9th Sunday after Pentecost [Pr.13] August 2, 2009 “Series B”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, we acknowledge your generous hand in our lives, for everything we need comes from your bounty. But we especially thank you for the gift of your Son, Jesus the Christ, the bread of life who came to nourish us with your redeeming grace. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds to the living bread which Jesus offers, that we might be strengthened in faith, and more fully embrace the new relationship with you that he offers. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
Last Sunday, we entered this sixth chapter of John’s Gospel by reading two events in the life of Jesus. The first event is the only miracle of Jesus that is recorded in all four Gospels – his feeding of the 5000 with a boy’s lunch of five small barley loaves and two fish. And when all had eaten their fill, the disciples were able to collect twelve baskets of leftovers. The crowd then wanted to seize Jesus to make him king.
The second event was the story of Jesus coming to his disciples, who had set sail to cross the Sea of Galilee, who were struggling against the waves in the midst of a storm. Jesus came to those frightened men, walking on the stormy water. Jesus tries to calm the disciples’ anxiety by calling out to them, “It is I, do not be afraid. And when they took him into the boat, they immediately reached their destination.
Well, following worship last Sunday, Pastor Blair confronted me with a question. He asked me if I noticed the grammatically incorrect phrase that Jesus used to address his frightened disciples? Jesus said, “It is I,” rather than “It is me.” “Yes,” I said. “I noticed that.”
Then Pastor Blair proceeded to tell me that John’s use of that incorrect phrase was intentional. It is a reference to when Moses was called by God from the burning bush to go to Egypt to lead the Israelites from their bondage to slavery. When confronted with the task of carrying out God’s plan, Moses asked God whom he should tell the people had sent him. God’s response was “I am who I am. Tell this to the people, ‘I am’ sent you to them.
Now, I don’t know whether I short-circuited a teaching moment between us, but I responded, “Yes, I know that.” To which Pastor Blair responded, “Well, I just want you to know that I know that too.” For the most part, I really enjoy Pastor Blair’s comments, and our fencing back and forth. In fact, I was struck by the opening comment by William H. Willimon in his commentary on our text.
Willimon said, “A couple of months after a young rabbi arrived in town, I went to the synagogue to welcome him to our community. During the course of conversation, I asked him, ‘Now that you are graduated from theological school and on your own, do you miss school? The young rabbi replied, ‘As a Jew, you’re never really ‘on your own.’ And I don’t really miss much about school, except when I’m reading scripture. As you probably know, it takes at least two Jews to read Torah – one to read, the other to help interpret.” End quote.
Well, on this particular issue, Pastor Blair and I are on the same page. And it is that statement of Jesus that actually forms the transition from those events that we read last week, to the discourse that we encounter this week. In the original language of John’s Gospel, Jesus calls out to his disciples who see him walking on the rough sea, “Ego eimi.” It is a phrase in Greek that can mean either “It is me,” or “I am who I am.”
Now we come to our lesson for this Sunday, where John tells us that many of the crowd whom Jesus had fed followed him across the Sea, in search for him. The implication may be that they still wanted to make him their king, to obligate Jesus to provide for them and protect them. Is that not indicated in the response of Jesus, when the crowd finally finds him and asks, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus said, “You are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves…”
In other words, John tells us that Jesus perceived that the people were more focused on having their physical needs met, than on recognizing that in him, they could behold the presence of God and his redeeming grace. Instead of asking, “Who is this guy, who can multiply loaves of bread and walk on water,” they were more concerned about what Jesus was able to do to relieve their illness, of ease their hunger.
And so Jesus enters into a spiritual dialogue with those who had followed him across the Sea. But upon those who were seeking for physical security, Jesus’ words fell on deaf ears. And of course, there is so much symbolism in these words of Jesus, that even we who live now, knowing of his death and resurrection for our redemption, have a hard time grasping all that it means.
Scholars today call this sixth chapter of John’s Gospel the “Bread of Life” discourse, since “bread” is the central noun that occurs from beginning to end. At the beginning of the chapter, John tells us that Jesus provided for the physical needs of the people’s hunger. Up on top of a mountain, where there was no place to purchase food, Jesus multiplies the loaves and feeds the hungry crowd. Is this a call for us to use our resources to support our church’s “World Hunger Appeal?” Perhaps it is, as we seek to follow Jesus’ example.
But the bulk of this chapter in John’s Gospel, has to do with us coming to understand that there is a spiritual dimension to the life of Jesus. The signs that Jesus did, point beyond themselves, to enable us to see not only who Jesus truly is, but that he comes among us to nourish us with the redeeming grace of God that leads to eternal life. In this Gospel, the term bread is not just a physical substance to keep our bodies alive and active, it is a substance that nourishes us in our relationship with God.
In addition, many scholars today believe that this is John’s way of helping us realize the significance of the sacrament of Holy Communion. Here we come to our Lord’s table to receive, not only the physical substance of bread and wine, but also with the bread and wine, the true presence of God’s grace in our crucified and risen Lord.
And then we come to that transition word with which I began my sermon. John tells us that in the midst of his conversation with the crowd, he said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” I am. I am who I am.
Clearly, Jesus is not saying that if we come to believe and have faith in him that we will not have to eat and drink to sustain our life. If we believed that, it would do away with many of the most popular activities at our congregation – the various dinners and fellowship hours following worship. No, we still have to work and cook and strive to meet our physical needs in order to sustain our life here on earth. And unlike some who believe that prayer is enough to heal the sick, without taking advantage of medical care, Jesus is not advocating that.
However, what Jesus is saying is that we should open our hearts and minds to see in these signs that he did, and the words that he spoke, to see who it is that truly feeds us and nourishes us for life beyond this life we now live. For to feed upon the bread of life, to feed upon our faith in Jesus the Christ, is food that lasts for an eternity.
It was not enough for John to have us know that Jesus had the ability to perform miraculous feats. John’s major purpose in writing his Gospel had a higher purpose. As he summed up his Gospel in the last two verses of the twentieth chapter, he wanted us to know wh0 Jesus truly is. Here John states, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”
To recognize that Jesus is truly the Son of God is not easy. It goes against so much of what we believe to be true today, just as it did when Jesus confronted that crowd years ago. But through the power of God’s Spirit, our hearts can be opened and our minds led to embrace that Jesus is the true bread that came down from heaven. And as members of Christ’s church, Jesus continues to feed us with his presence and the gift of God’s grace through his word and in his sacraments.
Amen
