Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
The Bread of Life with Pastor Ryan
What are we truly hungry for? In a world filled with temporary satisfactions, Jesus offers something far more substantial when he declares "I am the Bread of Life."
This powerful statement—the first of seven "I Am" declarations in John's Gospel—reaches back to the very name of God revealed to Moses at the burning bush. When God identified himself as "I AM WHO I AM" (Eyah asher Eyah), he established himself as being itself, the foundation of all existence. Jesus now claims this divine identity while offering himself as the solution to our deepest hungers.
The setting is significant: Jesus has just fed 5,000 people in the wilderness near Passover, deliberately evoking the story of God providing manna during the Exodus. Just as the ancient Israelites cried out for liberation from Egyptian oppression, first-century Jews longed for freedom from Roman rule. Through this miracle, Jesus signals that he is the liberator they've awaited—but not the kind they expected.
When the crowds follow him seeking more bread, Jesus challenges them to look beyond physical sustenance that only satisfies temporarily. "Don't work for food that spoils," he urges, "but for food that endures to eternal life." When they ask what works they must perform to earn this enduring bread, his answer is beautifully simple: none. This bread requires no achievement, no striving—only open hands ready to receive.
We all experience spiritual hunger—a persistent ache that material comforts and temporary pleasures can't fill. We reach for things that satisfy momentarily but leave us hungry again. Jesus offers himself as the only bread that truly satisfies, the only provision that endures. In the wilderness places of our lives—the dry, dark, anxious spaces—his promise remains: "God will see to it."
Where else would we go? Only Jesus has the words of eternal life.
Join us! Facebook | Instagram | www.clcelkriver.org
God, we give you thanks this morning for your presence here. We do take a minute just to acknowledge that you are here with us in this place and this time, in this building and in the lives of the people next to us and in front of us and behind us. God, this morning, would you come and meet our needs, all the ways in which we are hungry and thirsty. Would you come and meet our needs, all the ways in which we are hungry and thirsty? Would you come and provide? God, we ask for grace and mercy and, especially in this Lenten season, may we see all the ways in which we cling to things that not only don't give us life but oftentimes rob us of life. And instead, god, may you fill us with your life this morning. May it satisfy us in every way. You bless us this morning. Help us to approach these stories which we maybe know or have heard a few times. Help us to have fresh eyes and ears and spirit. Come and move us and teach us and instruct us. This morning, in Jesus' name, we pray Amen. Amen, you can be seated. Morning everyone. How are we doing Good? Good to see you, man I love.
Speaker 1:I was in the middle over here watching the blessing of the kids. I love that, that we can bless our kids. I was behind the Underwoods kids. Those kids make me laugh every time. They're the best. It's just so great to be able to have kids in our midst and to bless them and say hi to them. Love on them, and they are really. They're not just the next generation of the church. They are that too, but they're the present of the church. They're a part of us right now. So it isn't just for the sake of the future, it's that too, it's for the now. It's that too, but for now it's good for us to have little ones in our midst.
Speaker 1:So we are beginning our Lenten journey and it's the I Am series. So in the Gospel of John, we're reading through John's Gospel. There are seven I Am statements and we're going to go through one of them each at a time, and we're going to start today with I Am the Bread of Life. Jesus says I Am the Bread of Life and in order to understand it and what he's doing, what he's saying, we have to rewind quite a bit, because Jesus, who was born around the first century in Palestine, he's a Jewish man, a Jewish rabbi, a teacher in the Jewish tradition. So he makes lots of references, allusions, stories pertaining to things that were way back here in the Israel story, in the Hebrew Jewish story, with some of the you know the early days, and he's talking about things way back there that maybe you don't necessarily pick up on right away, but if you were a Jew in the first century you'd be like, oh, I know what he's talking about. He's talking about that story back there, so back in the Old Testament, what we call that, and it's the Hebrew Bible. There are all kinds of things that happen that he's then pointing back to, and a lot of these statements are just that him pointing back to these older stories, and so this morning we're going to do that.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to unpack this. What does it mean that he said I'm the bread of life? You have to understand what he means when he says I am, or what is bread? Or where are they when he says this and what are they listening for? What's the location? And in order to understand what he's saying, you have to know all of those things. In order to understand what he's saying, you have to know all of those things. In order to know what those things mean you have to kind of go back here back in time into the Hebrew Bible a little bit, and so this morning we're going to go back and forth a little bit. Does that be all right with you guys? So I'll try to buckle up, I'll do it, but I'll kind of guide us through it.
Speaker 1:And John is the same way. So John makes in many places in the gospel. John has lots of number sevens. It's a great number. He loves it. Seven of course, in the Hebrew story, going back here, seven is a symbolic number for completion and perfection. So it's no wonder that John loves sevens. John, also a Jew, would like that and would like to pull on that thread, and he writes a lot about this in his Gospels. But you don't see it explicitly but implicitly. So, for example, he has in the Gospel of John seven names given to Jesus. So things that people call him and things people say to him. There's seven of them. There's seven names of Jesus.
Speaker 1:Also in the gospel of John there are seven signs that we call the miracles, and these seven signs pop up all throughout the gospel of John and you can count them as you go and, by the way, signs point to something. So whenever there's a miracle or a sign, what is Jesus trying to say? What is John trying to say about Jesus in the sign of the miracle? So what is it pointing to? There are seven signs in the Gospel of John. Also in John's Gospel there are seven times I mentioned where Jesus says I am, then fills in the blank I'm the bread of life, I am the gate for the sheep, I am the resurrection and the life. He also then says seven other times, just the phrase I am, and that's kind of it. My bread has fallen over here. So seven of those. And then, climatically most poignantly, in the Gospel of John there are also seven swans, A swimming, don't look that one up, just trust me on that one. There are seven swans. In the Gospel of John there's lots of sevens. So here are the seven I am's, just so you know. Jesus says I'm the bread of life, I am the light of the world, I am the gate for the sheep, I am the good shepherd, I am the resurrection and the life, I am the way, the truth and the life. And then Jesus says also I am the true vine. Here's the question why does he keep saying I am? Well, if you were a Jew around that time when he would say these things, you'd know exactly what he's talking about Back in the book of Exodus.
Speaker 1:So way back here Moses and you've heard me tell this story twice already in the last couple of months Moses is walking around a place called Mount Horeb. In this place he sees a bush that's on fire, but not burning up. So he takes a minute and stops and pauses and is checking this out. He gives it his attention. The miracle, many scholars say, is not that the bush was talking, but that he stops long enough to notice it, gives his attention to it long enough to hear it speak and then he begins to interact with this bush. It turns out it's God speaking to him. He doesn't really know this God yet, but he's going to learn about this God. And this God says to him hey, my people are enslaved in Egypt and they're crying out for help. I need to send them a liberator. Will you help me? And Moses says this, like you would say back to a bush who's talking to you.
Speaker 1:Okay, I guess suppose I go to them and say to them the God of your fathers has sent me to save you. They're going to ask me what is his name? What should I tell them? It's a good question to ask, because if you're going to know a person, you have to know their name. Or one of the best ways to get to know somebody is to ask them their name, and in the ancient world, a person's name was very much tied to their essence. I don't know if you know this or not, but my name Ryan. It's Irish and it means little king. I just felt like I wanted you to know that this morning. My middle name is Alan. Alan means little rock. I don't know why everything's little. I mean, I'm getting a little bit insecure about that part of it Little rock. My last name, braley, is an English name that means sloping meadow. There you go, so now you know more about me. But Moses asked him who should I tell them what's your name?
Speaker 1:Moses wants to know who are you, what's your essence, what are you all about? And then God responds with this I love it. He's like tell them I am, who I am, to which Moses is like uh, that clears it up. Like, not really at all. By the way, young men, don't try this if you're trying to hit on a girl and she asks you your name I am what I am. It's not going to probably work, but God says it. I am what I am. This is what you're to say to them when they ask you. Tell them that I am has sent you, which is as vague as possible, probably, but here's the deal.
Speaker 1:In the Hebrew it's this In the Hebrew it's a-ya, a-share, a-ya, and the word a-ya. Everyone say a-ya. It means something like to be, or it's the verb like, it's a be being. To be is what he's saying, and it's a like this. It's translated all kinds of different ways in your Bible or other Bibles. They're all the Bible, but there's different ways to translate it.
Speaker 1:You can say I am what I am, I am who I am, I will be what I will be. I am that I am. It's hard to kind of pin down what it means exactly, but something like this God's like hey, just tell them, I am that I am or I will be what I will be is sending you. Now, later on, god gives the people of Israel a name to be used as like a personal, sacred name for God, and the name that they're given or they begin to use is the word Yahweh. By the way you could also render it this aya, a share aya In the Greek it's actually. It means it could be rendered the one who is being. So you could say oh, I am that, I am the, I am who I am, I will be what I'll be. But also you could say God says back to Moses tell them, the one who is being itself is sending you Now.
Speaker 1:Later he begins to call this God Yahweh In your Bible. If it's in the English, it's probably capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, and in the Hebrew they don't use verbs I'm sorry, they don't use vowels. So it looks like this if we write it in English so the personal, sacred name of God is Yahweh, which shares the same root word as Eiyah. They sound the same Eiyah, yahweh, and so it's perhaps as though this personal, sacred name of God that is very much connected to Eiyah, this essence of being, the personal name of God, is somehow connected to the essence of being or existence itself. He tells Moses tell them, I am who is being, is sending you.
Speaker 1:What is God saying? Maybe he's saying that God himself is being itself, he's existence itself. Maybe God is not a thing that we can hold in our hands or look at under a microscope or put in our pockets. Rather, god doesn't exist in that way. God is the ground, the foundation of all existence itself. You and I have friends who walk around saying I don't believe in God. All the while they're walking around being and existing in God.
Speaker 1:Paul, the apostle in the book of Acts. I love this. He says in him, in God, we live and we move and we have our being. So this God, who Moses sort of starts to talk to in this burning bush, and Moses asks him who are you? Who should I tell them? That is sending me, what's the essence of who you are, what's your name? And God says well, tell them that I am, that I am, or I am being itself. I am the ground of being. That's what I am. Tell them that and see what happens. Yahweh, I love that, by the way. Then, in John's gospel you have seven I am statements, which mirrors, perhaps, and connects to these seven names of God.
Speaker 1:In the Hebrew Bible, there are seven names of God that begin Yahweh, so, or the Lord, and then there's a follow-up. It's a compound name. There's seven of those as well. So, for example, one of them is Yahweh Yireh. Everyone say Yahweh Yireh, not bad. Yeah, you might have heard it if you're a Westerner. Jehovah Jireh, something like that. Maybe you've heard of this. Okay, a couple of you, if you don't, then forget.
Speaker 1:I said that there's a number of these. There's Yahweh Risi, there's Yahweh Shalom, yahweh Rafi. I said Risi, risi. There's all these names of God in the Hebrew. Actually, there's seven of them, and the first one in the Hebrew Hebrew Bible is this Yahweh Yireh, which means, in your Bible, it presses the Lord, your provider. Yireh, though, doesn't just mean provider. It can also mean like seeing or seize, so this could also mean Yahweh Yireh could mean the Lord who sees, or something like this the Lord will see to it. That's one of the names of God. God is the Lord, the God who will see to it. Now, this is the first name of God in the Hebrew Bible God the provider, god who will see to it, the Lord who sees to it. And the first name of Jesus in the I am statements is I am the bread of life. Maybe these two things are connected. Yeah, yahweh Yireh, the Lord will see to it.
Speaker 1:This reminds me of my son, and I have his permission to share these stories my son Gavin, when he was younger, would oftentimes tend to panic when things didn't go his way. So for example and we laugh about it now for example, when he was little he would put lotion on his hands. We'd always put lotion on our kids' hands. Gotta have nice, you know, moist hands. But he wouldn't want the lotion on the front of his hands, he only wanted lotion on the backs of his hands. And so he'd put lotion on the backs of his hands, making sure and careful that we didn't get on the front. If it ever got on the front of his hands, he would panic and say buddy, don't worry, your dad will see to it. I'd get a towel and I'd wipe off his hands and get the lotion off the front of his hands.
Speaker 1:When he was little also, he loved to give us kisses when we would leave and he had like the best, fattest lips. We'd give him kisses on his lips. I loved it. As his dad, I would always give him a kiss on his lips and then somehow I don't remember how he started to have us kiss his hands on the front and the back of his hands before we'd leave. True story, I forget how this even started and if we left or he thought we were leaving before we would kiss him on the hands. He would freak out. No, don't worry, buddy, dad will see to it. I'd come back and I'd kiss him on both sides of his hands and then I could leave the house.
Speaker 1:One time, when he was little too, I gave him breakfast and he wanted cereal and I gave him oatmeal instead, and he was not happy. I said, buddy, don't worry, dad will see to it. No, I didn't give him the cereal. He had to eat the oatmeal. But in that moment what it meant for me to see to it was I will sit with you and be with you while you eat this cereal and I see you and I hear you and I love you, but I'm going to have you eat this oatmeal. Yeah, that's the God of the Hebrew Bible, the God who will see to it, yahweh Yireh.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's connected in some way to what Jesus is saying about becoming or being the bread of life. It's interesting how many of us don't seem to lose that sense of panic when we get older. We've grown older, we're more mature, we have jobs, drive cars, but we still have this sense of panic that things are not going to work out that no one sees me, no one hears me. We're like, ah, and maybe this morning you need to just hear and know that God will see to it. Know that God will see to it. We're going to be okay, god will see to it. So Jesus then in the story.
Speaker 1:Now back to John. This chapter that opens or ends, or kind of, it's all about bread. The whole thing's about bread. Jesus says I am the bread of life. Before that, in the beginning, jesus is in the wilderness, on this sort of hillside, and a bunch of people show up and they're hungry. Here's how this whole chapter opens up. Watch and watch for the hints that point back to the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament. So John 6 opens it was the Jewish Passover festival that was near. Why would John tell us that? Hold that thought. I'll come back to the Passover in just a minute, but know that the frame of this whole story is the Jewish Passover. This very famous feast was near. That's how he opens the story.
Speaker 1:Then a bunch of folks show up and they're hungry and Jesus says, hey, he's a great crowd. He tells Philip, philip, where should we buy bread for these people to eat? And I can imagine the disciples are kind of freaking out. Oh my gosh, what are we going to do? I have no idea. There's no. They look around. There's no wilderness, there's nothing around them. I mean, even if we Amazon Prime something, it'll take two days to get here. What are we going to do? Peter's like my DoorDash account was canceled because I used a fake promo code. I'm off of that. I can't even use it. What are we going to do? And I love this. Jesus asks them only to test them because he already had in mind what he was going to do.
Speaker 1:Jesus teeing up one of the most profound and recognizable miracles in all the gospels Even if you don't read the Bible, most folks know this story of the feeding of over 5,000 people and he's sort of teeing up, don't worry about this. But he's like, hey, what should we do? And they panic, they don't know what they're going to do. Now, this is a sign. It's one of the first miracles that Jesus not his first, one of the first ones, one of the earlier on ones. And it's a miracle, it's a sign and it's pointing to something. So they're going to do the miracle and the point is not to just see the miracle, but to see what the miracle is pointing to. So see if you can follow the sign, the miracle, and see what it's pointing at. Here's what a sign does.
Speaker 1:By the way, a sign is an intentional miracle that Jesus performs to reveal something true about God. So here's the question when Jesus does this and I'll explain in a minute when he does it, what is he trying to say? What's he pointing out? What does he mean when he does this miracle? Here's how it goes about 5 000 people show up, or over 5 000 people show up and they're hungry. Of course they're hungry, they're poor, they're peasants in this part of the world, in this day and age, in the first century people, a majority of them, were poor. They were overtaxed, some say as high as 80, that's how much they were taxed. They had nothing to live on and they're hungry. They've been out there in the wilderness for days and they need food. So Jesus feeds them. Yeah, he feeds them, gives them food. A little boy comes out with his fish and his loaves and Jesus performs this sign. It's a miracle. And he feeds them. And it's a sign. A sign. It's a miracle. And he feeds them. And it's a sign, john would say, but a sign to what? What's it pointing to? Well, can you think of another story where there's people in the wilderness and they're hungry and somebody feeds them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, jesus is reenacting this old and familiar story that happens first way back here. So, moses in the burning bush, god tells him hey, go and rescue my people, tell them that I am being itself, ascending you, the Eya, asher, eya, and then I'm going to help you to deliver them out from the slavery in Egypt. And when God does this, he gives Moses several signs revealing who he is. Remember, moses doesn't know him at all. Like who are you? So God's like trust me, I'll take care of you and we'll do it together. And I'm going to show you who I am. And he gives him several signs. One of them is he sends all these plagues into Egypt to help the Pharaoh relent and let them go. He also does this incredible thing at the Red Sea, where the sea opens up and they walk through. By the way another allusion you know there are many times when God separates waters and makes a way for life, many times Creation story, here, baptism. It's beautiful.
Speaker 1:The last miracle or sign that God provides for Moses and the people of Israel is. He gives them food in the desert. What does he give them? Remember what he gives them Manna, which is like a bread. So all these folks in the wilderness are wandering around. A number of people wander around in the desert, in the wilderness, and they're hungry. And God gives them food, manna from heaven. These people were under the boot of the oppressive regime of the Pharaoh and the Egyptian. They cried out for a savior, for a liberator, and God gives them a liberator, gives them Moses, and he saves them and sets them free and feeds them in the wilderness. Now, this was incredible. And he knew that people forget. If you're like me, you forget things all the time. I forget my car keys, I forget my head, if it wasn't attached, and God knows, I don't want you to forget. So, to dramatically help them remember this beautiful story of Moses and the sea, and he gives them this DreamWorks movie, a cartoon called the Prince of Egypt. Okay, that was better than the last gathering. Yeah, yeah, that got nothing.
Speaker 1:At the first gathering he didn't give him a movie, he gave him a meal every year to remember this moment when I saved you, when I liberated you from slavery, when I fed you in the wilderness, I provided enough for you. By the way, he gave him manna. He's like hey, don't take more than you need, because I know that sometimes people tend to take more than you need, because I know that sometimes people tend to take more than they need. Don't do that, you don't need to do that. And if you do, to show them he's like it rots. They would hide it, they would hoard it because they were scared that God wouldn't provide it. And when they took more, it would, it began to get infested with maggots and it rotted. It's like don't just trust me and I'll give you a need. And to remember this beautiful story of me providing in the wilderness, we're going to have a meal every year and they called it the Passover meal. Are you seeing the connections?
Speaker 1:Now Jesus shows up and John says it was the beginning of Passover. And in this time, the people of Israel are still under the oppressive boot of another empire. This time, this time, it's the Romans, and the Romans rule with this iron fist over Israel and over these people, and they're crying out for a liberator. God, save us, send somebody to liberate us again. Now they believed God. Would we know that God will send someone to liberate us, in the same sort of the type of Moses. And they believed that when God did this, when God sent a liberator, there'd be signs. And they're looking all around for the signs. One of the signs that God would indeed, or has indeed, sent someone to save them was that once again, they would receive bread from heaven. So they thought, yeah, god's going to save us. When he does, we'll know it's the liberator that God has sent, because when he comes, he will provide us bread from heaven.
Speaker 1:What's Jesus saying? What's the sign pointing to? He's saying I'm the liberator, I've come to save you. Here we are in the wilderness again at the beginning of Passover, and I will provide for you. I am this Yahweh Yireh, the God will see to you, I'm connected to that as well and I will provide for you. Yeah, in this wilderness, in this desert place, I will come and I will provide for you and we'll eat bread in the wilderness once again. And there they are. Now. Here's the cool thing about this story when they're done eating, they pick up a bunch of leftovers. They've got these styrofoam containers that they're picking it up and putting them into.
Speaker 1:And in the Gospel of Matthew it tells the same story. There's 12 basketfuls styrofoam basketfuls left over, just kidding. And why 12? There's 12 basketfuls, which is cool on a number of fronts. One, because there's enough. Everybody ate, everybody had their fill and there was actually more than enough. When God feeds people in the wilderness, there's more than enough. There's enough to go around. We're going to be okay. Yahweh, god will see to it. And they collect it all back up. Nothing's wasted in the story and perhaps in the kingdom of God, nothing's wasted. God will gather all the things that were once out there and bring them back into himself. And there's 12. 12, of course, if you're a Jew, oh, that's the tribes of Israel. So it's clearly saying God is the provider in the desert, in the wilderness, for all of Israel. That God will see to it. Israel, you guys crying out for a liberator, god will see to it.
Speaker 1:Now, in Matthew's gospel, jesus, and there's two times this similar story is told. So the feeding of the 5,000, and then Matthew's gospel a couple of moments later, jesus feeds over 4,000 people. It's like almost identical story. It's weird there's two times. They're different stories but they're almost identical. But there's a couple of unique, obvious, glaring differences. One is he's not in the Jewish part of town any longer.
Speaker 1:He goes. He leaves there and goes to a Gentile region called the Decapolis. That's where he is with now, a mostly Gentile crowd Gentiles were, non-jews, you might say everybody else. So he's there in this Gentile part of the world and he does feeding feeds them too. Why is he feeding the Gentiles? This isn't their story, this is our story. And when they're done, they pick up more basketfuls, and there's seven basketfuls left over this time. Why seven? Well, many scholars believe that number seven in this case in the Gentile region not in the Jewish region, but was a symbol of the Gentile world.
Speaker 1:So maybe Jesus is also saying yeah, I am here to feed Israel and to liberate you and to be your bread and the wilderness again, but also everybody else. You're welcome to eat too. If you're hungry, come and eat. If you're thirsty, come and drink. I will provide for all of you Bread enough for the whole world. By the way, what do you think Jamie's doing at Lutheran World Relief? Yeah, they're providing bread for the whole world. Relief, aid, care, love, support for the whole world. What do you think care is doing? I sent an email out earlier this week if you missed it, and it just said hey, we're talking about food and bread at the sermon and so care is in need of some resources right now because of inflation and all kinds of other problems and struggles. So we'd love to take up an offering and to be food, bring food and people brought food. Yeah, because there's food enough for the whole world, for Israel and for the whole entire world.
Speaker 1:Jesus is the liberator. Now what happens is crazy. They try to make him king, as oftentimes people do. We love our kings, don't we? We want to make people kings all the time and they try to make him king. But he knows that the king they want is a military political leader to march on Rome to overthrow people of force and might. He's like I'm not doing that.
Speaker 1:So he splits and disappears and they can't find him. Like, where did he go? Finally they see him, like oh, there he is. And when they find him they say where have you been? And he tells them this he's kind of like. He seems like he's miffed a little bit, he's upset. He's like I tell you, you guys are looking for me, not because you saw the sign and what it was pointing to, like these, they missed it. You only came here because you ate loaves and had your fill. In other words, I was doing something deep and profound and all you could see was bread. And you came and followed me now because you were just hungry, to which I would say yes, we're hungry, we're poor, we need food. What do you mean? Why are you mad about that? Okay, you missed it, you missed the sign, what it was pointing to.
Speaker 1:And then they say this. They say Jesus, I think I have a slide for it, yeah, or they're like what are you talking about? He says, hey, don't work for food that spoils, but for food that endures, for eternal life, which the Son of man will give you, for on him, god, the Father, has placed his seal of approval. It's like what you guys want? Bread, that's what you want. You're hungry, you want bread, but I want you to have something that endures, that's deeper than just this kind of bread.
Speaker 1:And then John, the gospel, tells us this. They ask him, ask him okay, for this kind of other bread, this deeper, meaningful life that endures. What do we have to do? What works must we do? What does God require? In other words, what levers can we pull? What actions can we do to earn this? To get it, what must we do? What are the works we have to do to get it? To which which Jesus replies basically nothing. There are no works, just believe, just open your hands. If you're hungry, come and receive. Yeah, there are no works. And they say this. By the way, this could be our prayer for all of Lent. Say, sir, give us this bread always. Give us this bread that's deeper, richer, that sustains us. Give us this bread always. Yeah, that's the prayer. And then Jesus says to them I am the bread of life. Yeah, that bread you want, I am that, I'm the bread of life. Do you see what he's saying?
Speaker 1:Bread, by the way, is this incredibly common food. Yeah, if you come to me, Jesus says, then too, you'll never go hungry. If you believe in me, you won't be thirsty. Kind of reminds you of the woman at the well who's thirsting for water and he tells her I can give you water that will make you never thirst again. But bread, is this incredibly common commodity in the world? It's the most common food in all the world. It's common, it's easy to make, easy to transport, it's not that hard to get. It's sustainable. We have gluten-free upon request as well. We have gluten-free bread here. We depend on it. But here's the deal After you eat this bread deal.
Speaker 1:After you eat this bread this Mike's killer bread, which weighs 30 pounds, I promise you, after you eat it, as delicious as it might be, you're going to need more. A couple hours later you're going to want more. If you're like me, maybe 30 minutes later you'll want more, because it fills you up, but only for a minute, and it fills the hole in your stomach, but only for a while. You always need to eat more.
Speaker 1:Jesus then says this he says your ancestors ate the man in the wilderness and they died. We will eat this bread and it will, will fill us and we'll probably still die. But there's bread, jesus says, that came from heaven, which anyone may eat of and not die. I'm the living bread that came down from heaven. You're waiting for a sign. I'm right here. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. The bread is my flesh, which I give you and the world.
Speaker 1:What is he talking about In the wilderness of our lives? Bread is good, it makes you full, but I'm telling you we have hunger and aches and longings that this bread won't satisfy, that this bread won't satisfy. We have needs that are much deeper than just bread in a bag. This will temporarily fill our lives, but we need something deeper. By the way, maybe your thing isn't bread, maybe it's something else, trying to fill the hole, the ache, the longing in your life. Many of us have this low-grade ache. Maybe it's a high-grade ache and we reach for all kinds of things to fill it, to numb it, to check out, to dull it, or we think it will help, but it doesn't help. It helps for the moment, but then a couple of hours later, we're hungry and we ache again. Yeah, because these things don't satisfy.
Speaker 1:We need bread from heaven and Jesus says God will see to it. And you don't need a program. You don't have to pull the right levers, say some magical words, do the right dance, memorize enough things. Just come. Come and eat and believe and hold out your hands and take, show up, eat and drink. If you're hungry, if you're thirsty, come, there's plenty enough for everybody. God will see to it. He'll see to it. God will be the provision in the wilderness, the driest, darkest, most lonely, anxious, god forsaken places in our lives. God will see to it.
Speaker 1:By the way, when he says this, a number of people, a number of the followers this is too heavy for us. We can't take this Jesus, and there's all kinds of reasons why. But from this point on, many of them turned away and no longer followed him. We can't do this, we can't. He says to them you've got to eat of my body, drink of my flesh. Take my bread, my life, for yours. The way you're doing it won't work it. Let go, trust me, do it my way. Take my life for your life. Take my righteousness for your failure, my love for your hate. Take my innocence for your guilt, my wisdom for your folly, my resurrection for your inevitable death. Let go, come and eat and drink. And a number of them can't do it. And they stop following him.
Speaker 1:And he turns to the disciples the 12, and he says hey, if you guys want to go, you can go. I don't know why this part always makes me want to cry. And Peter says and this is why I'm a Christian, he said well, lord, where would we go? Where would we go? You alone have the words of eternal life, this bread from heaven. Only you can give us that. I've seen it, I've tasted it. Where else would I go. I've been out there, there's nothing out there. Maybe you've been out there and there's nothing out there. There's not. You fill yourself up and you're hungry again. In an hour Jesus says I will give you life. It's no wonder, in the age to come, the symbol for this eternal life, this quality of life, forever to last forever. This age to come is a great feast. There's plenty of food and drink for everybody and everyone's invited. Age to come is a great feast. There's plenty of food and drink for everybody and everyone's invited. I'll close with this.
Speaker 1:Years ago they did a survey and they asked people hey, what's one thing you want someone to tell you? And mean it. Like if someone could say anything to you, what would you want them to say to you? And mean it? And the top three answers probably won't surprise you. It was this People want to hear I love you, I forgive you and dinner is ready. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the gospel right there. Jesus shows up and says I love you, I forgive you and dinner is ready. God will see to it. There's plenty of that for everybody. Let go. Come and eat, come and drink. Those with no money, those full of shame, come. We're going to play a song here, and when we do, we're going to.
Speaker 1:I'm going to give you some bread. Maybe you're here this morning. You're like Ryan, I can sense this ache deep in my spirit. I've got it and I need living bread, bread of life, kind of bread God will see it too. A kind of bread.
Speaker 1:So, in a symbolic way, if you come forward, I have three stations up front and one over there. I do have a gluten-free loaf, so for you gluten-freers, I will put that, we'll put it up there and I'll let you grab the gluten-free. It's this loaf right here. Nobody's touched it. And then we're going to say to you, as you receive this bread, god will see to it as a reminder that in the darkest places of our lives, the wilderness that God will provide, god will see to it. We're going to be okay, and maybe you're here. It's not that dramatic, but I just need a reminder that God will see to it. We're going to be okay, and maybe you're here. It's not that dramatic, but I would like you know. I just need a reminder that God will see to it.
Speaker 1:This morning. That's what we're going to do. We're going to invite you forward and maybe you're here. You're like, I want someone to pray with me because I just I really need someone to pray. So Kirsten and Gil, who's back there, and then Katie Braley, my wife, will be. I think they're going to come on the platform here or no. Where do you guys want to go? Maybe down front, so it's not on display, but somewhere in here. They won't have bread. They love to pray for you, so we'll give you bread and you can go to one of them for prayer, if you want prayer, and they'll just take a minute and pray with you. Or you can grab them after the service and just let them pray over you. I know it's you know've got to get up out of your seat and take a risk here. I get all that, but I would invite you to do so anyway, and if you feel that ache and that hunger and that stirring in you, come forward and receive, and we're going to say to you God will see to it, amen.
