"The Bread of Our Lives"
#92-25Presented on The Lutheran Hour on February 16, 2025
By Rev. Dr. Daniel Paavola, Guest Speaker
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries
No bonus material MP3
Text: John 6:35
God's Word for us today is John 6:35, "Jesus said to them, 'I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst.'"
Do you remember the food pyramid? It was that pyramid with three or four levels in it, showing us what we should be eating for a balanced diet. On the bottom level, being the first and biggest level, are the cereals, like bread. Then go up a level, a little smaller, fruits and vegetables. Go up one more level are the proteins and dairy products. And finally on the top, a very small piece, are the sugars and sweets.
I understand that the food pyramid has been replaced in recent years with an image of a round plate, which gives much the same information. But today let's use the idea of a pyramid with three levels. Each of those levels will be one aspect of the Bread of Life. Jesus gives Himself as the Bread of Life so that all we need, the entire pyramid, can be filled by Him and His gifts.
Let's start with the lowest level of our food pyramid. This is the natural place for our theme of the Bread of Life as that broad, large first level contains the cereals, and breads, and rice, pasta. Think of a bread that is solid, not especially tall but thick.
I grew up on our Minnesota dairy farm; my mother made a Finnish flat bread that was perfect for this. It was a circle about ten inches in diameter, about an inch thick. And I mean thick! But Finnish flat bread is pretty rare, so let's think instead of an unsliced bagel, like the one I'm holding right now. A simple bagel. Don't toast it, don't cover it with anything, just let it be a whole bagel. Now take a first bite and know that you'll be chewing on this for a long, long time. A whole, thick, dense bagel is not fast food. It is food to last. It's food to end a fast. If you're hungry some morning, that bagel will carry you through to noon at least.
Jesus as the Bread of Life is that solid foundation of our life, that enduring and filling meal. Listen again as Jesus describes Himself as the Bread of Life. "Jesus said, 'I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall not thirst" (John 6:35). What a meal! We're impressed if a bagel can keep us satisfied for a few hours in the morning. But Jesus promises that He is the meal able to sustain us forever. He is the foundation that endures.
Jesus draws a comparison between His filling and the work of the manna that fed the people of Israel for the 40 years in the desert. Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the Bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die" (John 6:48-50). When the people of Israel were in desperate need, isolated in the desert, God gave them a completely surprising bread. They didn't need to return to Egypt for food and become slaves again. God saw their need and fed them right there in the desert. Furthermore, He fed them though they had not always trusted Him. They could have been left to die, but God would not abandon them. Instead, daily the bread from heaven came to them and sustained the whole of Israel until they entered the Promised Land. Jesus as the Bread of Life is that daily bread for us also. As the Bread of Life, Jesus reaches every person, every situation.
Let's go back to our example of the bagel. The bagel goes anywhere. If you have a long, early morning drive, bagels are perfect. Think of it. The bagel doesn't need a stove, or a toaster, or a refrigerator, none of which you have in your car anyway. But the humble, simple, always-ready bagel is perfect. Toss the bagels into the snack bag and don't worry, you can't really hurt a bagel. So, open up that bag of bagels and say, "Here's breakfast." You should be good at least till noon.
Now, think of the Bread of Life that Jesus is and the life that Jesus provides. This is not a fragile meal, a meal that needs an elaborate setting or preparation. This Bread of Life is Jesus Himself and His Word that endured the opposition of His enemies and faced even the cross and the tomb. This Bread of Life is the satisfying news that God has come to us in Jesus as the God who dwells with us. Manna followed the people of Israel throughout their decades of wandering. They never outran its presence. No place was beyond manna's reach. And so also in our lives, wherever we travel, wherever we wake up, Jesus is present with us. No place is unknown to Him, no setting too dark or distant for His reach. He is the enduring meal that is set before everyone. Jesus made the contrast between ordinary bread and His meal this way: "Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you" (John 6:27). This is the food that satisfies our needs. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied" (Matthew 5:6). Jesus is that lasting filling for those who know they are empty of a true right standing with God, but Jesus assures them that by faith, they have His righteousness and His standing with God. With the gift of His righteousness, we have life with God.
So let's return to our food pyramid. We've filled the first, widest level with bread that's thick and lasting, like a bagel. Let's go up to the middle level, which actually will take up more room vertically than the first. In the actual food pyramid, there are two levels here: first, fruits and vegetables; then above it, dairy and proteins, like meat. But for our use, let's just simply have one large central level. For that, think of bread that swells and fills every space it can reach. It's bread made of yeast that begins so small and dense, but then, given time, the yeast builds it up far beyond what we expected. Think of homemade bread, or bread from the deli or bakery, bread that's tall, yet light, has a beautiful crust on the outside and yet it slices so beautifully. Here is bread that not only fills our hunger, but it lifts our spirits.
Again we can turn to the Words of Jesus as He describes Himself as the Bread of Life, the Bread that has life in itself and lifts us upward. Jesus said, "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:39-40). Here is real rising, not limited like the rising of ordinary bread. Mix the dough with the yeast and let it rise; it's impressive. But we know that it can all be undone with one fist pushed into the dough.
But the rising of Jesus was unstoppable and it's still unstoppable today. Jesus was left in the tomb and His enemies were sure that He was done, completely life-less. But look, three days later, He's risen to a new life. Risen from the dead, He is beyond death's blows. It's true, He carries still the piercing scars on His hands and feet and side. But those open wounds have no power over Him. His life is not a fragile breath that can be let out with a nail or spear. No, He is the Bread of Life, and His rising is absolutely sure. As He rose on Easter, He is risen still today.
Of course, this wonderful quality of bread, the rising of the yeast, means that this bread also takes time. Other breads can be put into the oven in just minutes. You can mix up the ingredients for a box of blueberry muffins in the time it takes for the oven to warm up to 400 degrees. And once the batter is in the muffin tin, slide it in and 20 minutes later, you're done. But with bread made with yeast, be patient. That wonderful rising takes time.
Jesus as the Bread of Life would remind us that His full work is patiently growing and expanding. In Luke 13, Jesus uses yeast as a picture of His kingdom at work. "And again He said, 'To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It's like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened" (Luke 13:20-21). Jesus is at work now in the spreading growth of His kingdom. That growth might appear hidden, at least to some, but His kingdom grows like the slow expansion of yeast within the bread. What was small is, an hour later, overflowing the bowl it was put in! It did this by itself with no help from us. So God's kingdom grows by His power. We can stand in awe as we hear the church expanding, both near us and on the other side of the world.
So let's put this growing image of yeast bread as the middle of our pyramid. Jesus gives us a wonderful summary of this growing and uplifting work of Himself as Bread of Life: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:44). This Bread of Life not only feeds us now, but it has the power of rising, a rising which will bring us to eternal life with the Father.
So now we have the two lower and larger parts of the food pyramid filled in. The dense, filling bread is on the bottom; the lighter, lifting yeast bread is in the middle. What's left is that smallest triangle at the very top. In a conventional food pyramid, this was the small part reserved for fats and oils and sweets, with the warning that they are to be used sparingly. We can understand that, though we might want to expand that small triangle at times. This is not the staple of our diet as the lower layers are, but maybe there's still a place for this level.
My mother's mother lived on a farm about 20 miles from our farm. Grandma and Grandpa had ten children—my mother as the eighth—and they raised them in a large, two-story wood farmhouse. As I was growing up, we would go visit Grandma, Grandpa having died before I was born. Walk into Grandma's kitchen on the farm; take a deep breath. You'll smell a bit of wood smoke from the wood-burning stove. And the other smell was her cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven. They were so good: white frosting on the top, still warm from the oven, they were the absolute best! And they were there, fresh, every time we walked in the door. And, there were more cinnamon rolls for us to take home. We might not have had long talks with Grandma—but how could we? We were so busy eating her cinnamon rolls. But that's exactly what Grandma wanted. She lived to feed us.
Is there an aspect of this joy, this generosity and love in the bread which is the Bread of Life? Is it a high point in our knowing the Father and the Son? Can the Bread of Life which is Jesus welcome us and remind us of the larger family to which we belong? Well, the setting of John 6 begins with Jesus feeding the 5,000 who were without food at the end of the day. Jesus fed the crowds of 5,000 and, later, the 4,000 by multiplying simple bread and fish. He was not limited by the size of the crowd, their hunger, or the small meal with which He started. But He fed fully everyone who was there.
So now also, Jesus is not limited to what He can do in feeding, not a crowd, but the world. He is the Bread of Life that connects us with both the Father and also our larger body of all Christians. Jesus points us to this connection between Himself and the Father and our being brought into relationship with the Father and Son. Jesus said, "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on Me, he will also live because of Me. This is the Bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this Bread will live forever" (John 6:57-58).
When we think of the Bread of Life that gathers us together as a family of God, we naturally think of the Lord's Supper where we have the true body and blood of Jesus along with the bread and wine. Paul describes the Supper in terms of that shared body and blood, bread and wine. When we eat the bread, we receive the body of Jesus. Also, the Supper reminds us that we are one united body because of Jesus: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread" (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).
What uniting power is in the bread and wine, the body and the blood of the Supper! As we eat and drink, we receive the very body and blood of the Savior and with that comes the blessings of the Supper: forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation. Also with the Supper, we find that we're not alone, but we're sharing this meal with the entire body of all believers. My Grandmother's cinnamon rolls remind us that we were part of a very large family with some 30 cousins. But that's nothing compared to the family of all believers with whom we are joined. This one bread, this one Supper, is shared throughout the world. What a life-giving meal and what a family of faith that shares it.
So some may see the Lord's Supper as just a small bit of bread and wine, but we know God is at work, doing far more. Appearances can be deceiving. The Bread of Life feeds an enormous body of believers now, a number that's beyond our counting. So it's right to have this meal of His body and blood under the bread and wine as the top of our pyramid. Jesus brings us living bread and, by it, He feeds us for eternal life.
And so, our pyramid of the Bread of Life is complete. We can picture the richness of Jesus as the Bread of Life in so many ways, a pyramid, or a circle, or a plate, or something else. But in the end, Jesus has come to feed the world with the righteousness for which we've been longing. He gives us a meal for today, but also a meal that will raise us up to eternal life. And this bread is not for us only but He calls all the world to know Him as the Bread of Life. He fed enormous crowds bread for a day. Now, as the Bread of Life, He feeds the world for eternal life. This is truly the Bread of our Lives. Amen.
Dear Jesus, thank You that You are the Bread of Life and that by Your Words and work, You fed the world. You fill our hunger for a right relationship with You, and You unite us with all others who know You as the Bread of Life. Fill our lives with the richness of Your Bread of Life. We pray in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Reflections for February 16, 2025
Title: The Bread of Our Lives
No reflection segment this week.
Music Selections for this program:
"A Mighty Fortress" arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
"Eat This Bread" arr. Jacques Berthier. From O Bread of Life by the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter's in the Loop, Chicago (© 1982 GIA Publications / © 1995 The Order of St. Benedict, Inc.)
"Lord Jesus Christ, Life-Giving Bread" arr. Henry Gerike. Used by permission.
"Crucifer" by Sydney H. Nicholson, arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
"Lord Jesus Christ, Life-Giving Bread" From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.
