11th Sunday after Pentecost
Deut 8:1-10
Ps 34:8-15
Eph 4:17-5:2
John 6:37-51
Let us begin with Deuteronomy 8:3: “And [the Lord] humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
Why did God feed the Israelites with manna? So they might know that humans do not live by bread alone. Humanity lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God. This is the verse that Jesus quotes in the wilderness of temptation. Satan wanted Jesus to turn stones into bread, but Jesus was determined to trust in the Father and not provide for himself. Self-reliance was one of the sins that separated Adam and Eve from God in the Garden.
The lesson of the manna is that God takes care of humanity, that God is close and knows our every need. This was lost on the Exodus generation. They sent spies to the Promised Land but chose to fear the negative report of the ten instead of trusting the faithfulness of God, as Caleb and Joshua urged them. Trusting God would not have been an act of blind faith because they had seen with their own eyes what God had already done on their behalf – namely the ten plagues on Egypt and then splitting the Red Sea and saving them from their attackers. The Exodus generation blasphemed God by not relying on him after they had experienced his miraculous works. As a result, they wandered the wilderness until all those who left Egypt died of old age, never entering the Promised Land. Some rabbis even say the Exodus generation will not see the resurrection.1 They paid the price for not trusting God despite seeing his good works.
Psalm 34 urges us:
“O taste and see how gracious the Lord is;*
blessed is the one who trusts in him.
O fear the Lord, you that are his saints;*
for those who fear him lack nothing.
The Exodus generation failed to taste and see the goodness of the Lord is. The good news is that each generation is given the opportunity to trust God and enjoy not only his provision but his company, and even more, his own divine life.
In the Gospel, we continue in the long and rich text of John 6. We’ve seen Jesus feed thousands with a boy’s basket lunch. Then Jesus walked on water, revealing to his disciples his lordship over creation. Now we’re in the midst of a dialogue. The crowds who were fed tried to make Jesus king, and now they’ve found him to try again. However, Jesus offers them more than earthly kingship. Let us not be offended by his offer as they were.
As Cody noted last week, the people were hungry for bread, but they were stuck thinking only of the next meal and missing that Jesus was offering them much, much more. At the end of last week’s Gospel portion, Jesus says“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe” (John 6:35-36 NIV). Much like their Exodus ancestors, these Israelites before Jesus see God’s provision in front of them but still cannot grasp what God is offering – the divine life of cohabitating with God and feeding on his faithfulness as Adam and Eve did before the fall.
The most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Now, in John 6, Jesus elaborates on God’s motivations.
Why did God send Jesus? What is God the Father’s desire? Jesus says, “This is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life.” Adam and Eve had eternal life but lost it. The story of the Bible is God moving to extend eternal life to all of humanity. The Creator God desires that ALL who look on Jesus would trust God’s goodness and find eternal life.
Jesus goes on to say that those who believe will be resurrected on the last day.
Let us not see eternal life and resurrection of the body as the same thing. There is a distinction here. God the Father, through Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, is offering us all – the whole world, Jew and Gentile – eternal life now as well as bodily resurrection later.
The world is still in the midst of the pandemic. There are areas on the verge of war. In other places, many suffer economic hardship or persecution for who they are or what they believe. Some of us have experienced great loss in the last two years and we’re all bracing for what the winter may bring. Maybe we’re struggling in strained relationships or in loneliness. In this country, more of us hunger for love, peace, stability, and wellness than for food.
So when Jesus says “I am the bread of heaven,” he is telling us that he has what we long for. Jesus is offering love and belonging, peace and security, healing and wholeness. Eternal life includes all those things in the here and now.
What’s the catch? We have to trust him when things don’t look like we’d like them to. We have to follow his example and live the life of the suffering servant. We have to, as Jesus says elsewhere, put on his yoke.
When I served in Jerusalem, some had suggested I was called to be a deacon. I rejected the thought several times, but I eventually began to contemplate if this was the Lord’s call. Then one Texas summer day, the Lord was very clear with me in multiple ways I could not deny. The one relevant today has to do with Jesus calling all of us to step into his yoke because it is easy and light. Until that day, I had wrongly imagined Jesus as the ox-driver and me as the ox. No, when Jesus calls us into his yoke, he is in the yoke beside us, patiently teaching us how to experience eternal life in a broken world. The thought of Jesus working right beside me, drudging with me through the mud and the steep climbs was such a comfort and helped me to obey then and helps me to obey every day.
What is eternal life? Eternal life is abiding in Christ and so sharing in his divine life and his fellowship with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Eternal life is abiding in Jesus, allowing him to feed our souls day in and day out, allowing him to teach us how to be human as God intended, how to be sons and daughters of God, allowing God to make a home with us. The Creator of the Universe desires to make a home with you, with us.
Now comes the offensive part. Jesus tells us: “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.”
Early in John 6, as Jesus is about to feed the 5,000, John tells us that Passover was near. It is a cue that all of this chapter is to be understood in the light of the Exodus story. The night of the tenth plague, death was going to pass through all of Egypt and kill the firstborn in every household, Egyptian or Israelite. God offered projection to all – Israelite or Egyptian – who would believe and obey simple instructions. Each house was to take a lamb and slaughter it. The blood was to be painted over the door, and the lamb was to be roasted and eaten with unleavened bread.
Jesus is our Passover lamb that protects us from death, the death that would separate us from God forever. Death fills the world, a result of our sin, our rebellion against the One who desires to care for us. Yet God makes a way for death to pass over us. Jesus gave himself as the sacrificial lamb not only to protect us from death but to afford us divine life, fellowship with God. But we have to eat the Lamb. We have to eat the unleavened bread from heaven.
How? How do we eat this bread from heaven?
- We consume the Word of God. We read and digest the record of God’s relentless, loving pursuit to finish what he started in the Garden. While he still does communicate in signs, dreams, and visions, he has left us the essence of his message in print. This is the Living Word of God, not just dead ancient words but words made alive today by the Holy Spirit to communicate his love for each and every one of us, to call us to himself, and to remind us that he has won the victory already.
- We eat the Bread of Heaven by doing the works that Jesus did and letting them form us into his likeness. We care for the orphan and widow. We feed the hungry and provide for the poor. We proclaim the good news that God has made atonement for our sins and forgives us and loves us. We work for reconciliation and justice for everyone.
- We also eat the Bread of Heaven when we meet Jesus at the communion table and feed on him in our hearts by faith as we eat the bread and drink the wine. We are nourished every time we remember his death and resurrection until he returns.
Humanity does not live by bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh to dwell among us, the Bread of Heaven sent by God. Let us daily partake of the divine manna that we may share in God’s divine life today and be raised up on the last day.
Hear again the exhortation from Psalm 34:
8 Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
11 Come, my children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 Whoever of you loves life
and desires to see many good days,
13 keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from telling lies.
14 Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are attentive to their cry.
Amen.
[1] Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:3: “The members of the generation of the wilderness have no share in the World-to-Come and will not stand in judgment, as it is stated: “In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die” (Numbers 14:35). “They shall be consumed” indicates in this world; “and there they shall die” indicates for the World-to-Come; this is the statement of Rabbi Akiva.”