Sunday August 11th, 2024 Worship

It’s amazing what responses you’ll get when you ask people about their favorite or their lucky numbers. Many people say 3 or 7, mine are two different numbers. My lucky number is 18, but my favorite number is 19. It all goes back to the superstition of my middle school soccer career, and I have to say, my best season came when I switched from number 19 to 18! Similarly, in the Bible, there are several numbers that when they appear, we are called to pay attention to them. Numbers like 3, 7, 12, and 40 are often very important numbers in Scripture. So, in this third week of our bread section in John’s Gospel, it seems fitting that Jesus would mention being the bread of life or the living bread three different times! It’s almost like we’re supposed to pay attention to that, especially when it’s easy to feel like we have already been hearing this same message for the past few weeks. Trust me, if it feels the same listening to it, I definitely feel that when trying to have a different sermon every week!
Now, last week, I mentioned that Jesus talks about himself as bread because of its connection to our physical nourishment and the reminder that our spiritual nourishment is just as important. But there are several other things that I think are important about Jesus’ monologues today about being the bread of life. Specifically, it matters that Jesus says “I am” three times as a part of these statements, but I also want to dive more into what I think is so significant about this bread language.
When we think about bread, despite the current costs, it has usually been affordable. Bread is accessible. It’s relatively easy to make with few ingredients that don’t cost much too. I’m sure that’s part of why so many peoples’ pandemic hobbies included bread. It matters that Jesus says today, “I am the bread of life” (John 6: 35) instead of saying, I am the steak of life or the caviar of life! When Jesus says he is the bread of life for the world, he is expanding the notion of who God is for to include all people. Jesus could have picked any number of foods to compare himself too, but he chose bread. And I think this was for several reasons.
Since bread was affordable for most people, he was saying that he isn’t just for the wealthy. Bread was something that all people could relate to and could experience. Which also meant that when we began our communion practices, all people were able to participate, instead of having to spend a month’s wages or more just to get access to the symbol required. But I think he also uses bread as his example because it is simple. While we can make it fancier now, it wasn’t some elaborate meal or full of fancy ingredients. Again, making this more accessible, but I think also highlighting the fact that Jesus wanted to remain grounded and connected to the people. It would create a disconnection with the people of all social standings who gathered around him if he started talking about being something that most of them would never be able to afford in their lifetimes. It makes faith feel too unreachable, which is the exact opposite of what he wants to do as bread for the life of the world. He wasn’t some elite ruler who was set apart, but really saw himself as being amongst the people with whom he lived and taught. After all, he says he is bread for the life of the world, not that he is only for 1% of it.
This brings up my other point about Jesus’ “I am” statements in today’s Gospel. It doesn’t just matter that Jesus is telling us today that he is bread, but in the way that he does so, he inherently connects himself with God. In Greek, the “I am” translates into English as “I, I am.” And, while it seems redundant, it’s actually really important because “I AM” is one of the names for God in the Hebrew Bible. This “I, I am” language is only used in reference to God. So, when Jesus today pulls out this language, it’s a cue for us to see his role in relationship to God. It’s something that helps us to understand this relationship because the people he was speaking to certainly didn’t. And, honestly, it’s hard to blame them because they’ve known Jesus since he was a baby, and they know his parents. It would have been a big shift for them to go from thinking about little Jesus the carpenter’s son, to Jesus the “bread that come down from heaven” and brings eternal life (John 6: 50). So it’s a big deal that he uses this language that inherently connects him to the great I AM, it’s language that continues to make those connections for us, even on the days we might have a hard time believing it.
Three times today, Jesus brings this up because it is important to him that the people begin to understand who he is and what his role is in the world. While it will take them until after his death and resurrection to really comprehend what he means, his words are still at the heart of our practices today. It’s why we still use bread and wine at communion. But, I also want us to not get so focused on bread here that we lose sight of what Jesus is trying to tell us when he makes these statements about himself. It’s the sort of thing that we love to spend centuries debating in the church: what type of bread should we use, how much, do we use bread or wafers, what about people who can’t have gluten? Yet, it does us well to remember that bread is used because it was an affordable and accessible diet staple for people of that time and for us still today. But, as the Gospel spread, not everywhere has bread at the heart of their diets or their bread might look different than ours. And, instead of getting caught in the details about can we use something instead of bread, like rice or potatoes, we can keep returning to what Jesus is saying underneath this message; that Jesus’ message is simple, filling, and for the life of the whole world. Because, while bread is delicious, it’s not the point of this story.
The point is that in Christ, people are spiritually fed and nourished. With God, all people can be included in the kindom, not just the rich and powerful who can afford it. Beyond the bread conversation itself, this is what is so radical about the message that Jesus is sharing today. A message that is so important that he tells the crowd and us three times so that maybe, just maybe, it might stick with us. So, between the thrice-repeated phrasing and his “I am” statements to lead those off, we are drawn to pay attention to what he is saying, as we are called to believe that he is indeed the one sent into the world for the sake of the world, despite all the confusion about this just being the carpenter’s boy from next door. And, maybe, there’s something beautiful in that too, because just like bread, Jesus is unassuming, yet so significant for the life of the world.