Jesus, the Bread of Life – February 23, 2025
John 6:35-69
February 23, 2025
Our reading for today, from John’s Gospel, comes right after one of the biggest miracles Jesus ever performed – the Feeding of the Five Thousand. And I want to start by having us think about that miracle for a moment. Because that was a huge miracle!
I was thinking that it’d be hard to rank Jesus’ miracles. But if we did, this one would have been near the top of the list! Whether it was the greatest miracle or not, it certainly touched the most people directly. Maybe in some other cases he had a big audience and thousands of people saw something he did. But in this case, five-thousand were directly involved!
We read about this one in the other Gospels. Matthew and Mark also tell this story. But of course, as always, John gives us more of the story. The part we read was what I think we can call the “aftermath” of that miracle. It’s what people said about it – and him! John always gives us more of the dialogue, and there is a lot of dialogue here! And a lot of what Jesus said was hard for the people to hear! We could really have read the whole chapter! But even with the part we did read, the “20 verse rule-of-thumb” was pretty much in shambles! So, let try to fill in a bit more of this.
After Jesus fed the five-thousand, he and his disciples crossed the Sea of Galilee. And if you read that next part of this, starting at verse 15, you’ll see that the disciples crossed the sea in a boat, without Jesus. That’s because Jesus had left them. He withdrew to the mountain by himself, because “he perceived that the people were about to come and take him by force and make him king.” (6:15) And that’s a very interesting statement, considering the way this story unfolded!
So, the disciples rowed for three or four miles, across the sea. And then Jesus caught up to them, walking on the water! And it’s strange. Because that’s pretty miraculous! But it’s treated almost like a side story, here!
When they got to the other side of the sea, they came to Capernaum, which as I’ve said before, was Jesus’ adopted home town during his ministry. And the crowds came looking for him – as they often did! Jesus tried to spend time in solitude, but a lot of the times he was unsuccessful. The crowds would follow him. The crowds would seek him out!
When they did this time, they noticed that Jesus had crossed the sea, but they knew he had not gone with his disciples in the boat. (And they didn’t know about him walking on the water!) So they asked him, “When did you get here?” “How did you get here?” But he didn’t explain that. Instead, he turned it around and asked why they were there! And he said, “You didn’t come seeking me because of the miracle, but rather because you ate your fill of the bread?” (That sounds a little condemning of them, doesn’t it?)
But then he started to teach them, which he often did! He said, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give you.” And notice that this is where he is really starting to tell people who he was! In other places he would say that his time had not yet come. Well, now his time had come! Now, he tells them that the way to do that, the way to labor for the food which endures to eternal life,” was “to believe in him who God has sent.”
That wasn’t easy for them to accept. They asked, “How should we know to believe you? What sign do you do?” That’s pretty ironic, isn’t it? Considering the great “sign” they had just witnessed – and had been a part of! And then, in asking that question, they mentioned a “sign” – a sign that they were very familiar with! They talked about the Manna in the wilderness. It’s funny! Jesus didn’t have to bring that up as an example, they did! But it was a good one! So he used it! He used it to tell them more plainly who he was! And in doing so, he became more and more controversial! I hope you see that here.
We started our reading at verse 35. That’s where Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” – words that have been so wonderfully set to music! (Am I right?) And it’s an interesting statement, because Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And the word “Beth-lehem” literally means “house of bread.” There were a lot of grain fields around that town!
Having said that, Jesus again talks about the “believing in him.” And I think that really started to challenge what the people were thinking about him. Was he a prophet? Was he the Messiah? Was he the political savior, who would free them from Rome? Should they indeed take him by force and make him king? What did he mean by “believing in him?” Again, we the readers know who he was and what he meant. But imagine again what this was like hearing this for the first time!
Next, he starts to relate the “bread of heaven” statement to their example of the manna in the wilderness. And it really starts to get serious! “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven that a man may eat it and not die.” And if that wasn’t enough, he said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. And the bread which I give for the life of the world is my flesh!”
I wanted us to read all the way to verse 69 this morning, because this gets more controversial sounding the further it goes! The people questioned his statement about giving his flesh to eat. And he concludes by saying, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” And can we even imagine what it was like hearing that for the first time? Again, we know these things! We say them as though there’s nothing shocking about them! But think about what it sounded like to those people!
Last week I said that John, more than all the others, dispels the notion that Jesus was “just a great speaker,” or “just a great ethical teacher.” Well, I think this is the chapter that does that the most! Over the years, when I’ve heard someone say Jesus was “just” those things, I’ve directed them to John chapter 6! “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood shall have eternal life!”
“Great teachers” and “great ethical thinkers” don’t say such things! If you think about it, there’s truth in one of the things I heard said about Jesus years ago. “He either is who he said he is, or he’s a lunatic.” I’m sure that’s a big part of the problem the religious leaders had with him. He was saying crazy sounding things! He was saying things that were hard to hear, and even harder to believe. And they said that. In verse 60, we’re told that many of his disciples, many of the people who followed him, said, “This is a hard saying! Who can listen to it?”
I wanted us to read all the way to the end here, because of what John tells us in verse 66. After all these “hard sayings,” he says this. “After this, many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him.” I hope you can see how troubling a lot of his statements were to those people. As I said, John portrays that very well here in his sixth chapter. And I think it calls us to ask ourselves, “What do we say about Jesus? Yes, we do know more than these people knew, and we can’t imagine what it was like hearing these troubling things for the first time. But I think it’s important that we try. It’s important that we do that, so we can see the true importance of what he said!
Remember here, that we also have two thousand years of church history they didn’t have. We have the thought and teaching of the great theologians of the ages. So this makes sense to us. But, sometimes I think all of that knowledge carries with it the danger of these words of Jesus becoming mundane and routine sounding. These “hard sayings” of Jesus can become “ho-hum” to us, and we can lose the power of them! “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you!”
The final moment in this story comes when Jesus saw people drawing back from him. And he asked his disciples – meaning the twelve now – “What will you do? Will you go away, too?” And he asks us the same thing. “What about you?” And when we hear that question, will we have the courage to say what Peter said. And I’ll leave you with his words. He said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life! And we have believed that you are the Holy One of God!”
Prayer
Eternal God, your love for us is beyond our comprehension. We thank you for sending your Son into the world, so that we can be redeemed, and so that we can be in relationship with you. Help us to know better, and to take more seriously, what Jesus calls us to do as your people. Help us to know the strength of your Holy Spirit, and the Joy of your kingdom. For we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.