The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

August 18, 2024

John 6:35-51

The Bread of Life —

The Bread that Gives Wisdom and Life!

35Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

41At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42They 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 him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (NIV1984)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

What is the healthiest way to eat? Back in the 1970’s Sweden developed what was known as the Food Pyramid— “a visual representation (in the shape of a pyramid) of the optimal number of servings of food a person should eat daily from each basic food group.” The Food Pyramid centers on fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy proteins like nuts, beans, fish and some chicken.

There are those who emphasize that the healthiest way to eat is to follow a certain type of diet— like the Mediterranean diet, or the Atkins diet, or the vegetarian diet.

For those who may have had an unhealthy relationship with food there are commercials for things such as Ozempic, Golo and Sono Bello.

What do all of these things have in common? They all emphasize that eating food is not an optional activity! Food is a life-or-death necessity! At the very same time these things all remind us that the kind of food we eat has a dramatic impact on our physical health!

You can guess where I am going with this. As we continue looking at Jesus’ claim that He is The Bread of Life today the Holy Spirit wants us to see that Jesus is: The Bread that Gives Wisdom and Life!

Last Sunday’s Gospel lesson (John 6:24-35), today’s Gospel lesson (John 6:35-51), and next Sunday’s Gospel lesson (John 6:51-69) are all a part of what is known as Jesus’ “Bread of Life” discourse. All three of these Gospel lessons flow out of Jesus’ miraculous feeding of over 5,000 people with just five loaves of bread and two fish. But as you know, the people who benefited from this glorious miracle either misunderstood and/or rejected what Jesus was trying to teach them with this miracle. For that reason Jesus restates the truth He wants them to understand— namely, that Jesus is the “Bread of Life.”

Since our goal today is to see that as the “bread of life” Jesus gives us both wisdom and life, let’s see how this text emphasizes both of those blessings. What is the wisdom that Jesus, the “bread of life,” gives to us? That wisdom is summarized in the opening verse of our text where Jesus declares, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never go thirsty.”

In order to see the wisdom contained in these words we need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. After the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 this large crowd of people wanted Jesus to give them more! More food to fill their bellies! More food to nourish their physical bodies! In the bigger picture we see that in His Bread of Life discourse Jesus tried to lead the people along a very logical path: food for the soul is more important than food for the body (John 6:27); food for the soul comes from God in the form of bread (John 6:32); this bread from God is a Person who comes from heaven and gives life to the world (John 6:33); and then Jesus once again shines on spotlight on the very essence of wisdom, “I am the bread of life…I have come down from heaven” (John 6:35, 38).

The wisdom that the Bread of Life gives to us is not a wisdom that this world could ever possibly discover and/or produce on its own. The wisdom that the Bread of Life gives to us is not a wisdom that we can learn and/or achieve on our own. The wisdom that the Bread of Life gives to us is a gift that is given to us by God through faith in Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul helps us to understand this when he says to us in our Epistle lesson for today (1 Corinthians 2:6-16), “We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” Think of it this way, my friends. As the Bread of Life Jesus gives us the wisdom of knowing Who He is and what He has done for us! (Pointing to the cross) That is the essence of true wisdom. That is the wisdom that we can only receive from Him. (Pointing to the cross)

The apostle John makes it crystal clear here in our text that because of their unbelief many of the people who heard Jesus’ Bread of Life discourse did not understand what Jesus was proclaiming to them. John tells us, “At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ 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”?’”

Like many people today, many of the people in this large crowd rejected Jesus’ claim, “I am the bread of life that came down from heaven” — because they could only see the human side of Jesus. They automatically connected Jesus with Joseph and Mary— not with heaven. Because they could only see the human side of Jesus, they “grumbled” at what He was saying to them.

Do we ever “grumble” like this? Do we ever “grumble” when we do not get immediate gratification from God? Does God ever seem “too human” for us unless He gives us what we want when we want it? We do need to be careful, my friends. We need to be careful that we don’t “grumble” when the good Lord does not give us the tangible yet temporary things of this world. We need to be careful that we always treasure the true wisdom that the Bread of Life gives to us!

Why is it important for us to treasure the true wisdom that the Bread of Life gives to us? Because together with that wisdom the Bread of Life also gives us the sure promise of eternal life! Look at what Jesus says, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.”

The people who were “grumbling” were fixated on the physical. They literally wanted Jesus to literally provide them with all the “manna” they could eat— just like Moses did for God’s people of old. (See John 6:30-31) That’s why Jesus had to remind them of what happens if you are completely focused on the physical— “Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died.”

Picture this scene in your mind. As Jesus, the Bread of Life, stood in front of this large crowd He knew that they considered themselves to be spiritually well-fed. They were very well versed in the man-made rules and regulations that they had learned from the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Teachers of the Law. But all these man-made rules and regulations were all like spiritual “junk food.” It gave them the false hope that if they do this or if they don’t do that they can earn the right to live with God forever. Remember, these are the same people who had just asked Jesus, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” (John 6:28)

Jesus burst that bubble of false hope when He said to them, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” When it comes to true “life,” when it comes to spiritual “life” it is impossible for us poor, mortal, sinful human beings to achieve this “life” on our own! It is impossible for us poor, mortal, sinful human beings to “choose” or to “decide” that we want to be saved and live with God forever. The “life” that the Bread of Life gives to us is a gift of God’s amazing grace. In His love, in His mercy and in His power the heavenly Father “draws” us or “attracts” us to Himself. In other words, when it comes to our conversion, when it comes to how we became a Christian God is the One who does all the work!

What does God use to accomplish the miracle we call conversion? Think of what Paul tells us in Romans 1:16-17, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God (that is, the power that comes from God or the power that belongs to God) for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew and then for the Gentile.” Through the glorious message of the Gospel as it comes to us through God’s holy Word and God’s holy Sacraments, God the Father “draws” us or “attracts” us to Himself. Through the glorious message of the Gospel as it comes to us through God’s holy Word and God’s holy Sacraments, Jesus, the Bread of Life, gives us life— true life, “everlasting life” as He says here in our text.

To everyone who has been given this glorious gift of life Jesus makes this glorious promise, “I will raise him up on the last day.” Think about what this means! It means that all your family, all your friends, all your loved ones who died believing and trusting that Jesus is the Bread of Life will be raised from their graves on the Last Day and live with Jesus— forever! It means that when the time comes for you to close your eyes in the sleep of death you can do so with the confidence that Jesus, the Bread of Life, will most certainly wake you up from the sleep of death so that you also can live with Jesus— forever!

What gives Jesus the right to make such a powerful promise? Look at the closing verse of our text. Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

“Eating” the “flesh” of the Bread of Life is a picturesque and memorable way of describing our faith in Jesus. To be more specific, “eating” the “flesh” of the Bread of Life means believing and trusting in what Jesus did for us on the cross of Calvary’s hill. (Pointing to the cross) This cross assures us of the eternal blessings we already have. This cross assures us of the eternal blessings we will have— because Jesus, the Bread of Life was willing to give His life, His “flesh,” as the ultimate payment for all the sins of all the world. The apostle Peter reminds us of this very same truth when he says, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

So, my friends, what is the healthiest way to eat? When it comes to our physical bodies there are a wide variety of answers to that question. One person might carefully choose their menu based upon the guidance of the Food Pyramid. Another person might carefully choose their menu based upon the guidance of a particular diet method. Yet another person might throw all of that guidance out the window and simply eat whatever they want.

As Christians we always need to be conscious of the fact that when it comes to our faith, when it comes to our soul, when it comes to the spiritual aspect of who we are— we need to be extremely careful about the spiritual food we ingest. There is a whole smorgasbord of artificial, non-nourishing spiritual food being offered in the spiritual marketplace of this world. But there is only one spiritual food that gives us true wisdom. There is only one spiritual food that gives us everlasting life. That one spiritual food is Jesus— The Bread of Life!

To God be the glory!

Amen