Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 9, 2009
2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15:31-33
Psalm 130
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
John 6:35, 41-51
If you are like me, you might be thinking that you are trapped in a kind of déjà vu in our gospel lesson today. Once again we hear Jesus teach us about bread. In fact, the way our lectionary is structured for Year B we hear Jesus teachings about bread for five weeks in a row. And on this third Sunday of bread (there are two more), I think it’s time to ask ourselves, why. As a teacher, when I look at this repetition in our gospel accounts from John I understand the amount of repetition it takes for most people to learn something new, especially concepts of faith we find in the teachings of Jesus which are so radical and new to the people of his world.
Like any good teacher, with each repetition of his bread metaphor, Jesus is leading us to greater knowledge and a deeper understanding of its meaning for our life. There is no doubt Jesus is a good teacher. But Jesus is not just another good teacher; Jesus is the master teacher. Jesus is God’s Son. And more than in any other gospel account, John wants us to know that everything Jesus says is a teaching from God, and everything that Jesus does reveals God to us. So, when Jesus uses a bread metaphor to teach us and show us who he is and who God is, we need to go there with him in this learning.
In today’s gospel lesson Jesus tells us what he told us in last week’s lesson: “I am the Bread of Life.” In today’s lesson he adds, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” And, once again, the people hear what Jesus is saying, but they just don’t get it. That’s because they think they already know who Jesus. He is Joseph’s son, a man, just like themselves. So why should they believe his unbelievable claim that he is bread who has come down from heaven? But good teachers like Jesus know this is a teachable moment. He has aroused their curiosity and he’s captured their interest.
So Jesus tells these men to stop their complaining for a minute and listen to what he has to say. He admits he cannot make them believe what he is telling them, but he tells them the Father who sent him can draw them to him, and he can make it possible for them to believe, if only they will open their minds and their hearts to what Jesus is saying. We have a common cliché which might help us understand the problem Jesus is facing with these men. “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” However, you can give that horse every reason why he should drink. This is what Jesus is trying to do for us in these five consecutive teachings about bread.
In all of these passages God is leading people like us to the Bread of Life, Jesus himself, and now Jesus is asking us to be fed by him. To be fed by what he is teaching us and by what he is showing us about God. But the only thing people can see in Jesus that day is a man, like themselves. And nothing about him resembles any bread they have ever eaten. But Jesus wants them and he wants us to get beyond a literal meaning of bread to enter into his metaphor about bread; the metaphors of Jesus, however, require us to take a leap of faith which plunges us into a deeper understanding of their meaning for our life. Jesus knows that people who see with literal eyes will only be able to see that he is human. But we can see so much more when we look at Jesus though the eyes of faith. We can see bread which feeds something other than our stomachs and sustains something greater than our life as we know it.
In our previous gospel lessons Jesus has already performed a miracle to help the crowds on that hillside see who he is and understand his eternal message; but all they can see is that their stomachs are fed. Jesus has already explained the difference between the bread he brings from heaven and the manna God sent from heaven to feed his people in the wilderness, but all they can remember is that the manna God sent only fed their stomachs. And now Jesus is trying to convince the men who gather around him this day that the bread he brings from heaven is different from the manna God sent to Moses and his people. People who ate the manna died, but the bread Jesus offers us is the bread of eternal life; if we feed on him we will never die. In all five bread accounts Jesus tries a variety of methods to help us understand his bread metaphor. But if our eyes only see bread, and our experience of living in this world tells us that our life only comes to death, then we will never get it. We will never understand the meaning of Jesus’ metaphor, or its truth for our life.
Believe me when I tell you that it is not easy to teach metaphorical thinking to literal minds, particularly when it comes to metaphors of faith. Literal learners want facts which can be proven and information which has concrete value to them. To a literal learner, bread is bread. Bread is made with particular ingredients that are identifiable and quantitative and it only has value inasmuch as it can feed my stomach and satisfy my appetite for it. This is why Jesus does not have very much success trying to get people to believe that he is the Bread of Life which comes from God. It is not easy to understand metaphors of our faith. They require a flexible mind, an inspired heart, and a ready soul.
But metaphors are necessary for teaching us matters of faith. Because belief is not tangible and faith is not concrete. So we use the only things we have to help us understand metaphors: concrete words and tangible experiences. Even then our words and our experiences don’t seem adequate for expressing our faith or our beliefs. Have you ever tried to tell people about God, or your faith, or an important spiritual experience you have had? Then you know what I mean. But the language of words and human experience are what we have. And because Jesus was human, they were all that he had, too. In this metaphor Jesus uses the most common of all experiences—eating and the most common food—called “bread” to teach us and show us who God is and who he is.
So when we look at what Jesus is trying to teach us in our gospel lesson today we need to ask ourselves, what leap of faith is Jesus asking us to make in his metaphor when he tells us, “I am the Bread of Life?” What is Jesus trying to make us believe about our life when he says, “Whoever believes in me will have eternal life? What is he trying to show us by contrasting the bread he brings with the bread of manna? What is he trying to teach us about life when he tells us people who feed on this bread which comes down from heaven will never die.” When Jesus says, “I am the Bread of Life” this as a statement of fact. But it is a fact we must accept on faith. We must believe Jesus is who he tells us he is in order to enter into the metaphor and understand its meaning for our life.
So, let’s say we accept the fact that Jesus is the Bread of Life, and we believe in the truth of what he is saying and what that means for our life. Now we are able to enter into the metaphor. We begin to realize that Jesus is showing us something more than the human being he appears to be, something more than the bread he is asking us to eat. Jesus is showing us who God is and who he is. Jesus is not literal bread. So the bread he offers must feed more than our stomachs and sustain more than our physical body. But food, nevertheless. So what is this food Jesus offers us? An invitation to Eucharist from our Prayer Book says it best, I think. It calls us to “feed on him in our hearts by faith, with thanksgiving.” And so we receive literal bread and wine at Eucharist, but it is our faith enables us to feed so much more than our stomachs. It is by our faith that we receive the material elements of bread and wine as spiritual food, food which feeds our spiritual life. Food which reminds us that we are more than our material bodies living in this material world. And that makes all the difference in the way we understand our life, and the way we live in this world.
What we learn from Jesus’ bread metaphor is there is more to our life than the life we live in this world. People who forget that become stuck in this world. And when we only eat the world’s bread we get stuck in our fear of dying. But Jesus came to remind us that God created us for life— eternal life—and we can live into that life right here, right now, in this world. We who feed on the bread of life in this world do not have to live our life fearing our death. Because death is not the end of our life. Death is merely a transition from this life as we know it to the life we live eternally. We are not just living our life in this world and for this world; we are living it for all eternity. That means we can live into the promises of eternal life right here, right now, in this world. When we enter into Jesus’ metaphor, we realize that its meaning changes everything we thought we knew about the limitations of our natural life and the power of death to bring our life to its natural end. We are no longer bound to live our life the way the world would have us live; we are free to live the life God would have us live
This is good news for people of faith. Not easy news; in fact, it can be pretty difficult to live the life God wants us to live in this world. Nevertheless, this is good news for those of us who make the effort. Because we are no longer limited by seeing our life in human terms; we can see our life as God would have us see it; in spiritual terms.
Philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard unlocks Jesus’ metaphor for us in just one powerful statement of belief which I believe sums up my whole sermon. Kierkegaard wants us to remember, “We are not human beings who are spiritual; we are spiritual beings who are human.” If we really believe that; if we really believe we are spiritual beings who are human, then just as we need to feed our human body, we need to feed our spiritual body. Today, and every day, Jesus offers us bread for our spiritual body. Bread which sustains us in our spiritual journey through this world. In a few minutes Jesus will call us to this table to take and eat this “Bread of Heaven.” And those of us who take that leap of faith have a lot to be thankful for.