John 6:35-51 NIV
35 Then Jesus declared, “I
am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and
whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I
told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and
whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have
come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who
sent me. 39 And this
is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has
given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my
Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him
shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
41 At this the Jews there
began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the
bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They
said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we
know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
43 “Stop grumbling among
yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one
can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise
them up at the last day. 45 It is
written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who
has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has
seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the
Father. 47 Very truly
I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the
bread of life. 49 Your
ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here
is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not
die. 51 I am the
living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will
live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the
world.”
I Will Raise You Up
Look at that! Over and over, Jesus words tell us that He will raise us,
you and me, up on the last day. Just look at that! Look back over this passage
of scripture. See how many of these words are the words of Jesus?
Jesus words above, are to the point. Jesus words are the promise of God
through Jesus. Believe this Jesus. Take this Jesus in, and consume Him. Jesus IS
the only food needed for eternal life. This Jesus, IS the food that feeds us and
nourishes us and sends us out, full of love for God and for those God gives to
us each and every day as we live out our life in this place and in this time.
It's like this introduction to my reflective work of this week on this
passage is a mini-major lesson all its own.
We must feed on Christ. And not just once a week, for maybe an hour or
fifteen minutes of waking time during a sermon. No! We need to feed on Christ
daily. Let’s take a look at the Third Commandment, with this feeding on Christ
daily in mind.
Remember this Commandment? …
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
Luther’s Explanation to What does this mean?
We should fear and love God so that we do not despise His Word and the
preaching of it, but acknowledge it as holy, and gladly hear and learn it.
This Commandment wasn’t meant to be a one-shot deal for the week. This
commandment wasn’t in place to identify a day of the week to remember the
Sabbath day. No! I contend that this commandment was meant to be daily, hourly,
and maybe minute by minute. We have a deep need to turn to God. As humans it
may be a need to turn to Jesus.
In our call from God, we need the Word to feed and guide us. It’s never
our own efforts that drive us to God. No! God draws us in to Himself. Rather
the food of Jesus working through and out of us is what makes our life in Jesus’
tick, or work, or come to life. Jesus is the power to live out love into this
world.
Never deny the meal of Christ. You need Jesus to live! Crave nothing else
in life. You can’t satisfy your need, your life, with anything else. There will
be no satisfaction in eternal life with power, money, drugs, education,
alcohol, food, sex, prestige or anything else. All these earthly desires which
we may work towards, to bring us our own personal satisfactions, will fail when
it comes to eternal life.
Crave only Christ Jesus. We have been offered as seen, heard and read,
from the above Gospel Scripture the “Bread of Life. “This “Bread of Life” which
gives us life. This Jesus! So… Why starve?
Now, let’s go to the “Way Back Machine,” on this feeding, let’s take a
look at the Word in Isaiah…
Isaiah 55:1-2 NIV
55 “Come,
all you who are thirsty,
come to
the waters;
and you who have no money,
come,
buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without
money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your
labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you
will delight in the richest of fare.
There is God’s Food and
Drink in Jesus! The free Food of God!
Wow! That was just the introduction to this reflection on “Pointing to
Jesus.” Talk about Pointing to Jesus! That’s ALL Jesus!
Jesus is the One we believe. When we read this account, these words of
Jesus, we see through the eyes of faith. Faith is an important gift from God
that let’s us see through the eyes of faith and believe in Jesus.
Lets’ take a closer look at verse 37, and contemplate its deep meaning:
37 All those the Father gives
me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
These are Jesus’ own words here. Look at that! Jesus thinks of us, you
and me, as a gift from God! In this one verse we see that Jesus loves to save
us, His gift from God. Yes, Jesus loves to save us from sin and death. Look at
these words in this paragraph of Jesus speaking.
God took the first move in giving us to Jesus. Think of that! We are in
Jesus because God the Father gave us to Jesus. We were Jesus’ gift, not because
we did anything to earn Jesus! It flips this gift thing of Baptism on its head.
I’ve never thought of my life with God as being a gift TO Jesus. Wow!
And, on top of all this; Jesus is OUR Gift from God!
What a divine, wonderful, circle God has created in Gifts of Us and Jesus.
Gifts One to the other and the other to the ONE.
So, yes, hunger for Jesus.
Jesus comes to us to bring us home to God. This IS God’s love. This IS God’s
love for us and God’s grace to us. That leads us to this question; What is God’s
will for you and for me?
Well, that sounds like a work question, it is and it isn’t. It’s more
like a thankful response question and a gift question. God’s will for you and
for me is to have eternal life through Him! That’s a GIFT!
The will of God the Father is that you and I may see Jesus, believe, AND
have eternal life and resurrection. This all just blows my mind. It’s all a
gift and my own efforts don’t apply towards receiving this gift. What Love is
this?
Love, as in Jesus’ love or our love for neighbor, exhibits the power to
attract. Look back once again…
Jeremiah 31:3 NIV
3 The Lord appeared to us in the
past, saying:
“I have loved you
with an everlasting love;
I have
drawn you with unfailing kindness.
Hosea 11:4 NIV
4 I led
them (God’s people) with cords of human kindness,
with
ties of love.
To them I was like one who lifts
a little
child to the cheek,
and I
bent down to feed them.
Well, this Gift from God the Father to God the Son to us, blew the minds
of the people of that day as well as today.
Some people may only see Jesus as a son of Mary and Joseph. A guy from a
small town that was taught the skills of a tradesman, a carpenter. Maybe a few,
give Jesus the honor of calling Him a prophet. But many then and today see
Jesus in an earthly, material, kind of way.
But… God calls us to see Jesus as the “Bread of Life.” God changes our
focus as we have seen in the past few sessions of “Pointing to Jesus,” to move
us from a material view to a spiritual view.
God the Father sent Jesus from Heaven to Earth and back to Heaven.
Accept Jesus at His Word. After all, Jesus has seen God. Believe what
Jesus says!
We also live out our lives on this earth, in this place and in this time.
But when we look to Jesus with the eyes of the Holy Spirit, and through the
eyes of what Jesus did for us on this earth; we are led to see how eternal life
with God is a gift, freely given to us.
How? We eat the “Bread” freely given to us. Through this “Bread” this
Jesus, we are being taught. And this
teaching is a timeless teaching. Back to the “Way Back Machine” of Isaiah…
Isaiah 54:13 NIV
13 All your
children will be taught by the Lord,
and
great will be their peace.
Jesus is the TRUE giver of
life. Jesus IS, once again, as told several times in this passage of Gospel Scripture;
I AM. I AM… that is God. The God of all time as witnessed by Moses and all the
Fathers of the Old Testament and today.
As the Israelites escaped
from the slavery in Egypt and wandered in the wilderness; God freely gave them
the gift of manna, Bread from Heaven, to feed them and sustain them for a time,
for a while, for a moment in history.
But now, in this passage,
we see that God gives us sinful beings, people destined to death and hell due
to our sinful nature; something we don’t deserve or could never earn from our
own works.
What is this? What is this
Bread from Heaven?
Jesus is this “Bread of
Life that gives freely eternal life. Eternal life that passes straight through
our physical need to spiritual life in Jesus. And through this eating of “Real”
Bread, we receive Jesus.
As Jesus words in this
Gospel passage make clear, Jesus IS the Bread of Life that gives eternal life.
So…
Eat the Bread of Life.
Take Jesus in and live forever. Jesus gives His life for you, today… tomorrow…
and forever.
Back to Luther’s Catechism
on Holy Communion.
What is Holy Communion?
Communion is the true body
and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and the wine, given to us
Christians to eat and drink as instituted by Christ himself.
Where is this written?
Matthew, Mark, Luke and
Paul say:
In the night in which he
was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread and gave thanks; broke it, and gave it
to his disciples saying:
“Take and eat; this is my
body, given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.”
Again, after supper, he
took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it for all to drink, saying:
“This cup is the new
covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of
sin. Do this for the remembrance of me.”
What is the benefit of
such eating and drinking?
It is pointed out in these
words: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Through these
words the forgiveness of sin, life, and salvation are given to us in the
Sacrament, for where there is forgiveness of sin, there is also life and
salvation.
How can bodily eating and
drinking produce such great benefits?
It is not the eating and
drinking alone, but also the words that accompany it, “Given and shed for you
for the forgiveness of sins.”
These words, together with
the eating and drinking are the chief thing in the Sacrament, and those who
believe them have what they say and declare, namely, the forgiveness of sins.
Wow!
God gives us to Jesus for
us to know Him in all eternity. The Grace of God IS forever! Believe it!
Lord, as we journey in
this wilderness of life in which we now live, show us our sin and lead us to
Mount Sinai to meet with You and turn to You. Deliver us from our fears that we
may live in the love of forgiveness, freely given to us through your Son, Jesus.
Teach us to imitate Jesus’ love for us and all people that we too may go, fed
by the “Bread of Life” into our world, here and now, to love and serve all
those you give to us… today… tomorrow… and forever. --- Amen
I leave you with this hymn
that came to mind…
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