I have spoken several times now about my New Testament teacher at School for Deacons, his name is Scott Sinclair. He is a wonderful teacher with a depth of knowledge that is impressive at least. You will hear me refer to him often. And I like to give credit where credit is due.
In Scott’s class we learned that he and other scholars believe that the Gospel Acc to John was written as a manual on how to live the Christian Life. The other three Gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke, are more historical than John. It is thought that the author of John was portraying Jesus’ life from God’s point of view – an instruction book rather than a history book. I find it an interesting and helpful way to approach reading the Gospel of John. Keeping all this in mind, then, Chapter 6, where we are now is about the Eucharist and is preceded by a section on Baptism.
Last week’s Gospel from the beginning of Chapter 6 is set at Passover time. For the author of the Gospel, Passover equals the Eucharist. The crowds of people were following Jesus around because of the signs or miracles that he had performed - healing those who had diseases. Jesus had gathered the people on the side of the mountain and the familiar story of the Feeding of the 5 thousand follows. This part ends with Jesus escaping the crowd when he senses that they want to make him king. At night the disciples start across the Sea of Galilee in a boat without Jesus which isn’t explained, and they row three or four miles when Jesus comes walking across the water to the boat that holds the disciples. When he got into the boat it was immediately on the far shore of the Sea of Galilee. The crowds who were still searching for him were flummoxed because they couldn’t figure out how Jesus got there and they were continuing to be amazed at what had happened on the other side of the sea with the miracles of the feeding and healing. The crowd focuses on the spectacular nature of the signs and miracles. And they had rowed across the sea to find him. Jesus says they are still “hungry” and have worked hard to find him because they want the magic food from him again. As a rebuttal and perhaps defense, the people in the crowd talk about Moses and the manna from heaven because the Messiah, who they now think Jesus is, was expected to produce the miracle of that manna again. The crowd are looking for earthly signs of the coming of a new king and a new reign on earth. They are looking for earthly solutions to earthly problems. Jesus says to the crowd, don’t work for the food that perishes, but for the bread of life which is the true bread from heaven. This is what he has to share with them and with us. Jesus is talking about Food for the Soul versus Food that Perishes. Soul food and Perishable food. Being a nutritionist in my day job I immediately picked up on the “perishable food” idea. We think and talk a lot about the perishable nature of food at my work, because we first and foremost don’t want to make anyone more sick than they already are when in the hospital. Food borne illness is bad for people and it’s bad for business, too. If we eat something and it makes us sick we lose your trust in the food and in the person who gave it to us. Trust is implicit when one takes and eats food from another person whether at home or in a restaurant or a church. This is especially important in a hospital as patients are dependant on the Nutrition staff for their food and drink. The metaphor of hunger and thirst implies wholesomeness, trust, healing and renewal.
Jesus uses this metaphor of hunger and thirst throughout the book of John. We remember another scene from the Gospel of John when Jesus meets the woman at the well in Samaria. He offers her a drink of water that will keep her from ever being thirsty again and she is amazed and amused at his suggestion. She is the first person he tells about his true identity, as one who can provide a permanent solution to the hunger and thirst of the soul. She begins to trust and understand him when he tells her facts about her life that no stranger could have known. He uses a sign or miracle to get her attention and make her hunger for more and she begins to understand who he is. She tells others to “come and see” because she believes she has met the Messiah. Now here in this passage in John, Jesus is telling the crowd about his true identity as well – “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” It is the opinion of the author of the Gospel acc to John that we are saved by believing that Jesus is God infleshed; what we call the Incarnation; by believing that the Spirit of God can exist in our material world and satisfy our spiritual hunger and thirst.
So what it is about this perishable food, the potentially hazardous food (as we say in the hospital) that we are to look beyond? In John’s Gospel the miracles and signs are done to get one’s attention but are insufficient in themselves for really understanding who Jesus is. The miracles are food but perishable. When my daughter Sarah was in junior high she had a girl friend who invited her to church. The kids were rewarded for inviting other children to church by the promise of a limousine ride to the child who brought the most friends each week. I don’t know if Sarah’s friend won the limo ride for bringing her to church that week but I know Sarah liked going there. There was also a rock-climbing wall and a big-screen TV to watch bible videos on. Now far be it for me to criticize any other church’s evangelism program, but I always wondered what theology these tempting activities taught Sarah. I wondered how she understood Jesus’ presence in her life. I wondered if the fun and games did more than pull her in. She also attended the confirmation program led by Michael Carney, who was the previous vicar here at St. George’s. Both my daughters and my son were in that program. When it came time to be confirmed Sarah didn’t want to go to the Cathedral and stand up in front of all the other confirmands and their families. She asked me why I wanted her to do that. I was taken aback by her question but I said that by being confirmed she was showing her personal commitment to the baptismal promise that I had made for her many years before. She looked confused so I added that it showed that she believed in Jesus. She answered, well, that’s silly. EVERYONE already knows that I believe in Jesus, I don’t have to go to the Cathedral to prove it. So I said, honey, just do it for Mommy. It was a great moment for me, as you can imagine. She had partaken of the soul food that Jesus offers – the one that doesn’t leave us hungry for more but satisfies deep in our hearts. And she didn’t feel like she had to prove it to anyone, her love of Jesus had become part of her being.
Today, when we take the bread and wine, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are acknowledging our belief that Jesus is God in the flesh. We believe that Jesus died and rose from the grave and lives in the world with us by the power of the Holy Spirit and is alive with us here today in this room, in this Eucharist, when Amber breaks the bread. The miracles point us to this life that we live now together with Jesus – the hope of the resurrection and giving of the Spirit, the love that we have for each other, and in the real presence of Christ in the bread and wine.
God loved the world so much that he gave us his Son in human form, knowing that he would suffer as human beings do. Jesus says to us, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” It is the deep compassion of Christ for the suffering in the world that lets us trust, hope and love enough to be Christ for the world. And in the breaking of the bread when we see Jesus again we renew our trust, hope and love. Let us pray.
Dearest Lord Jesus – we ask you to send your Holy Spirit to be present in our gathering today. We thank you for the gift of your human life which inspires us to be Christ for the world. Bless our work as a parish and send us out to love and serve our neighbors as we follow in your Way. Amen.
Ephesians 4:1-16 •
John 6:24-35
