This is that time of year when expectations and excitement increase. We just made that flip on our calendar to the month of August which has become known as “back to school month.” And for many of us, our expectations are heightened even more this year because, “thanks be to God,” we are finally turning the corner on this long global pandemic.
Here at the church, we are already beginning to talk about our annual water bottle give away for the students who will be arriving on campus in a few weeks. Our church choir will begin rehearsing soon and they we will hear them sing for the first time since March of 2020! It’s been a long year and a half!
It’s this kind of heightened expectation that the Gospel writer, John wants to create within us. He is using his literary skills to tell us the story of Jesus in such a way that gets our attention and peaks our curiosity. In our Gospel reading for this morning, here in John, chapter six, John wants us to focus on the crowd.
This crowd of people have been following Jesus. Their expectations of who Jesus is have been heightened because they have just experienced the miraculous feeding of five thousand hungry people with only five loaves and two fish. Not only have their expectations been heightened, they even want to make Jesus a King.
The very next morning, the crowd want to find Jesus and they are surprised when they realize that he is on the other side of the lake. They’re surprised because there is no way Jesus could have made it to the other side of the lake without a boat. There was only one boat and they knew that the disciples had taken that boat.
Of course, we the readers know that after the feeding of the five thousand and after the disciples took the boat to go across the lake, a storm suddenly arose and the disciples were terrified. John tells us that Jesus walks toward them on the lake and calms the storm and together they make it to the other side.
As if their curiosity about Jesus isn’t already mesmerizing, they now want to know how Jesus made it all the way across the lake without a 2nd boat. And after they get to the other side of the lake, they’re trying to figure this all out, adding even more to the mystique of who Jesus is.
Jesus’ response is really interesting because he doesn’t tell them that he walked on the lake to get to the other side. And if you think about it, that would have been another golden opportunity, like the feeding of the five thousand to show this crowd that he truly was sent by God to be the Savior of the world.
Instead, Jesus even downplays the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand and how he made it to the other side of the lake without a boat, and simply tells them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Jesus wants the crowd to know that there is so much more about who he is and the difference that he can make in their lives. There is so much more. Yes, they all got a free meal the day before, but Jesus wants them to know that the reason he came was to offer them a meal that would never leave them hungry or thirsty again.
And by telling us this story, the gospel writer is inviting us to receive this meal as well, a meal that is filled with more than we can possibly imagine.
Christian author, Bob Benson tells the story of when he he was a single young man and his church was holding a picnic at the park. Everybody was to bring their own food. Bob was running late and when he opened his refrigerator, he only had a piece of boloney and a couple slices of stale bread. So, he slapped together a baloney sandwich, wrapped it up in wax paper, and went to the picnic.
He got to the park and was prepared to simply lean against a tree and eat by himself when a nearby family of the church spotted him and said, “Hey, come sit with us.” And so he did. He sat down and unwrapped his baloney sandwich at the same time they began unpacking their enormous picnic basket.
They had fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, deviled eggs, a full relish tray, and two big chocolate pies. “And there I sat,” Bob writes, “with just my baloney sandwich.”
And then this family said to him, “Listen, why don’t we just share?”
“Oh,” he said, “I’ve just got a baloney sandwich.”
“That’s okay,” they said. “We love baloney sandwiches. And we brought a lot of food. Let’s just put it all together.”
Bob Benson says, “I felt pretty humbled, but I couldn’t resist – especially that chocolate pie!” And he concludes his story by saying, “I came as a pauper, and I ate like a king!”
Sometimes, I wonder if we approach our faith thinking that all we have is a meager baloney sandwich. But God has so much more to offer us. God invites us to a great banquet where there is more than enough food and more than enough room.
The crowd wanted to make Jesus a King because he performed a miracle, but Jesus was showing them that he wanted them to eat like kings when he fed them with just five loaves and two fish.
And now, they think they’ve seen it all with Jesus somehow being able to make it to the other side of the lake without a boat. But Jesus turns to them and tells them that he is so much more than a miracle worker. He doesn’t just give bread to people. He is the bread of life, the one who offers us so much more than we can ask or imagine.
This is one of the reasons why Holy Communion is so important. It’s more than a little piece of bread and small cup of grape juice. Every time we gather for this meal, it’s a holy encounter. It’s an opportunity to receive so much more than we thought was possible. We receive forgiveness, hope, new life, a fresh start, peace, and unconditional love.
We come to this holy meal as paupers, but we leave as kings. And it’s all because Jesus is the bread of life.
A pastor friend of mine told me the story of something that happened during Holy Communion at the church she was serving. She said that they had a children’s event at their church and they concluded their time together with the Sacrament of Holy Communion. There were a lot of children at this event, about thirty of them, and she invited them to get in a line and take a turn to receive the Sacrament.
One by one they came forward. She would give a child a piece of bread and say, “This is the body of Christ broken for you.” She then had them dip that piece of bread into the chalice and she said, “This is the blood of Christ shed for you.” The child would then eat the bread and take a seat.
My friend told me that there was one little boy who was about 5 or 6 years old who had never been to church before, and he really liked this idea of eating bread with juice.
After he received communion the first time, he got back in line to receive it again. She realized that he had jumped in line for seconds but she offered the Sacrament to him anyway.
When this little boy came up to her this second time, he had a great big smile on his face, and as he put the bread into his mouth, he said, “Thank you!”
Well, guess what? He got back in the line a third time and the same thing happened. After he received the bread and the juice, he looked at the pastor and with another great big smile, he said, “Thank you!” And this time, he added, “Jesus tastes so good!”
Now, I don’t think that this response is in our communion liturgy, but maybe it should be. “Jesus tastes so good!”
God’s love tastes so good. God’s forgiveness tastes so good. God’s mercy tastes so good. God’s eternal life tastes so good. God’s faithfulness taste so good. God’s blessings taste so good.
The crowd wanted to know how Jesus made it to the other side of the lake without a boat, as if the reason that Jesus came to the world was to impress us with his miracles. Jesus has so much more in mind for us than explaining how he made it from one side of the lake to the other. Jesus wants to give us food that will never leave us hungry again. Jesus offers us his very life so that we might have life and life in all of it’s fullness.
The month of August, has a way of heightening our hopes and our expectations for a new school year, especially after this long pandemic. But even beyond our renewed hope for what this year might bring is this reminder from today’s Gospel reading, that God wants to give us more than we can ask or imagine.
This new month of August is more than about simply finding a good deal for school supplies and thinking ahead to a new rhythm of life. We are invited to come and receive the bread of life that will never leave us hungry.
This is the bread that always offers so much more!
So Much More!
O Jesus, bread of heaven, some Sundays we come here thinking that we’ll just get a little bit of church to get us through the week. You not only satisfy our hungry souls, we leave from here with cups that our overflowing! As we worship you this day, raise our expectations so that we might receive all that you would give to us. Forgive us for whenever we underestimate the fullness of life that you intend for each one of us. With grateful and expectant hearts, we pray. Amen.
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