John 6

Stuffed

Posted on by Betsy

I’m guessing you’re probably stuffed today. I certainly am! Yesterday it was the turkey that was stuffed, today it’s us! Thanksgiving is a day to indulge and over-indulge with the nation’s approval and permission. As you sat down to feast, what was your favorite dish? I bet it was some form of bread. Crescent rolls, yeast rolls, cornbread stuffing, green bean casserole with breaded crispy onions on top, pumpkin pie in a lovely crust … bread is the star at many dining room tables at Thanksgiving. Move over, turkey!

Humankind has loved bread from the very beginning. The very first reference of bread in Scripture occurs in Genesis 3:19:

“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.”

Poor Adam and Eve had just been expelled from the garden and learned that the thing they sought, bread, would now require a lot of growing, reaping, threshing, tilling, grinding, kneading, and then baking over an open fire. Sin, indeed, has its consequences.

In our lectionary passage today, John records a time when Jesus’ many followers demanded more bread. They had either been present or had heard about his miraculous feeding of the 5,000 and demanded that he perform his bread miracle again:

John 6 (New Revised Standard Version UE)

25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” 

This occurred in Capernaum at a Sabbath service. Perhaps it was this setting that spurred Jesus to refocus their attention away from material sustenance to spiritual matters. He wanted them to be more impressed by his spiritual food than last week’s bread. But they were dull and they were hungry and demanded a sign.

28 Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us, then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?

One of the problems in demanding a particular sign is that we can miss what God is actually doing in our midst. When we pray very specifically for something, we aren’t open to other possibilities of how God is answering. I have been praying without ceasing for a loved one to get a very specific job offer. Finally I realized that I should be praying for God to reveal his way and his will in this matter. It may end up that this opportunity wasn’t quite right, but the contacts made during the interviews will lead to exactly what God had planned all along. So while we are encouraged to pray the concerns of our heart to a Father who wants to hear our deepest needs, we should also add, “Thy will be done” as a way of acknowledging that God knows best. In our Scripture, Jesus is saying exactly that: The father is offering something so much better than a slice of bread that perishes. He is offering eternal life.

31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

I think the invitation is two-fold. We are invited to receive the true Bread of Life that is Jesus Christ our Lord. Then we are invited to go out and offer this bread to others. How will you be the bread of life to someone today?

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On A Roll by Becca Ziegler

Survive or Thrive

Posted on by Betsy

Name something that you consume every day that you could not live without. Be honest! For me, it is coffee. Surely it is an addiction, as any abstinence from coffee gives me a terrific headache and I don’t feel well. I learned this during two pregnancies back in the dark ages when doctors (many of whom had never been pregnant) insisted that coffee was dangerous to the fetus. So each time, for nine months, I did not have a drop, which meant that in addition to morning sickness, I dealt with coffee withdrawn for the first two months. Modern thinking now allows for a cup of coffee in the morning for pregnant women, and for the sake of my coffee-loving daughters, I am grateful that they turned that thing around. It was brutal!

Your thing might be fruit, or cigarettes, or candy, or bread. I bet for a lot of us, bread is something we consume once a day. It would be missed if we were deprived of it. In ancient times, bread was essential to life, as grain was a main source of nutrition, and it was easily obtained. This was the case in Jesus’ time.

In our passage today, Jesus took advantage of the cultural norm of bread consumption to make a startling point about himself:

John 6:30 (Common English Bible)

30 They asked, “What miraculous sign will you do, that we can see and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.‘”

32 Jesus told them, “I assure you, it wasn’t Moses who gave the bread from heaven to you, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 The bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34 They said, “Sir, give us this bread all the time!”

35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But I told you that you have seen me and still don’t believe. 37 Everyone whom the Father gives to me will come to me, and I won’t send away anyone who comes to me. 38 I have come down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me. 39 This is the will of the one who sent me, that I won’t lose anything he has given me, but I will raise it up at the last day. 40 This is my Father’s will: that all who see the Son and believe in him will have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

John used heavenly descent language to hammer home the point that while both manna and Jesus came down from heaven, Jesus is the true bread. Descent language is used to solidify the connection between the manna miracle and Jesus’ revelation of himself as the Bread of Life. The manna of Exodus 16 was bread that came down from heaven, but Jesus’ claims of his own heavenly descent, coupled with the “I am” statement of v.35, show him to be the true bread from heaven. Jesus, not the manna, is God’s life-giving gift to the world.

 What does this mean to you today? Jesus’ revelation that he was the Bread of Life is a sign of God’s sustaining and providing presence in our lives. It means we will never go spiritually hungry if we fill ourselves with God’s Word. We are assured that if we drink of the Living Water we will never thirst for salvation and forgiveness again. This is the word of hope that this starving, parched world needs! 

 Yet sadly, the world seeks to fill itself with the empty calories of popularity, politics, social media, hours filled watching Netflix, YouTube, and streaming services, mindless pleasure-seeking, greed, celebrity, and a host of other things that may fill us for a moment but won’t last enough to help us thrive. Even the church can be guilty of taking the pleasant short cuts of performance-based worship and personality-cult preachers who, like candy, might satisfy you for an hour on Sunday, but won’t last until Monday morning. A steady diet of such fluff leaves your soul malnourished and your teeth rotten. But Jesus offers us the kind of soul-sustenance that helps us to thrive. When we feast on the bread that is Jesus, through daily in-depth Bible study, meditation, prayer, giving, serving others, and true worship, we fill ourselves with the kind of wholesome nutrition that enables us to find happiness, peace, and contentment.

We thrive.

This is why it is important to keep doing what we are doing every morning. When we grab that first cup of coffee and sit down to consume Scripture, we are filling ourselves with good stuff that will last through eternity. Thank you so much for reading! May we thrive in God’s Word together.

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Thrive by Becca Ziegler

The Lightness of Life

Posted on by Betsy

Many years ago I had an opportunity to go spelunking. For those who don’t recognize the word, spelunking means cave exploration. I was a student at Penn State and had just been hired as a Resident Advisor for a women’s dorm. The team of RA’s from my dorm and the nearby men’s dorm RA’s were taken on a “team building” weekend that included exploring one of Pennsylvania’s famous caves. We dropped down a large hole on a rickety ladder and begin walking, squatting, crawling on all fours, and finally belly-crawling through underground passages that got tighter and more narrow as we proceeded.

Did I mention I am claustrophobic? This is actually where I found that out.

I was struggling to hold my panic at bay as we approached the last “room,” which was accessed through a slender crevice in the rock that was so narrow, you had to go in feet first and twist your shoulders to fit. A larger male RA was right in front of me, and he got stuck for a moment and had to wiggle around a few times before he made it through. That did me in. I turned to the advisor behind me and told her I was done, finished, caput, and bloody well over it. We backed up a bit so that she could shimmy past me, and she told me to wait in the passageway while they explored and returned.

As she left me, I only had my tiny head lamp to illuminate that cold, black space. I felt that I could hang on a few more minutes until they came back out and we could go back through the passages up to the surface. My logic was that since I had made it that far, going back would easier because the passages would get larger rather than smaller. All of that reasoning worked in my brain right up until the moment that my headlamp went out.

There is nothing darker than a cave. The black is the blackest black I have ever seen, and my brain was confused by the fact that I had my eyes wide open and could not see even a sliver of discernible light anywhere. It was like being in a waking nightmare.

We continue our study of John’s “I Am” passages where Jesus used beautiful metaphorical language to teach the people about his true nature. In today’s passage, he explained that he is the light of the world:

John 6 (Common English Bible)

12 Jesus spoke to the people again, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me won’t walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

What a word of hope for us today! We don’t have to live and walk in the darkness of sin and death but have a guarantee of eternal life that will illuminate our way through even the blackest moments.

Of course the Pharisees objected. They defaulted to their faulty understanding of the law and claimed that his testimony wasn’t valid.

13 Then the Pharisees said to him, “Because you are testifying about yourself, your testimony isn’t valid.”

14 Jesus replied, “Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, since I know where I came from and where I’m going. You don’t know where I come from or where I’m going. 15 You judge according to human standards, but I judge no one. 16 Even if I do judge, my judgment is truthful, because I’m not alone. My judgments come from me and from the Father who sent me. 17 In your Law it is written that the witness of two people is true. 18 I am one witness concerning myself, and the Father who sent me is the other.”

The truth of the matter was that Jesus stood in the witness box with his Father as co-defendant.

19 They asked him, “Where is your Father?”

Jesus answered, “You don’t know me and you don’t know my Father. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.” 20 He spoke these words while he was teaching in the temple area known as the treasury. No one arrested him, because his time hadn’t yet come.

The Pharisees’ love of order, law, and the minutia of little rules had led them far astray from the love and grace of the Father. Because they had lost touch with their creating and sustaining God, they could not recognize God’s redeeming son. They walked in spiritual darkness, blinded to their own blindness.

I obviously made it out of the cave and into the light and don’t ever want to be in such a dark place again. How about you? Are you in a dark place of despair, sin, hopelessness, abuse, or grief today? Do you need the light of the world to come in and show you the way?

Jesus is the light of the world, a light no force on earth can extinguish. Open the eyes of your heart and behold him.

Let There Be Light by Michelle Robertson

Everyday Bread

Posted on by Betsy

My husband and I switched to a low-carb diet several years ago, which means we don’t eat bread. We are actually quite fond of bread, so this was a major adjustment. We used to eat bread every day, and bread is something that makes life a little easier. Think about how easy it is to make toast in the morning and then throw a sandwich in a lunchbox and get on with your day! Bread is life. Occasionally we will allow ourselves a day off from our low carb adherence, and bread is the first thing I want. I recently had a wonderful pretzel roll in a restaurant and I was pretty sure I had expired right there at the table and gone straight to heaven. That roll was a taste of the bread of heaven, I’m telling you!

Bread plays a very important role in the Scriptures. It was something that sustained the people in the desert and in the towns. Bethlehem was known as the “house of bread” and look what it produced! Manna played a huge role in the Exodus story. Elijah gave a poor and desperate widow a miracle of a never-empty jugs of flour and oil so that she would have bread for the rest of her life. (1 Kings 17:7-16). Communion is a sacred act of remembrance where we break the bread just as Jesus’ body was broken, and drink from the cup, remembering his blood that was poured out for the forgiveness of sin.

In his first “I Am” statement in today’s reading, Jesus declares that he is the bread of life. John records seven “I am” statements that help us understand exactly who the son of God is. In Jesus’ time, it was not safe for him to speak too often about being the Messiah, as it riled the authorities. So as their rabbi, their teacher, and the Son of God, Jesus used these seven statements to reveal God to them, beginning with “I am the bread of life.” How clever to speak about something as essential as bread.

Jesus is essential to life.

John 6 (Common English Bible)

25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

26 Jesus replied, “I assure you that you are looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate all the food you wanted. 27 Don’t work for the food that doesn’t last but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Human One  will give you. God the Father has confirmed him as his agent to give life.”

The crowd had followed him to Capernaum just after he had fed the 5,000 with bread and fish. Jesus knew exactly what they were asking for. They wanted material bread from him. He was offering spiritual sustenance instead.

28 They asked, “What must we do in order to accomplish what God requires?”

29 Jesus replied, “This is what God requires, that you believe in him whom God sent.”

30 They asked, “What miraculous sign will you do, that we can see and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

How clever of them to quote Psalm 105 to him. They were hoping to manipulate him into providing daily bread as Moses had in the wilderness in the form of manna. But Jesus wasn’t having it. Bread wasn’t a thing; it was a person.

32 Jesus told them, “I assure you, it wasn’t Moses who gave the bread from heaven to you, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 The bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34 They said, “Sir,  give us this bread all the time!”

35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But I told you that you have seen me and still don’t believe. 37 Everyone whom the Father gives to me will come to me, and I won’t send away anyone who comes to me. 38 I have come down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me. 39 This is the will of the one who sent me, that I won’t lose anything he has given me, but I will raise it up at the last day. 40 This is my Father’s will: that all who see the Son and believe in him will have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

What does this mean to you today? Jesus being the bread of life is a sign of God’s sustaining and providing presence in our lives. It means we will never go spiritually hungry if we fill ourselves from his bread basket. We are assured that if we drink of his Living Water we will never thirst again. This is the word of hope this starving, parched world needs!

And to know that he won’t send anyone away who comes to him is a reminder that there is nothing that can separate anyone from God’s love. All we need to do is come. This is a reminder to the church to keep the doors open to everyone.

So today, when you have a bite of bread, think of Jesus, the bread of life. He is the only one who will fill us, satisfy us, and sustain us. Thanks be to God!

Heavenly Bread

In or Out

Posted on by Betsy

What do Burt Reynolds and Al Pacino have in common? Hold on to your seats…they both turned down the role of Han Solo (eventually played by Harrison Ford) in the original Star Wars movie.

Can you imagine either one of them in that role? Ew.

And when Star Wars became the huge franchise that it did, can you imagine how they must have felt, knowing that role could have been theirs?

In our scripture today, we see disciples of Jesus, who were part of his inner crowd, turning down the opportunity to be part of the greatest revolution the world has ever seen.

The issue was over the idea of what it meant to remain in Christ. Jesus has explained to them that he was the bread of heaven and they would need to “eat his flesh and drink his blood” in order to be part of his mission and ministry. He, of course, is referring to his impending crucifixion, and is implying that they will need to be all in with it. After his death, the disciples were persecuted and killed. It was not an easy thing to follow Jesus.

John 6 (Common English Bible)

56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in them. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me lives because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. It isn’t like the bread your ancestors ate, and then they died. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

60 Many of his disciples who heard this said, “This message is harsh. Who can hear it?”

The call of discipleship is hard. The sacrifices are real. God might call you out of your comfort zone and send you to a place or a ministry that you’ve never experienced. Following Jesus has eternal rewards, but it’s not for the faint of heart. When the prospect that things were about to get very difficult was understood, many of Jesus’ disciples turned away and no longer went with him.

61 Jesus knew that the disciples were grumbling about this and he said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 What if you were to see the Human One going up where he was before? 63 The Spirit is the one who gives life and the flesh doesn’t help at all. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 Yet some of you don’t believe.”Jesus knew from the beginning who wouldn’t believe and the one who would betray him. 65 He said, “For this reason I said to you that none can come to me unless the Father enables them to do so.” 66 At this, many of his disciples turned away and no longer accompanied him.

But this became a shining moment for the original Twelve. They remained. They stood firm. They didn’t blink.

67 Jesus asked the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”

68 Simon Peter answered, “Lord, where would we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We believe and know that you are God’s holy one.”

Where is God calling you to do the hard thing? Is it a hard decision you have to make, a difficult truth you have to tell, or a relationship you have to forfeit? God will be with you if you remain in him and follow his will for your life.

In a world full of Als and Burts, be a Peter.

The Spirit Gives Life by Michelle Robertson

Bread of Heaven

Posted on by Betsy

How many times during the day do you think about food? I never realized how much food occupies my mind until I had a day when I couldn’t have anything but liquids. A routine medical procedure that required a day of a liquid diet was an eye-opener. I discovered that during my morning run, all I think about in the last mile is what I will make for lunch. In the afternoon, my mind is pre-occupied with dinner plans. Even a late afternoon boat ride was consumed with what kind of drink/snack I would usually be enjoying instead of my can of diet Sprite. Food, glorious food! I even had to avoid Facebook and Twitter, as these are filled with recipe posts and pictures of things I couldn’t eat. When the procedure was finally over, my first thought wasn’t about the results….all I could think about was coffee and a breakfast biscuit. And more coffee.

Jesus probably understood our obsession with food when he proclaimed that he is the bread of life. What better way to demonstrate his supreme importance in our lives than to tap into our most basic need for sustenance:

John 6 (Common English Bible)

35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

What a beautiful image! Jesus is offering himself to us in a way that meets our needs. When he came, people struggled to understand what he was offering. For him to plainly say, “I am the bread of life” was as simple, and yet as profound, as it could be.

41 The Jewish opposition grumbled about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”

42 They asked, “Isn’t this Jesus, Joseph’s son, whose mother and father we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

I suppose there will always be naysayers to everything, even the most incredible gift the world could have ever received. Joseph’s son couldn’t really be that special, after all….

43 Jesus responded, “Don’t grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless they are drawn to me by the Father who sent me, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has listened to the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father. 47 I assure you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life.

Jesus explains exactly what this gift means. It will not only sustain you, it will allow you to be raised up with him on the last day. It is not just manna for one day, it is manna for every day from now through eternity!

It isn’t just bread, it is the bread of LIFE.

49 Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that whoever eats from it will never die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

With THIS bread, you will live forever.

How many times have you thought about food today? How many times have you thought about Jesus today? Jesus provides the bread that will never end…a bread that comes down from heaven above. That is worth our consideration.

May we think about God today as many times as we think about food.

Bread of Heaven by Wende Pritchard