Sermons

“Yeah, right. I know better than to believe that.” That is often our response when we hear someone make an outrageous claim or tell an unbelievable story. Would you have believed it if a few weeks ago someone would have said, “There will soon be a power failure that within seconds will leave most of the northeast and parts of Canada without power”? Most people would have been skeptical of such news. In our text for today, Jesus has some news for the Jews and for us. Jesus tells us that he is the bread of life. This is great news, especially since we would have gone spiritually hungry unless he showed his grace to us by revealing this news. I. Our Knowledge of Him When Jesus told the truth about himself, the Jews didn’t exactly think it was good news. They grumbled, probably muttering the equivalent of “yeah, right” under their breath. They were doing this because they thought they already had a pretty good idea of who Jesus was. They say in v. 42, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose mother and father we know?” When Jesus told them that he came from heaven, they said, ‘Wait a minute. We know who this guy’s mom and dad are, and neither of them appears to be God to us.’ Since they thought that this settled the case, they allowed no other possibility. Thinking that they had a sure and certain knowledge of Jesus on their own, they refused to consider that Jesus was speaking the truth to them. When Jesus offered the bread of life to them, they said, ‘We’re not hungry.’ Like so many other times in his ministry, Jesus had to give some correction. He cuts off their grumbling to help them stop trusting themselves and their own judgment. Instead of trusting their self-taught knowledge about him, Jesus tells them to trust the Father for the truth about Jesus. It is the Father who draws people to Jesus. As part of that work, the Father inspired the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah to write about and point to the Messiah whom God would send. Isaiah does that in the verse Jesus quotes. Since Jesus is that Messiah, the one sent from the Father, he is telling the Jews to trust him in addition to the Father. He also attaches a promise to the trusting. Jesus offers eternal life to those who trust in him. We know this from our experience with Jesus and his word. We rejoice that we have sure knowledge of him, and that this knowledge is good news for us. But sometimes we think that we know enough about him and are no longer motivated to get to know him better and to study God’s Word which tells us all about him. We begin to trust the knowledge we already have instead of continually going back to the source of the knowledge, God’s Word. When we are encouraged to spend more time with the word, we take the attitude, ‘Jesus loves me this I know, and this is all I want to know.’ We may even think we have outgrown the need to come together to hear God’s Word. We may think to ourselves, ‘I know Jesus died for me, why do I have to come to church?’ or ‘I know Jesus died for me, why do I have to come to Bible class?’ or ‘I know Jesus died for me, why do I have to … you fill in the blank. We are satisfied with one slice of the bread of life when we should want the whole loaf. John talks about the danger of that attitude when he writes in Revelation, “So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (3:16) Like so many other times in our lives, Jesus has to give us some correction. He tells us to quit grumbling when we think we know enough about him. God has given us as human beings more intelligence than any of his other creatures. Yet we turn that blessing into a curse when we trust our own conclusions about God over what he has already revealed as truth in his word. Here in his words to the Jews in verse 44 he is encouraging us to trust the Father. No one can do it on their own. The Father is the one who reveals Jesus to us as the bread of life, and draws us to him. Jesus also draws us to himself. It is Jesus who comes to us with the words of eternal life, encouraging us to trust him alone for salvation. John records Jesus’ words in his gospel, “Trust in the Father, trust also in me” (14:1). We know we can trust him because of what he has done. Instead of claiming to be working salvation by himself, he acknowledged the Father’s work. In verses 44-45 Jesus describes the Father’s past work in the lives of believers and points to the Father’s key role in continuing to bring people to faith. When he was a young boy and his parents searched for him and found him at the temple, Jesus reminded them that he needed to be in his Father’s house. And when Jesus was approaching the end of his earthly ministry, instead of looking for a way to win salvation without dying, he confidently asked his Father to do everything according to the Father’s will. Jesus always perfectly acknowledged his Father in heaven. Not only that, when Jesus died on the cross, he took our guilt with him. He took upon himself all the punishment for the times we thought we knew enough and became bored with God’s word, for the times we questioned God’s truth because it didn’t make sense to us. Every sin we had is now washed away by the blood of the Lamb. We can also trust Jesus because of the authority of God’s word. He may not have come directly face-to-face to give it to us personally, but it has been written down and remains unchanged. We can trust its comforting and peace-bearing message about the Messiah who was to come and has come and has completed his mission of salvation for all mankind. II. His Grace for us Jesus is that Messiah, the one who reveals the truth about God and his grace to us. He is the bread of life who offers himself to us. As the bread of life, he is the way to eternal life. The Father himself is the one who sent him and testifies that Jesus is who he says he is. In the verses before our text, Jesus says, “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.” At his baptism, the Father gave Jesus his seal of approval by saying, “You are my son, whom I love. With you I am well pleased.” John quotes Jesus later in his gospel, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (14:6). Jesus says it as clearly as he possibly can in verse 48.There is no mistaking his meaning when he says, “I am the bread of life.” Anyone coming to him for spiritual sustenance receives a feast of comfort and peace far greater than they could ever imagine. Anyone whose soul is starving because they thought they were full before can be refreshed because Jesus perfectly acknowledged his Father for us. Even with Jesus being this clear about the path to salvation, many can and do still miss out on the feast of heaven. Even we don’t deserve to know the truth. The Father could have saved the world through Jesus and chosen not to reveal it to us. The cause of our downfall would still be us and our sin. But instead of hiding himself, Jesus makes himself as visible and known as possible, shining as bright as he did on the Mount of Transfiguration, saying, “Here I am. Come and taste full and free salvation.” He also reveals his Father to us. He says in John’s gospel, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9) Even with this wonderful gift of bread from heaven, many still try to fill themselves with other things. Jesus explains how these things cannot give life. As he explains it to the Jews, he uses something they knew well from their history. He recalls how God gave the children of Israel manna from heaven to sustain them while they were in the desert. But that bread that came from heaven did not keep them from eventually dying. Earthly things like physical bread are good for earthly life. But earthly bread, even bread sent by God from heaven itself, will not save from death. The same is true of our spiritual life. We may think we are doing fine in the good things we do for others or in the amount we know about the Bible, but these things will not save us from spiritual death. Neither will all the things we try to substitute for a right relationship with God. Family, friends, and honest work are all wonderful blessings from God, but if we allow them to crowd out opportunities to spend time with God and his Word, we are depriving ourselves of the bread of life. But even these failures of ours are covered by partaking of the bread of life. He was sent from heaven, through whom God’s promise of eternal life is offered. Where we thought we knew about God on our own, he confidently acknowledged the truth about God and himself. Even though by nature we don’t think we need it and would never ask for it on our own, he offers the gospel to us in word and sacrament. He offered himself as a sacrifice for every weakness in our faith, and gave final proof of who he is and where he came from by his glorious resurrection from the dead. Now instead of saying, “Yeah, right,” we can say, “Yeah! Right! I do believe that!” This gives us the confidence to go out and tell the truth about our salvation, even though some will find it to be an unbelievable story. All the far-fetched stories we hear from people are exactly that--from people. We can’t trust their message because we can’t be sure that the source is trustworthy. But the message of Christ and his work for us is revealed by God himself. This is a great comfort to us as we partake of the saving bread of life. May we always be filled with this bread. Amen.