Sermon Tone Analysis

Bread means something different to us today than it did for the people of Israel in the time of Jesus.

Maybe you think of bread as that rather tasteless sliced loaf that holds a sandwich together.

Or it is something used to make toast only functioning as a vehicle for some kind of topping like jam or peanut butter.

Maybe bread is more about that first choice you have to make at the Subway counter when ordering your six-inch or footlong favorite.

Maybe bread is the thing that accompanies a meal as some kind of dinner roll or baguette.

We use breads to accompany our menus in all sorts of ways.

But it’s probably pretty safe to say that your typical daily menu includes more than just bread.

For those among us with gluten allergies, the menu contains very little or no bread at all.

But people in Israel who heard these words of Jesus had a different version of bread than we do.

Bread was a very regular part of their daily eating.

It wasn’t just a vehicle to hold jam or to keep a sandwich together.

Bread was often the main course.

It was the meal.

That’s hard for us to wrap our minds around.

We live in a place where there is more variety of food than we could ever imagine.

You and I have no idea what it means to look at a few dinner rolls as the only thing you get to eat today.

But for the people who heard Jesus say these words, the bread of life had different meaning.

Bread meant survival.

There were not grocery stores.

There was no refrigeration for keeping meat and dairy.

There was not canning for fruit or vegetables.

All those foods could only be had at the time of harvest or slaughter.

But grain was one of the few things that could be stored for long periods of time after growing.

The regular provision of bread was always a staple on the menu because they could always have grain available for making the flour.

Bread meant survival.

The meaning of manna

This was especially true for the people of Israel.

The stories had been written and passed down from one generation to the next of the freed slaves who wandered in the desert for forty years.

The desert was a place where there was not even grain available.

So, in that place, it was by a miracle of God that bread was given every day for the survival of God’s people.

They called it manna.

Every day for forty years there was a layer of thin bread-like wafers that covered the ground of the desert all around the camp of the Israelites.

Every day for forty years this manna was the menu for all the people.

manna held a special reminder that all of our daily bread comes from God

By the time of Jesus, manna held special meaning.

It wasn’t just about the bread that people ate every day.

But manna in particular was bread that was especially given as a gift from God.  Manna held a special reminder that all of our daily bread comes from God.

Even as the people pf Israel would store up grain so that there could always be the provision of bread, the manna was thought to come directly from the storehouse of God.

For forty years God opened up the storehouse of his manna every single day for his people.

Israel was supposed to keep that as a reminder.

Moses was given instruction by God to take a jar of the manna and keep it in the Ark of the Covenant along with the tablets of the ten commandments.

The people were to always remember that the storehouse of grain from which they found their daily supply of bread comes in direct relationship to the storehouse of God which provides daily bread for his people.

This connection between the storehouse of God’s manna and the people remained so strong that it was considered among the rabbis that God’s chosen Messiah would once again open the storehouse of God’s manna to feed the people of Israel again.

Jesus opens storehouse of God’s manna – more than lunch to a hungry crowd

And of course, this is exactly what Jesus does.

It was only a few verses back in chapter six of John’s gospel when Jesus gave thanks to God for the five loaves of bread, and distributed the pieces which were enough to feed five thousand people.

This miracle was more than giving lunch to a hungry crowd.

This was an opening of God’s storehouse of manna.

This was a sign that pointed to Jesus as the Messiah.

After lunch, the disciples gathered up all the leftovers and filled twelve baskets.

This is not a mistake.

The number twelve in scripture is always used symbolically to represent the people of God.

There were twelve tribes of Israel in the Old Testament.

There were twelve chosen apostles in the New Testament.

The miraculous feeding of five thousand people with twelve baskets left is meant to point directly to Jesus as the one who fulfils the provision of manna with enough to spare in order to provide for all God’s people.

More than a sandwich

Jesus is making a point here in chapter six.

Let’s catch up to the story.

In the beginning of chapter six Jesus miraculously feeds five thousand people.

Later that night Jesus sends his disciples off in a boat.

In the middle of the night, Jesus comes walking on the water to his disciples.

The next morning, they are all on the opposite shore of the lake near the town of Capernaum.

The crowd of people who had all eaten the free lunch from Jesus the day before all come across the lake in search of Jesus.

That’s where we pick up this story in verse 25 today.

This is what Jesus is calling out in verse 26 when he says to the people, you were not looking for me, you were looking for another free lunch.

people coming to Jesus just looking for another free lunch

The conversation continues.

The people ask what it is that God requires.

Jesus answers, believe in the one whom God has sent.

The people respond, how do we know?

Our ancestors had the sign of manna.

What will you do?  Stop here.

Catch what this crowd of people are trying to do with Jesus.

God sent manna every day.

Give us another free lunch.

Jesus is the ultimate manna.

Jesus is the bread from heaven, the bread of life

Jesus doesn’t take the bait.

Instead he takes the moment to launch the entire manna episode into its eternal fulfilment—the thing to which manna was always meant to point.

Jesus himself is the daily provision from God given enough for all of his people.

Jesus is the ultimate manna.

Jesus is the bread from heaven, the bread of life.

Let’s get to the point.

What is Jesus saying about himself?

What does this statement teach us about who Jesus is?

It seems that the lesson is pretty pointed towards this crowd of people who only saw Jesus as a free lunch.

Just give me another sandwich and I’m good.

I suppose we shouldn’t be too hard on the crowd for that.

After all, Jesus had given them something to eat the day before.

Is it really so wrong to look in expectation to God as the provider of our material blessings?

Seems like that is what we ought to do.

Jesus is provision not only for what we need here today, but also an eternal provision for our souls for all eternity

But does it go any further than that?

Jesus is making the claim that the bread he provides is so much more than just a sandwich for today.

It is a provision not only for what we need here today, but also an eternal provision for our souls for all eternity.

It is not an either/or proposition; it is both/and.

Yes, God does faithfully provide for his creation through the seasons of growing and harvest.

He faithfully provides for his creation in caring and maintaining what is necessary for his world to thrive and to flourish.

These things are not our inventions; they are the everlasting handiwork of our creator God.

The warmth of the daily sun reminds us of this.