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This Week's Sermon THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 02 August 2009 "Jesus Redeemed Bread" John 6:35-51 LSB Series B Vicar Jeffrey M. Dock Soli Deo Gloria!

Jesus said "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." (John 6:51)

In the name of Jesus † Amen.

When Jesus speaks these words about being the bread of life, a change occurs in the World and in the very meaning and significance of the word bread. To understand the full significance of what Christ is saying here, let us look back to Creation. When God created the world, He gave to Adam was all trees of the garden to eat, save one. The tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil brought death when it was eaten of. Humanity was banned from paradise, forced to work in the dust of the earth and experience pain and death. And now, the only hope for our survival is the bread which comes from the ground, earthly bread. A bread placed as a seed into the dust from which mankind had come, and taken as wheat from the dust to which we were doomed to return. Eating bread is a reminder that we are mortal, and will eventually face death. Bread is a reminder of the nourishment we need just to live from day to day. Or as God said after Man's fall into sin

"By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." (Gen 3:19)

And yet Jesus calls Himself bread. Even though, after the fall, God reminds man that by the sweat of our faces we shall eat bread until we return to the ground. And even though bread is a reminder of the curse of sin upon the earth, still Jesus chooses bread to associate Himself with. Why? Why Bread? This was to show Christ's defeat of the curse of sin. Bread was a reminder of sin and death, but Christ was going to conquer both of them. Choosing Bread was done to point to the full payment Jesus would make upon the cross, as He took all sin unto Himself.

So Jesus calls Himself bread. Not some earthly bread though, which we would eat and then in a few hours find ourselves hungry again. Not bread that merely kept us alive for a little while more upon this earth. No, Jesus is bread from Heaven. That's important to note. In the midst of the death that surrounds us upon this earth, Jesus is something different. He is divine bread, heavenly bread. His very flesh is bread, and those of us who partake of the sacrament week after week should not find these words surprising, but comforting. His flesh is a saving flesh, offered up to atone for all of our sins. His flesh is a meal of forgiveness. It is flesh which promises the Resurrection to those who partake of it.

The Resurrection. That's important. With His statement that He is the bread of life, Jesus breaks the pattern of mankind dying, and going back to dust. Most of us have probably been to a funeral. And we've probably heard the words of the funeral liturgy "ashes to ashes, dust to dust." We drive past cemeteries. We see friends and family pass away. We suffer under our own poor health, and face diseases. We know that man is mortal and doomed to die. And so does Jesus. This is why He chooses bread, breaking the pattern of mankind dying and becoming dust. Through Christ that pattern changes. He is not mere earthly bread which staves off death, but He is instead the Heavenly bread who gives eternal life. He is bread which promises not disintegration into dust like the earthly bread that had came before, but instead which promises elevation into Heaven. As He rose from the dead, so too this promise is given to us that though we die, yet we shall live. For indeed Christ is the bread which we shall eat of and not die. Christ is the one in whom, by believing, we inherit eternal life. Christ is the one who gives us His flesh to eat. Holy Communion is a reminder that eating isn't a futile action to merely prolong our life on earth a little while longer, but is instead a promise of eternal life in the resurrection of the dead.

Why bread? Why use food to do these things? Everywhere in the Holy Scriptures, God is feeding His people. And He is feeding them with the intention of moving them toward that Meal which is the gift of Himself in the flesh. The fruit of the trees in the garden. The meat of the animals following the Flood. The Passover Lamb. The manna and the quail. The flesh and the fruits of sacrifices, provided as food for the priests and for the people. The milk and honey of the Promised Land. It is all leading to the Body and Blood of the Christ¹. It all can be looked back upon as marvelous gifts in light of Jesus' words that He is the Bread of Life. Jesus spreads His table, and invites the entire earth to pass through the waters of Baptism into His feast. He makes a table with sinners, and gives them a foretaste of the feast to come. Kneeling at this altar, Christ extends to us a gracious invitation to join in the Marriage Feast of the Lamb, which has no end.

Why use food as the means to give us the gift? Why does God choose this earthly and normal thing, this plain bread? Why not something more special? Why not something more spiritual? We eat all the time, 3 meals a day usually- why would Christ choose to sustain His church with yet another meal? The great Christian author C.S. Lewis once wrote the following regarding the Christian life and the Sacraments

"And let me make it quite clear that when Christians say the Christ-life is in them, they do not mean simply something mental or moral. When they speak of being "in Christ" or of Christ being "in them," this is not simply a way of saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying Him. They mean that Christ is actually operating through them; that the whole mass of Christians are the physical organism through which Christ acts-that we are His fingers and muscles, the cells of His body. And perhaps that explains one or two things. It explains why this new life is spread not only by purely mental acts like belief, but by bodily acts like baptism and Holy Communion… There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it." (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity [Emphasis mine])

God uses bread and wine because they are good things. He created them for our good, in order to give us life. Though the fall into sin cursed creation and brought death, God would have none of that. In Jesus Christ, He re-enters into creation. He takes back matter and the created things and says 'no longer will they be tools of death, they shall instead be tools of life.' Bread and wine shall no longer sustain my people simply from day to day, but will now sustain them unto eternal life. Christ has redeemed bread. No longer a reminder of death, it is now the means of grace through which God gives eternal life. God says Satan shall not win this battle; My Son will bear the sin of my people, the curse of creation- and He will make all things new. He will feed them with Himself that they may have eternal life. This is God's good and gracious will: to save us with these created things. This bread and wine. God likes matter. He invented it.

In our Old Testament reading today Elijah, fearing for his life and having no food, prayed that he might die. When Israel was led by God out of the Egypt into the wilderness, they were fed with heavenly bread (manna) but (as Jesus says in today's reading) they still died. In our Gospel reading Christ's disciples grumble that He claims to be the bread of life and gives His own flesh and blood to drink.

Yet Elijah trusted God in the wilderness and was fed. Israel ate the manna and in relying upon God the nation reached the Promised Land. The Disciples cried "Lord to whom shall we go? You have the Words of eternal life." We come to kneel at this rail, before this altar and eat the Bread of Life as we partake of Christ Himself. In that we are nourished and fed. In this act we are given Christ's body and receive forgiveness of sins.

Martin Luther included a prayer in his small catechism to pray before meals. It includes the verse of a Psalm and reads

"The eyes of all look to you O Lord, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing." (Psalm 145:15-16)

In this way Luther desired to teach us that every meal comes from God, and that He is the one who ultimately feeds us. But these words also remind us of the true meal given here. These words are an invitation to kneel at this altar and receive the Lord's Body and Blood. It is an assurance that the Father loves and cares for you because here He opens His hand and feeds you with the flesh and blood of His own Son. Here is food through which God is active in you, sustaining you body and soul until life everlasting. Here is food which forgives sins. In the Lord's Supper we are fed with living flesh. Next week you will hear Christ say that "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you have no life in you." But if you eat His flesh and if you drink His blood, as you do here- you have life. True Life. Life which nourishes you better than earthly food ever could. Life that will last beyond death into life everlasting with Christ.

Earlier in our Psalm we prayed "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good." (Psalm 34:8a) And that is God's invitation to you. Every time you kneel at this altar. Taste and see that the Bread of Life is good. Blessed are those who take refuge in Him. Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

¹I'm indebted to Pr. Stuckwisch for this list, and their connection to the Lord's Supper. http://sword-in-hat.blogspot.com/2009/05/heart-of-holy-scriptures.html

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Update 10 August 2009
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