Hearty Bread
(based on John
6:35,41-51)
Earlier in John’s gospel, Jesus fed 5000 people
with five loaves and two fish. So,
today’s reading and story was supposed to be just another feeding. That’s why everyone showed up. But, instead of more bread, they get Jesus
and conflict. These two often go
together, Jesus and conflict, between what is and what might be, between our
understanding and his understanding, between knowing ABOUT Jesus and really
KNOWING him.
In today’s conflict story, Jesus challenges
people to consider what kind of bread they are seeking and eating, perishable or
imperishable, then he declares himself to be “the
bread of life,” “the living bread that came down from heaven.”
When I was in Junior High School my mom
switched breads on our household.
Actually, she switched up lots of things. We were no longer drinking regular milk, but
skim milk instead. And we were no longer
eating our sandwiches on that white squishy bread, but rather something we all jokingly
called, “horse fodder”. As a kid we ate
that famous white Wonder Bread that could be smushed and smashed, balled up
into a tight ball of dough. It absorbed
jelly like no tomorrow and sponged up all the liquid in mayo or even the liquid
portion of peanut butter, leaving it drier than a Sahara desert, while the
bread was nice and moist (oh, as a side note, we didn’t eat mayonnaise either,
we had Miracle Whip).
Instead of white wonder bread, we starting
eating something more hearty – with lots of wholesome grains in it, so many
grains that if you even tried to smash it, you’d cut your hands on the seeds
within it. It was the bread that you
actually had to chew, while white Wonder Bread just sort of melted in your
mouth. The website called Fooducate
gives each food a schoolhouse rating based on it’s nutritious-ness. Wonder Bread was given a C- rating while a
whole multi-grain bread was given an A rating.
That’s the difference of what Jesus was
offering here in this passage. Do you
really want to continue eating Wonder Bread or would you prefer something
that’s more sustainable, something that will fill you up and be good for your
body, your soul?
But people don’t like change. They don’t like to have things be different
from what they were, even if it’s better for them. They like what they used to have, what they
used to know. My dad, sister and I
complained every time one of these new sandwiches was put in front of us. We liked the old bread. The old sandwiches were gum-able. These new sandwiches; you actually had to
chew!
The Jews began to complain about Jesus. “He
didn’t come from heaven. We know all
about him. He’s Mary and Joseph’s boy.” They know facts
about Jesus but they don’t really know him or where he comes from. He doesn’t look a thing like the bread they or
their ancestors have eaten. When it
comes to bread they don’t expect any more than what their ancestors got, in
this case - manna in the wilderness.
Jesus tells them to be quiet and stop
complaining. “Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died…. I
am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Jesus offers them a choice, living bread or
manna, a wholesome multi-grain bread or wonder bread, life or death. That is the same choice he sets before us –
we can choose the mushy life, that’s only minimally nutritious or we can go for
the gusto and have something you really need to get your teeth into and chew!
On the surface the story here seems to be a
conflict between Jesus and the Jews. But
in reality, the conflict for the Jews is not so much about Jesus but about
their frame of reference, the box they have created for God. Jesus is challenging them to step outside of
the established, comfortable, and familiar context they have created for
themselves. He refuses to be limited by
either their understandings or their misunderstandings. He invites them to live a new life, a larger
life, a life that springs from but is not bound by the past or the context they
have created for themselves. He invites
them to eat new bread.
When John speaks of the Jews he is not
referring to the Jewish people, individually or collectively. He is referring rather to any person or group
who opposes Jesus, who refuses to see and understand the signs, who would
separate the gift of bread from the giver of life. The Jews could be anyone who
acts in this way. In this case it just
happens to be the religious leaders and authorities of Jesus’ day.
We are not so different from the Jews of
Christ’s day. We too have our own frames
of reference. Sometimes we use our frame
of reference to try to contain or control God. Other times we use it to exclude God. The problem is not that we have a frame of
reference, but that it originates with us rather than with God.
When we live only from our personal frame of
reference we live hungry, empty lives. We work for manna, something unsustainable, rather
than opening ourselves to receive the gift of the bread of life, something that
has form and substance – really body to it. No matter how much manna we collect and eat we
can never satisfy ourselves. Manna might
fill our bellies, but it leaves our souls grumbling.
Often the things we have done and left undone
prevent us from eating the bread of life. Sometimes our patterns of thinking, believing,
the way we see the world, each other, or ourselves convince us there is no
other bread and we should just settle for the same old manna or Wonder Bread our
ancestors ate in the wilderness or at the kitchen table. Other times our history, fears, anxieties,
guilt, regrets, pain, and losses become so firmly established we are deceived
into believing that we are not even hungry.
We are not destined to eat white, squishy,
lacking substance and nutritional benefits of White Wonder Bread for the rest
of our lives. Our frame of reference,
our past, our history, neither earn us nor keep us from something better for
ourselves, something of more value and substance – hearty “horse fodder”, as we
called it; but here, the bread of life that Jesus offers. The living bread has come down from heaven to
feed each one of us. Every moment of
every day God invites us to eat this new bread, to step out of the old context
into a new way of living and being.
God gives us bread from heaven, knowing that we
are hungry. Our conflicts, our
restlessness, our deep longings, our desires to love and be loved are hunger
pains by which the Father draws us to his Son; the one who said, “I am the
bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes
in me will never be thirsty.” Hearty
bread for holy hunger. Thanks be to God.
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