Download Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost, August 12, 2012

Pentecost 11, Year B, 8-12-12
2 Samuel 18: 5-9, 15, 31-33
Psalm 130
Ephesians 4: 25-5:2
John 6: 35, 41-51
Jesus Who Sustains our Life
The prophet Isaiah spoke this word of the Lord to the nation of Israel: “Come, all
you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, by wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is
not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is
good, and your soul will delight in richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me,
that your soul may live” (Is. 55:1-3). What is extraordinary about this passage is that it
comes after God had spoken of his judgment against Judah for her open rebellion and sin
against the Lord. God would use Babylon as his instrument of judgment. The Jews
would be exiled into Babylon. But God gives this ray of hope. It is actually an
invitation. Come to me. I have a rich spiritual privilege prepared for you. This grace
that God wants to bestow on you will come with the promised Messiah. Jesus fulfilled
that promise when he said, “I am the bread of life; whoever believes in me shall never
thirst” (Jn. 6:35). It is Jesus who can satisfy the deepest needs and longing in one’s live.
Instead of welcoming Jesus as the promised Messiah, the Jewish leaders express
their discontent: “At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, ‘I am the
bread that came down from heaven.’ They said, ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I came down from
heaven”?’” (vv. 41-42). The grumbling and murmuring expresses their discontent. It is
interesting that the objection of the Jewish leaders took the form of a criticism of Christ’s
person rather than a direct criticism of his teaching. They did not say, “There are three
reasons why we cannot agree with you and why we consider your views to be wrong.”
Jesus’ teaching was too consistent and too self-authenticating for that. Instead, they
attacked him personally, saying, in effect, “Don’t listen to him. He is a nobody from the
sticks of Galilee, the son of carpenter named Joseph.” They dissed his background and
upbringing. In this they demonstrated their spiritual pride and revealed their ignorance.
How did Jesus respond? It is important to notice that Jesus did not answer by
defending himself on the person level. Instead, he returned to his teaching and restated it,
giving two proofs: “‘Stop grumbling among yourselves,’ Jesus answered. Non one can
come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last
day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens
to the Father and learns from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the
one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. I tell you the truth, he who believes
has everlasting life” (vv. 44-47). Jesus tells them to stop grumbling among themselves.
That is not the way to learn divine truth. Jesus says that no one can come unless the
Father draws him. The idea of the divine initiative in salvation is one of the great
teachings of the Gospel, and indeed of the Christian faith. People like to feel independent.
They think they can come to Jesus entirely of their own volition. Jesus assures us that
this is an utter impossibility.
No person can come unless the Father draws him. This same truth is put in
another way. To show that this is something in the plan of God Jesus quotes from Isaiah,
“God will teach his people himself.” He will teach them within their hearts. Those who
are taught in the way, who hear God, and learn what they hear, do come to him. Jesus
points to an intimate relationship between the Father and the Son shared by none. Jesus’
main concern is with life, in particular eternal life, and how one obtains this.
How one obtains this life comes from Jesus himself. Jesus continues: “I am the
bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the
bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living
bread that came 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” (vv. 48-51). Jesus
points out to the Jewish leaders that the manna in the wilderness had its limitations. It
was food for the body and nothing more. Those who ate it died in due course. By
contrast Jesus is offering them food which brings that life for which there is no death.
This bread is not of earthly origin, but of heavenly. The person who partakes of Christ
has within him that life which is eternal. Jesus defines the bread that he will give as his
flesh. Specifically Jesus is referring to his death upon the cross. In his atoning death on
the cross in which Jesus paid the penalty for our sin, give us the gift of eternal life.
There is a story about a Scotsman who several years ago was coming to America.
He had purchased passage on one of the great ocean liners. He did not have much money,
so he decided to save on food by stocking up on crackers, cheese and fruit before his
departure. The ship sailed, and he began to eat his Spartan meals. This went fairly well
for the first four or five days. But as the ship drew closer to New York the crackers
became increasingly stale, the cheese became moldy, and the fruit spoiled. Finally there
was nothing left that was fit to eat. The Scotsman decided that he would go to the dining
room and have one last, good meal before the liner docked in New York and he went
ashore. Imagine his surprise to discover that nothing in the dining room cost anything
and that all he could ever eaten had already been included in the price of his ticket before
he left he left the British Isles.
People will chase after materialism, human philosophy, pop psychology and even
addicted behaviors to satisfy the need of their lives. At yet through God’s grace he gives
us the gift of Jesus who is the bread of life. A ticket that is paid in full through his death
and resurrection.