I Am The Bread of Life

 I suppose it’s only human nature to have faith in the things we see rather the things we can’t. God knew our nature long before and better than we did. The whole purpose of his incarnation in Jesus was for him to be able to reach us through our faculties and physical senses. Yet, its’ “natural,” our nature, to center our world around those attachments in our life that serve us well and are under control and those that sometimes seem to control us. So, we place out “faith” in things we can see and touch like career, finances, family, relationships, and our own ability to control our lives. Unfortunately, life has a way of reminding us that our faith in those things may not be rewarded in the way we planned or expected.

Most of us are likely to experience a significant disruption in our careers at least once in our lives, and our finances are no more reliable. We entrust our life savings to financial institutions that engage in what is basically a sophisticated form of gambling. And people—yes, our family, and our friends—are all flawed and fallible and imminently capable of doing what humans do, and disappoint us.

In a very real sense, most of what we invest our faith in falls under the category of “perishable things.” After feeding the 5000 with five loaves and two fish, Jesus and the disciples crossed the lake, only to find that the crowd had followed them there. When they approached him, he abruptly accused them of seeking the “food that perishes.” In the dialogue that followed, it would seem that they were looking for a repeat of the miracle of manna in the wilderness.

But Jesus was constantly aware of the dangers of an enabling faith that is rooted in visible results based on spectacle. Getting what you asked for without spiritual elbow grease is not faith. Whenever we get whatever we ask for, it’s a matter of time before we begin to want more. Jesus was calling his followers to a completely different kind of faith. He called them to cast their lot with the One that God has sent (John 6:24-35). He was calling them to a faith without external props that deals with unseen things, hoped for and real. St. Augustine said “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” The only “bread” that can truly satisfy our hunger is the bread that God offers us, the Bread of Life.

And the amazing truth is that when we take the risk of “casting our lot with the one whom God sent” to carry out God’s cause in the world, we find that somehow we experience a peace, a freedom, a quality of life that none of those “perishable things” can possibly provide. When we take the risk of faith and begin to quiet our restless hearts, we find the life God offers us truly satisfies us in ways we may never have expected.

Loaves and Fishes

Over the years we have come to appreciate the unusual relationship between the synoptic gospels of Mathew, Mark, and Luke with John’s Gospels. While there are similarities between the four, the content in John's is somewhat unique, in that he presents a different side of Jesus that complements the other three Gospels and provides its readers insight and a clearer understanding of Jesus’ divine nature. As such, John’s relating the historical aspects of Jesus’ life are usually reserved for passages that reveal a unique aspect of Jesus’ divine nature. Marcus Borg writes that “the portrait of Jesus in John’s gospel was essentially one of the Christ of faith and not the Jesus of history…The picture of Jesus in John is quite different form the picture of Jesus in Matthew, Mark and Luke…In John, Jesus speaks as a divine person with his ‘I am’ statements: I am the bread of life, ‘the light of the world,’ and so on.” (Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time)

John does not waste any time and gets right to it in the very first chapter of his gospel:  In the beginning was the Word, & the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning…and The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. 

How then does our gospel (John 6:1-21) in which Jesus feeds the multitude point to Jesus’ divine nature, after all this story and scene are similar to that found in the synoptic gospels? The answer resides in the distinction between Matthew, Mark and Luke’s account in which the apostles are charged with feeding the crowd. However, in John Jesus is clearly in charge when he writes with regard to the feeding: he himself knew what he was going to do. 

John deliberately diverts our attention from the “miraculous” and reveals something vital about Jesus and, in turn, about God. Here, Jesus represents the One who can satisfy every human need. In this gospel Jesus fulfilled the multitude’s material needs and, while material needs are important, this is not what Jesus came to do. Rather, Jesus came to reveal that God's essential character is love and loving (John 3) and God's essential desire is to be accessible and available to the people of God (John 1 and 2). It may not be what we want -- so convinced are we that material possessions will make us happy -- but it is what we need ( Working Preacher July 23, 2012David Lose).

Travel Light and Trust

Jesus ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics." (Mark 6:7-13)

I've often thought how I'd feel if I had to immediately leave home on a moment’s notice with no time to take anything except  the clothes I was wearing. I am reminded of some catastrophic events or acts of terror that have forced some unfortunate people to escape with nothing but the clothes on their backs and I wonder how they were able do this. Although there have been times when I have had to travel for a family emergency or for a so-called

business "crisis," and while time was of the essence, I still was able to give some thought as to what I needed to take with me. Otherwise, I was what you might call a "defensive packer." With a variety of lists in hand, covering any possible venue or destinations, I packed for a myriad of "what ifs" that rarely would ever materialize. In retrospect I often wonder why I needed to be so over-prepared, doubling up on apparel and anything else on my list. This preparedness was not necessarily limited to packing my luggage.

Jesus tells his disciples to travel light and rely on the kindness of strangers. Of course, the world in the time of Jesus was much different from our modern world today. At that time, Jewish travelers would often stay in the home of another member of their community in deference to the Jewish purity code. While Jesus’ message was offered to all, we know that it was not welcomed by everyone. After all, look at the rejection Jesus experienced earlier in this story. To that end, Jesus tells them that if they did encounter resistance, they not be discouraged or detained in their journey but rather they should “shake the dust from their sandals” and continue on.

What Jesus asked of his disciples required considerable trust, in that the disciples were “commissioned” to immediately follow his instructions, without question or reservation and begin to preach the good news. Needless to say this required implicit confidence in Jesus. 

So, how does my need to over prepare for a journey relate to this gospel? Perhaps it was a lack of confidence or trust in myself that required that my preparation was extreme? Perhaps in letting go of the trappings and the non-essentials that really got in the way, I am more open to the knowledge that all will go well…and I just needed to trust myself and others more. Think of all the unnecessary clutter in our lives that gets in the way of our relationship with one another. Richard Rohr teaches that the God in me loves the God in you. Those things in our lives that we once regarded as essential get in the way of our connectedness with one another, and therefore with God.

The disciples were given the authority by Jesus to preach the gospel, heal the sick and cast out demons.
What meaning can we apply to healing the sick and casting out demons today? Perhaps liberating those who are imprisoned by sadness and depression, or giving hope to those who think that their lives no longer have any meaning we can heal the sick and “cast out demons.” However in order for us to do this we must trust God and remain focused on what is essential. 
So while I cannot equate my learning to travel lighter with the confidence that all will go well, I'm now better prepared;  I can appreciate what it means to trust and let go of the unnecessary baggage filled with past regrets and the unrealized “what ifs” of my life that get in the way of my drawing closer to God. We know that the lives of those who welcome the gospel are transformed. It's a journey.

So, what is it that gives us a greater sense of security, or when have we had to go beyond our fears and set out with very little? 

Little boy false
In search of little boy true
Will you be ever done traveling,
Always unraveling you, you?
Running away
Could lead you further astray

And as for fishing in streams
For pieces of dreams,
Those pieces will never fit
What is the sense of it?
(Pieces of Dreams, Legrand, Bergman and Bergman)