John 6, 51-58 16.08.09

Are we still Hungry?

Being fed by God was very much a part of Jewish theology. Food, and the preparation of food was, and still is, very much a part of Jewish culture. Food must be prepared according to the law. It was food, an apple, which caused the first sinning, and food, symbolised by the Passover is what set the Jews apart from the rest of the world as the chosen race.

So hearing Christ talk about being fed would be quite natural for the Jews, it would be a part of their culture.

However, now Jesus is saying to them ‘I am the living bread.’. He was beginning to teach the disciples that through him, the Bread of Life, we might become a part of him, and that through him we are offered the wisdom to be able to lead our lives following in his footsteps.

‘I am the Living Bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh’. Jesus is telling them that he is offering himself in order that the world may have life. Jesus’ gift of the substance of life is nothing other than a sacrifice, a blood sacrifice, the one true and final sacrifice, that will benefit the world. No more would the Jews need to offer a sacrifice to God for their sins, Christ’s sacrifice would be the one true final sacrifice, for through Christ’s death, life is offered to the world.

In Christ earthly language must be converted into spiritual truths. Jesus was challenging the Jews to receive and then to enter into a close and meaningful relationship with Him. His message is that if we wish to have his promise of life we must receive him in such a way that he truly becomes part of our life.

Paul in his letter to the Ephesians is warning them to be careful how they live. They must not drink too much wine, become drunk; a message which is still so relevant today. I read last week a horrific article about the number of young people who need liver transplants through drinking large volumes of alcohol at a very young age. This is the same society which is now going back to growing their won veg. because it is purer, happily paying more for organic food to avoid pesticides, perhaps its just me but the two don’t seem to add up. Seemingly we have a large section of society unaware of the harm alcohol is doing to their children, perhaps living mainly on junk food, and an equally large section of society trying to return to food grown like it used to be. Let’s hope that this desire to grow our own again will extend to schools and inner city areas so that the joy of fresh, tasty food may become the norm for all. I say this not just through prejudice of junk food, but also because I personally find it easier to see God in plants as they grow, to see the miracle of nature, but not so easy to see God in pre-packed food.

If children can begin to see food grown on their own doorstep, will they not perhaps begin to have a greater awareness of nature, of all that is created by God. Then

Christ’s message may begin to have more meaning, for growth of any kind is creation.

Much of society today, like the Jews of 2000 years ago are unable to understand what the true bread of life is.

For as we heard the crowd misunderstood what Jesus is saying, they are confused, they cannot understand. They began to argue saying, ‘how can this man give us his flesh to eat? They could only see Christ’s statement in a literal sense, it was beyond their perception. They could only see it in the context that somehow Christ was going to give his earthly body to be consumed, he must be, they thought, talking of cannibalism, and like so much of society today they began to lose interest in what Jesus was saying.

So what is this passage saying? it is saying that just as good earthly food sustains physical life, so the body of Christ, the true spiritual food and drink, sustains us spiritually, brings us eternal life. But Christ doesn’t force us, he didn’t force the crowds, but he does plead with us to listen to his words for he knows he is offering us a real choice, the choice to receive the gift of eternal life or not, but it is real choice for God puts no pressure on us we are truly free to choose.

So what do we gain by receiving? We choose to unite ourselves with God and with all other Christians through the ages. We choose to be a part of Christ’s body here on earth now, a part of that process of reconciling all things to God. And what if we do not receive Christ’s body? We turn away from all that Christ offers, we say that we do not want to share in a life at the very heart of God.

To truly receive Christ’s body we have to be spiritually in tune with God, we can’t just hold out our hands without thinking what we are doing. Shortly when we come up to Christ’s table; if we are truly receiving Christ’s body then we have truly to believe, that at that moment that that is what we are doing. We are not just receiving a wafer we are receiving the body of Christ given for us on the Cross, given so we may have eternal life.

Given in that love which looked down on us from the Cross, looked down on all people through the ages, and said ‘Forgive them for they know not what they do’. That love which in the midst of suffering put us sinners first.

It is the love which overcomes all, is always with us, cries with us and suffers with us. It is the greatest gift we are ever offered which we are free to accept or refuse.

Love is that fundamental quality of God that can not be forced upon us. Just as we cannot be forced to love our neighbour, God does not force us to love him. God can and does continually offer us opportunities to respond to the love, we are offered and it is for us to receive in love. But for the love of God to be real, for it to operate in us, it must be accepted freely. This is the love - freely offered - that is the very Body of Christ, in the bread placed on the altar; which is transformed by invoking the Holy Spirit into God’s self-giving love, into Christ’s body. And this passage is believed to be Christ’s first reference to the Eucharist, it is the passage read on the festival of Corpus Christi. the day of thanksgiving for the institution of the Eucharist, it is Christ calling up to Communion.

And this is what Christ means when he said ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, will never be thirsty, it is that promise that, if we will only receive him, he will always sustain us, we will never go hungry. We may spend large amounts of money on organic food, shop in the best stores, but if we do not accept Christ as the bread of life we will still be hungry.

Amen