Can you guess what Denver, Orlando, Palm Beach, Cleveland, and Las Vegas have in common? They all have passed ordinances to stop groups from feeding the hungry in public.1 You can have 24 hour gambling but you better not hand out sandwiches in a park in Las Vegas. You can party like mad on the beach in Florida but don’t give more than 25 people food in a park without a permit. Yet we sit at record unemployment. The Oregon Food Bank reports that the last six months of 2008 saw their distribution rise 15% over the same time in 2007.
Here is some even sadder news. A 2003 survey of American households found that during the previous year, over half of them gave nothing to help the poor. What’s more the same survey found that "although respondents reported spending about $240 a year on fast food...a typical household spends only $5 a year on assistance to poor children."2 Praise the Lord we’re not part of that group. In fact, the stats are probably worse than that because there are some 300,000 congregations just like Kenton in the U.S. who do serve those around them in need.
Hunger is not unique to today. In Jesus’ day it was also rampant and "bread" was the very staple of life. It isn’t surprising then that the 5000+ who got fed the day before would seek Jesus the next day. I am guessing Jesus senses the con they are thinking of when they innocently ask, "When did you come here?" because his answer is just a bit cold. Amen, amen which we often read as verily, verily or truly, truly is Jesus’ opening comment. It means that this saying is settled once and for all as true and you’d better listen. Then Jesus states the crowd has sought him so that their bellies’ could be filled like an ox or sheep.
Eternal life is found in a different sort of bread than that we eat and the crowd rallies around this and asks what works must be done. These are good Jewish people who think of "works" in terms of keeping the commandments of Moses. Jesus however switches gears and says the work of God is to believe in the one whom the Father has sent, namely Jesus. Now it gets interesting because there were those who had just gone to hear this Jesus. Some were probably there to hear this heresy for themselves. Others had been sitting too far away to see the miracle of the day before, all they knew was they had enough to eat.
When many of the Jews thought of the manna during the Exodus they thought of Moses, even though, deep down they knew it was God who gave it. So when they start to use the manna card with Jesus. Jesus goes on the offensive. The TRUE BREAD is sent from "MY Father" This is Jesus’ second "you’d better believe this" phrase. The purpose of this TRUE bread is explained in verse 33. "For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world."
There are worse hungers than a stomach that growls. There is a hunger that grows out of the scars and abuse we’ve suffered over the years. A child who is never told their loved seeks love in the first willing arms they find and when rejected seeks another. The husband who is shamed by his wife looks for hobbies, escapes, addictions and lovers to satisfy the hunger for a relationship that nourishes.
Likewise the wife of an uncaring infantile husband will start to fulfill her hunger for a relationship with friends, activities, her children and perhaps relationships which lead to infidelity.
Some hunger for something more in life. ALPHA has a great poster. It shows a man on top of a mountain, arms outstretched shouting "Is there more to life than this?" There are those who hunger to know if the mistakes they made over the last 50 years can be forgiven. There is a hunger that asks, "Did I do anything that will be remembered?" and "Why does everyday seem just like the last one?" I ran across an interesting quotation on a website promoting Buddhism, "Then why do we feel hunger for the new, boredom with the old or curiosity for the different? Why do we feel jealousy, envy or desire to have what someone else has or to be someone else?"3 The reason is quite simply we’ve been happy with fast food answers. Many of us have found it is easier to live in the world of excuses and justifications than be teachable. It is easier to look at the fast foods of our past than be willing to be made ready for the feast of God.
The Bread of heaven satisfies the deeper hungers we often don’t express and sometimes deny we even fell. It does this because Jesus’ life isn’t based on that which perishes. People, places, things, political realities, even family die, disappoint and end up less than perfect. They can’t satisfy the hungers we have.
Jesus startles the crowd when he powerfully says, "The bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world." Then he tells us HE IS THIS BREAD OF LIFE. What a statement, is it no wonder the crowd demands he give them this bread. Life isn’t the mundane word used to describe being living. It is the word used to describe a quality of life. It is the life that separates us from the lives of animals. It is the life that God breathed into Adam and saw extinguished by his sin. It is meaningful, purposeful and offers a life with a future—God’s future.
The Bread of heaven sustains us. It is here for the long haul. Did you hear the eternal nature of Jesus’ promise? "Will not hunger and will not ever thirst"; "I will certainly not cast out" and twice Jesus speaks of being "raised up" linked together with "eternal life".
There is no human fulfillment that can make that promise. Oh we have LDS and Islam claiming eternal marriage and harems but that’s not Biblical. It’s still trying to paint an eternal place of total okayness with the brush strokes of failed human beings. God’s promise is such that it is not void. It is always there and it always satisfies. Andy Curtis started his sermon a couple of weeks ago by saying, "God is good" and he expected us to respond with, "All the time". Then he said "All the time" and our response would be "God is good". Andy is right. God is good all, not some of the time. All the time, not only after we’ve had our coffee, all the time, not when the kids behave and my spouse is polite. Not only when I feel well, are having a good day, or don’t have much work to do but "all the time God is good." That is a feast that sustains us through the hard places.
Now here’s the hard part because Jesus seems to draw a line in the sand so-to-speak here. Those whom the Father gives Jesus, is also expressed, as those who believe will reap the promises that Jesus has just made to us. But there is an alternative which we see in verse 41. Namely some grumbled against Jesus because of his claim.
Here’s why Jesus’ claim is so hard to believe. It takes us out of control. It means we aren’t the center of attention. Our hope of being little gods, controlling our life, families, jobs and the like is scattered away like the dry crumbs of old moldy bread. I think it is interesting that the Spirit prompted John to speak of the people "grumbling" about Jesus because it’s the same word used to describe the people of Israel on the Exodus when they didn’t like what God had said or done.
I believe the same possibilities today not only for our neighbors and the group who don’t care about Jesus but even among those who regularly sit in pews around our nation. It is easy to confuse being in church with being THE Church. Folks, you and I both know the areas in our lives that need to be filled with the feast of the Lord. The question I have for us is whether we are willing to sacrifice the fast food lifestyles in order to find the nourishment and eternal life we so desperately need. Let us pray.
1 http://www.inthesetimes.com/articl/3358/feeding_the_hungry_is_a_crime/
2 http://www.praize.com/entertainment/Pages//9990141490134.html
3 http://www.thelotusandthelaw.com/ accessed October 1, 2009
