Rev. Davide Cantarella

Jesus – the Bread of Life

Last week we had the second block of the Kingfisher seminar at this church. Block two focuses on 1) the need to be available to be used of God to carry out His will; 2) the need to develop our ability to hear God's voice; 3) the need to be radically obedient to what God asks of us.

At the beginning of each day we have a time of praise and I get to share a three minute devotional. And it is this devotional, in an expanded form, that I want to share with you today.

John 6:27-38

Still today in many cultures bread is a symbol of what is essential in life. Although our quality of life has increased immensely since the days of Jesus and our diet is much more varied than that of Israelite peasants of long ago, bread still plays a central role in our diet.

Of course, it was much more so in the days of Jesus. An ancient Jewish author wrote once "The essential for life are water and bread and clothing and a house to cover one's nakedness.”

For this reason, not to have bread in ancient times was a sign of extreme poverty and distress. In ancient Israel when some unannounced guest came to you, you were supposed to have at least bread to take away his hunger.

Today we have a world financial crisis when banks go bankrupt. Today we have a problem when the cost of crude oil goes up in the stock market. When oil goes up, everything becomes more expensive. In the ancient world, it wasn't oil that determined the cost of everything. It was grain. In the ancient world you had a major crisis when the harvest of grain was not good. A poor harvest meant that bread, the essential element of everyday life, was going to be hard to afford – a tragedy.

Therefore the ancient Israelite knew that if he had bread on the table, it was only by the mercy of God. In the Psalms we read "You cause grass to grow for the livestock and plants for people to use.

You allow them to produce food from the earth— wine to make them glad, olive oil to soothe their skin, and bread to give them strength.” (Ps. 103:14-15).

Why did the Israelite know that whatever was on his table was a gift of God? See, in the Old Testament there is a whole array of stories telling of how God provided for his people in miraculous ways, and many of these stories feature bread.

The best known of these stories is probably the one about God providing bread in the desert. You may have heard about it, you may have not. Here it is.

The Israelites are in the desert, trying to reach the promised land. A couple of weeks earlier they were still slaves in Egypt, working from morning to evening making bricks. But God had sent Moses to lead them away from Egypt into a different land. So, they are in the desert, and they are complaining. "Aaagh! Why did we ever leave Egypt? Yes, we were slaves but at least we had food! We want to go back! Moses – take us back!”

Hearing their complaint, the Lord decided to make bread "come down” from heaven. Literally. Whenever Israel was encamped, there would come dew in the morning - every morning. And when the dew was gone, there would be something similar to bread on the ground. The Israelites called it "manna” (a really funny name which means "What is it?”)

The Israelites lived in the desert for forty years. And every morning, for forty years, God gave them bread from heaven; enough for each one of them for each day. And, after forty years, the Israelites learned the lesson.

So, after moving from the desert into the land, an Israelite knew that whatever was on his table was a gift from God.

Now that we have all this information, let's go back to the text we have just read.

In this text we find a whole crowd of people looking for Jesus. Why are they looking for Jesus? Because the day before, in some mysterious way, he had fed thousands of people using 5 loaves of breads. The people had not seen anything quite like that since the days of the manna. They are thinking in their minds, "if we stick with this guy we can get a free meal every day!”

So, they come to Jesus and ask him, "Master, when did you get here?” But in reality, what they want to ask is, "So, what's next? Can we have shashlik today?”

So Jesus says to them, "You are looking for me, not because you are interested in who I am, but because you are interested in getting a free meal. But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you”

At this point the crowd asks a very good question - "We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?” That is a question that many of us have asked, or maybe are asking themselves these days. If Jesus is not Santa Clause out of whom we get free things, then who is he? How do I relate to him? How do I do what God asks of me? Do I need to bring sacrifices? Do I need to light up a candle? Do I need to walk into a church and kiss an icon? Do I need to read prayers regularly? What do I have to do?

To an interesting question, Jesus gives an interesting answer - "This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.” Jesus says that actions are important, but belief is prior. Now, please understand one thing – for Jesus belief is not just agreeing with factual evidence, as in "I believe birds fly”. To believe means to be so strongly convinced of something that your life becomes submitted to that belief. Jesus does not simply want us to agree with the fact that He is our God and Savior. That's just the starting point. Jesus wants us to build our lives on the fact that He is our God and Savior. He wants that to be the center of everything else, not just a fact that we know.

And just for those who say I don't spell things out clearly, let me repeat it. To agree with the fact that Jesus is Lord and Savior is simply the beginning. Indeed, Jesus wants us to live a holy life, which means a lot of things, among which that there should be no place for lies, deception, and immoral relationships. To do God's work is to believe in the One God sent. And to live the way He wants.

This is why the crowd replies, "Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do?” They are essentially asking, "So why do we need to make you the center of our lives? What can you do to prove that you are worthy of that place in our lives?”  

And then, very cunningly they say, "After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness as the Scriptures say” Can you see it? They are hinting. They want Jesus to feed them again. All they want from him is a free meal. Jesus is trying to talk to them about the things that really matter in life, and all they want is a free meal. Humans are very interesting. Aren't they?

They seem to always concentrate on the wrong thing at the wrong moment. You want to know why?

The Bible tells us that God created humans out of the dirt. "Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person” (Gen 2:7)

The original Hebrew word for "living person” is nephesh. Nephesh literally means "desire”, "physical appetites”, and it derives from the Hebrew word for "throat”. What does it mean? According to the Bible, we are "living desire”, "living throats”. At the core of our existence there is hunger. We are beings that need to be filled with something. God created us in order that we may be filled with His breath, His Spirit, His life. But because of our sinfulness we have the tendency to fill ourselves with things that are not God.

Now that's really the core of our problem. We perceive God not as the One who can fill us, but as the One who freely gives us things that can fill us. We usually do not come to God because we believe He is what we need. We come to God because we need him to fulfill our plans and desires. God is not the object of our hunger. We are hungry for other things, and we simply come to God and ask him to buy them, peel them, and cook them for us.

We are "living throats” that need to be filled; we are beings who, at their deepest, are hungry. And we look everywhere for things that will satisfy this hunger. We look to the right and to the left. We try different things, and still our hunger remains.

Has it ever happened to you in the evening, after dinner, that all of a sudden you get hungry. On the one hand you think, "It's late. Plus, I have already eaten”, and you try to avoid thinking about it, but the hunger is still there, and you can't think of anything else. So, you go to the fridge, and the problems start – you don't really know what you want. Something sweet? Something salty? Fruit? A carrot? Meat balls and baked potatoes? At times it gets even worse. You start eating something, and then you realize that's not what you want. That strange hunger is still there. And so you try something else, and something else, and something else.

The same thing happens to us spiritually. Because we are beings who are hungry. And we look for everything that can satisfy this hunger. We look for relationships, we look for financial stability, we look for a solid education, we look for success, we look for popularity at school, we look for cool cell phones. You name it. We look to the right, and look to the left. We look for anything that will satisfy our hunger.

And Jesus comes to us today saying "I am the bread of life” He does not say to us, "I can give you the bread of life.” He says, "I am the bread of life.” If it is indeed true that we are his creatures, the work of his hands, then it is also true that we need Jesus more than we need bread. We need Jesus more than we need water. We need Jesus more than we need air. Because we belong to God, our hunger for God is our deepest hunger. The one who made us and put that hunger in us is also the only one who can satisfy it. Only Jesus can satisfy this hunger.

"I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Ever since I was a teenager I felt a hunger. A hunger for truth, a hunger to find something worth living for, a hunger for something eternal. On the one hand I had everything. On the other hand, I did not want what I had. I wanted something different. It's hard to express, other than I was hungry, I was looking for something but did not know what. So I looked everywhere and tried many things. And everything that I would try I'd be successful at, but still felt empty. For years I looked everywhere and could not find the answer. And the answer all this time was right before me.

Then one night, at a prayer meeting, I told Jesus that I was tired of searching, that I needed him. And that night I met the bread of life. And my life changed; and I have never been hungry since.

Are you hungry? Have you been looking for something to satisfy your deep dissatisfaction? Would you like to taste tonight the Bread of life?

Jesus says, "I will never reject those who come to me” This is a promise that has been proven true for me and many people in this room and across the centuries.

Are you hungry? There is only One who can take away your hunger. His name is Jesus, the Bread of Life.