1. Bread from heaven

During this August we reflect on the story about “bread of life” by reading the Gospel according to John. Two weeks ago we learned about the feeding miracle in which Jesus satisfied about 5000 hungry persons with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Impressed strongly with Jesus’ power, the crowd followed him. But Jesus told to those people ;-” Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life” ( John 6:27)
” Food that endures to eternal life” indicates Jesus himself, the Son of God, who came from heaven. But those who heard Jesus’ words took offense at him and commenced grumbling. Today’s reading part begins here.

John wrote ;- At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?"(John 6:41-42)

In that passage John altered vocabulary, “crowd” became “Jews”. The expression is specific to John. He implies with this word the Jewish religious authority who rejected Jesus. Through Jesus’ feeding miracle John is now sending personal message. At John’s writing time, around 90 C.E.* the church was under menaces of Jewish religious authority which considered Christianity to be a heresy. In such a circumstance John wrote the passage in defense of the faith of the church against Judaism.

Christians’ argument was that Jesus has come from heaven as “bread for eternal life”, in other words he was the very Messiah. But “Jews” said against that belief, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

Jewish church thought Jesus was a human so it is a blasphemy to pretend to be the Son of God. Thus they rejected Jesus and are always waiting for Messiah.

To those people Jesus said;- “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.(John 43-44)

We can not arrive to believe in Jesus through human efforts. Only through God’s mercy and lead we can have the faith in Christ. If God does not draw us to him we remain strangers to Jesus. However humans, especially those who have rational mind, have tendency to reject what they can not explain logically. They accept what they can prove scientifically alone. Such an attitude prevents us to believe in God. And John said;- whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.(John 3:18)

Jesus’ teaching continues.;- ” It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.(John 6:45-47)

We meet God, the source of our life, only through Jesus. Thus those who witness to Jesus have eternal life. Thus John appealed the very faith of the church through Jesus’ words.

Indeed we can not receive salvation by observing the law or respecting commandments. It is not a sort of reward for human efforts. It is given by God through our faith in Jesus Christ.

The name of “Jesus” is equivalent to “Joshua”, which is derived from “Yahweh(God) is Salvation,” *. And this John’s verse points out the fact and reveals that Jesus is the bread from heaven. ;-"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.(John 1:14)”

2. Bread of eternal life

” Bread from heaven” reminded Jewish people immediately of manna given by god to their ancestors. So they asked ;- Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’"¡ÊJohn 6:31)
And Jesus’ response was unexpected one ;- “I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.(John 6:48-50¡Ë

All humans must die. Even those who had belief in Jesus die, too. But, despite death of body in flesh, or death of “Bios” (biological life) faith in Christ will give them eternal and spiritual life “Zoe”, Jesus meant that.

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

To deserve eternal life humans must pay for their sin because sin blocks the path which leads them to God. Therefore Jesus broke his flesh and flooded his blood to redeem sinful humans. The message here is that Jesus will die to become “bread” which must lead them to salvation. For that purpose he compelled them to “eat his flesh” as bread to receive eternal life of resurrection.

But Jewish people took offense against Jesus’ words ” I am the living bread that came down from heaven” then ” I am the living bread that came down from heaven”. They could not acknowledge Jesus’ real nature, the Messiah sent by God.

They continue denying Jesus’ identity as the savior. Because they think, according to the scripture, a man who died on a cross was under God’s curse and he must not be the savior ;- you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.( Deuteronomy 21:23)

They would not accept the fact of Resurrection either.

As a matter of fact redemption through sacrifice is very difficult notion for us to understand. So I present here Pastor Yu-ki’s interpretation in comparison with our daily activities. He wrote:
–"In figurative way humans can sacrifice one’s life for others’ sake. For example parents grow up children by spending their time and money. Teachers educate students by using their energy. Social workers help the weak by making efforts.*

He think those activities might be considered as a sort of sacrifices which make others’ life more valuable. I think it contains a part of the essentials.

3. Sharing generates bread of life

Today’s invocation verse is Exodus 16:16 ;- This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’ ”

The instruction was given by God to the Jewish people to receive manna from heaven. At that time they were wandering in the desert after their escape form Egypt. The book of Exodus presents the scene ;- That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat.(Exodus 16:13-15)

It is said that manna was named after Hebrew expression “What is it”. The people wanted to know at first its nature. It was the very manna which fed them during 40 years. Every day they could have enough quantity for only daily consumption. Strangely , even though some picked up more than others, every one found the same quantity in their basket after the collect. (see Exodus 16:17-18)

It has more bizarre nature ;- Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.” However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. (Exodus 16:19-20)

How odd it is !! Moreover ;- Each morning everyone gathered as much as he needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away.(Exodus 16:21)

According to a research by WHO , around a half of human population of the planet suffer from bad nutrition . More exactly a thousand and two hundreds million of people lack basic food and the same number are obese. We must know that “bad nutrition” includes not only sub-alimentation but also excessive calorie consumption . And the latter increases risk of illness, for example cardiac disorders or diabetes. Our weight condition can be estimated with BMI (Body Mass Index)*. And if the index goes up over 30 we are diagnosed as obese. It is worth paying attention to the index for our health because obesity increases rate of illness sharply.

But why does over wight occur? It is partially because of our nutrition style. In present time people of rich countries eat meat and animal fat too much. It damages their health and generates global food shortage.
Because we need 7 kg of crops to feed cow to obtain 1 kg of beef, for example. That way of nutrition style and food production cause obesity in rich countries and might be one of reasons for famine in today’s world.

In short the rich who look for lavish taste have unhealthy life style in expense of the poor in hunger. I think the nature of manna which made excessive stock worthless gives a very important lesson o not seek more than necessary for basic life.”
In today’s world people of rich countries are supplied with enough needs and if they go beyond they become offenders of the poor.

Please remember the latest lecture concerning Jewish people who entered in the fertile land. They commenced cultivating soil and some of them built storehouses to stock excessive harvest. Possibility of stockage generated social gap between the rich and the poor. Them the social system became unfair, in another world of “sin”.

I think that illness caused by obesity is a lesson given by God to those who eat inadequate way, by taking excessive quantity or seeking meat of costly breeding. If people of rich countries learn to be satisfied with basic aliment food problem and obesity might be partly resolved. Jesus showed us, through the feeding miracle, that we can make food more valuable by sharing it with others.

We must know that bread is for healthy life not for lavish pleasure. And humans don’t live by bread alone. John’s chapter 6 leads us to reflect on our daily nutrition style and the kingdom of God where all things must be correctly and ideally balanced. We must not consider food to be an excuse of abuse. We will look for and eat “bread from heaven” given as ” Jesus’ body”, which will empowers us to make the world better. It is the very lesson for today.
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*The Gospel according to John - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John%27s_Gospel#Authorship_and_date
*Joshua - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua
*"Talk about Jesus Christ” (in Japanese) p. 183 by Yu-ki Kou, ed. Koudansha, 1997/11
ISBN-10: 406159303X / ISBN-13: 978-4061593039
*omer - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omer_(volume)
*BMI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_mass_index