John 6:35, 41-51

 This week, Joe Lieberman was unseated as the Democratic Senate candidate in the in the Connecticut primary.  A few years ago, he was on the verge of becoming the vice president of the United States – about as close as possible and not be the VP.  And now a few short years later, he is not even able to sway the people of his party in his home state to choose him as their candidate.  Americans are notorious for asking, “What have you done for me, lately?”  And in Connecticut, they responded, “Not enough.”

But Americans are not the only ones.  Apparently, first century Palestinians did their share of it, too.  In John 6, we see this public about-face.  In the beginning of John, people are flocking to see Jesus.  He teaches them in the temple.  He heals the paralyzed.  He blows their minds in Samaria.  Then in chapter 6, he feeds 5,000 people with only five loaves and two fish.  The people are amazed.  Then in case his disciples didn’t get the message, he came to them during the middle of the night while they were sleeping – on a boat.  He walked across the water to them.  If he were running for just about any office, he would win hands down.

But then later in the chapter, we see that Jesus’ message gets harder for some folks to handle….  Listen beginning with verse 41 (-42).  Down home, we’d say, “that boy’s gettin’ too big for his britches”.  Maybe you’ve heard it…maybe you’ve said it: “who does he think he is?  I know his momma and daddy and that boy isn’t anything that special.  I knew him when he was in diapers.  I knew him when he was growing up.  He thinks he’s all high and mighty, but he’s not.”

Maybe it’s what they mean when they say you can’t go home again.  Even if you change, you can’t expect those who knew you to accept those changes.  And it is hard for people to expect something great from someone they think is common.  Maybe you have had that experience going back to your old school, your old hometown, your old stomping grounds.  For Jesus, he was back where he should have been loved the most.  But the words that he said and the claims that he made were enough to make folks angry.

At the end of this chapter, we find that many of those that followed him begin to leave Jesus.  They say, “I don’t know if we can handle all of this.”  But Jesus doesn’t back down.  He sticks to his message, even after the flock starts to scatter.  This morning, I wonder if we have ever been fair-weather disciples: true to Jesus when we first come to him, but when the teaching gets harder, when the relationship begins to grow, when we don’t see where the end of the road is leading we start to turn our backs.

Now, perhaps I am a little unfair to these disciples and followers who turned away.  I should at least help explain where they are coming from.  You see, Jesus was not simply stepping on their toes.  He was treading pretty heavily on some sacred ground.  Let’s take a closer look at what it is that he said that really got their goat.  Start with verse 35: “I am the bread of life”.

The first two words are enough to raise some eyebrows.  “I am”.  It is the first of the “I am” statements in John…the first of many statements in which Jesus starts with the words “I am”.  “I am the life.”  “I am the light.”  “I am the truth.”  To us, they seem like simple vocabulary, but to those Jews that heard him speak, they surely thought first of the original “I am”.  When God called Moses through the burning bush, Moses asked who he should say had called him.  God replied, “I am that I am.”  And the gospel of John in particular makes a point of connecting this I am of Jesus with the I am of Yahweh.  So immediately, the people listening to him realize he is using these powerful words.

But there is more.  If we look back in the passage – before “I am the bread of life”, we find that the people are not just talking about stale donuts or dry white toast.  They are talking about THE BREAD – the Bread of God.  The manna that fed the Israelites during the Exodus.  The manna that the people of God kept in the Ark of the Covenant so that they would not forgot.  THE BREAD.

For those of you that don’t remember the story, let’s go back to Moses.  After he was called by God to deliver the Israelites from slavery, he began this gigantic road trip with the people of God…leaving Egypt and slowly moving toward the Promised Land.  Before long, the food that they packed runs out and the people start to get hungry.  And they start to complain.  And they start to grumble.  And they start to whine.  “Moses, when we were in Egypt, at least they gave us food.  We’re hungry.”

That’s where the manna comes in.  In response to the people, God begins to give them bread from heaven…manna (which literally means, “what is it?”).  So God created a completely new way for them to be fed and sustained.  They were to go out every morning and gather an omer (a measurement) of manna and that would be enough for their day.  They were only to take what they need…in fact, if they took too much, if they tried to gather enough for the week or the month, it would go bad.  They had to rely on God to provide every day, just enough for what they needed.  We prayed this morning for our daily bread – the Israelites literally received just what they needed for that day.  And they ate it for 40 years while the people of God wondered in the wilderness.

That has been a powerful lesson for me throughout my life.  I often refer to the manna principle: the reminder that God will give us what we need to get through today.  I am a planner and I like to know what is coming down the road.  I have prayed to God for some sense of where I will be down the road, where I will end up in 5 or 10 years, a plan for the big picture.  But most often my answer is the answer the Israelites got – “I will supply your daily bread.”  “I will give you what you need to know to make it through this day, through this time in your life.”  Remembering the manna principle was especially helpful during my time at the end of seminary, through my CPE residency in South Carolina, and at the end of that year.  So much was up in the air, unplanned, unconfirmed.  But God was faithful in giving me what I needed to know for the moment, though I wanted more.

As I talk with our college folks or young adults, many of them are in the same boat.  Where is my life going?  Where will I be in 5 years?  Next year?  But I remind them that sometimes God only gives us what we need for today, lets us know a part of the plan.  For my own life, I have to remember that living a life committed to Jesus means sometimes living day by day, or month by month, or year by year, without knowing where the rest of the days may lead.

For the Israelites, manna was an enduring reminder of the power and presence of God on a daily basis.  They put some in the Ark of the Covenant to remind them of this lesson – God will give us our daily bread.  So when Jesus started talking about himself as the bread of life, he was treading on sacred ground.

What the Israelites knew as physical, Jesus spoke of as spiritual.  “I am the bread from heaven.”  “I am the manna.”  “I am the presence of God in your midst daily.”  “I am all you need in life, and after you leave this life.”  The bread he offered was the eternal life of a relationship with him.  He said, “believe in me and the one who sent me and you will have life everlasting.”

If he weren’t right, we would say he had a major case of narcissistic personality disorder.  So we can see why the Jews were getting a little upset at him.  When we realize that Jesus was connecting himself to Moses and, more so, to God we can see why they were mad.  If somebody came to you as an American, saying “I am a leader like George Washington, I have the foresight of Thomas Jefferson, and I own the discernment of Abraham Lincoln.  Oh, and I have the power of God.”  What would you think?

But Jesus said it because he was right.  For the first time, God came to earth in a way that offered sustenance and life in a way even more amazing than bread out of the sky.

It is a hard teaching and even after many hear it they turn away, just like in John 6.  If we turned away from Jesus, most of the world would not think we were crazy.  They would help us justify our fair weather faith.  “Do you really know that Jesus lived?”  “Sure, he was a great man, but how can you really give your life to him…sounds too complicated to me.”  “Are you sure there is a heaven?”  And many have turned away with these questions on their lips.

But for me, and maybe some of you, my fair weather faith is not a matter of leaving the church or walking away from Jesus.  Instead, it is wrestling back control of my life from him.  Even after I have accepted him, I am tempted to go back and try to feed myself, try and take back control of my life, try and organize my life the way I think it should go.  It is tough to remember that the Holy Spirit doesn’t always fall in line with our strategic plans or our seven-year goals.  It is tough to remember that as we make our goals, and as we follow them, we must allow for the reality that sometimes we won’t know what the end result looks like.  Sometimes we just get understanding enough for today.

And so my question for you today is simple.  Are you hungry?

I went to a baseball game last night and when I got there, I was famished.  I had not eaten much all day and was ready to pig out.  So I bought a massive, footlong, Sheboygan bratwurst.  It had onions and peppers and mustard, all on a big hoagie bun.  It was perfect – a brat at a baseball game, sitting in the sun.  I felt full.  I was satisfied.  But then around the 7^th inning a guy next to me brought over a pizza that looked really good, and I saw an Arthur Bryant’s barbeque sign and wondered how much barbeque was.  Before long, that perfect satisfied hunger was wearing thin.

That’s what Jesus told all who would listen.  Even bread from the sky, manna from heaven, is going to leave you hungry sooner or later.  You need something that is going to last longer.

So today I ask, “Are you hungry”.  Are you hungry for that life that Christ offers?  Are you hungry for a sustenance that heals and comforts?  Are you hungry for a freedom from fear and worry, living life always trying to figure out what comes next?  Are you hungry for an eternity with Christ?  If so, Jesus offers himself…take and eat.