Bread

We're still looking at this conversation that Jesus had with the crowd that enjoyed the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. And once again, Jesus is trying to explain the Gospel. That is, he is trying to teach the people about himself. And once again, the teaching of the text depends on an image. Please listen as I read our text, John 6.22-35.

Let's spend a little time just going through part of the conversation. Once it's clear what's going on, we'll take a closer look at the image that Jesus uses. Jesus responds to the crowd's question about what work they are to be doing. He tells them that the work that they are to do is to believe in him as the one whom the Father has sent on a mission. We looked at that last week. What follows isn't some expression of understanding. What follows is a demand. They want some proof from Jesus that what he is saying is true. They ask for a sign. They want a miracle. I find this astounding - but realistic. These are the same people who just saw Jesus perform that miracle of feeding five thousand. They not only saw. They also ate. Evidently, that wasn't good enough. That's astounding, but it is a good reminder of how sin blinds.

The crowd has a suggestion to guide Jesus' choice when it comes to performing another miracle.

Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’

They're talking about Israel in the desert after they escaped from Egypt. Each day God provided food to eat. Each day, when the people woke up, there was manna scattered on the ground. All they had to do was gather it. God did that - each day - for forty years. Now, there's a decent miracle: a daily supply of bread. If Jesus could do that the crowd would be able forget about all that farm work required to provide themselves with food. Oh, and it would also prove to them that Jesus is a real prophet.

Jesus' reply is a bit involved. He wants to correct a misunderstanding. So, he begins by telling them that Moses wasn't the source of the manna.

Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven...

And that's clear enough. But what you'd expect next is for Jesus to say something like this:

         

It was, instead, my Father who gave you that bread.

But he doesn't say that. This is what he actually said.

… but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

Did you notice the tenses of the verbs? Jesus begins talking about the past, who was doing what back in Moses' day. But he ends up talking about the present, what the Father is doing in Jesus' day. He does this all in one sentence by leaving out what you might expect and just assuming it. So, if he were to say it all, it would go something like this.

Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gave you that bread and who today gives you the true bread from heaven.

See the progression? Jesus makes a connection between what the Father did in Moses' day and what he is doing in Jesus' day. And the key to understanding the connection is the word 'true'. As I've told you before, 'true' can be contrasted with 'false'. But, it can also be contrasted with 'partial'. So, Jesus is talking about the partial versus the complete or, maybe better, the picture versus the reality. The manna, the bread of Moses' day, is a picture of something more. There is, on the one hand, the picture of God's heavenly gift of bread, but then there is the reality of God's gift, a reality that the picture was pointing to. And that reality is Jesus himself. Jesus is the true bread. The manna of Moses' day was a picture pointing to him. And that explains the rest of this part of the conversation.

For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. They said to him, 'Sir, give us this bread always.' Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life...'

The crowd wants manna, the bread provided during the days of Moses. Jesus offers something better. What the manna pictured, what it prophesied, is fulfilled in him. Once again, Jesus teaches by using an image.

That explains enough about this conversation. For the rest of the sermon we're going to be learning from the image of the manna. The picture has lessons to teach us about the reality. So, we're going to look at this prophetic image and see what it has to teach us about Jesus and his Gospel.

Let's start with this. The Father's provision of daily bread in the desert for the people of Israel was an act of his kind grace toward them. Was there something that those people had done that obligated the Father to provide this food? Was there some debt that he owed them? Absolutely not! They did nothing to put God in their debt. In fact, there were plenty of times when they forfeited God's kindness. There were plenty of times when they owed God. So, the Father did not act because Israel deserved it. But having said that, it also needs to be said that, in a different way, the Father was obligated to do this. He was obligated because of his own promise. He had told these people that he would take care of them. And so, he had to. And he did.

That's the picture. Here's the reality. The gift of Jesus to you is an act of the Father's kind grace. Day by day he gives you more of Jesus. And he does that not because you have done something to obligate him to you - not because you deserve it. Quite the opposite! But he gives you more anyway. He is obligated to give you more of Jesus and more of the rescue that he provides. He is obligated because he has promised you that he will take care of you. And so, it makes sense to pray, 'Give us this day our daily bread'. That's not asking just for food to eat. That's asking for more of Jesus, the true bread from heaven. How bold for sinners like you to pray such a thing. But you can be bold to ask for that - even when the memory of your sins is fresh. You can be bold to ask because the Father promised. So, you do not come to the Father telling him to notice how good you've been and therefore to give you more bread. That's just silly. You come to the Father aware of your sin, admitting that sin to him, but still coming and asking because he made a promise to you. Your boldness to ask is not based on your goodness but on his promise. It's a matter of his kind grace.

So, the first lesson of the image is about grace. Here's the second lesson, and it's about believing. Back in Moses' day, the Father told the people that he would provide manna, bread, every day. So, they were to gather just enough for the one day. So, believing him meant doing what he said, gathering enough just for one day. Now, as you may remember, at first some of the people gathered for more than one day. After all, the logic went, you can never be sure about tomorrow. Better safe than sorry. Now, what is that? How shall we describe it? We could call it being careful or being responsible. After all, isn't it true that you can never be sure about tomorrow? But I rather think that the better label to apply would be 'unbelief'. The Father made his promise. 'There will be bread for every day.' But the people didn't believe him. They didn't trust him. So, they saw all that free food just laying there on the ground and took advantage of the opportunity before them. They stocked up. They gathered for more than one day. Now they were set. Now they were safe. But what happened the next morning? The surplus that they had gathered was full of worms. It was worthless!

The point here is easy to understand, even though it may be difficult to put into practice. The Father has made a promise to you. There will be enough of whatever you need for each and every day. You need to trust him to do that - which means not trusting any sort of surplus that you may have. Trusting a surplus is worthless.

That's one way that believing shows. Here's another. Through Moses, the Father promises Israel that he would provide daily bread. And how does that work? Does each Israelite wake up with a full stomach, with food enough in him already to last the day? No. They are commanded to gather the manna. The Father will be sure to provide it each morning, but the people need to grab a bucket and get out there and get it. So, you see, while believing shows by trusting the Father to provide, it also shows by doing some work.

One needs to be careful here. As is usually the case, there are two opposite errors that a person can fall into. Here's the ditch on the right side of the road. 'Since all is of grace, there is nothing for me to do. I prayed the prayer, so I'm saved. I'm home free. All I have to do is wait for heaven.' If any of the Israelites in the desert adopted that way of thinking about the Father's gracious gift of the manna, they would have died long before reaching the Promised Land. Believing the Father means trusting in his gracious gift of Jesus, and doing the work that he commands you to do so that you can enjoy the gift. There is a label for someone who professes the faith but does not obey the commands. The label is 'unbeliever'. This is a person who needs to be converted.

The way to enjoy the gift of Jesus, the true bread of heaven, is pictured to us in the manna. The Father provides the gift, and he directs us how to gather it in. Failure to gather, failure to obey the commands, will lead to death. This ties in with Jesus’ earlier words in this conversation.

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life …

There is work to be done if you are going to enjoy Jesus. Grace is not an excuse for lazy disobedience. Grace is the solid foundation for a life of good works, a life of necessary good works.

That's about the ditch on the right side of the road. Here's the ditch on the left side. 'It's all up to me. The Father will give me more bread, more of Jesus, but he'll do that only because he's seen that I've been hard at it. I have to show him that I deserve it.' Is this how he did it with Israel in the desert? Do we ever hear about the Father picking out some Israelite and saying something like, 'Well, let's see if Eliezer was good enough yesterday for me to provide him some more manna today'? This is where knowing some OT history comes in handy. What do you think? If the Father had evaluated the people of Israel day by day to see if they were good enough to get more, how many would have eaten? I dare say that not a soul would have survived. Not one. When someone thinks this way it removes all sense of the Fathers' graciousness. Trying to be good enough to earn your bread is just a different way of talking about saving yourself. It's salvation from starvation by works.

When you come to the Father asking for daily bread, asking for more of the blessings of Jesus and his Gospel, you come as a sinner. That is so important. You cannot expect bread because you've been good enough. You come as someone obviously disqualified. Anyone who doesn't start here is hoping in something other than the Gospel. Bear in mind what the Apostle Paul said toward the end of his life of faithful service to Jesus.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.

We come to the Father asking for daily bread as sinners who know that we are not good enough.

There are a couple of things that happen to people who fall into this 'I am good enough' ditch. In some cases, these folk change the standard of what 'good enough' means. They re-define their sins as just some little quirks of personality or the like. And they assume that the Father is easy-going anyway. Their sin then becomes obvious to everyone else but not to them. And their claim to being a Christian becomes laughable - if it weren't so sad. This person runs the risk of dying without gaining the Promised Land, like so many of those Israelites did.

On the other hand, others who fall into this ditch begin to see their sin more clearly. And it gets harder and harder to be bold to make requests for more based on how good they've been. They see more and more clearly that they aren't all that good. And that sense of failure grows until they are crushed into silence. 'How can I ask the Father for anything? I am such a sinner!' This person, falling into despair, also runs the risk of dying without gaining the Promised Land.

These folk forget a basic truth of the Gospel. It is impossible for sinners like us to be good enough as the Father defines it. They also forget that Jesus has come for sinners who know that they are not good enough.

All of this relates to last week's quote.

Somebody smart once said the gospel is not opposed to effort but to earning.

We can earn nothing but hell. The true bread is a gift of kindness to those who do not deserve it. Grace. But at the same time, as an act of believing, we enjoy more of Jesus by working for the food that endures to eternal life. We enjoy more of Jesus by working hard.

Last lesson. Jesus pictures himself as bread, as food for the soul. Here we can take a lesson from natural revelation. What happens to someone who does not eat any food, someone who takes in no nourishment? He dies. The body needs food. If there is no food, death will follow. What happens to someone who eats, but what he eats is junk? He may not die so quickly, but he becomes weak and sick. His body doesn't work the way that it's supposed to. As a result, there are things that he cannot do. His weakened body won't let him. Is it any different with your soul? Just like your body, your soul needs nourishment. There was a time when most people understood that but not today. Just as a body needs to be carefully fed, so does a soul. And just as with his body, a person who does not carefully feed his soul will find that there will be things that he will not be able to do. His weakened soul won't let him.

Jesus is food for the soul. He is the nourishment that you need. It was wrong for those Israelites in the desert to take more manna than what they needed each day. But that doesn't mean that they should have taken less than what they needed. They were to take enough to be fully nourished. And to be sure, that meant one thing for a growing child and another for an aging man. But each one needed to be nourished.

Each day is filled with things to do, decisions to make and all the rest. Being able to do those things wisely, to do those things as one of Jesus' faithful disciples, will require a soul that is well fed. Your soul needs to be nourished. And the way that you can tell if you are getting enough nourishment is not by following some formula: so many verses memorized, so many minutes spent in prayer each day, and all of that. The way that you can tell if you are getting enough nourishment is by looking at how well you are dealing with life. Is there a growing sense of joy and peace? Do you win more of your battles with Satan than you lose? Is the Gospel becoming clearer to you so that more of it is at work in your life? Or to say that differently, are you flourishing as a person or just getting by - or even worse than that? You need to consider the care of your soul. You need to ask whether you are taking in enough of the bread of heaven, Jesus himself, so that you can live well. Bear in mind that failure to care for your soul will have consequences. Will that mean the kind of sickness and then death that leads to hell instead of heaven? Maybe. Where do you think the Apostle Judas is now? If you have questions here, maybe we should talk.

But along with the warning there is also the encouragement. If you are working at being careful for your soul, it will show. You will mature and flourish more and more. Caring for your soul takes effort just as caring for your body does. But the effort is worth it. Because of the Spirit, your efforts will bring about change. You will become more like Jesus. That change is slow, but it is happening.

We’ve looked at some lessons about Jesus, the bread of heaven. I'm sure that at least one of the things that I have mentioned this morning has something for you to ponder. I hope that you will do that. It's part of caring for your soul.