August 25, 2024 – John 6:51–69

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Hope Lutheran Church
Manhattan, Kansas
August 25, 2024
John 6:51–69

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been camped out in John 6, looking at Jesus’ words where he calls himself the BREAD OF LIFE. If you don’t remember or missed one of the sermons, here’s the short version of what we have covered the last couple weeks.
In the first week, we focused on John 6:24–35, highlighting how Jesus is the Bread That’s Better – the bread we truly need for life. Last week when we looked at John 6:35–51, we heard Jesus tell us about how we receive this bread. And he emphasized that he isn’t what you or I would naturally choose for ourselves. In fact, we often chase after the wrong things to fill us up and satisfy us. And so Jesus told us he is the bread that had to come down from heaven to us to be Bread That’s Given.
And all of this leads to Jesus telling us today that as the BREAD OF LIFE and how that means he is the Bread That’s Essential: 1) FOR ETERNAL LIFE 2) FOR DAILY LIFE
1) FOR ETERNAL LIFE
In some of the verses we looked at last week, Jesus talked a lot about resurrection and eternal life and being raised up on the last day. And he continues to touch on those themes today.
But Jesus isn’t the only one interested in talking about living forever and keeping death at arm’s length. Plenty of people are still talking about and want to talk about these kinds of things today too. And really, so much of what we do and how we spend our time and our money is focused on this very thing.
Some of the most expensive things we spend on are related to our health and well-being. One of the most profitable industries in the country deals with health, wellness, insurance, and all the other associated businesses. Collectively, we care a lot about trying to hold on to life as much as possible.
And maybe you’ve heard about different people and groups trying to take it a step further. People are looking for ways to offload everything you have in your brain so it can be uploaded onto a computer or into the cloud so someday your consciousness might be able to live on past your body.
I’ve listened to scientists and health researchers talk about how they’re studying genetics and the genome with the hope that eventually they’ll find some gene or stand of DNA that might unlock the code that lets people live longer, maybe even forever (they hope).
The truth is, even if Jesus hadn’t talked about it, we’d still want to live forever. And you know why that is? Because God never made us to die. When God created us, death wasn’t part of his design. Death didn’t come until we brought it into the world through sin.
And that’s why even now the longing for eternal life remains in us. God has set eternity in our hearts and now so much of our lives are spent trying to extend this life, trying to add just a few more years or somehow achieve eternal life. We want it. We crave it. But we’re never going to find it – not on our own, anyway.
So what does Jesus do? He tells us how we might live forever. He says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
That’s the gospel right there. Jesus offered himself – his own body – and let himself be killed, so that you and I could live forever. So you and I could have eternal life. Jesus is the Bread That’s Essential for eternal life. Jesus is the bread that actually gives eternal life.
But here’s Jesus’ pretty shocking and offensive claim – he’s the only way to eternal life. When Jesus said “Whoever eats this bread will live forever” he was saying to those crowds he was addressing back then and to us today that the only way to eternal life is through faith in him and what he has done for us. That’s it. That’s the only way.
You see, the message of the Bible and Christianity is one of the most inclusive messages in the world. Jesus died for who? He gave himself for the life of the world.
But the message of the Bible and Christianity is also the most exclusive message in the world. There’s only one way to receive those benefits of what Jesus has done for us. It’s by believing in him and what he has done for us instead of what we can do for ourselves. 
And when the people who were listening to Jesus heard that, they were offended. They said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” And “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed [Jesus].” They didn’t want to believe what Jesus was saying and preaching. It bothered them. If offended them. So they left.
It’s no easier for me today to believe. We all struggle with what Jesus says. There are things that Jesus says that offend us. That’s why he has to send us and give us his Spirit that gives us life and faith to believe all that he has done for us. He has to give us his Spirit that enables us to latch on to the promises Jesus makes about eternal life.
And that promise of eternal life means there’s a reunion with those who have gone ahead of you. Jesus drew those people to himself during this life so that they could have eternal life with him in heaven. They ate of him – this essential bread – during their years on this earth and now they’re feasting forever in heaven next to Jesus.
And this means there’s resurrection for you, too. Someday each of us will die. But that’s not going to be the end. There’s a resurrection and renewal that’s coming for each of us who die in Christ.
And that also gives you relief and reason as you go through life. Eternal life isn’t just something that impacts our future. It makes all the difference right now too. Life right now is gravy on top cause we’ve got billions of years (eternity) waiting for us with Jesus.
And that reframes our whole life when we aren’t focused on the here and now. We can face trouble and hardship and adversity differently because it’s not going to have the final say. We can let some things go right now because compared to an eternity of perfection and plenty, it’s just a blip on the radar.
Jesus is the Bread That’s Essential for eternal life. Jesus is the bread who’s offered himself to us and for us so we can have that lasting life. The thing is, I need to be filled up with that bread every day. Because Jesus isn’t only Bread That’s Essential for eternal life. He’s also Bread That’s Essential…
2) FOR DAILY LIFE
We all know we can’t just eat one meal, one time, and be good for the rest of our lives. We need to have good healthy food regularly. And every day we make choices about what we will eat and what we won’t eat.
It’s a similar kind of thing in our relationship with Jesus the Bread of Life. Don’t hear me wrong. I’m not saying we can make a choice when it deals with us coming to Jesus or not. Jesus said that to us last week. He said it again today. He has to come to us first.
But after he’s come to me – after he’s drawn me into himself and made me his own –  every day, I am presented with choices about what I’m going to do with the words Jesus is speaking and giving to me. 
We have the BREAD OF LIFE. We have the Bread That’s Essential. It’s already been given to us and it’s there to fill us up. And now I need to eat that bread again and again and again. I need to be filled with it again and again and again. Because if I go without it, I might starve. I might go hungry. This is the bread I need for daily life.
When Jesus finished up his words about how he is the BREAD OF LIFE, lots of the people who had been following him couldn’t stomach what he was saying and they left him. And then Jesus turned to the Twelve and said to them, “You do not want to leave too, do you?”
At that moment, Peter and the other disciples had a choice. Would they continue every day to eat the bread Jesus wanted to give them or would they go somewhere else? How did Peter answer? “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Absolutely, 100% Jesus had to come to them first. Jesus had to offer himself to them first. And he had to give them the desire to even want to feast on him and follow him.
But when Jesus came to them with that question, they could have walked the other way. They could have made that choice. But they didn’t. Because they had come to see they had come to realize that this is what they needed more than anything else. They needed to be with Jesus every day on their way to eternal life. They needed him for eternal life just as much as they needed him for daily life. So they made a choice.
Every day, every week, every month, every year we have a choice. Whom will we serve? What will we eat? To whom shall we go?
Usually near the end of each week, Camryn will ask me, “What do you want for suppers next week?” And (more her ideas than mine) we’ll make a meal plan for the coming week. And because we plan out the meals and know what we’re going to be having, it means almost all the time Camryn makes sure that we have awesome, delicious, healthy meals.
Compare that to before Camryn came into my life. I’d rarely chart out the next week of what I was going to eat. And you know what happened? More often than not, I ate like trash. I would eat whatever I could scrounge up. I’d just kind of fly by the seat of my pants when it came to my meals. I didn’t have a meal plan and I know I suffered for it.
Jesus has the “words of everlasting life.” He’s the Bread That’s Essential. And that means I need him to fill me up day after day. The thing is, that doesn’t come naturally to me. 
Kind of like how it’s easier to just eat junk food because it’s cheap and easy to find. And when I have chips in the house, I eat more chips. But when I have healthy stuff in the house and a bit of a meal plan for the week, I eat more healthy stuff.
Similarly, I think it can be helpful to have something like a “meal plan” when it comes to the Bread That’s Essential for daily life. It can help to think about what I’m surrounding myself with spiritually speaking. Because the alternative is assuming I’ll automatically get filled up with the right things.
So are there things and ways I can have opportunities all around me that will help me get filled up with the Bread That’s Essential? Because that’s the good stuff my soul needs to be filled up with every single day.
And I’m not here to tell you exactly what that should look like for you – everyone’s meal plan is probably going to be a little different – but it can be good to ask yourself if you are regularly giving yourself opportunities to let Jesus feed you.
Do you have time in your week to GATHER around the gospel as it’s preached and taught and shared in the Word? As it’s proclaimed through things like Baptism and Lord’s Supper? Again, I’m not here to give you exact rules to follow, but I will say it’s important that at least part of that happens on Sunday mornings when we gather for worship. But it doesn’t have to stop there. It can also happen as you get together with a Christian friend or your spouse or your children and you have real meaningful conversations with them about life and God and Christ. It can happen as you sit down with a good devotional book.
And do you have ways to GROW in your knowledge and understanding of what God’s Word means for you and why it matters in the place and stage of life you’re in right now? Maybe that’s by coming to Bible study at 9:00 AM on Sunday mornings before worship. Maybe that’s by attending Bibles and Brews on the first Wednesday of every month at Tallgrass Taphouse. Maybe that’s by sitting down with your Bible and no other distractions and thinking about what God’s Word says and why it matters.
And you know what can be a side effect when you GATHER regularly? When you GROW by yourself and then along with other Christians?  It can energize and strengthen you as you GO out into the world. As you serve your neighbors and the people around you. As you share and pass around the good things you’ve already tasted and been filled up with.
Jesus is the BREAD OF LIFE. He’s Bread That’s Better…Given…Essential. God bless us as we are filled with him day after throughout this life and right on into the next one. Amen!