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I Am the Bread of Life
A sermon by Dr. James Flamming
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, March 5, 2006
Second in a Lenten series entitled, “Who Do You Say That I Am?”
The Eight “I Ams” of Jesus from John’s Gospel
Some months ago, my wife Shirley and I were enjoying a meal
at a local restaurant and a lady came up and said “You’re Dr. Flamming, aren’t
you?” and I nodded and introduced Shirley. Then she said, “I wanted to say
thank you for a sermon you preached some time ago. I saw it on television. And
it was called ‘Immobilized by Intensity’. And then she went on to talk about
the part of the sermon that reached her at just the right time, at just the
right moment, and then she excused herself and was on the way to the cash
register.
Shirley said to me “Well, that oughta make you feel good.”
And I said, “It always is amazing what God uses to reach a
certain need in a certain person at a certain time. But she did get the title
wrong.”
And Shirley said, “What was the title?”
And I said, “The title was well she said it was ‘Mobilized
by Intensity’. It was ‘Immobilized by Immensity’.
Shirley thought a minute and said, “I like her title
better.’
And I thought about it and I did too.
This is ‘immensity’ turned into ‘intensity’. Intensity is
part of where we live. In fact, it could be, in addition to terrorism and
crime, the number 1 thing that most of us face.
You see, it used to be, that on Sunday even those who
didn’t come to church, which then as now was the vast majority, at least they
slept in. But now, everything is open and nothing changes from the days of the
week – the same pace, the same intensity. Even in sports, work. We have
learned to be workaholics with our play and even our rest.
Now, any one of the eight “I am”s in John’s gospel could be
used to address this kind of exaggerated intensity that is causing immense
amounts of stress in our lives. But the one that just grabs me is when Jesus
said “I am the bread, of life.” You see, the way to handle the intensity of our
world, which none of us would really want to live without, we’d just like to
tone it down. The way to handle it, it seems to me, is, is not to try to erase
it ‘cause that’s impossible. It’s part of us. It’s part of our culture. It’s
part of the air we breathe. It’s part of the environment we live in.
Our son Peter is now is in the eighth grade. When he was
in the third grade he discovered soccer. And he is good at it. Back in those
days he was on a team, they beat up on everybody. And on the way home after
they had won, my son Douglas said to Peter, “Peter, you know, it isn’t whether
you win or lose; it’s uh did you enjoy it, did you have fun? That’s the
important thing, having fun and just enjoying playing.” It was quiet for a
moment and then Peter said “Well, Dad, having fun may be good for you but I got
to win.” It’s in the water. We’re gonna, we’re gonna get there; intensity.
All right. What are you gonna do with it. I don’t think you can scrub it out.
I think what you can do is begin to balance it by an equally inner intensity
that works from the inside out.
When Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” he was giving us
the clue that even as bread nourishes and strengthens us physically, he is the
one who, when he lives within us, nourishes and strengthens us spiritually.
In John 6, let me sketch the scene for you. In the early
verses, you will reflect immediately this was the feeding of the five thousand.
And in this passage John records that Philip, after Jesus said “Feed these
people.” Said “no way.” Well, that’s a loose translation.
Verse 7 says Philip answered him, “Eight months wages would
not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite.” Another of his disciples,
Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a small boy with five small
barley loaves”, huh, bread by the way, “ and two small fish.” But how far will
they go among so many. We do not know how Jesus did it. That’s true of all
miracles. We don’t know how. We don’t know the method. We know the result.
We see the miracle. And he fed five thousand with that little amount of bread
and fish.
Well, you can imagine. His notoriety went to the top.
They’d a taken a poll in those days, one hundred percent. The rumors would go
around, he’s over there, and he wouldn’t be. He’s over there. Nobody could
find him. Finally they found him on the other side of the lake. Look in verse
twenty-five. “When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked,
‘Rabbi, when did you get here?’” Rabbi, by the way, means teacher. Jesus
answered “I tell you the truth. You are looking for me not because you saw
miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” -- a
reminder that even with Jesus they could mistake that which pressured and met
the needs from the outside rather than from the inside out.
Later on he says, in verse thirty-three, “For the bread of
God is he who comes down from heaven and who gives life to the world.” In verse
thirty-five, Jesus declares “I am the bread of life and he who comes to me will
never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Notice first of all how small and insignificant bread
seems. And yet it can be so essential. When the tsunami hit and the pictures
of our missionaries who helped meet the needs of the starving, because they had
nothing, the pictures showed the big semi truck full of food and guess what they
were handing out -- loaves of bread.
George Washington Carver, a professor at Alabama’s Tuskegee
Institute and one of the first of the great African American scientists. In the
early nineteen hundreds, the boll weevil came up from Mexico and wiped out the
cotton harvests and wiped out cotton farmers. George Washington Carver tried
to convince them that they needed to plant something other than cotton. Like
soybeans, or peanuts, or the like. Lot of them planted peanuts. Successful
crops, but no market. And loads of peanuts spoiled, nobody to buy them. They
went back to Carver and said “We planted peanuts. Now what do we do?”
Carver went to his favorite place to pray. It was in a
woods, under a certain tree. Which is true of prayer, by the way. To have a
certain place and to go there. Set a time and a place and show up. And Carver
did. Years later he recorded that prayer and that conversation with the good
Lord.
“Oh, Mr. Creator,” I cried out, “why did you make this
universe?”
And the creator answered, “You want to know too much for
that little mind of yours. Ask me something more your size.”
So I said, “Dear Mr. Creator. Why did you make man?”
And again he spoke to me and he said, “Little man, you are
still asking for more than you can handle. Cut down the extent of your
request.”
Then I asked my last question, “Mr. Creator, why did you
make the peanut?”
“That’s better,” said the Lord. And he gave me a handful
of peanuts and went back with me to the laboratory and we went to work
together.
Working day and night, Carver discovered the magic within a
small peanut and before he finished, two hundred different uses and products
were uncovered from a small peanut. And the losses turned into profits.
A peanut is such a small, small thing. Two hundred
different ways it can be used. I wonder if the bread of life could discover
something in your life, uncover it, you’ve overlooked it. It was there all the
time. You just didn’t see it. “I am the bread of life. Discover something in
me that you have never seen before,” says our Lord Jesus.
Notice also in verse thirty-three that the bread of life
comes down from heaven and gives life to the whole world. What does it mean
that the bread of life comes down from heaven?
Max Lucado tells the story, strange story really, very
strange story. But I’m gonna tell it anyway. By Joseph Shulam, a Jerusalem
pastor, a Christian, about the son of a Rabbi.
He was deeply disturbed emotionally and one day the boy
went out into the backyard. And he removed all his clothing and he crouched
down and began to gobble like a turkey. This went on for days and no pleading
could dissuade him. They brought in psychotherapists; it wouldn’t work. Then a
neighbor and a friend of the Rabbi, having watched the boy grow up and shared
the father’s grief, offered to help. He, too, went into the back yard. He
removed his clothing and he crouched down beside the boy and he began to gobble
like a turkey. For a while nothing changed and finally the friend spoke and
said to the boy “Don’t you think turkeys could learn to wear shirts?” And the
boy gobbled a bit and then said, “yes.” And so they both put on shirts. And a
little while, “Don’t you think turkeys could learn to wear trousers?” And the
boy said, “Yes.” And so they put on trousers and the friend dressed the boy.
No, the boy dressed himself because the friend was there. And the story goes
that eventually the boy became normal.
Do you find that story reasonable? I don’t.
Have you ever heard anything like that? I haven’t.
Could it have happened? Sure.
Turn it into a parable like Max does. Jesus took off the
robes of heaven and clothed himself in our skin. And he got down and crouched
beside us. And spoke our language. And lived our lives. Like we did. And
eventually was obedient even to the death of the cross. Why? You want to know
the truth? So he could show all the rest of us turkeys where home was.
Let me give you the Biblical, theological expression of
that truth. Paul writes in Philippians 2 “He did not think heaven something to
be held onto but made himself of no reputation, took upon himself the form of a
servant, made in the likeness of man, and became in fashion like a man. Even
obedient unto the death of the cross. That’s what it means in verse
thirty-three. He came down from heaven that he could give the world life.
Jesus says in verse thirty-five, “I am the bread of life.”
And bread nourishes. It nourishes the physical body. But, you know, when it
comes to spiritual things, the bread of life works through things that are often
called ‘bread’ in the scripture. The Bible. And prayer. And worship. And
fellowship. And service. Now you’ve heard those things from this pulpit nine
zillion and ten times. Nothing new there. Oh. But do you remember the words
of Robert Frost? “Everything deserves repeating until we answer from within.
The thousandth time may prove the charm.”
The Bible. How do you do that? I’ll tell you how you can
learn. We have a new edition of Your Daily Appointment with God, put together
by our own people. And every day from now ‘til August, a scripture and a
comment from the ones who wrote it. The Bible has an uncanny way of speaking to
us. At the deacon ordaining council I was absolutely flabbergasted by the
amount of influence the Bible had on those wonderful people who were ordained.
And where they turned their lives around as adults was getting into the word,
getting into the Bible.
And prayer. The amazing thing, about prayer is not that we
do it but what happens on the other end of it. Some words attributed to a
soldier went like this:
“I asked God for strength that I might achieve and I was
made weak that I might learn to surrender.
I asked for health that I might do great things and I was
given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for power that I might share my power with others;
I was given weakness that I might learn to feel the need for God.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life and I was
given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing I asked for but everything I hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among all people so favorably blessed.” Prayer.
And worship. Worship is when you set aside your ‘it’s all
about me’ self and you turn your eyes to God and you pay attention to the bread
of life who is so often overlooked.
And what about fellowship? Others. We were made to be
plural. Jesus said “Where two or three are gathered together, there I am in the
midst of it.” We were made for togetherness.
The man was well past 80 and he was dragging through his
life. His wife had died twelve years earlier. Lived right outside of Rome,
Italy. His only daughter was in Afghanistan. He was alone. It was a
monotonous life. A routine that was regular and meant nothing to anybody, not
even to him. And then one day he decided to do something about it. And Giorgio
Angelozzi ran an article in the best selling Italian newspaper. He said, “I’m
going to put myself up for adoption.” He wrote, “Seeks family in need of a
grandfather. Would bring 500 euros a month to a family willing to adopt him.”
Well, it caused quite a stir, made front page of the newspaper, was picked up by
the media. He got replies from everywhere, from New Jersey to New Zealand. But
the one he chose had been signed by four people – mama, daddy, sister, brother.
And he went to live with them. He settled into their ground floor apartment,
helping with the dishes and with homework and with the garden. And he reported
later, “I couldn’t have chosen better. Maybe it was luck or I like to think it
was God because God and I talked a lot about this but I knew right away that I
had found my new home and everybody needs a home.” And the truth is God made us
for one another. And life comes in togetherness.
Oh. And when Jesus took the bread and broke it, he didn’t
do it alone. By himself. But with his disciples, there were twelve of them
then. And he said, “This is my body which is broken for you and as oft as you
eat it, remember me.” And then he took the cup and he said, “This stands for my
blood which is shed for you for the remission of your sins. As often as you
drink it, remember me.”
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