Breaking Down The Barriers To Jesus
Preaching
The Parables Of Jesus
Applications For Contemporary Life
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."
Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." They were saying, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus answered them, "Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
Theme
The path that leads to Jesus and eternal life is not an easy one. The vissicitudes, uncertainties, pitfalls, and problems in life can make our task of following the Lord quite difficult at times. Some of the barriers that come between ourselves and God are external and we have absolutely no control over them. There are many other obstacles placed in our path that are self-generated, consciously or unconsciously. We need to break down the hurdles, barriers, and obstacles that hinder us in our daily walk with the Lord and allow ourselves to be fed with the Bread of Life. Jesus will remove our weariness, lift our spirits, and bring us to life eternal.
Spiritual Food For The Journey
People who have served time in the armed services are quite familiar with an obstacle course. As a test of stamina, strength, perseverance, and courage, military recruits are often required to run a measured distance, many times through rough terrain, swamps, or hills, and successfully negotiate various obstacles, including rope ladders and cargo nets, high walls, tire mazes, and narrow elevated walkways. The course is intentionally made to challenge each person who runs it. Some people run obstacle courses with reckless abandon; they will do all that they can do to shave a few seconds off their time even if in the process they take great risk for personal injury. Others run the course with greater reserve; they are content to finish under the qualifying time.
Life is the greatest obstacle course and all people must run it, whether we wish to or not. Each day we are presented with various challenges, barriers, and hurdles that we need to negotiate to navigate safely to tomorrow. Generally we successfully conquer all our obstacles and move on to the next day. There are times, however, when the hurdles are too great, too numerous, or our earlier stamina is depleted. There are times as well through inattention, lack of forethought, laziness, and even sinfulness that we place additional barriers in our way. Although life itself provides sufficient challenge, we compound the problem by our own action, inaction, or words.
Jesus' bread of life discourse provides us with contrasting images on the barriers of life and the way to navigate through troubled waters successfully. The Jews, those who heard Jesus' words after he fed the 5,000, had the perfect opportunity to remove some of the barriers that made life difficult. They had Jesus in their midst; the living bread from heaven was physically present and they failed to recognize him. In their ignorance the Jews placed a barrier between themselves and belief. Their inability to believe put God at a distance.
We are at times like the Jews; we place God at a distance and fail to feed ourselves on the Bread of Life. The obstacles of life are sufficient challenge for anyone, but they cannot be successfully conquered without the assistance of God. We need God and we need the nourishment which Jesus alone can give. We must feed on Jesus in the Eucharist, but we also must seek God's presence in Scripture and the Christian community. We place barriers before us. We ask, as did the Jews, "What is the bread of life?" We do not take sufficient time to feed ourselves on Scripture. Sometimes we are lazy; other times we claim we are too busy. There are those times as well when we simply refuse to listen. We often keep others at a distance. We will only associate with those who live in our same neighborhood, do the same work, or possess the same intellectual capacity. When we fail to see God in others, we miss a great opportunity and set up another barrier that keeps the Lord at bay.
Jesus, the bread of life, challenges us to break down barriers that impede our progress along the path to eternal life. We must seek the strength and sustenance which only Christ can give to assist us in removing hurdles and obstacles that keep God's grace at a distance. Christ's presence in the Eucharist, the Scriptures, and the Christian community feeds us with the spiritual sustenance we need in order to triumph over the obstacles, pitfalls, and painfulness of life. Alone we will be lost; with the Lord we will discover God's Kingdom, today and to eternal life.
Application Of The Parable To Contemporary Life
Sermon Openings
1. Jimmy Harper wearily plodded home after a tough day on the job. As he walked he spied a bench alongside the road; he stopped and rested. As he waited, a woman, hauling behind her a large cart of flowers, happened to pass by. The sweet smell of the flowers perfumed the air. Jimmy instantly lost the weariness in his body and his spirits were lifted. Never before had he experienced anything like this, especially from flowers, and he had many of them at his home. "How much are you asking for your flowers?" Jimmy asked the lady. "You may take as many as you wish," she replied. "There is no charge. Your gratitude and the proper use of the flowers is sufficient payment for me." Jimmy hurriedly gathered as many flowers as he could in his arms and, now renewed in body and spirit, continued his journey home.
When he arrived home and entered the front door, the sweet aroma of the flowers almost instantly permeated the house. Jimmy's wife and children came to the front room, sensing that something special was happening. They too had their weariness removed and their spirits lifted. The flowers were performing some magic; in a very real way these flowers were feeding the Harper family.
Jimmy was concerned that the magic of the flowers be maintained. When the blossoms began to wither and die, he gathered them together and planted them in a small plot of land behind the house. With sunlight and water the flowers again bloomed and continued their magic. Never before had the Harper family received such solace from weariness, comfort from sorrow, and spiritual nourishment as these special flowers brought.
Jimmy was quite cautious about the flowers; he did not want anything to happen to them. At first his caution was manifest only in a warning to his children, lest their energy in play result in trampling the flowers. Later, when the Harper children were more mature and guests were a regular occurrence at the house, Jimmy built a wall around the flowers to protect them. This caused much consternation in the family as now special permission was required and access was restricted to the flowers and to their special power. Later Jimmy found it necessary to hire a guard to safeguard the flowers and lawyers and judges to adjudicate cases for access. In the process the family lost the special magic that the flowers had brought; they were no longer fed. In the end members of the Harper family, frustrated that the flowers were denied them, decided to seek the flower lady themselves. They searched the highways and byways; finally they found her. She was still giving away her flowers, free of charge, to any who would be grateful and would use them properly.1
Are you a person who lives to eat or one who eats to live? With respect to food, most of us, especially those who live in the so-called first world, would answer, we live to eat. Food is good and dining is pleasurable; it is a social norm. But for those who bear the name Christian, we must go one step further and ask this same question of our spiritual hunger. Do we live so as to be fed by that which God gives us, or do we merely eat and drink of God enough to survive? The story of Jimmy Harper and the flower lady challenges our motivation about how we think of God and remove barriers which impede our path to Jesus.
2. He came softly, unobserved, and yet, strange to say, everyone knew him. The time was the fifteenth century; the place was Seville in Spain. He came to announce peace and to proclaim the good news. He came to teach and to cure; he came to bring the light. As he walked by the cathedral, a funeral procession for a little seven-year-old girl was just beginning to form. He heard the sobs and pleas of the girl's mother. Moved with compassion, he asked the bearers of the funeral bier to halt. He touched the girl; she was raised to life once again.
The local cardinal archbishop heard about this event. Such displays of power were not to be tolerated. Such action led to faith which would only be dashed in the cruelty of the world. He was thus thrown into prison as a common criminal. In prison he was questioned by the chief or Grand Inquisitor of the city, "Why have you come? We don't need you here!" The prisoner made no response. The Inquisitor thus continued his harangue. He questioned the prisoner about his time in the desert, at the beginning of his ministry, when he was tempted with the great luxuries of power, wealth, and prestige. "You were a fool," said the Inquisitor. "You should have accepted Satan's offer! Why are you so bent on self-destruction? Why did you choose miracle, mystery, and authority over power, wealth, and prestige? There is no longer a need to believe in you and what you bring. Go away, you are not welcome here." This time the prisoner did answer, not with words, but with actions. He embraced the Inquisitor, kissed him, and walked out of the prison. He moved on to offer himself to another group at another time in history.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's famous chapter "The Grand Inquisitor" in his equally famous book The Brothers Karamazov describes the rejection of Christ who has come to bring light, goodness, and peace to a world which needs him, but refuses to accept his presence. In a similar way the Bread of Life discourse in John's Gospel challenges us to open our hearts to the possibility of Christ and remove barriers that keep God at a distance.
Points Of Challenge And Questions To Ponder
1. When difficulties, obstacles, and the problems of life strike where do we go to find strength? Who is the source of life for us?
2. What barriers do we place between ourselves and God, whether consciously or unconsciously? Do we realize that these obstacles keep us from exercising our full potential?
3. Are we people who live to eat or eat to live in a spiritual sense? Do we rely on God to be fed or do we seek God only when we feel we need the Lord? Do we hunger for God or only "nibble" enough to survive?
4. Do we perceive the presence of God in our world? Where is God for us? Are we fed spiritually by God's presence in Scripture and the community of faith?
5. We spend a great deal of time in meals feeding our physical hunger. How much time have we spent lately seeking God and satisfying the spiritual hunger we experience?
Exegesis And Explanation Of The Parable
The sixth chapter of John's Gospel is a self-contained unity which shows evidence of careful composition by the evangelist. Its function within the Gospel is to portray the climax and turning point of Jesus' Galilean ministry. In this chapter we are introduced to Jesus as the bread of life, an idea which is systematically introduced through the sign of Christ's feeding of the 5,000 (vv. 1-15), followed by the Lord's address to the Jews the next day (vv. 26-59).
Scholars have shown that this chapter follows the homiletic pattern of Philo and Palestinian midrash. The model begins with a citation from Scripture and is followed by a detailed commentary on the passage. In this pericope, 6:3, "He gave them bread from heaven to eat," extracted from Exodus 16:4, is the the Scripture passage and verses 35-50 are the homily. Thus, commentators describe John 6:35-50 as a Jewish-Christian construction following the typical homily pattern of the day. Some exegetes have taken the homily idea of John chapter 6 one step further. It appears from 6:4 that the Feast of Passover was the setting for the whole of this instruction. Jewish synogogal readings for the Passover season, using the second of a three-year cycle of Scripture, featured Exodus, chapters 11-16. Since John's theme of the bread from heaven is related to Exodus 16 it is possible that the chapter is a medley of material drawn from Jewish religious practice of the season.
Jesus' claim, "I am the bread of life," is the first of the many "I am" sayings of John's Gospel. This is a distinctive case of Jesus' language of revelation in the fourth Gospel. There are seven different declarations of the Lord: (1) the bread of life (6:35, 41, 48); (2) the light of the world (8:12, 9:5); (3) the door (10:7, 9); (4) the good shepherd (10:11, 14); (5) resurrection and life (11:25); (6) the way, truth, and life (14:6); (7) the true vine (15:1, 5). All of these similitudes identify Jesus with symbols common to Near Eastern religious and human experience. Through the use of these common symbols Jesus declares that the people's religious needs and human longings are satisfied in him. They also provide an alternative to the more traditional titles used to identify Jesus, suggesting that no one title can contain the totality of Jesus' character.
The term "bread of life" is not found in the context of Jewish texts that describe manna. The oldest comparable text comes from the Babylonian Adapu myth in which the sky god Anu orders the food and drink of life to be served to Adapu. This demonstrates that the concept of a food which gives immortality is very old. The Jewish apocryphal work "Joseph and Aseneth" offers another parallel. In this book Joseph says that a God-fearing person (a Jew) eats "blessed bread of life" and drinks "blessed drink of immortality" and is anointed with the "blessed oil of imperishability." Later in the text the same promise is made to Aseneth. Later still, Aseneth eats a honeycomb given her by an angel who says, "See now you have eaten the bread of life and drunk the drink of immortality...." Scholars suggest that John's use of the expression "bread of life" most probably comes from this Jewish propaganda text.
John 6:35 is fundamental to the whole bread of life discourse. Jesus' self-revelation as the bread of life is expanded by the twin images of hunger and thirst that are filled with symbolic overtones. The verse is constructed as a synonymous parallel with the first expression, "whoever comes to me," interpreted by the second, "whoever believes in me." Coming to Jesus means believing in him. These twin images are more than rhetorical decoration; they represent a whole conceptual background. The Exodus 16 typology linked the gift of manna and water from the rock. Wisdom literature provides an additional perspective on this linking of food and drink. Proverbs 9:5 states, "Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed." In Sirach 24:21 we read, "Those who eat of me will hunger for more and those who drink of me will thirst for more." When we recall that Wisdom herself was sent from heaven in order to live among the sons of men, it is probable that John had these texts in mind when composing this section of his Gospel. A final example of this typology is found in Isaiah 49:10. "They shall not hunger or thirst ... for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them." In calling himself the bread from heaven Jesus claims to be the revealer of truth and divine teacher who came to nourish all people. Clearly, John is telling his readers that what people need for life is provided in Jesus.
Jesus' claim that those who believe in him as the bread of life will possess eternal life is a complete contrast to the Exodus 16 story where those who ate manna still died. Thus, the evangelist is demonstrating in chapter 6 that what Jesus has done in the miracle of feeding 5,000 is not simply feed people so that the hunger of a day is stilled, but he has shown himself to be the resurrection and the life. He has given life to those who feed on his words, who have seen him and believed that he will save them on the last day. This gift, however, does not come without price to the giver. Namely, as will be seen in the final section of the discourse (vv. 51-58), Jesus gives his flesh. Scholars thus conclude that the passage can only be fully understood in the light of the crucifixion.
After revealing himself as the bread of life Jesus encounters opposition from the Jews. Echoing again the imagery of the Exodus (Exodus 15:24, 16:2, 7, 12; Numbers 11:1, 14:2, 27; Psalm 105:24-25), the Jews grumble against Jesus. They resent Christ's claim to be the bread from heaven. Believing themselves to be fully equipped with adequate knowledge of the facts of the world, they assume that Jesus cannot be the means of revelation. They are correct in concluding that the divine cannot be revealed in that which is human, but they err in thinking that the divine can only be revealed in a superhuman way. They do not recognize the presence of the divine in Jesus. The Jews' murmuring demonstrates their inability to believe in the incarnation.
The opposition of the Jews also provides the opportunity for John to provide further discourse on faith and unbelief. The exhortation to believe is thrust into the foreground. Theologically the movement from faith as God's grace to faith as a demand on humanity is highly significant. In spite of his knowledge of the action of God's grace, Jesus in John's Gospel insists on humanity's responsibility in belief. God's call must be met by a response from all men and women. In opposition to the unbelief voiced by the Jews, Jesus renews his appeal for faith. God initiates the universal process of drawing people to Jesus, but this must be answered by human action.
This passage closes (v. 51) by returning to Jesus' teaching on the gift of life he brings in himself. The manna eaten by the Israelites met their immediate needs for sustenance, but since the people died it did not satisfy ultimate human needs. Jesus, "the living bread come down from heaven," does not fulfill human need; those who eat the bread from heaven receive the gift of eternal life. The promise that one will live is analogous to the promise (v. 35) that any who come and believe in Jesus will never hunger or thirst again. God's will to give life to the world finds its ultimate meaning in Jesus' surrender and crucifixion, giving his flesh for the life of the world.
Context Of The Parable
Context In The Church Year
The need for Christ is ever present; it continues to grow with time and the complexity of life. Yet despite our need we often erect obstacles that make access to God more difficult. We need to be reminded periodically of our need for Jesus in the many manifest ways in which he is revealed to us. Jesus' bread of life discourse contrasts the Lord's promise of eternal life for those who come and believe against the barriers of unbelief which the Jews build. We must allow the Lord to operate in our lives and feed us with the spiritual gifts that assist us in our sometimes perilous journey through life. As the liturgical year continues the church provides this message of challenge and hope. The external barriers that life brings, plus those that we create, can be negotiated with the power of Jesus -- our Savior and Lord.
Context With Other Gospels
The sixth chapter of John's Gospel is one of the many unique parts of this book when compared with the Synoptics. While Matthew, Mark, and Luke (as well as Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26) all describe the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, John uses the event (13:1-11) to emphasize the role of service in Christian life. John's Eucharistic theology is reserved for chapter 6, the bread of life discourse. As the earlier exegesis has shown, John uses this passage to give Jesus' self-revelation as the one who is needed for eternal life. Feeding on Jesus' body and blood will satisfy all spiritual hunger and thirst and provide the strength to continue the walk to union with God at the end of time.
Although there are no parallels between this passage and the Synoptics, there are several connections with other parts in Scripture. Exodus and Wisdom literature are used to provide the imagery of bread from heaven. John 6:35-50 also appears to be linked to Isaiah 55:10-11, where God's word fulfills its purpose as the rain and snow that come down from heaven fulfill their work.
Context With The First And Second Lessons
First Lesson: 1 Kings 19:4-8. Elijah was weary and afraid after fleeing from the grasp of Jezebel who sought his death. God was present to the prophet, however, and sent an angel to meet his need for food and drink. Elijah ate the hearth cake and water and was strenghtened sufficiently to do what was not humanly possible; he walked forty days and forty nights to God's mountain -- Horeb. This story tells us that God will not only feed us today but will provide all that is needed for the tasks of the future, even if they are perceived to be beyond human capability. The story of Elijah is similar to Jesus' bread of life discourse in that the Lord's feeding allows us to do what is not humanly possible -- attain eternal life. God will always provide; we need only to accept this free gift.
Second Lesson: Ephesians 4:25--5:2. Saint Paul tells the Ephesians that they are to strip away bitterness, passion, anger, harsh words, slander, and malice of every kind and replace them with the compassion and forgiveness which only Christ can give. We can only do this if we allow ourselves to be fed by Jesus through the Eucharist, the Scriptures, and the Christian community. The barriers of life which generate the vices Paul mentions can only be conquered with the aid of Jesus. Although in today's world many like to "go it alone" and others refuse to admit their need for anyone, the truth is that no one is able to navigate successfully through the often shoal-ridden waters of life without Jesus guiding the way. Fed by the Lord we will most assuredly find our way home to safe harbor and salvation.
____________
1. Paraphrased from "The Flower Lady" in John Aurelio, Colors! Stories of the Kingdom (New York: Crossroad, 1993), pp. 146-147.
Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." They were saying, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus answered them, "Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
Theme
The path that leads to Jesus and eternal life is not an easy one. The vissicitudes, uncertainties, pitfalls, and problems in life can make our task of following the Lord quite difficult at times. Some of the barriers that come between ourselves and God are external and we have absolutely no control over them. There are many other obstacles placed in our path that are self-generated, consciously or unconsciously. We need to break down the hurdles, barriers, and obstacles that hinder us in our daily walk with the Lord and allow ourselves to be fed with the Bread of Life. Jesus will remove our weariness, lift our spirits, and bring us to life eternal.
Spiritual Food For The Journey
People who have served time in the armed services are quite familiar with an obstacle course. As a test of stamina, strength, perseverance, and courage, military recruits are often required to run a measured distance, many times through rough terrain, swamps, or hills, and successfully negotiate various obstacles, including rope ladders and cargo nets, high walls, tire mazes, and narrow elevated walkways. The course is intentionally made to challenge each person who runs it. Some people run obstacle courses with reckless abandon; they will do all that they can do to shave a few seconds off their time even if in the process they take great risk for personal injury. Others run the course with greater reserve; they are content to finish under the qualifying time.
Life is the greatest obstacle course and all people must run it, whether we wish to or not. Each day we are presented with various challenges, barriers, and hurdles that we need to negotiate to navigate safely to tomorrow. Generally we successfully conquer all our obstacles and move on to the next day. There are times, however, when the hurdles are too great, too numerous, or our earlier stamina is depleted. There are times as well through inattention, lack of forethought, laziness, and even sinfulness that we place additional barriers in our way. Although life itself provides sufficient challenge, we compound the problem by our own action, inaction, or words.
Jesus' bread of life discourse provides us with contrasting images on the barriers of life and the way to navigate through troubled waters successfully. The Jews, those who heard Jesus' words after he fed the 5,000, had the perfect opportunity to remove some of the barriers that made life difficult. They had Jesus in their midst; the living bread from heaven was physically present and they failed to recognize him. In their ignorance the Jews placed a barrier between themselves and belief. Their inability to believe put God at a distance.
We are at times like the Jews; we place God at a distance and fail to feed ourselves on the Bread of Life. The obstacles of life are sufficient challenge for anyone, but they cannot be successfully conquered without the assistance of God. We need God and we need the nourishment which Jesus alone can give. We must feed on Jesus in the Eucharist, but we also must seek God's presence in Scripture and the Christian community. We place barriers before us. We ask, as did the Jews, "What is the bread of life?" We do not take sufficient time to feed ourselves on Scripture. Sometimes we are lazy; other times we claim we are too busy. There are those times as well when we simply refuse to listen. We often keep others at a distance. We will only associate with those who live in our same neighborhood, do the same work, or possess the same intellectual capacity. When we fail to see God in others, we miss a great opportunity and set up another barrier that keeps the Lord at bay.
Jesus, the bread of life, challenges us to break down barriers that impede our progress along the path to eternal life. We must seek the strength and sustenance which only Christ can give to assist us in removing hurdles and obstacles that keep God's grace at a distance. Christ's presence in the Eucharist, the Scriptures, and the Christian community feeds us with the spiritual sustenance we need in order to triumph over the obstacles, pitfalls, and painfulness of life. Alone we will be lost; with the Lord we will discover God's Kingdom, today and to eternal life.
Application Of The Parable To Contemporary Life
Sermon Openings
1. Jimmy Harper wearily plodded home after a tough day on the job. As he walked he spied a bench alongside the road; he stopped and rested. As he waited, a woman, hauling behind her a large cart of flowers, happened to pass by. The sweet smell of the flowers perfumed the air. Jimmy instantly lost the weariness in his body and his spirits were lifted. Never before had he experienced anything like this, especially from flowers, and he had many of them at his home. "How much are you asking for your flowers?" Jimmy asked the lady. "You may take as many as you wish," she replied. "There is no charge. Your gratitude and the proper use of the flowers is sufficient payment for me." Jimmy hurriedly gathered as many flowers as he could in his arms and, now renewed in body and spirit, continued his journey home.
When he arrived home and entered the front door, the sweet aroma of the flowers almost instantly permeated the house. Jimmy's wife and children came to the front room, sensing that something special was happening. They too had their weariness removed and their spirits lifted. The flowers were performing some magic; in a very real way these flowers were feeding the Harper family.
Jimmy was concerned that the magic of the flowers be maintained. When the blossoms began to wither and die, he gathered them together and planted them in a small plot of land behind the house. With sunlight and water the flowers again bloomed and continued their magic. Never before had the Harper family received such solace from weariness, comfort from sorrow, and spiritual nourishment as these special flowers brought.
Jimmy was quite cautious about the flowers; he did not want anything to happen to them. At first his caution was manifest only in a warning to his children, lest their energy in play result in trampling the flowers. Later, when the Harper children were more mature and guests were a regular occurrence at the house, Jimmy built a wall around the flowers to protect them. This caused much consternation in the family as now special permission was required and access was restricted to the flowers and to their special power. Later Jimmy found it necessary to hire a guard to safeguard the flowers and lawyers and judges to adjudicate cases for access. In the process the family lost the special magic that the flowers had brought; they were no longer fed. In the end members of the Harper family, frustrated that the flowers were denied them, decided to seek the flower lady themselves. They searched the highways and byways; finally they found her. She was still giving away her flowers, free of charge, to any who would be grateful and would use them properly.1
Are you a person who lives to eat or one who eats to live? With respect to food, most of us, especially those who live in the so-called first world, would answer, we live to eat. Food is good and dining is pleasurable; it is a social norm. But for those who bear the name Christian, we must go one step further and ask this same question of our spiritual hunger. Do we live so as to be fed by that which God gives us, or do we merely eat and drink of God enough to survive? The story of Jimmy Harper and the flower lady challenges our motivation about how we think of God and remove barriers which impede our path to Jesus.
2. He came softly, unobserved, and yet, strange to say, everyone knew him. The time was the fifteenth century; the place was Seville in Spain. He came to announce peace and to proclaim the good news. He came to teach and to cure; he came to bring the light. As he walked by the cathedral, a funeral procession for a little seven-year-old girl was just beginning to form. He heard the sobs and pleas of the girl's mother. Moved with compassion, he asked the bearers of the funeral bier to halt. He touched the girl; she was raised to life once again.
The local cardinal archbishop heard about this event. Such displays of power were not to be tolerated. Such action led to faith which would only be dashed in the cruelty of the world. He was thus thrown into prison as a common criminal. In prison he was questioned by the chief or Grand Inquisitor of the city, "Why have you come? We don't need you here!" The prisoner made no response. The Inquisitor thus continued his harangue. He questioned the prisoner about his time in the desert, at the beginning of his ministry, when he was tempted with the great luxuries of power, wealth, and prestige. "You were a fool," said the Inquisitor. "You should have accepted Satan's offer! Why are you so bent on self-destruction? Why did you choose miracle, mystery, and authority over power, wealth, and prestige? There is no longer a need to believe in you and what you bring. Go away, you are not welcome here." This time the prisoner did answer, not with words, but with actions. He embraced the Inquisitor, kissed him, and walked out of the prison. He moved on to offer himself to another group at another time in history.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's famous chapter "The Grand Inquisitor" in his equally famous book The Brothers Karamazov describes the rejection of Christ who has come to bring light, goodness, and peace to a world which needs him, but refuses to accept his presence. In a similar way the Bread of Life discourse in John's Gospel challenges us to open our hearts to the possibility of Christ and remove barriers that keep God at a distance.
Points Of Challenge And Questions To Ponder
1. When difficulties, obstacles, and the problems of life strike where do we go to find strength? Who is the source of life for us?
2. What barriers do we place between ourselves and God, whether consciously or unconsciously? Do we realize that these obstacles keep us from exercising our full potential?
3. Are we people who live to eat or eat to live in a spiritual sense? Do we rely on God to be fed or do we seek God only when we feel we need the Lord? Do we hunger for God or only "nibble" enough to survive?
4. Do we perceive the presence of God in our world? Where is God for us? Are we fed spiritually by God's presence in Scripture and the community of faith?
5. We spend a great deal of time in meals feeding our physical hunger. How much time have we spent lately seeking God and satisfying the spiritual hunger we experience?
Exegesis And Explanation Of The Parable
The sixth chapter of John's Gospel is a self-contained unity which shows evidence of careful composition by the evangelist. Its function within the Gospel is to portray the climax and turning point of Jesus' Galilean ministry. In this chapter we are introduced to Jesus as the bread of life, an idea which is systematically introduced through the sign of Christ's feeding of the 5,000 (vv. 1-15), followed by the Lord's address to the Jews the next day (vv. 26-59).
Scholars have shown that this chapter follows the homiletic pattern of Philo and Palestinian midrash. The model begins with a citation from Scripture and is followed by a detailed commentary on the passage. In this pericope, 6:3, "He gave them bread from heaven to eat," extracted from Exodus 16:4, is the the Scripture passage and verses 35-50 are the homily. Thus, commentators describe John 6:35-50 as a Jewish-Christian construction following the typical homily pattern of the day. Some exegetes have taken the homily idea of John chapter 6 one step further. It appears from 6:4 that the Feast of Passover was the setting for the whole of this instruction. Jewish synogogal readings for the Passover season, using the second of a three-year cycle of Scripture, featured Exodus, chapters 11-16. Since John's theme of the bread from heaven is related to Exodus 16 it is possible that the chapter is a medley of material drawn from Jewish religious practice of the season.
Jesus' claim, "I am the bread of life," is the first of the many "I am" sayings of John's Gospel. This is a distinctive case of Jesus' language of revelation in the fourth Gospel. There are seven different declarations of the Lord: (1) the bread of life (6:35, 41, 48); (2) the light of the world (8:12, 9:5); (3) the door (10:7, 9); (4) the good shepherd (10:11, 14); (5) resurrection and life (11:25); (6) the way, truth, and life (14:6); (7) the true vine (15:1, 5). All of these similitudes identify Jesus with symbols common to Near Eastern religious and human experience. Through the use of these common symbols Jesus declares that the people's religious needs and human longings are satisfied in him. They also provide an alternative to the more traditional titles used to identify Jesus, suggesting that no one title can contain the totality of Jesus' character.
The term "bread of life" is not found in the context of Jewish texts that describe manna. The oldest comparable text comes from the Babylonian Adapu myth in which the sky god Anu orders the food and drink of life to be served to Adapu. This demonstrates that the concept of a food which gives immortality is very old. The Jewish apocryphal work "Joseph and Aseneth" offers another parallel. In this book Joseph says that a God-fearing person (a Jew) eats "blessed bread of life" and drinks "blessed drink of immortality" and is anointed with the "blessed oil of imperishability." Later in the text the same promise is made to Aseneth. Later still, Aseneth eats a honeycomb given her by an angel who says, "See now you have eaten the bread of life and drunk the drink of immortality...." Scholars suggest that John's use of the expression "bread of life" most probably comes from this Jewish propaganda text.
John 6:35 is fundamental to the whole bread of life discourse. Jesus' self-revelation as the bread of life is expanded by the twin images of hunger and thirst that are filled with symbolic overtones. The verse is constructed as a synonymous parallel with the first expression, "whoever comes to me," interpreted by the second, "whoever believes in me." Coming to Jesus means believing in him. These twin images are more than rhetorical decoration; they represent a whole conceptual background. The Exodus 16 typology linked the gift of manna and water from the rock. Wisdom literature provides an additional perspective on this linking of food and drink. Proverbs 9:5 states, "Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed." In Sirach 24:21 we read, "Those who eat of me will hunger for more and those who drink of me will thirst for more." When we recall that Wisdom herself was sent from heaven in order to live among the sons of men, it is probable that John had these texts in mind when composing this section of his Gospel. A final example of this typology is found in Isaiah 49:10. "They shall not hunger or thirst ... for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them." In calling himself the bread from heaven Jesus claims to be the revealer of truth and divine teacher who came to nourish all people. Clearly, John is telling his readers that what people need for life is provided in Jesus.
Jesus' claim that those who believe in him as the bread of life will possess eternal life is a complete contrast to the Exodus 16 story where those who ate manna still died. Thus, the evangelist is demonstrating in chapter 6 that what Jesus has done in the miracle of feeding 5,000 is not simply feed people so that the hunger of a day is stilled, but he has shown himself to be the resurrection and the life. He has given life to those who feed on his words, who have seen him and believed that he will save them on the last day. This gift, however, does not come without price to the giver. Namely, as will be seen in the final section of the discourse (vv. 51-58), Jesus gives his flesh. Scholars thus conclude that the passage can only be fully understood in the light of the crucifixion.
After revealing himself as the bread of life Jesus encounters opposition from the Jews. Echoing again the imagery of the Exodus (Exodus 15:24, 16:2, 7, 12; Numbers 11:1, 14:2, 27; Psalm 105:24-25), the Jews grumble against Jesus. They resent Christ's claim to be the bread from heaven. Believing themselves to be fully equipped with adequate knowledge of the facts of the world, they assume that Jesus cannot be the means of revelation. They are correct in concluding that the divine cannot be revealed in that which is human, but they err in thinking that the divine can only be revealed in a superhuman way. They do not recognize the presence of the divine in Jesus. The Jews' murmuring demonstrates their inability to believe in the incarnation.
The opposition of the Jews also provides the opportunity for John to provide further discourse on faith and unbelief. The exhortation to believe is thrust into the foreground. Theologically the movement from faith as God's grace to faith as a demand on humanity is highly significant. In spite of his knowledge of the action of God's grace, Jesus in John's Gospel insists on humanity's responsibility in belief. God's call must be met by a response from all men and women. In opposition to the unbelief voiced by the Jews, Jesus renews his appeal for faith. God initiates the universal process of drawing people to Jesus, but this must be answered by human action.
This passage closes (v. 51) by returning to Jesus' teaching on the gift of life he brings in himself. The manna eaten by the Israelites met their immediate needs for sustenance, but since the people died it did not satisfy ultimate human needs. Jesus, "the living bread come down from heaven," does not fulfill human need; those who eat the bread from heaven receive the gift of eternal life. The promise that one will live is analogous to the promise (v. 35) that any who come and believe in Jesus will never hunger or thirst again. God's will to give life to the world finds its ultimate meaning in Jesus' surrender and crucifixion, giving his flesh for the life of the world.
Context Of The Parable
Context In The Church Year
The need for Christ is ever present; it continues to grow with time and the complexity of life. Yet despite our need we often erect obstacles that make access to God more difficult. We need to be reminded periodically of our need for Jesus in the many manifest ways in which he is revealed to us. Jesus' bread of life discourse contrasts the Lord's promise of eternal life for those who come and believe against the barriers of unbelief which the Jews build. We must allow the Lord to operate in our lives and feed us with the spiritual gifts that assist us in our sometimes perilous journey through life. As the liturgical year continues the church provides this message of challenge and hope. The external barriers that life brings, plus those that we create, can be negotiated with the power of Jesus -- our Savior and Lord.
Context With Other Gospels
The sixth chapter of John's Gospel is one of the many unique parts of this book when compared with the Synoptics. While Matthew, Mark, and Luke (as well as Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26) all describe the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, John uses the event (13:1-11) to emphasize the role of service in Christian life. John's Eucharistic theology is reserved for chapter 6, the bread of life discourse. As the earlier exegesis has shown, John uses this passage to give Jesus' self-revelation as the one who is needed for eternal life. Feeding on Jesus' body and blood will satisfy all spiritual hunger and thirst and provide the strength to continue the walk to union with God at the end of time.
Although there are no parallels between this passage and the Synoptics, there are several connections with other parts in Scripture. Exodus and Wisdom literature are used to provide the imagery of bread from heaven. John 6:35-50 also appears to be linked to Isaiah 55:10-11, where God's word fulfills its purpose as the rain and snow that come down from heaven fulfill their work.
Context With The First And Second Lessons
First Lesson: 1 Kings 19:4-8. Elijah was weary and afraid after fleeing from the grasp of Jezebel who sought his death. God was present to the prophet, however, and sent an angel to meet his need for food and drink. Elijah ate the hearth cake and water and was strenghtened sufficiently to do what was not humanly possible; he walked forty days and forty nights to God's mountain -- Horeb. This story tells us that God will not only feed us today but will provide all that is needed for the tasks of the future, even if they are perceived to be beyond human capability. The story of Elijah is similar to Jesus' bread of life discourse in that the Lord's feeding allows us to do what is not humanly possible -- attain eternal life. God will always provide; we need only to accept this free gift.
Second Lesson: Ephesians 4:25--5:2. Saint Paul tells the Ephesians that they are to strip away bitterness, passion, anger, harsh words, slander, and malice of every kind and replace them with the compassion and forgiveness which only Christ can give. We can only do this if we allow ourselves to be fed by Jesus through the Eucharist, the Scriptures, and the Christian community. The barriers of life which generate the vices Paul mentions can only be conquered with the aid of Jesus. Although in today's world many like to "go it alone" and others refuse to admit their need for anyone, the truth is that no one is able to navigate successfully through the often shoal-ridden waters of life without Jesus guiding the way. Fed by the Lord we will most assuredly find our way home to safe harbor and salvation.
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1. Paraphrased from "The Flower Lady" in John Aurelio, Colors! Stories of the Kingdom (New York: Crossroad, 1993), pp. 146-147.
