Sermon II for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost Year B
August 11, 2024
Jesus the Center of Faith (John 6:35, 41-51)
So, here we are, midway through the bread of life discourse in the Gospel of John and I must ask, “Are you tired of hearing it?
Are you tired of being fed “bread” every week?
Do you want John to move on already?
So far, Jesus, feeds the 5000 in the wilderness- a reenactment of God feeding the Israelites in the wilderness after freeing them from slavery in Egypt.
Then the crowds wanting more, seek Jesus, not for who he is –the Bread of Life—but because they want him to be king, they want him to free them from the Romans—they want him to meet their physical needs.
Jesus replies this is the work of God, that you believe in him who he sent.
In other words, the way that we do God’s works is by believing in Jesus, the one sent down from heaven for us by God.
Then Jesus says to them “I am the bread of life.”
In this week’s reading the focus is on Jesus---who is the center of faith to which God draws the people.
Our reading begins with Jesus’ declaration “I am the Bread of Life”
In the gospel of John repetition of a revelation serves a purpose.
That purpose is to help us understand what is being said and revealed.
It’s repeated because it is too overwhelming to digest in one sitting.
We need to sit with the Word,
reflect on the Word,
in order to begin to understand the mystery of the Word.
The mystery of Christ.
As I was preparing my sermon this week, I had a rather startling revelation—
I have always been Christian,
I have always been Lutheran,
I have always believed that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah who died for our sins and rose again reconciling me to God my heavenly father-
I have always believed that in Christ God has forgiven my sins- all of them, the ones I know about, the ones I will commit, the ones I’m not even aware of--- all my sins have been forgiven.
And yet, still I have grumbled why hasn’t the world changed?
Why is there still hunger, pain, grief, and death?
Was Jesus’ death and resurrection worth it?
Straying from God not once but multiple times during my life
And when asked who I am? Christian doesn’t even rank in the top 10. I usually respond, a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, a nurse, a pastor…you get the picture
But consider the crowds that are seeking Jesus,
In today’s reading we’re told they are Jews, religious leaders
they have been taught that there is only one true God, the creator and sustainer of life.
They have followed the traditions and Torah according to the teaching of the rabbis,
Being Jewish is their identity, it’s what sets them apart from the rest of the world, being Jewish comes first, all other forms of identity follow…
and they have no knowledge of who Jesus is outside of knowing where he comes from.
And that’s the problem!
That’s the sticking point for them,
That’s what causes their grumbling,
they are too familiar with who they believe Jesus is to see his divine reality, to see the truth in his teaching and his authority
to see him as the one sent from heaven,
the true bread of life.
When the crowds see Jesus, they see the son of Joseph and Mary,
from the small, unassuming town of Nazareth,
he’s from down the block,
someone they have known for years…
and they cannot reconcile their version of Jesus with Jesus’ revelation as God’s Son, the bread of life, the promised Messiah.
Now, my question is this: Would we be any different in their shoes?
Would we in a real time encounter with the physical Jesus be able to see past the person we know and are familiar with to see the divine person he is?
As much as we would like to reply yes, we would recognize Jesus as the Son of God, I think in reality we would not.
Isaiah 53:2b says, “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.”
Isaiah was describing the messiah, the one who would be sent down from heaven,
and he says there is nothing about his physical appearance that would make us look at him.
He is ordinary
Jesus reveals himself as gentle and lowly in heart in Matthew 11:29 which Matthew describes as the meekness of Jesus,
The Jews cannot see the meek humble compassionate Jesus as the Messiah,
they want power, status, glory. They want to defeat Rome
they want to be free
And deep down, isn’t that our problem too?
don’t we want Jesus to show his power to us and the world?
To take away the pain and suffering,
to take away grief and death,
to lead us back to the Garden of Eden where we talked and played with God?
And while we didn’t grow up with Jesus as a playmate and friend, in our familiarity with the Bible and the teachings of the last 2000 years, aren’t we too condemned by our familiarity with Jesus which leads us to grumble and doubt him when things don’t go our way?
In John 17:3- Jesus explains meaning of eternal life as he prays to God his father:
“and this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
What this means is this: eternal life is not a gift of immortality or a future life in Heaven, but a life shaped by the knowledge of God as revealed by Jesus.
Eternal life is the tension between “already and not yet”-
Already because Jesus through his life, death, resurrection and ascension has already reconciled the world to God.
There is nothing more for us to do to gain God’s grace and love. For both are freely given, in the greatest gift of all, Jesus who came down from heaven.
We live in eternal life now, because Jesus the true bread of life has changed our lives forever--- by revealing himself to us, he has revealed God to us, and now we are living in eternal life with God.
‘Not yet” because the world has not accepted Jesus, and so we who believe,
We who have received and accepted his forgiveness and reconciliation with the Father,
we are called to continue to re-present Jesus to the world, revealing God his love, and forgiveness through our experience of faith in Jesus.
Eternal life is not something that happens after we die, after we leave this earth, when we can no longer remember our life on earth.
Friends, eternal life is now, it is knowing that because of our faith in Jesus—God is revealed to us.
God calls us-- sometimes screaming and digging our heels in-- to Jesus and then gives us faith to believe that Jesus is his Son, that Jesus is our savior, that we are God’s children with all the benefits and responsibility that that entails.
It is that faith in Jesus that is what drives us to respond faithfully to God’s mission: we are called to live in meekness, kindness, humility, love and compassion sharing the good news of Jesus, showing the world a better way to live.
A way of peace and love,
a way of community and unity,
a way of forgiveness which brings us back to the Garden of Eden- paradise, the place we lived before sin entered the world, a place of peace and love
I believe the Garden of Eden represents what we will experience once God has been revealed to all.
The Garden of Eden, where we will frolic and play with one another and God, feasting and dancing our way through eternity, in the presence of God and Jesus the true bread of life.
And no one will hunger or thirst for all will know that Jesus is the true bread of life. Amen
