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Bread for Life

Rev. Jeremy J. Schultz
August 9, 2009

Several years ago I read a story from a missionary who served in West Africa among the poorest of the poor. He ministered in a harsh and unforgiving region where rain would fall for only four months and then not at all. All the food therefore had to be grown from May through August when the rains were plentiful. As a result of this, October and November were the most beautiful months. The granaries were full. People sang and danced. They ate two meals a day and their bellies were full at night so they could sleep. By the time December came, the granaries would start to recede. Many families would begin to omit the morning meal. Then, by January not one in 50 families was still eating two meals. By February, the evening meal became even less and it would shrink even more in March. By then, people were only having one cup of a thin gruel for their evening meal. I'll spare you the details, but April was the worst of all the months. People just don't stay well on such small meager amounts. Then the month of May would finally arrive and with it, the long anticipated rains. When they came, each father would do the most unreasonable thing imaginable. He would take the sack of grain that he had been storing away in the hut and he would scatter the seed in the soil on the promise that the seed would produce wheat that could be used to bake bread so that he and his family could again eat. The cycle would continue and maybe they’d have just enough bread to survive another year.

You see then just how essential bread is for life! Now the big hungry crowd following Jesus knows this too. I mean, rumbles in tummies will eventually turn into screams. Jesus has already fed them once. In fact, He fed 5,000 with the fish and loaves. So now they are coming to the one that they know can provide them with bread. But Jesus tells them there's more to life than having a full belly. There's more to life than being able to sleep well at night. Jesus tells them, "I AM the living bread that came down from heaven. And If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever."

Now living forever sounds pretty good to all of us! And that's true even if one doesn't know the correct path. In 1513, Ponce de Leon led an exploration through the new world in search of the Fountain of Youth. He never found it. The Egyptian pyramids once contained well-stocked evidence of their Pharaohs' quest to reach the afterlife. They never achieved it. Even today, the popular slogan "Life is good" provides proof positive in all of their pictures that life IS good. But if you're going to have it. That is to say if you're really going to live forever, then there’s only one place you'll find it and there's only One who can give it to you. Jesus!

Jesus says, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever." And what He is talking about here is faith. Faith in Him as the Son of God who has come down into the world! Faith in the fact that He has accomplished the will of the Father by dying on the cross! Faith in the promises that He gives you today: that He will care for you...that He will not lose you...and that on the last day, He will raise you up! If by the drawing work of the Father and by the confidence given by the Holy Spirit, you believe in Christ and trust in these words, then YOU will live forever.

But the problem is that instead of eating this bread for life, we too often consume things that only bring death. It's what has the Apostle Paul concerned in his letter to the Ephesians. There he is addressing brand new Christians, who he fears may be tempted to backslide into the life and attitudes of the past before they had come to know Jesus as their Savior. And so he warns them and insists that they must now continue to live as children belonging to God. And really, these words are instructive for us.

It's as if God through these words is telling us – Don't think futile thoughts and become frustrated by a lack of purpose that leads only to sin. Don't become darkened in your understanding and get a hardened heart that will only lead you away from the life that you've been given. Ephesians 4 warns against the pursuit of sensuality that many gobble up with a continual lust for more. It cautions against falsehood that destroys, and anger that is digested, slothfulness that is crunched, as well as bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander and every form of malice. All of this is like poison to the Christian and all of it leads only to death.

So this is what it's like when our granaries are empty. And this is what it's like to have the song in our hearts replaced by the nighttime sobs. This is what it's like when we consume things that provide no spiritual value. Rather than sustaining us, it has only brought us harm. There are things that we consume that bring only death. But there is one who longs to fill us again with His life. And that is Jesus.

He says, "I am the living bread that has come down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, He will live forever. This bread is My flesh which I will give for the life of the world." One of the more remarkable discoveries about this text is that Jesus is the Bread FOR Life. He didn't just die for your sins. He didn't just die as the sacrifice of atonement to bring you to God. He did all of that, of course. But here in John 6 – His death is for something else that is very specific. His death is for your life.

You see, Life is not only something that Jesus has. It is not only something that Jesus brings. Life is what He is. And so the giving of His flesh, which He gave on the cross, has one clear purpose in mind. It is for your life. Galatians 2:20 speaks of this life when it says, "I have now been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me." Christ has more than enough life in Him for you!

And when you read and hear His Word, He fills you with that life. And when you kneel at the rail to receive the bread and wine, it is the living bread from heaven on which you feast. Christ Jesus is life and gives life to you. But not only to you.

This living bread, this Jesus is so full of life and salvation that all the world may take and eat and live forever. Now isn't that something! There is more than enough life in Him for the big hungry crowd – all of them! There's more than enough life in Him for every missionary to share with every person they meet. And there's more than enough life in Him for every person that you write down on your list, every child that will come to our school, every family that will receive a loaf of bread. Now this is the kind of thing that can make a person want to dance. And this is the kind of gift that can put a new song in our hearts and will surely make us satisfied. Because this bread is Jesus. And it's filled with life. Amen.