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5 loaves of bread and 2 fish
Date: 5/8/2006 8:37:01 PM ( 18 y ) ... viewed 2176 times Images of God”
Image #1 – Bread
John 6:25-35
“Jesus is the image of the invisible God” – Colossians 1:15
Rev. Jeff Chapman ~
Our reading today from John picks up just after the feeding of the 5000. Remember this story? Jesus, using 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, miraculously feeds 5000 or more hungry people on a hillside. And there are 12 baskets of food left afterwards! It was an amazing scene. And the people were mesmerized. And they follow Jesus because they want more. Here’s where we pick up our reading…
25When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34“Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.”
35Then Jesus declared, “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.
About a year ago, my wife Esther and I recognized that perhaps our eating habits weren’t as good as they could be. We needed some discipline. Some good friends told us that they had found some success in something called The South Beach Diet. Certainly you’ve heard of this diet. Some of you, no doubt, have tried it. Well, we read the book. And I was horrified to discover that the list of the things this diet says are bad for you includes bread. Bread! How can bread be bad for you? I was always taught it was the foundation of the food pyramid!
The first two weeks of the South Beach Diet you are supposed to give up a lot of things, basically everything except for meat, vegetables and coffee. Do you know what Esther and I both missed the most, more than fruit, more than sweets, more than potato chips? We missed bread. I had no idea how important it was in my diet.
Now we’ve lost some of this sense in our culture, so we need to remember that for most of the world, for much of history, bread has been people’s basic food. Think of Mexican food as an example. Where does it all begin with Mexican food? The tortilla. Enchiladas, tostadas, burritos, tacos, they all start with the tortilla. I went out to a Mexican food place this week with Pastor Jim and he ordered something called a Burrito in a Bowl. It looked good, but something was just wrong. There was no tortilla, no bread. His foundation was missing. I felt sorry for him the whole meal.
In biblical times, remember, there wasn’t the variety of food that we encounter when we stroll through Nugget Market. Bread and water made up life’s two basic staples. In scripture, bread is even used as a metaphor for food in general. In Jesus day, if you didn’t have bread you starved. Bread was life.
So it makes sense that when Jesus miraculously satisfies the hunger of 5000 people one day on a hillside with just five small barley loaves, he causes quite a stir. These people come after him. And Jesus knew exactly what they wanted.
I remember when I was a kid and my mom would send something really good to school with me in my lunch. In the school cafeteria I’d pull out, for example, a pack of M&M’s and suddenly I would find that I had all these other kids who really wanted to be my friend.
The crowds weren’t really after Jesus. They wanted his M&M’s. They were after what they thought he could give them, mainly full stomachs. And so Jesus gives them this warning, “Don’t go after bread that spoils. Go after the bread that God wants to give you which lasts forever.”
According to Jesus, then, there are two kinds of “bread” in this world. And he’s not talking about white or wheat. There is bread which spoils, and bread which lasts forever. And we all understand this, right? Cars, money, houses, clothes, this church building, our jobs, our youth, Sacramento itself, these are things we know that we won’t be able to hold on to forever. They are bread that spoils. The tragedy we have seen unfold this past week in Southeast Asia has reminded us again how quickly all the bread of this world can go bad.
The problem is, though most of us know this in our heads, it often doesn’t translate into our lives.
As an example, I’ve worked with hundreds of parents over the years in the church, people who would make a claim to believe in Jesus. Most of them, if you asked them, would agree that following Jesus is what is most important. And in lots of instances, their lives really demonstrated this.
However, in many other instances, I have watched parents invest hundreds and thousands of hours, and untold amounts of energy and money, helping their children to succeed in sports. Or to get the best grades and education. Or to excel in dance, or in music, or in some other activity. Nothing wrong with those things, until I compare them to the astonishingly less amount of time and energy and planning that goes into helping their kids to come to know Christ, who they would tell me is the source of real life. And I’ve wondered. Which kind of bread are they really going after?
Now, don’t misunderstand me. As a parent myself, I want my two kids to excel athletically, and academically, and musically, and the rest. Those are all great things. But say my daughter reaches the pinnacle of athletics, she becomes an Olympic gymnast. Even at that level it’s just bread that is going to spoil. All it takes is one wrong landing at the end of a routine and her athletic career is over. Even if she remains healthy, one day age will take it all away.
What if you graduate at the top of your class from Stanford, have a hall of fame professional sports career, are wildly successful in your business, win an academy award, raise a happy family, live in a great house and own the nicest things, but ultimately you walk away from a saving relationship with your creator who wants to offer you real life, life that won’t one day fade away, what have you gained?
Jesus knows this, and so he tells the crowds, “Don’t go after bread that spoils! There is another kind of bread. Bread which never spoils. And God wants to give you this bread.”
Now when the crowds hear this they say, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” They think, in other words, that this everlasting bread Jesus is talking about is living the right kind of life. In other words, if you just live a good life you’ll go to heaven and live forever. And people – right? – still think this way.
Listen to the way people often talk about somebody who has just died. We say things like, “She lived such a good life. We know she is with God in a better place now.”
And because people still think this way, maybe some of us, just like the crowd back then, are also saying to Jesus, “Just tell us what we need to do to get to heaven.”
But Jesus says, in verse 29, “You don’t need to do anything. You need to believe. You need to have faith in the one God has sent.”
Now some people will say, “Don’t you need to be good to get into heaven?” And the answer is, yes, of course we do. The problem is, we not only need to be good, we need to be perfect. The Bible teaches that God’s standard for getting into heaven is perfection, a sinless life. Well, who can live up to that standard? Can you? I can’t.
Because of our sin, none of us are good enough to get to God. But God, who loves us deeply, came to earth in the person of Jesus. And on the cross, Jesus atones for, or takes the consequences for, our sin. So then, as we believe in him, as we trust him, as we put our faith in him, the Bible teaches us that the righteousness of Christ is credited to us. We become holy. We become pure. And, therefore, acceptable in God’s sight.
This is how Paul puts it in Romans 3:22-24:
…Righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
This may seem like Christianity 101 to some of you. And it is. But let me tell you, there are so many people, myself included, who have grown up in the church without really understanding this.
If you haven’t already, you’ve got to get this. Salvation does not come from living a good enough life. You cannot do it. Salvation, eternal life, rather, comes from believing in what Jesus did and trusting him with your life.
Well, the crowds hear all that Jesus has to say about this and, growing impatient, say to Jesus, “Just give us this bread, will you? Let us have it so we can live forever.”
And Jesus hits them with the punchline, “I Am the bread of life.”
Now this Jewish crowd knew what God had said to Moses, “I Am Who I Am.” Jesus speaks these words to them emphatically and solemnly so they won’t miss it. “I Am the bread of life.” In other words, “I am God. That voice that spoke out of the burning bush, that was me. You want bread that doesn’t spoil, I am that bread. You want life, real and eternal life. It comes through me.”
Now, one of the criticisms of the Christian faith that you will hear over and over again from people is this, “I can’t accept Christianity because it claims that Jesus is the only way to heaven.” People will ask, “How can anyone be arrogant enough to say that you’ve got to believe in Jesus to be saved?”
But the thing is, though it may sound very tolerant and inclusive and accepting to say that all roads lead to heaven, that Jesus is just one path among many to eternal life, any half-way honest look at the Gospels will tell you that this was not what Jesus taught. These next seven weeks, you will see this theme over and over again. “Eternal life,” Jesus is crystal clear, “only comes through me. I Am the bread of life. I Am the gate. I Am the way, the truth and the life.” People can say all roads lead to eternal life, but that is not what Jesus taught.
Now granted, a lot of well-intentioned people out there, in the name of Christ, have really twisted this message. It’s been said, “You’ve got to go to church to get to heaven. You’ve got to believe this certain doctrine to be saved. You’ve got to be baptized in just this way if you want to live forever.”
But is that what we see in the Gospels? Think about the thief who was crucified next to Jesus. Remember him? This guy was a convicted criminal, getting what he deserved. Not the church-going type. But for some reason, as he is dying next to Jesus, he comes to realize that Jesus is the real deal. We don’t know how. Maybe he watched the way Jesus loved and forgave the people who were killing him. However it happened, he comes to humbly plead, “Remember me, Jesus, when you come into your kingdom.”
Now this guy has been no follower of Christ. Certainly he didn’t live a good life. He hadn’t been baptized. He probably didn’t know a lick of good, sound theology. He wasn’t the kind to show up for temple. But, in the final moments of his life, he places his faith and trust in Jesus. And Jesus says to him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
I don’t have access to that big book in heaven that has all the names in it. I don’t pretend to know who is saved and who isn’t. And I wouldn’t listen two seconds to anybody who claimed to have such knowledge. But I do know this, in the end everybody who receives eternal life will receive it from Jesus. Like I said before, it is our sin that is keeping every single one of us on this planet from God and from His Kingdom. And how else are we going to have that sin dealt with, if not through the cross.
This is, I know, offensive and appalling to some people. Comedian George Carlin once said, “I would never want to be a member of a group whose symbol was a guy nailed to two pieces of wood.”
Oh, but those of use who have come to trust Jesus love the cross. Because we know that only through what Jesus did there do we have life. The Bible says, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
* * * * * * * *
Jesus, then, chooses the most basic physical source of life back then, bread, to teach his followers about the most basic source of all life, himself. And for so many reasons, bread is such a remarkable symbol.
Consider this. What if I were to offer you a piece of bread that you suspected was rotten, or even worse, poisoned. Would you eat it? Of course not. Because, even though you probably won’t consciously think about this the next time you sit down and enjoy a nice piece of sourdough bread, you do know that when you eat a piece of bread you make a full commitment to that bread. Right? When you swallow that bread it becomes a part of you. If it’s bad it will harm you. If it’s good it will nourish you. We are, so to speak, what we eat.
Well, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” And part of what he implies in his very intentional choice of symbols is, you either commit to me fully, or you don’t commit to me at all. Let me personalize this so you don’t miss it. Jesus says to you, “If you believe that I am the source for life, for eternal life, then you are to take me in completely to yourself. You are to allow me access and control of your heart and spirit, to give me leadership over your life in every area.”
When asked what was the greatest commandment of all, how did Jesus respond? “Love me with all your heart, and all your mind and all your strength.” Following Jesus is a full commitment of our total lives, certainly no less of a commitment than swallowing a piece of bread and allowing it to become a part of you.
So to come full circle this morning, Jesus says there are two kinds of bread in the world. The question for us, then, is which kind of bread are we going after? The heart of the matter is ultimately what you believe about Jesus. Do you believe he is the only source for real, lasting life? Or do you trust in the things of this world.
A.W. Tozer once said, “What we believe about God is the most important thing about us.” Do you believe Jesus is your only hope? To know about Jesus is one thing. To trust him with your life, as the only hope for life, is quite another.
86% of all Americans, I’m told, believe in some God or in some supreme being. But does everybody who believes in God, believes in Jesus, really trust him? Really put their faith in him? Really commit their whole lives to him? The Bible says at one point that even the devil believes in Jesus. But certainly he doesn’t have faith in him.
And could it be that some of us, though we may not want to admit it, are not really going after this bread of life and are, instead, spending our lives working for bread that will one day spoil? It’s not that hard to figure out. If you’re willing to be honest, that is. Just think about it. Ask yourself, “What am I really going after in life? What consumes most of my time? My energy? My passion? My focus? Which kind of bread am I going after?” There are only two choices on the menu.
Have you been to Subway Sandwich lately? It used to be that there bread selection was easy. White or wheat? It’s a bit more complicated now. You can have white, or wheat, or Italian, or parmesan oregano, or honey oat, or Italian herbs and cheese, or a deli-style roll. It kind of makes me long for the days when my mom would just make us sandwiches and we ate what we got.
For better or for worse, Jesus makes our choice pretty clear. There’s just two kinds of bread. Bread that rots. And bread that leads to life.
Such an easy choice. Right? Tragically, many people choose the bread that doesn’t last. In fact, at the end of the story in John 6 we learn that lots of people who had followed Jesus to that point decided to walk away from him that day. They’d heard enough. What he was asking was too much.
It’s true, Jesus asks for a full commitment. He wants our whole lives. In the 8th chapter of Mark, Jesus puts it to us straight, “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel – for the good news of the cross and what I came to do – will save it. What good is it for a person to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”
Missionary Jim Elliot once said, “He who is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
You are no fool if you give up all the bread of the world, which will rot in your hands sooner or later anyway, to gain the bread of life which will satisfy you now and forever.
Amen.
See Judges 13:16, Luke 15:17.
Luke 22:39-43.
From “What Difference Does Jesus Make?”, by Judson Poling (Zondervan).
I Corinthians 1:18 (NIV).
George Magazine, 1996. As quoted in “How Does Anyone Know God Exists?”, by Garry Poole (Zondervan).
James 2:19.
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