More than bread Pt 2 – Bread that truly satisfies
Readings: John 6. 24-35, Exodus 16. 1-15
In our lives, in our faith, do we want Jesus? Or do we want the benefits that he brings?
The crowds have once again followed Jesus to the next place he has gone to. Except now we find the mood has shifted, things have grown more serious. As the crowds gather Jesus tells them; You’re not here because you recognised the signs, what the miracles point to, you’re here because you had a good meal, you were filled, satisfied, and perhaps you’re hoping it happens again.
As I said last week, Jesus has fed them, he doesn’t hesitate, but whilst his concern and love for them includes their practical needs, it goes wider too. The miraculous provision of bread and fish will satisfy them for now, but soon enough they’ll be hungry again, it won’t satisfy eternally.
Don’t work for food which perishes, Jesus says to them, even miraculously provided food, work instead for the food which endures, which continues to satisfy even as this life ends. Only I can provide that says Jesus, you’ll only get it from me.
But the people want proof don’t they. What sign are you going to do so that we might believe? What?! What sign? They’ve just been fed miraculously, over 5000 of them, with 5 loaves and 2 fish, that’s why they’re here, Jesus has done this amazing miracle. It goes to show how they don’t understand, don’t recognise the sign. And it gets more ridiculous doesn’t it, because the sign they cite as an example which would prove to them that Jesus is to be trusted on this is their ancestors eating manna in the wilderness, bread in the wilderness. It’s like the last day hasn’t happened. Jesus has just done exactly what they’re asking for, but still they won’t believe. In some ways its hilarious, it’s certainly ironic, but in other ways it’s incredibly sad. Here’s the one who will truly satisfy, who will provide not just bread for their physical hunger but bread for their souls.
But they won’t believe. What’s going on?!
They’re here for the earthly bread, here for the benefits of following Jesus around, a free lunch here and there, but they’ll use any excuse not to accept Jesus himself. They want the gifts but to keep the giver at arms length. Jesus has already proven himself, but it’s not enough, they won’t put their faith in him, come to him for that eternally satisfying food.
We can fall into that sometimes as Christians can’t we. We want the gifts but neglect the giver. Only pray when we need something, when things have gone wrong, but as soon as life is good again we neglect our faith until the next crisis.
Cultural Christians fall into this even more. Jesus is a good thing, like what he has to say. Like the idea of eternal life, living forever, that sounds great. Knowing Jesus himself though? Knowing him personally? Not sure why we need to, we’ve got the benefits, or at least so we think.
And slowly our wider culture is realising that so much of what we take for granted is built on Christian foundations. Our ethics; ideas of equality, compassion, consent, freedom, progress, our belief in sacrifice for the weakest rather than survival of the fittest. That somehow love is at the centre of things. They all find their root in Jesus. The historian Tom Holland wrote a great, fairly chunky, book called Dominion which traces how it’s Christianity which has forged the Western mindset and culture. Even critiques of Christianity are rooted in Christian assumptions.
In the West we have the values of the Kingdom, but we’ve rejected the King, we want the crown jewels, but not the one who wears the crown. We’re like the crowds, we want the benefits, the gifts, the good stuff that proximity to Jesus brings, whilst still trying to keep him at arms length. Even avowed atheist Richard Dawkins recently acknowledged he’s a cultural Christian, he doesn’t believe in God or Jesus, but he likes the worldview that has come from Christianity.
But here’s the thing, only Jesus can truly satisfy, only Jesus can meet our deepest needs, satisfy our hunger and our thirst. And even the stuff we get from him, even that won’t satisfy, none of it is doing what it says on the tin because the goodness of it all flows from the one behind it all, all flows from Jesus. It’s only him who satisfies.
As a culture we’re dancing over the abyss, there’s no foundations under any of it, take Jesus out, take God out of the mix and actually none of this stuff really makes sense. And more than that it still won’t meet our deepest needs, our deepest longings. Christian ethics won’t fix us, Christian values won’t repair our culture, only Jesus can do that. That’s what Jesus means when he says ‘I am the bread of life’. It’s not what he gives that satisfies, it’s him, Jesus himself which will meet those deepest needs and longings, truly satisfy them.
And when Jesus says he’s the bread of life he means lots by it but I just want to focus on two, two things about bread – bread is foundational and universal.
Firstly it’s foundational. Jesus is speaking to a culture in which bread is the key component of their diet. We’re very similar in that way, most of us will eat bread at some point today if not at some point this week. It’s a foundational component of our diet, one of the key building blocks. So when Jesus says I am the bread of life we’re not to be thinking of the basket that comes out at a restaurant whilst you’re waiting for the actual food. We’re meant to be thinking of that foundational food that’s key to our diet.
And Jesus is to our souls what bread is to our bodies. Nourishing, sustaining, foundational. We can eat all the sweets we want, all the veg we want, but it’s bread that staves off hunger best. Without bread (or often in this country potatoes) your hunger won’t be satisfied for long. Bread is the foundation, the lasting filler. Jesus is to our souls the same.
And bread is universal. From billionaire Elon Musk’s tiny house in Texas, to Buckingham Palace, to the tables of the poorest in our land, we all eat bread (unless you’re gluten free, but lets put a pin in that). It’s the basic, we all eat it. In the same way Jesus is universal, there isn’t a person in this world who doesn’t need Jesus, he’s the very basic component we need in our spiritual lives, the key component. From Kings to paupers, we all eat bread, and from palaces to slums we all need Jesus.
Just as bread is both foundational and universal for our physical health and sustenance, so Jesus is both foundational and universal for our Spiritual health. So how do we get this spiritual bread, how will Jesus meet that spiritual hunger and thirst?
Jesus tells the crowds to work for the food that endures doesn’t he and they respond ‘what must we do to perform the works of God?’ What do we need to do to get this bread that endures, that truly satisfies? Their focus is instantly on their efforts, their work. What do we need to do? How can we get our hands on this? How do we earn it, acquire it? And we likely think in similar terms, what do we need to do, how can we get this.
And Jesus tells them; this is the work of God, to believe in the one he has sent. To believe in the one he has sent. The work in many ways isn’t work at all is it, it requires something on our part, but it’s not dependant on our merits, our effort, our strength or our worthiness.
The work is to believe, to trust in the one God has sent, to trust in Jesus, to receive the gift which God has given. Just as their ancestors ate the bread in the wilderness which God provided from heaven, so now God has provided new bread from heaven, his Son, Jesus Christ. And just as the people in the wilderness merely had to gather in the manna that God had provided, so now all we need do is believe in the one God has sent. Receive the gift, gather it in, feed on it, feed on him.
Which means time with Jesus is never wasted, time in prayer, in the Bible, time in quiet reflection and meditation, time here in church, it feeds us, feeds our faith, feeds our very souls because it’s all about Jesus, all focussed on him and he is the one who will truly satisfy. Here is the one who doesn’t just make life better, but truly makes life worth living.
That isn’t to say we won’t experience lack in the worldly sense. We may go hungry, we may suffer, we may even doubt our faith at times. Jesus promise that we will never hunger or thirst isn’t a promise of bliss where nothing bad happens to us again in this world. To say so is to distort his meaning. But it does mean we won’t lack anything necessary for our salvation, that we won’t go through this without his strength and peace. Paul put it best in his letter to the Philippians ‘I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.’ In all the external circumstances, with Jesus we will find that we have a peace and satisfaction in our soul that can never be taken from us, lasting into eternal life.
If you want just the benefits that Jesus brings I have bad news, the benefits won’t satisfy, some don’t even make sense without Jesus. You’ll find them as hollow and empty as all else. But if you come to Jesus, if your faith is in him, you will find that he’s the living water which will well up within us like a fountain to keep us satisfied, that he’s bread to the starving which will keep us fed eternally, that he’s the very source of life himself. Let’s not paddle in the shallows, lets plunge in. Let’s not nibble at the crumbs, lets feast. Lets devour his words, soak in his presence, for here is the one who gives and gives and yet will never run dry, never be spent.
What a promise Jesus gives us at the end of our passage today “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”. What a promise that is. If we come to Jesus, if we perform that work of God, which is to believe in Jesus, not based on our own efforts, merits or worth, but on God’s gracious gift. If we believe, we will find that Jesus will truly satisfy, not just for this life but for eternity.
Amen.