Word to the Wise
Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - 3rd Week of Easter - Tues
[Acts 7:51-8:1a and John 6:30-35]"Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." So they said to Jesus, "Sir, give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst."
The multiplication of the loaves [and fishes] now reveals its true purpose: to reveal Jesus as the one sent by the Father to give eternal life. However, this purpose is not at all obvious to the audience in the story, and perhaps not to us. They are like the Samaritan woman at the well who thinks the "living water" might be down in that well or that Jesus had a separate source that would make it easier for her to fetch water! The "crowd" knows that it has eaten bread that seems to have appeared from nowhere! But they do not see this as a "sign," and they ask Jesus to do what Moses did. Jesus reminds them that Moses is not the one who provided Manna in the desert, but God did. That took care of physical hunger, like the loaves, but Jesus has come to satisfy a greater hunger - a hunger for eternal life.
Two statements in today's passage should alert us to this message. These kinds of statements appear throughout the Gospel of John, and their appearance here is important. The first begins, "Amen, amen, I say to you..." and the second begins, "I AM...." The "bread of God" and the "bread of life" are one and the same person, Jesus Christ. We are not yet at the level represented in the celebration of the Eucharist, but we will come to that. Right now, it is faith in Jesus that is the focus of attention - a different kind of bread! AMEN