Bread of life

Ephesians 4:25-5:2 & John 6:35, 41-51

Some of us will know of the novel ‘Of Human Bondage’ by William Somerset Maughan… written in the 1930s when Somerset Maughan was the most famous living author.

In 1965 he was 90 years old…fabulously wealthy…royalties from his books continued to pour in…despite the fact he hadn’t written a word in years.

At this time…he received an average of 300 letters a week from his fans.

What had it brought to his life…how did he the respond to this life lived out before his adoring fans. His nephew Robin visited him shortly before his death…he was surrounded with wealth… had 11 servants…a chef…a butler…and footman…dined on silver plates…his nephew found him on a couch peering at the extra large print Bible he had given his uncle.

The text, ‘What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose his own soul?’ (Matthew 16:26).

Somerset Maughan told his nephew the text used to hang opposite his bed when he was a child…he concluded it was a lot of bunk…but quite interesting all the same…Maughan buried his head in his hands and said, ‘I’ve been a failure the whole of my life…made mistake after mistake…made a hash of everything.’

Robin tried to comfort him…‘You’re the most famous writer alive…surely that means something?’

‘I wish I had never written a single word…it’s brought me nothing but misery…my whole life has been a failure…and now it’s too late to change.’

Suddenly his face contorted with fear as he stared in horror shrieking…‘Go away!’…‘I’m not ready…I’m not dead yet!’ Maughan began to gasp hysterically as his nephew told him there was no one else present.

A grim story of a man who had almost everything…but when he came to the time for reckoning…found life empty…worthless… and…was afraid to die.

This was not life as God intended it to be… God does not want anyone to come to the end of their life knowing it has been all futility and mistakes.

In today’s Bible verses our Lord wanted to free the people…just as he wanted to free Somerset Maughan…just as He wants to free people in today’s world…He wanted to free us…which is why he gave this teaching on the bread of life…to rescue us from the emptiness of life.

Christ teaches his followers they are empty… once they understand this…He tells them how to receive the satisfaction He gives.

Jesus has become wildly popular…a superstar constantly mobbed…the disciples were exhausted…He sent them across the Lake to Bethsaida…green grass…quietness …a chance for relaxation…a bit of R&R.

The crowds were not giving up however… they watched the direction the boat took… followed Him…the crowds there…waiting for him when he arrived.

He responded by ministering all day finishing/culminating in feeding the 5000… 3 resulting in…some very tired disciples.

‘Rabbi, when did you get here…you weren’t trying to escape from us…were you?’

Pursued him they did because He had supplied them with the material things of life…they liked the idea of a fish maker and a bread maker…someone who could give them the material things they wanted.

They failed to take the next step and realise that a man who could miraculously supply bread…was also the one who could meet the deep spiritual needs in their lives.

In verse 34 the crowd did not completely understand what Jesus had been saying about being the bread of life…however they did say…‘Sir, give us this bread always.’

Now Jesus had them listening to his every word…He could tell them what He could do for them.

“I AM the bread of life” (v35) what a conversation stopper that was…no coincidence that Jesus was born in Bethlehem ‘the house of bread’” prophesied hundreds of years earlier by Micah (5:2)…The Word became flesh we broke it…no coincidence about that…all planned by the Lord for our redemption.

The Scriptures say that Jesus can either be a cornerstone or a stumbling block…how you and I respond to Him makes all the difference. Jesus ‘the bread of life’ our sustenance…food for our souls…no more hunger or thirst for those who believe in Jesus…apart from Christ nothing satisfies.

We may have our all-time favourite meal… eaten our fill…but the next morning hunger gnaws at us…there are rumbling sounds…our puku (stomach) is…looking for breakfast…then second breakfast…and by lunchtime that’s left us hungry too…only the bread of life can satisfy us.

In verse 47 Jesus reiterated (emphasised) many of the same things he’d said in previous verses…except he emphasised they had to be a partaking of Him as the bread of life…talk about a reaction…the Jews began to argue among themselves…‘How can this man give us His flesh to eat?’

Just what is Jesus talking about…are we really to drink His blood and eat His flesh in order to get the bread of life?

Should Jesus have backed off a little…you or I might have…but Jesus pressed on with an even stronger affirmation/statement that there must be a deep partaking of Him.

But how do we do that?

Commentator James Boyce says:
Is He as real to you spiritually as something you can taste or handle…is He as much a part of you as that which you eat?

He must be more real and useful than your favourite meal…but the unfortunate thing is that for many people He is…much less.

How real is Jesus to you?

The apostle Paul had a vision of the risen Lord Jesus and that’s what set him apart from his contemporaries…he prayed that people’s hearts might be opened that they could grasp the riches of their inheritance in Christ Jesus.

Before we come to know Jesus…He is just another name…have things changed…has He become real to you…is He bread…is He more real than meat and potatoes?

I remember vividly the first time I tried a real French baguette…not a New Zealand imitation…one made in France by an artisan baker…the crust was crispy…it was so light and fresh…I could have eaten it all day…did every day for six weeks…now it is just a memory…wonderful bread…but in comparison to Christ…stale…tasteless… satisfying only briefly.

Bread was the staple of life in Jesus’ time… difficult for people to conceive life without bread…Christ the bread of life is absolutely indispensable.

Is it difficult for us to conceive of life without Christ…what if there were no Christ…how would that change our lives?

The first commandment reads…‘You shall have no other gods before me.” Joy Davidman in a wonderful little book called ‘Smoke on the Mountain’ which she dedicated to CS Lewis turned this commandment around to positively read… ‘YOU SHALL HAVE ME.’

Jesus is saying have you got it…this is what it is all about…YOU SHALL HAVE ME…I AM the bread of life…I want you to have me…partake…I want to be bread to you.
DO YOU WANT ME.

A day old baguette is a soft chewy thing…they need to be eaten fresh each day. We need a daily partaking with Christ…He wants to give Himself to us…surely it demands that we be constantly partaking of the ONE who is the bread of life.

Somerset Maughan did it all…was he satisfied…think of that large print Bible and those wrinkled 90-year-old hands trembling as he read ‘What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose his own soul?”… then flippantly tossing it aside.

Life is full of what if’s…what if he had then opened the Bible in the book of John and read 6:29 where Jesus said…‘This is the work of God…that you believe in the One He has sent.’

What would have happened to him if he had believed…it is the same question for us…what have we believed…for all who believe…who come…drink the water of life…eat the bread of life they are satisfied.

Those who know the satisfaction Christ brings…have partaken of Him. Some in that group are more satisfied than others because they’ve been eating the bread more consistently…others who know nothing of the satisfaction Jesus gives are on the outside…looking in.

Where are you…where do you sit…have you drifted away from God…the disciples asked the question ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’

Jesus replied… ‘This is the work of God…that you believe in the One He has sent’ (v29).

The MASTER comes, and the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of a soul, and the change that’s wrought by the TOUCH OF THE MASTER’S HAND. So said…Myra Brooks Welch.

Has he touched you…do you need a fresh renewing touch from the Lord…do you need restoration.

Billy Graham said…“We set out to take excellent care of our bodies…which we have for only a lifetime; yet we let our souls shrivel, which we have for eternity.

May God open our eyes to the reality of this.