Let us pray: Come Holy Spirit, speak through these words. Help us dare to believe you have all the food we need. In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, one God. Amen.
In today’s Gospel we pick up right where we left off last Sunday. It’s the next day and the crowd of thousands who had been fed with five loaves and two fish, are looking for Jesus. They know there was only one boat and they didn’t see him get into it. How did he get to the other side? Jesus, in typical fashion, answers their wondering with more food for reflection.
“You’re looking for me because you got your fill of bread? You should be looking for the kind of food that never spoils, the kind of nourishment that’s for eternal life. That’s what the Son of Man will give you. That’s what you should be working towards.”
Umm, ok Jesus. We were just thinking about all that extra bread and kind of wondering how you got all the way across the sea without boat. Perplexed, they ask what they need to do. Isn’t this just like you and me? Don’t we want to know exactly what we need to do? Give me the checklist. Lay it all out. What plan do I have to follow? How many good things do I have to do? Which deeds are worth the most points? Jesus, once again, offers a less than satisfactory answer, exactly what they WEREN’T looking for.
“Here it is. This is it…Just believe. Just put your trust and confidence in the one whom God has sent.”
That’s it? Hmm. How will we know, FOR SURE? What signs will you give so that we can SEE and believe? What works (apparently they’ve already forgotten about t the 12 baskets of leftovers!) As Jews they know well the story of the manna that fed the Israelites in the wilderness, and so they bring this us up to Jesus. What about that? Can you do that? Jesus again, ups the ante, and goes MUCH deeper. First, he reminds them that it was God and NOT Moses who provided, and then he explains that it’s God who give the “true” bread from heaven. It is this bread which comes down from heaven (read incarnation, God taking on human form to live with us as one of us), it is this bread that gives life not just to wandering Israelites, but to the whole world. “For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6: 33).
This sounds even better than the manna that our ancestors ate, give us this bread please! And then, BOOM, Jesus drops the bomb. It’s me! I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Jesus has disclosed to this crowd and the disciples, and to us, his divine identity and his purpose. Jesus is what we need to live. Jesus has come to feed us, to nourish us, to offer us life through relationship.
In John’s Gospel Jesus says it in a slightly different way. “I came that they might have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). Jesus is here to bring us full and abundant life. Isn’t that what we’re looking for? Isn’t that what we’re hungry and thirsty for? SO many other things are competing for our hunger and desires. SO many other things that we thing will fill us up. But no. They don’t. They won’t. What we need to fill us up is Jesus.
This was definitely mind-blowing for the people of Jesus’ time and it still just as hard, maybe even harder for us to wrap our minds around it today. That’s why we come together to listen, to talk, to ask questions, to remember and experience together. And we try to make sense of these perplexing words of Jesus.
What if Jesus really is the bread of life? What if Jesus really did come to bring us life, to fill us up, so our hunger and thirst would be satisfied? If we embark on this journey to understand these words and their implications, if we dare to hope, to trust and bring who we are to the God of love, it just might be that we’ll find what we have been hungering for. Today, as you come forward to receive communion, the bread and wine, body and blood of Christ, I invite you to ponder these words of Jesus for you and your life today. Whoever, however, wherever you are, you are invited to this journey together with this St. Mary’s community and SO many others who have sought to understand and take in these words of Jesus.
Jesus has come to give us life, to feed us, sustain us and restore our relationship of love with ourselves, one another, with our earth, and with the divine dance of love itself, with the parent creator God, the human brother God, and the flowing, inspiring, comforting Spirit God. So come! Come to the table! Join me! Join us! Join with followers of Jesus around the world and throughout time! Come to receive the bread of life! For surely, whoever comes seeking to know Jesus will never be hungry again. And whoever trusts in Jesus’ loving care will never be thirsty again.
Amen.
