaven that God offers, is a gift. Even though we have done nothing to help in the process of making the bread we still get to eat it. All we have to do is believe in the one that God sent. In fact, that is our work, to eat the bread. Eating here is a metaphor for faith.
When we are very young (around 4 or 5 years old) we tend to take things literally. Our brains haven’t developed the cognitive ability to think abstractly and so metaphors like ‘the snow is a white blanket’ are lost on a small child. How can snow be a blanket? Snow is cold and blankets are meant to be warm?
Psychologists reckon that children don’t develop the ability to understand complex metaphors until somewhere between 9-12 years of age.
It appears many of Jesus’ listeners could not think in metaphorical terms either. They were locked into a literal interpretation of everything. Perhaps literalism and materialism go hand in hand. Which is unfortunate because at least one third of the Bible is poetry. In fact, the prophets mostly spoke in the language of metaphor.
Later in John 6, from verse 47, Jesus goes on to say…
“I am telling you the truth: he who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they died. 50 But the bread that comes down from heaven is of such a kind that whoever eats it will not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If you eat this bread, you will live forever.
The ‘bread from heaven’ is a metaphor for Jesus and ‘eating the bread’ is a metaphor for putting your faith in Jesus.
Faith is trust that puts its money where its mouth is. Faith isn’t just looking at the bread on the plate and agreeing that it exists. Faith is putting the bread in your mouth, chewing it over and swallowing it down. In other words, faith isn’t just agreeing that Jesus lived 2000 years ago in Palestine and that he was a good guy. Faith is accepting Jesus, receiving him and his teaching, into the deepest part of yourself. Faith is how we become one with Jesus.
Jesus presses the metaphor even further saying (in verse 51): The bread that I will give you is my flesh, which I give so that the world may live.”
This started an angry argument among them. ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ But Jesus did not back down. Jesus went on to say…
“I am telling you the truth: if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in yourselves. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them to life on the last day. 55 For my flesh is the real food; my blood is the real drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them.
Once again the people misunderstand Jesus. They were thinking in purely materialistic terms and take Jesus literally. But Jesus isn’t speaking literally.
To eat Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood is a metaphor for believing in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. Remember, eating in this context equates to faith. Eating is a personal act of trust, just as faith is a personal act of trust.
When you eat you take food into your person, into your stomach. You do so in good faith that the food will give life and strength to your body. Likewise, when you swallow the words of Jesus, you take them into your inner most being, trusting that they will give life and strength to your soul.
The point is, faith in Jesus satisfies our deepest hunger for God. Faith in Jesus sustains us for eternal life. As I’ve said on other occasions, eternal life isn’t just about existing for an infinite period of time. Eternal life describes a high quality relationship with God.
Keto has become fashionable lately. Keto is a kind of diet where you avoid eating carbohydrates. It is a diet high in fat and low in carbs. So you can’t eat bread. You can have a steak but not a donut. I’m not interested in promoting or condemning keto. I simply mention it by way of metaphor.
To the Jews of Jesus’ day, the idea of eating human flesh and drinking blood was deeply offensive. It was anathema. You just don’t do that. It was like suggesting to someone on a keto diet that they should eat a potato chip sandwich, except far worse. Because a keto diet is a physical thing; it is not done for religious reasons.
Jesus was Jewish and he knew full well how offensive his eating flesh and drinking blood metaphor was. It was like Jesus was sabotaging his own popularity. In fact, many people lost interest in him after that. So why did Jesus use such an offensive metaphor?
Perhaps Jesus was using this metaphor as a sieve to filter out those who were following him for the wrong reasons. Just a day before the crowd had wanted to make Jesus king by force, to be their political and military leader, so they could get their own way. But that is not spiritual. That is materialistic.
If the reason for our relationship with Jesus is to make him do what we want, then we have got it all wrong. Our reason for following Jesus needs to be doing what God wants. He is the potter. We are the clay. We are his creation, his servants.
We (in the 21st century) may not be too concerned by Jesus’ metaphor of eating his flesh and drinking his blood. But there are probably other things Jesus said that do offend us. If (or when) we are offended by Christ we need to ask ourselves why that is. Because, at the end of the day, it won’t be him that is wrong.
Conclusion:
Some people see, in John 6, a reference to holy communion. The people in the synagogue in Capernaum could not have seen a connection with the Christian ritual of communion because the last supper had not happened yet. Jesus had not instituted the Eucharist at that point.
Nevertheless, with the benefit of hindsight, we can see a connection. When we share communion we eat bread which is a symbol (or metaphor) of Christ’s body and we drink grape juice which is symbol (or metaphor) of Christ’s blood.
We don’t believe that the bread and grape juice literally become the flesh and blood of Christ. No. Rather the physical act of eating the bread and drinking the grape juice reminds us that it is through faith in Jesus our sins are forgiven and we have eternal communion with God the Father.
This is not to imply that the death and resurrection of Jesus were just a metaphor. That literally happened. Jesus’ death & resurrection hold the material and the spiritual together in perfect unity.
It is through faith in Jesus’ material death & resurrection that our deepest spiritual needs are met.
May grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Questions for discussion or reflection:
What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
- Why did Jesus miraculously feed the multitudes in John 6? What did Jesus mean by ‘bread’ in John 6:35?
- What is spirituality? How would you rate the quality of your relationship with God, with your inner self and with those around you?
- Where (or how) do you find nourishment for your spiritual life?
- Discuss/reflect on ‘eating’ as a metaphor for faith. To what extent have you personally swallowed Jesus?
- Is there anything about Jesus (or anything he said) that offends you? Why is that do you think?
- Are you aware of any signs (or miracles) in your own life pointing you to Jesus? What are the signs saying?
[1] Refer Leon Morris, NICT John, page 320.
Tawa Baptist 