The Bread That Came Down From Heaven

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Text: John 6:51-69

August 16, 2009

Once again, we turn our attention to the gospel reading. We've been working through John chapter 6. In it we walk through two days with Jesus and His disciples. They began with the day of teaching that led to Jesus feeding the 5000. That night Jesus walks on the Sea of Galilee. The second day Jesus teaches about bread from heaven. Jesus teaches by taking His hearers straight to His point. It's important to note that He speaks both law and gospel.

As His point of law, Jesus tells His hearers He knows they are looking for more bread. He knows that they are focused on the worldly things, the bread they ate and the idea that Jesus could continue to provide. Some even think of making Him king so that He would provide that way for all of Israel. These are not evil things, but they are not what Jesus was here for. 

Jesus brings His hearers to the Gospel. When He tells them He is the Bread of Life. He takes them beyond the physical when He speaks of life eternal. These words of Jesus are as fresh today as they were that morning in Capernaum. So let's follow His approach. 

Jesus begins by addressing what was separating His hearers from Him and from His Father. They had been focusing on the physical, on the things they wanted. They followed Him because they had eaten the loaves and fish He had made for them. They wanted to make Him king. Not of their hearts, but of their stomachs. They wanted Jesus to keep providing bread. They follow Him because they wanted the free bread. They didn't believe because Jesus had command over the physical world or because that showed His godhood. They missed the fact that only God could do this miracle. Their focus was on the things of this world. 

Jesus urges them "do not work for food that spoils but for food that endures to eternal life". He was talking about their priorities. They have their focus on the world's priorities. Jesus says that God set your priorities. His are eternal. God's way is good for us now and for eternity. If we separate these, we too often remove the eternal, the spiritual. Jesus made this point by directing His hearers to remember the Israelites in the desert. 

The people in the desert ate manna and died. They died physically and were denied the promised land. Even though they were eating the manna they showed they didn't trust God. Their refusal to trust God showed that they were holding on to self as the most important thing in their life. Their refusal to trust is the greater problem. It can lead to spiritual death. This death denies entry into the eternal promised land. This is the thing, in the desert they ate the bread, but rejected God's way. They refused to trust, to follow God way and Jesus is warning his hearers not to do the same. 

Don't miss the meaning. Jesus is the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of God. In the desert the miracles God performed were constant signs of His trustworthiness, but they didn't trust. Had the miracles become too common? Had they become too familiar? Has this happened to us? Have the miracles become too commonplace to us? The miracle of God’s forgiveness, the miracles God does in the Sacrament. 

Is the Word of God, the Bible, too common to be trusted? Do we yield to society, psychology or scientists, because they seem more learned or acceptable? Do we overlook the miracles of God's Word and Sacraments and no longer trust Him to tell us our history and to tell us right from wrong?

The outcome will be the same. The ways and wisdom of the world cannot give life. They cannot save. The ways of the world do not lead to life eternal. The ways and wisdom of this world lead only to death. Our Lord said to them. "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." The importance of all of this is clear. So too is Jesus word of law, to His hearers. 

The law was clear, but so is Jesus word of gospel. "Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. . . . Whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me." 

Even this word of gospel was difficult for Jesus hearers that day. They could not understand, and they could not believe. It is believing, that is key. For to eat His flesh and to drink His blood is to believe in Jesus. To eat and to drink this heavenly food is to believe Jesus message of salvation. To believe that He is God the Son come down from heaven. It is to believe that Jesus lived a sinless life as our substitute under God's law and died as our substitute suffering death and hell in our place. For that is how He gave His flesh to be true food and His blood to be true drink. He gave Himself as the ultimate sacrifice of atonement on the cross. 

It is on the cross that He gives His flesh and His blood to be food and drink. His message is that He has come to be that once and for all sacrifice. It is the sacrifice of His flesh and His blood that leads to eternal life for those who believe in Him. That is what He is talking about. When Jesus speaks of eating and drinking, when He talks about eating the bread from heaven, He is referring to believing in Him. 

Jesus told His hearers that to do the work of God was to believe in the one God has sent. It is important to note that this work is not about earning, or struggling or deciding our way to God. Look at Jesus words. He said they who heard and learned from the Father came to Him. Remember what we're taught, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So this is gift language. The Father gives the gift of life. He gives the gift of faith so that we believe and gives the believer to Jesus. You see, the Father gives the Holy Spirit to create the faith that receives the gifts of God. And in the Spirit we live the life fed by Jesus the bread of life; Jesus, who the Father gives to us as Lord and Savior and to whom the Father gives the believer. 

In this way, the entire thought comes together and is made complete. The circle of salvation is completed. Jesus, the life is the heart of this. He is the center of this circle. By faith, we are made one with Him and are joined to Him and are made full partakers of His life. In His life we have salvation. In the faith the Spirit creates we eat the bread of life, and are given life eternal. 

So to speak of the bread of life, to speak of eating his flesh and drinking his blood is gift language. It is the gospel. It is the divine promise, hear and learn the words of the father, and by the power of the Holy Spirit common to Jesus. For this is the will of the Father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life. The Lord will raise him up on the last day and give it to him eternal life.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

SDG