Jesus said "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.”
There’s a lovely passage found in Genesis 26 that describes the movement of a nomadic, god loving people including Isaac. And this passage holds up what I call the true work life balance.
Genesis 26:25
Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.
Isaac built his church to look after the people’s spiritual health. Pitched his tent – looking after their home life and dig the well – their work or careers – to feed the animals and provide for the family.
Perfect work life balance – God, Home, Work.
Now that’s another sermon for another day but for me bread is all of those things. I am a baker of bread so it’s my work. I met my wife at baking school some 29 years ago (married 24 years ago) and my wife is a baker. My daughter has a part time job whilst she is at college doing film production media type studies – and she’s a baker. My father was a baker, my mother was a baker. Many of my friends are bakers. My home town is Barnsley – I was born in Barnsley. Did you know that there are more bakers per head of population in Barnsley than any other town in Britain – probably even Europe. And I am a local preacher that worship’s and follows Jesus Christ – who said that HE is the living bread – the bread of life.
So for me personally I am surrounded by the bread of strife, the bread of wife and the bread of life. My whole life is about bread of one sort or another.
Bread is mentioned 256 times in the bible.
Bethlehem means “house of bread”
The Jewish people celebrate feast of unleavened bread. Exodus 12 Exodus 23 and Leviticus 23
1 Kings 22:27 Put this fellow in prison and give him nothing but bread and water until I return safely.’ "
Here eating only bread is seen as punishment.
Psalm 78:25
Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.
Proverbs 28:21
To show partiality is not good— yet a man will do wrong for a piece of bread. I remember in the 1970s when there was a bread shortage in the UK and there were riots.
Proverbs 30:8
Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.
Bread appears to be something basic and honourable.
Ecclesiastes 11:1
Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.
Solomon here is using bread to illustrate that we must take risks and grasp opportunities.
In Ezekiel there is a recipe for bread that has been reproduced today and apparently it is very nutritionally balanced.
Ezekiel 4:9
"Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side.
In the bible we are told that we have to earn our own bread (2 Thess 3:12)
In the feeding of the 5000 and the feeding of the 3000 - miracles of Jesus – the people are well fed on fish and bread.
Bread is one of the symbols of communion where we talk about “breaking bread” – a symbol of coming together in Jesus. Let us break bread together is an invitation to cordiality.
And bread is mentioned many more times in the bible as both a symbol of food generally, as a symbol for something else or as literal bread.
And so we come to the passage in John’s Gospel – John 6:35
Jesus said "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.”
Is anybody on a diet? I’m on a diet !
Whenever you are on a diet you get hungry and you moaps about looking for food. First you look in the fridge, then the cupboard, then the biscuit tin, back to the fridge.
You eat it and then think – I wish I hadn’t eaten that – And you’re still hungry – you don’t know what you want.
This symbolises what Jesus is talking about when he said “I am the bread of life” or “the living bread”
Many people in our society suffer because they are hungry – spiritually hungry. They may try out different faith’s, cults or belief systems but they are never satisfied – always spiritually hungry. Always that something missing from their lives, a void deep within them that they moaps around trying to fill.
And Jesus says that they will only find spiritual fulfilment by coming to Him. – nothing else.
One of the greatest dangers in our Church today even is the concept of “Pluralism” Even some of people professing to be Christians believe that there are many Gods and that other faith’s are the truth.
Jesus said “I am the bread of life” – not “I am one of the many” “THE” bread of life.
Comparing the Greek translation for this passage “I” is translated from the word “ego” "Eimi” means “to be” or “to exist eternally” or “to have timeless being”.
In the greek of the bible, eimi is often contrasted with the Greek verb ginomai, which can also mean to be, but has more of an emphasis on to become or to be created or to happen, in a time-bound, temporal sense.
What Jesus is saying is that I am THE bread that will satisfy your spiritual hunger and I will always be the only bread that will satisfy spiritual hunger.
In John chapter 8 Jesus said:
24I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins."
I heard this – perhaps in one of the food journals somewhere that the reason why western people are overweight today is that our food is not nutritionally balanced. In the modern [processing of food some of the essential nutrients are destroyed and so despite filling our belly’s with food – something is missing and our body still craves for more food.
Include those missing nutrients in your diet and the hunger is satisfied. These nutrients are often found in fresh fruits and vegetables – no surprise there.
You can fill you soul with “other belief’s” and you will still not be satisfied – no matter how much you get. Jesus said “ I am the bread of life – He who comes to me will never go hungry” Jesus – the missing nutrient in a soul sometimes.
But HOW does this all work. How can this bread feed us forever. Let’s get a glimpse.
Deuteronomy 8:3
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
When tempted by the devil in the Desert Jesus quoted this scripture. Jesus was hungry and the devil taunted him to turn the stone into bread.
Matthew 4:4
Jesus answered, "It is written: ’Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ "
When I refer to the word of God I think of the Bible. The bible, though wholly the work of people is “God breathed”
2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is God-breathed . . . .
Now bear with me on this one. You may have heard about the “Gi diet” where foods have a “Glycemic Index” and if you eat foods with a low GI then you loose weight. The way you loose weight is that low Gi foods take longer to digest in your stomach and so your body feels satisfied for longer and you don’t need to eat.
If you are a marathon runner you are encouraged to eat pasta the night before the race because pasta has lots of energy in and the speed of release of energy from Pasta is slow so that you get it during the race just when you need it. It’s actually a bit more complicated than that though. The pasta has to be “al-dente” (slightly undercooked and firm) it’s the fact that the pasta is hard that slows the release of energy and sustains you for longer. Overcooked pasta is Higher Gi – al-dente pasta is lower Gi.
Back to bread – Low Gi bread – that sustains you for longer is full of hard bits in. Seedy breads and Granary type bread. White bread will give you sustenance sooner but will fade faster but bread with hard bits in take longer to digest but keep you satisfied longer.
And so it is with the word of God as found in the bible. This sustains us forever!
In the bible there are some parts that are like white bread with the crusts cut off – Little baby in the manger – little donkey and gifts of spices and perfume and gold. Angels singing Glory to god in the highest.
They are easy to digest – easy to understand – simple to tell and we tell these bits in Sunday school to the little children. I love these parts of the bible but the trouble is that they don’t satisfy me for very long – I want more.
And so we get other parts of the bible where they are like a standard loaf of bread. They look inviting but when you first read these bits you can’t quite understand (a hard crust) But when you get into them they become really tasty passages. I’m thinking perhaps of the Easter message or the message of Pentecost – Now for the children in Sunday School these bits may be harder to digest but eventually you understand and for me these areas of scripture satisfy me for much longer.
And the bible has some hard bits in. These hard bits are harder to digest. For me they still haven’t been digested yet. These parts of the bible will hold me satisfied for ever – no doubt. The Low Glycemic hard parts of the bible.
The book of Revelation; how hard do you want?
2Kings 2
23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" 24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. 25 And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.
What on earth (or in heaven) is this all about. Bald headed prophet gets called slap head by some youths and so calls a curse of 2 big grizzly’s to maul them to death.
God has placed this passage in the bible. I trust God that He has done so in His wisdom – but why?
Here’s another hard bit in the bible – Does anyone have problem teenagers?
Deuteronomy 21:18-21
18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard." 21 Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
Makes an ASBO van look rather tame! (UK Anti-social Behaviour Order; Police video youths on the streets from a video van and arrest them if they misbehave)
OK you say – chuckle at Old Testament times. And what about the nature of Jesus
Matthew 7:6
"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs.
Matthew 15:26
He replied, "It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs." - this to a lady who came begging for Jesus’s help.
Hang on a minute – let’s rewind. Does Jesus really call people pigs and dogs? Well we don’t teach this in Sunday school do we?
This part of scripture is a firmer bit - one of the adult bits – like Granary bread – best left for the adults because it warrants deeper consideration.
And friends let me go further. We may think that we are adult Christians here in this Church but there are some parts of the bible that are so low glycemic that our modern translators have sanitized it for us. They have taken this bread and have cut the crusts off for us because even adults have difficulty in fully digesting it
Philippians 3:verse 8
I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ . . .
Do you see the hard bit yet? No – well this bread has been de-crusted – here in the NIV.
The same passage from the King James version of the bible ises the word “dung” instead of the word “rubbish”
The Message uses the phrase “dog dung”
The original Greek translation uses the word:
Óêõâáëá (skubala) and this translates as a very impolite term for “the excrement that comes from the back of an animal or human” - Friends I shall go no further – you know the word.
What Paul is saying here is that his previous life was less than rubbish compared to his Christian life – and he uses language that we, in our crust less cucumber sandwiches thinking of the bible is just too crusty.
With a bible so low glycemic no wonder that it can sustain us forever.
But friends I shall go even further !
Romans 1:29
They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, Do we gossip occasionally?
Matthew 28:19
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
When was the last time we went and made a disciple of someone?
Luke 18:12
I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
Hebrews 7:5
Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people
Do we trust God enough to give Him a tenth of our earnings?
Friends – these are hard bits in the bible – As someone once said “[it is not the bits of the bible that I don’t understand that I have difficulty with – it’s the bits that I understand all too well]”
They say “easy come – easy go” Perhaps the hard parts of the bible contribute to it being here to stay.
Jesus is the baby in the manger, the boy presented at the temple, the provider of wine to the party, the one who heals the sick and restores sight to the blind. He is the one who feeds thousands on meagre rations and the one who walks on water. The one who calls people pigs and dogs; who wrecks the market in the church. He is the one who rode triumphant into Jerusalem one week was bruitally tortured and though innocent executed the next. His followers used swear words that we- his followers dare not quote from His word. The one who demands a tenth, requires that we approach others about Him, the one who rebukes us and guides us.
The one who died but then came back because even death could not and cannot conquer Him and, Praise God is the one who has prepared a place in eternity for us too. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit - One God with a glycemic index of eternity.
Jesus said “I am the bread of life, he who comes to me will NEVER go hungry he who believes in me will never be thirsty”
