John 6:35-51
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life."
As with all of the Gospels there are differing opinions about the date of John was written some think as early as 57AD and some 85AD or later. In fact, the more recent dating of all the Gospels place the time much earlier than previously thought which makes the writings closer to the time of the actual events. Of course there are varying opinions of the purpose of the Gospels as well. In the case of John some believe he was trying to appeal to Greek thinkers, others think he wanted to supplement the Synoptic Gospels, or perhaps to combat some form of heresy. A discussion about the Apostle John's purpose is inconsequential because he clearly stated, "These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name".
It's important to bring this to light because from this point on John records some remarkable statements by Jesus.
Jesus says seven times "I am the bread of life". The Greek words are solemnly emphatic in His statement of "I am". The bread of life may mean "the bread that is living" and/or "the bread that gives life." I think the point here is that Jesus is life.
Another phrase Jesus repeats six times is "I have come down from heaven", emphasizing Jesus' divine origin. Jesus has done some amazing signs, miracles if you will and yet many still don't see, they won't accept Him, they have no faith.
John tells us the Jews grumbled. The grumbling Jews John refers to in are the Jewish leaders. It's not the people in the crowds and he certainly isn't referring to himself or Jesus.
If I were one of the Pharisees at Capernaum, I might have thought here we go again. Jesus is out there stirring up trouble. We have this nice set of laws to make sure all is orderly and right with God and this guy is trying to subvert everything we have done.
All of the past generations have followed the laws, all the way back to Moses. If we don't follow the laws, we can't get into heaven. But this man is telling us our laws are of no consequence to God. On top of that, He says He is from God. What are we to make of this?
Do you notice a two-letter word that is taking center stage in this line of thinking? A word that is interchangeable with a one-letter word. You guessed it "We" and "I".
The religious leaders grumbled because they did not accept Jesus' claim of divinity. They saw him only as a carpenter from Nazareth. They refused to believe that Jesus was God's divine Son, and they could not accept His message.
The Lord provided us with an intellect greater than all of the other creatures and down through the ages man has tried to use that intellect to examine the seen and unseen world around him.
Aristotle taught that reason is always striving for the good and the best. All we have to do is take a look at where man has been to know that is false. Human reason leads us to believe that we can only accept what is observable and measurable. Based on that there are people who reject there is a God, or in varying degrees have trouble accepting what God has provided us in this book and on the cross. (hold up Bible)
The Jewish leaders found themselves in that predicament. If people don't conform to these prescribed laws, an observable and measurable ideal, they can't go to heaven. Their focus is on what a person can do and not what God provides.
Is it reasonable to assume human reason is flawed?
A long time ago, people gathered to build a tower. Their reasoning was if the tower was tall enough it could reach heaven. They took pride in the plan to build this tower and in the thought they could be equal to God. They were wrong.
Is it reasonable to think that what would lead us to heaven would be greater than our wisdom?
Human wisdom and knowledge is continually growing. Every day new discoveries shape the way we look at the world. Human reason is limited to what we have experienced. It's not hard to understand that people relying on their own reason have difficulty with this whole Christianity thing.
God, not man, plays the most active role in salvation. When someone chooses to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior, he or she does so only in response to the urging of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enlightens us then we can accept Him. No one can believe in Jesus without God drawing them to Him.
But even then we are so busy trying to do everything our way we patch, bypass, and workaround the truth. So often, the result is catastrophic failure. That's when we realize that things could have been much different and taken considerably less effort by accepting the truth of Christ's love and guidance rather than using human reason.
Not only is it reasonable that what leads us to Christ is beyond human wisdom, its also reasonable to think that God is only going to reveal to His people what He deems necessary. People need a new insight into the plan of salvation. That insight comes from the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit draws people to Jesus and the knowledge that He has secured their salvation. So anyone that takes the Christian faith seriously should stop trying to sort everything out through human reasoning. God is not revealing the entire picture to us. If He did, we probably couldn't comprehend it anyway. We are insignificant compared to God's glory, yet He loves us and cares for us often in ways that seem mysterious.
Perhaps a better way to look at this great mystery is to focus on what our Lord has said to us. If He said it, it is true. Don't wrestle with the details; we may never know the details. Let Him be wiser than you because He is.
This line of thinking is not foreign to us. In fact, this is very common. The CEO of a company doesn't share all of the details of the company's strategy with all of the employees. Military commanders don't openly share the entire battle plan with every solder. In addition, we don't share all of the reasons for our decisions with our children, just the all-important one, "because I said so."
We should not know or want to know what God has decided not to reveal to us. In confidence, we can accept that He will take care of these things for us. He has entrusted us with other things that need to be attended to in this world. Such as how our faith in Jesus Christ is expressed to others.
Moses would walk up Mount Sinai. There he would meet with God face-to-face. It was the place where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. Each time Moses went to meet with God on this mountain, he came back glowing.
He had an encounter with God on Mount Sinai, and this encounter was so remarkable that Moses was transformed. His appearance was altered. He was literally radiant. The first time he came down from the mountain the people were afraid.
Moses would wear a veil over his face when he came down from the mountain. He wore a veil to cover the fading glory. Once Moses left the presence of God, the glory would fade. With each step away from the mountain, the glory would decrease.
Moses had a veiled face. We have unveiled faces.
We do not have to wear a veil because the glory is not diminishing. In fact, the opposite is true. The glory is ever increasing because we never leave the presence of God. The Spirit draws us ever closer to Him. We never come back down the mountain. The mountain is in us.
Human reason cannot explain the radiance that comes from surrender to Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ in not just the bread of life He is life itself.
Jesus said, "…this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day."
Jesus truly is life itself.
In the name of our risen Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
