So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”
Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
There’s white, wheat, rye and corn. There’s pumpernickel, sour dough, French and Italian. There’s raisin, banana, cranberry, and zucchini… and then there’s Jesus, the bread of life. Bread’s a thing that ranges all the way from Big Y brand white, all the way to the Son of the Living God. From a solely practical vehicle for moving peanut butter and jelly into a kid’s mouth hole, to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ come to save the world as a whole.
Bread is a thing that feeds us. Sometimes that’s just as a part of a quick sandwich grabbed with a busy hand in the middle of the day. But sometimes it’s a thing that draws out deep memories from long ago with that special recipe written in cursive on a card, mixed together in a passed-down bowl and kneaded by hand to create an essential element for a holiday meal. Both feed us: the factory made product mixed in 100 pound batches and the thing of deep love kneaded with hands guided by generations… hands that show every year with each practiced turn of the dough.
The same can be said of Jesus, the bread of life. He feeds us. Feeds us with the model of his life showing us how to live in this world. Feeds us with a love so powerful that we now can love the other as we have first been loved. An unlimited love, given without condition, given whether the one receiving it recognized it or not us, given whether the one receiving it wants it or not! Jesus feeds us.
Sometimes life is such that Jesus, the bread of life, is Big Y white. Sometimes Jesus is that kind of bread because that is simply the bread we need in that moment to get us through to the next moment or maybe even all the way to the next day! We all go through times when that's all we can manage and that goes both for bread-bread and for the Bread of life. Sometimes we can do an artisan rye and sometimes all we can do is peanut butter and jelly on white… straight up… no frills.
But the hope of gathering here is that together we can help each other remember there is more to Jesus, the bread of life, than just getting us through one damn life and into the next. The hope is we can help each other remember that Jesus, the bread of life, is ALSO, at the very same time, that special, hand made food of infinite love as well. The hope of coming together is that this might be a chance for us to help one another stop, and fill our lungs with air that is thick with the perfume of baking bread. Stop and receive a piece from the loaf that is Jesus, the bread of life, and savor the gift of divinity that abundantly, far more than we could ever ask or imagine, makes this thing called “life” a gift worth living!
The Good News is that in infinite love, God has given us Jesus, the Bread of Life, who is able to be both for us: The Big Y brand white bread of life to keep us slogging our way out of whatever darkness we find ourselves AND ALSO that specialty artisan bread of life given with a love that spans all of time… a gift to savor like the smell of rising and baking bread… a gift to take in with our eyes, admiring the perfect shade of brown… a gift that we love with our ears as the crust crackles… a gift to melt our hearts as bread melts in our mouths… ALL of it given as a gift to remind us that we were created to do more than just slog through this life. We were created to live! That is the bread of life we have in Jesus and that is the bread of life we are called to share with everyone we meet.
Some will need the bread of life that just feeds them and gets them to another day. We’ve all been there. Some of us are there right now. There is no shame in being there, it is part of being human. So when you look around and that’s the bread your neighbor needs, then that’s the bread of life to give them! Then one day, perhaps, they will be in a place where you can invite them to gather here and share with them that artisan version of the bread of life that will fill their lungs with the yeasty toasty notes of the Bread of Life which helps us all remember that God meant for each of us to live beyond just getting by and instead live deeply into a life filled with an abundance of love, dignity, purpose, meaning, and self worth… filled with enough to go all around the world and back again.
So come to the Table today and receive the Bread of Life. Come and receive the kind you need, whichever kind that is. Let it live and work in you this week and then share it with the people you encounter in whatever form they need it to be so they too are fed… so that they too may have life and have it abundantly. Amen.
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