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August 27, 2006
Pentecost 12
John 6:41-51
Pastor Joel Zank

God Gives Us Spiritual Wonder Bread!

(John 6:41-51) At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." {42} 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'?" {43} "Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. {44} "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. {45} 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. {46} No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. {47} I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. {48} I am the bread of life. {49} Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. {50} But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. {51} 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."

In Christ Jesus who is the living bread come down from heaven, dear fellow redeemed,

It was back in 1921 that Mr. Elmer Cline, V.P. of the Taggart Baking Company was charged with the task of naming a new product, the likes of which, the world had never before seen - a super-light loaf of bread, weighing just 21 ounces. What should the world call this new sensation? Mr. Cline was wondering that very thing as he was attending the International Balloon Race at Indianapolis Speedway. It was there, as he looked up to see the sky filled with hundreds of lighter-than-air balloons that he came up with a name for his new bread. Filled with the same sense of wonder that he hoped his customers would experience every time they ate his product, he gave it the name "Wonder Bread." In the years to follow, Wonder Bread would truly live up to its name. Beginning in 1941 it became part of a experiment known as the "quiet miracle." The makers of Wonder Bread began putting vitamins and minerals into each loaf that helped to nearly eliminate two deadly diseases that were plaguing the world's poorest residents.

Millions of impoverished people received life from bread - that is a wonder! And yet, what is that miracle in comparison to the one our God works for us, for all people? Think about this won't you, as together we rejoice in the fact that our God Gives Us Spiritual Wonder Bread with heavenly ingredients and for eternal life.

To help us make some sense of the Scripture before us, let me remind you that Jesus is up in Galilee, near his hometown of Nazareth. He has fed five thousand people with nothing more than two small fish and five loaves of bread. Needless to say, the people are excited. They want to make Jesus their king, hoping that with him in charge, they'll never have to have to worry again, not about the Romans, not about food, not about clothes, not about diseases, not about anything. Of course, the people have it all wrong, so Jesus explains to them that while he was happy to provide them all with bread and fish, he has something even better for them. He tells them that food for the soul is more important than food for the body, and food for the soul comes from heaven. Jesus tells his listeners that the "bread" of God is a person who comes from heaven and gives life to the world, and then Jesus adds the clincher, saying, "I am the bread of life....I have come down from heaven" (John 6:35,38).

St. John tells us it was then that the crowd "...began to grumble about him because he said, 'I am the bread that came down from heaven" (John 6:41). If John were to say no more, you might think that these people were just having a hard time understanding Jesus. Maybe they were complaining because Jesus seemed to be speaking in code, calling himself bread, making mention of heaven-what could it all mean? But that wasn't the problem. Jesus' words were crystal clear. Everyone there understood Jesus' claim. He was calling himself God and their heaven-sent Messiah. But that was a claim that their human reason could not accept. 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 6:42).

Human reason is a wonderful gift from God. Human reason makes us problem-solvers. It allows us to balance budgets, plan events, and apply the all our past knowledge to the new and different situations we face every day. Human reason can do many wonderful things, but it can play no part in forging a relationship between sinners and God. Only the Lord can build such a relationship, as Jesus explains when he says to his listeners then and now, "Stop grumbling among yourselves. 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).

Human reason does not supply us with the power or the desire to form a friendship with God. We confess with Martin Luther, "I cannot by my own thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him." Human reason can't lead us to Jesus, but sadly enough, it can take us far away from him. Consider the threat human reason posed to the people in our text. With their own eyes they had seen Jesus feed them by the power that God alone possesses. More than that, Jesus quoted for them the words of the Old Testament prophets who said "They will all be taught by God" (John 6:45). Now those very Scriptures were being fulfilled. God, in the person of Jesus the Christ, stood before them, bringing them news from heaven that would mean their resurrection from the dead to their eternal salvation; And yet, because they knew his earthly parents they refused to believe Jesus' heavenly claim. Would that really matter? Oh yes, it would. There can be no life with God for the sinner who has no faith in the God-man and his promises. Those who honor human reason over Jesus' teachings will pay an eternal price for their pride in hell.

That frightening truth gives all of us reason to be constantly inspecting our own hearts and minds, to see if human reason is jeopardizing our faith and our relationship with God. Are there some teachings from Scripture that we dismiss with a wink and nod-teachings we find ourselves tolerating rather than embracing, or even worse, teachings we regard as ridiculous and, therefore, unimportant? What do you say when it comes to the Bible's teachings about creation, or about fellowship and close-communion, or about the roles of men and women? Do you recall what the Bible has to say about the power of Baptism for infants and adults, and about the miracle that takes place every time we celebrate the Lord's Supper? Do you know and believe everything the Bible says about the forgiveness of sins? Are you aware of what makes a person impenitent in God's eyes? Jesus the Bread of Life has brought with him all these teachings and more from heaven. Jesus and his teachings, all of them, are the heavenly ingredients that make up our right relationship with God. How many of those ingredients do you suppose we can do without and still have that right relationship? Who of us really wants to that find out, understanding that by the time we do, it will be too late to change our thinking?

Now I'm not suggesting that we must have a perfect understanding of all of Scripture before we can enter heaven. Not at all. God-given faith in Jesus is all that we need. But to dismiss or ignore some teaching of Christ on the grounds that it does not make sense to us, is both foolish and dangerous. When we entrust such power and authority to our own human reason, sinful doubts arise and saving faith erodes. Where and how will we draw the line between what we will believe what we won't believe, and how much father will that line shift from faith to reason by this time next month or next year? Human reason is not our Savior; Jesus is. So when we find ourselves struggling with some teaching of his there is only one prayer to pray: "Lord, I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24). For in this prayer we confess our sins to the only one who can help us - our gracious God. Oh and how he wants to help us, first by granting us free forgiveness, bought and paid for with the blood of his Son, forgiveness that covers even the misuse and abuse of our human reason. But that is only the beginning of God's help. Jesus explains, "Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me" (John 6:45b). If there is some teaching of Scripture we do not understand or with which we do not agree? Jesus invites us to do one thing - to listen to our Heavenly Father, to study his powerful Word. Set your reason aside and let God teach you his truth. As he does so, only one thing can happen, you will be drawn closer to Jesus. Your doubts will disappear, even as your faith grows stronger. What could be better or more important than that? Maybe it's time for you to review Bible basics on Wednesday evenings this Fall in the New Life in Christ Class. There, as in all our Bible studies, God gives us spiritual wonder Bread with heavenly ingredients for just one purpose-for our eternal life.

When Jesus came to this world, it was filled with death, spiritual death. Every person born here was a spiritual offspring of Satan. The same was true of you and me when were born. In fact, we were so ruined by our sin that the briefest encounter with God, the slightest glimpse of his holiness would have meant our instant and eternal death, so far from life were we. But not Jesus. He came to us from the Father as the source of all life. He came as living bread that we might eat him by faith and live forever. As he promises in verse 51 "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If a man eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

I'm afraid that so many Christians completely miss the meaning of Christ's words, and in doing so, they turn the Bible and its teachings into nothing more than a book of rules to follow for a successful life here on earth. They say, "If you want financial success read these chapters of the Bible; if you want obedient children, learn this Scripture; if you want a happy marriage, study these passages." Does the Bible have things to say about finances, parenting and marriage? Sure it does, as a guide to thankful living. But does it anywhere promise heaven here on earth? Nowhere. So to make the Bible out to be a self-help book to earthly prosperity is to chase after bread that won't last. As Jesus warned his first listeners, "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 6:49-50).

The Bible doesn't guarantee earthly success. There are many faithful Christians who go bankrupt, whose marriages fall apart, and whose children go astray. These troubles or others have touched all of us, but we are not failures, for God has fed us on the living bread of his Son, bread that satisfies our greatest needs and solves are greatest problem-sin. Think about it! Where there is sin on our part, God removes it completely, by the bread of life, through the flesh that his Son sacrificed on the cross as our sin payment. Where there is sin against us, where there is trouble and strife, God deals with that too, shielding us from despair by giving us faith to believe that he is for us, and because he is, nothing and no one can be against us-not us; For even now we are in an eternal relationship of love with the God of all power and might, the God who can and who will move heaven and earth to keep us his own. Talk about wonder bread! What else would you call him? Through the faith God has given us we have tasted Jesus. By the power of his saving name we have passed from death to life, a life of peace with our God, a life without end. Friend, no better blessing, no greater good could come to anyone, than that which has already come to us for Jesus' sake. Amen.