True and living bread

From Helen

I once heard about an occasion when a man claimed that he had photographic evidence that Elvis was still alive. He phoned a newspaper and the news quickly spread. The excited media went to see this man so they could see the picture. When they arrived the man showed them the photograph. They looked and said, ‘this is a photo of you and your dog.’  The man replied, ‘yes, but Elvis took the picture.’

In our gospel reading (John 6:51-58) this morning we heard of Jesus offering Himself, not acopy of bread but the true bread. Jesus was offering all that people would ever need for life as He said that He was the living bread.

This comes as part of a whole section of Jesus’ teaching when He was explaining to the people that they had been looking for the wrong things in life. Going back in time a bit, Jesus had fed the 5000 and people were amazed. After this they followed Him and asked what else He could do for them. There was a sense that they were treating Jesus like some divine celebrity chef. He responded by telling them that they were missing the point. 

Jesus pointed out that He was all that they needed, He was offering bread for life. Meaning He was offering them all that they would ever need. He said that not only was He the bread of life but He was the true living bread, the true food and drink. 

Basically Jesus was telling the people that He was all they would ever need to know. Jesus is life, Jesus is our sustenance and He is our Saviour. 

Jesus by telling the people that He was the living bread was offering a life changing choice. The people could choose whether they took part in a relationship with Him which would lead to everlasting life or not. 

There are many ways that we can be part of this living bread but the main one is in relationship. Part of our relationship with Jesus is built through prayer, through Bible reading, through spending time with other Christians and through our acceptance of all that God has done for us. 

One part of this acceptance is when we receive communion together. In communion we are reminded of the living bread, the living wine as we partake in Jesus’ offering for us. We do this as we think of Jesus offering His life for us. 

When we receive communion we remember all that Jesus has done for us and we commit ourselves to being more like Him day by day. We share in a family meal together and this reminds us of the fact that we are a family all following the same saviour.

Being part of the family of Jesus those who partake in the living bread means that we have to live as if Jesus has changed our lives. 

In the epistle reading (Ephesians 5:15-20) we heard Paul warning the Ephesians to be careful of how they live, to make sure that their lives were holy. This doesn’t mean that they weren’t to have fun but it meant that they were to rejoice in the right things and as far as I am concerned if we can’t rejoice in the fact that we everlasting life and life now with Jesus then something is seriously wrong.

We are here today to worship God who offers us a real relationship. Not a flash in the pan magic trick but something that will last forever. Jesus was offering life, and that life was life forever. And He offers us the same today.

I was reading an article this week about an autistic young man who struggles with things in Church not being explained well. As far as he is concerned when someone from his Church dies there is no need to be sad because they are now enjoying life eternal. This has led to some confusion in the Church when everyone else is sad and he is happy !

Jesus though wasn’t offering people just life after death but life now. Jesus was saying that He was all people need in the here and now. This of course doesn’t mean that our life is perfect but it does mean that we can enjoy life with Jesus knowing that every moment we are with Him means that in both the good and the bad times He is there for us. 

Jesus offers us life and we have a response to make. Will we partake in Him in the living bread that He offers or will we look elsewhere ?

Jesus is life eternal, Jesus is life now and to be honest we have the words and the knowledge of the love of God and we can be selfish with them or we can share them.

If you had the best news ever you would want to shout it out and we have the best news ever and we should shout it out. We have living bread, we have life eternal and we can tell others about this by the way that we live. As we heard in the epistle to the Ephesians we are to say thank you, we are to worship, we are to live more like Jesus as we praise Him. When we do this our lives are changed and this is how we can show others the love of God and the joy of knowing life everlasting. 

Relationship with the living bread is quite simple really there are no clever words it is all about love and our response to that love.

Jesus the living bread invites us to join with Him as we remember, as we give thanks and as we worship.

The living bread is about love, because God doesn’t just love us - He is love. 

As the words of the hymn, ‘God is love’ say,

God is love: let heaven adore him;
God is love: let earth rejoice;
let creation sing before him,
and exalt him with one voice.
He who laid the earth's foundation,
he who spread the heavens above,
he who breathes through all creation,
he is love eternal love.

This is the God we worship, the living bread - our everything who gave us Himself so that we could have everything – He is all we need. Surely our only response is to say yes to life and to try and share that with others by the way that we live. May we always show the joy and love of God in our lives and remember to give thanks. AMEN