BREAD For Life!

·      Signs are EVERYWHERE! They Direct, Tell Us Where to Go and What to Do

Johns Gospel is FULL of Signs in the form of Jesus’ Actions and Words

o   The signs and wonders actually point BEYOND themselves!

·      John 6 – The Crowds are following Jesus everywhere because of the miracles

o   Chapter 4 Jesus heals the Officials Son

o   In Chapter 5, Jesus Heals the man at the Pool who was invalid for 38 yrs

·      Jesus was doing miracles everywhere and all the time… it drew BIG Crowds

·      In ALL the Gospels, they all report of Jesus’ COMPASSION on these people. John’s account shows us his compassion on their PHYSICAL needs…. He turns to Philip and asks: “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”

·      Jesus KNEW already what needed to happen and how He was going to take care of it… yet He asks His disciples what should be done. HE IS TESTING THEM. Why? He wants them to learn and to grow in both their understanding but more importantly… in their faith!

·      Philip looks at the situation and all he can see is what is front of his face… and its impossible!

o   Another disciple, ANDREW has another idea… he brings a little kid and his lunch to Jesus… still searching for an answer to this impossible dilemma   

    Jesus gives THANKS (Eucherist) Greek for “THANKSGIVING” He most likely is giving thanks as a traditional Jewish Blessing… as any good Jew would do.

·      The bread and the fish just keep reproducing and 5000 people are fed to the MAX!

·      Why are there so MANY people out there in the wilderness though? Sure they were wanting to follow the miracle man… but lets not forget that it is the season of the UPCOMING Passover Festival! People are everywhere and they are hearing more and more about these miracles.

·      There is more than meets the eye in this story too….

o   These Jews knew their old testament prophecies. They knew that there would come the One who would deliver them from oppression.

·       The Passover was the big Jewish festival. It was a celebration, a memorial of God’s amazing deliverance of his people. It was a time when the Jewish people looked back and remembered how God had delivered them from slavery in Egypt. When they told all the old stories of how Moses had led them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, into the wilderness. When they remembered God’s provision for them as they wandered in the wilderness, how he gave them manna, bread from heaven!

But the Passover wasn’t just a time for looking back and remembering, but also of looking forward. They would’ve remembered the promise God delivered through Moses in the wilderness, which we read in Deuteronomy 18:15-19

§  The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.

o   You can imagine them chewing over this in their minds as they chewed on their bread by the Sea of Galilee. You can imagine them making all these connections, starting to interpret this sign. They begin saying;

§  This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!’

§  Their expectations, their hopes were high. Here was the one Moses had promised.

·       Their expectations, their hopes were high. Here was the one Moses had promised.

o   One who would follow in Moses footsteps, who’d deliver God’s people once again. These expectations were conflated with the hope for the Messiah, a King of David’s line. All of these hopes were turbo-charged around the time of the Passover.

·       At that time the Jewish national pride was at an all time high. The air is charged with expectation, with energy. This recent sign is just the spark needed to set the crowd on fire!

·       The five thousand men John mentions would make a sizable guerilla army. They’re ready to snatch Jesus, literally to violently seize him and make him king. They’re ready for him to ride point as they march into Jerusalem, throw out the Herodian pretenders to the throne and drive out the Roman infidels.

Of course we’d never seek to manipulate Jesus like this. We’d never squeeze him into our own little box. We’d never try to make him a king in our own image. Would we?

·      In their zeal… the multitude of people might have thought that ACTION was the best course of action….

·      Jesus had a DIFFERENT PLAN… a plan of SUBMISSION and OBEDIENCE instead of CONTROL and INDEPENDENCE.

Jesus unpacks and interprets these events. He helps the disciples and us…. understand the real significance of the bread. He offers them the bread of heaven, the bread of eternal life, which as it turns out is his flesh.

But this morning we’ve seen Jesus’ great compassion for the needs of the people. Jesus is the King who provides bread for his people, who knows the needs of the world, and calls us to join him in meeting them.

If they’d had their way the disciples would have turned the crowds away to fend for themselves. But Jesus calls us to not shy away from the needs of those around us. He didn’t expect the disciples to solve the problem. He doesn’t expect us to single-handedly solve world hunger. Instead, he invites us to offer what we have, he promises to take what we offer in faith, and to trust him to use it to achieve great things.

Barley loaves and pickled fish is a meal hardly fit for a king. Yet, Jesus doesn’t shy away from it. Because he’s come to turn the world upside down. He’s not come to be King the way we might expect it. He’s the King who’s come to offer an eternal deliverance for his people.

And he challenges us to accept him as King. If we try to seek control, to shape Jesus to be the way we want him to be, to make him what we find comfortable, we’re likely to find he slips away. Instead we’re to allow him to be King, to allow him to rule over us, to direct and guide us.

In the next scene… Jesus has sent the disciples away because he doesn’t want them to get all caught up in the frenzy and emotions of the crowd. WE DO THAT TOO YOU KNOW! We listen to people and get all caught up in their opinions and thoughts about situations and about how we ought to handle it… while Jesus would have us RETREAT and ALLOW HIM to have control of the situation while we are still… waiting on Him!

The STORM is raging and Jesus steps onto the boat and SHAZAM! Storm is calmed.

The Miracles are a means to a GREATER MESSAGE. They point us to the God who can meet physelcal needs, emotional needs and who is THE ONE who will Heal the Broken Hearted… Who will BIND UP THE WOUNDS we get from Life and to SET US FREE from the things that hold us captive and prevent us from experiencing TRUE FREEDOM that ONLY comes from a RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS that promises us… not only deiliverance from the STUFF we deal with in everyday life… but will deliver us from EVIL and GIVE US EVERLASTING LIFE!!!

Let’s pray that He reveals this to all of us this morning and personally remember… that HE WHO THE SON SETS FREE… IS REALLY FREE INDEED!