There is one story that I
always keep in mind as I prepare the message. This story is about one church in
England. At first, the slogan of this church on the front
door was always "We Preach Christ Crucified." But after many years, this
sign changed to "We Preach Christ." They still preached Christ, but
not necessarily Christ “Crucified.” They started focusing more on Jesus' moral
life, his teaching and his philosophy than on his death and resurrection. And
some people had left the church. A few years later, the church changed its sign
once again. It became "We Preach." From that time on, the church
started preaching any topics from politics, ethics to all kinds of social
issues. Then more people had left the church. And eventually, the church had to
close down. I had a chance to do some street evangelism with other Thai
Christians in Thailand when I was an exchange student there. I was kind of
surprised by two things. First of all, I was surprised that people were very
receptive. They listened attentively. Several of them followed sinner’s prayer
and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. But then, I was also surprised
that they didn’t want to make any change in their lives. They said, “Buddhism
is a good thing. It teaches me how to live and gives me peace of mind. And now
I found that Jesus is good too. He gives me freedom and blessing. To me, they
are all good and compatible. I will keep them both!” What do you think? When
you say, “I believe in Jesus,” what does it mean by that?
Jesus, Giver of Bread
Today’s passage, the story of
Jesus feeding the 5000, is quite famous and written in all four gospels. In
particular, both Matthew and Mark observed that Jesus did heal people, teach
them, and feed them because he “was moved with compassion for them” (Matt 14:14 ; Mark 6:34 ).
In other words, Jesus cares about us. He cares about our health. He
cares about our food. He cares about our needs. He took the five loaves and the
two fish, gave thanks, broke the loaves and gave them to the people. They were all
well fed and satisfied – and even 12 baskets of leftovers! After they saw this
great miracle, all of sudden they remembered manna and Moses’ messianic
prophecy in Deuteronomy 18:15, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a
prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him!” (cf.
Acts 7:37 , 52) The people began to say, “Surely this is the
Prophet who is to come into the world!” (14). It looks like finally they
understood who Jesus is. It looks like finally they came to believe that Jesus
is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God. But unfortunately, that’s not the
case. In the following verse, verse 13, they made an attempt to take Jesus by
force. They came to kidnap him, to promote him as their king, and to make
him serve their agenda and their needs by force. They acknowledged, “Jesus, be
our King, our Prophet, the Giver of bread!” But Jesus was not pleased with this.
He knew they neither saw nor believed who He really is. Jesus said to them,
“You want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the
miraculous signs” (26, NLT).
Jesus, Bread of Life
Jesus fed the people because
he did care about their needs. There is no doubt about that, but this miracle
is called the sign (semeion) that points to something much greater. There
is a much more important purpose why Jesus fed the 5000. By this miraculous
sign, Jesus wanted to teach his people the following truth: He did not come
into the world just to give bread, but to be bread. The people were still
excited about the miracle performed by Jesus the day before and asked him, “Sir,
give us this bread all the time!” (34) And Jesus said, “I am the
bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger. He who believes in me
will never thirst” (35). Then, they began to grumble about him and said, “Is
this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?” You see, there
is a huge difference between “giving bread” and “being bread.” The people
were glad to believe Jesus as the one who gives bread. They were willing
to make him king because he was useful. They would enjoy bread from him.
They were much more interested in the product of the miracle than the person
of the miracle. They didn’t want to believe that Jesus is the bread
of life. Yes, they were seeking Jesus. But they were seeking Jesus as
useful, not us precious. They were seeking Jesus as useful for the bread,
the money, the health, the prosperity. But in John 6, Jesus plainly proclaims
the main purpose why he came to the world: He did not come into the world to
give bread, but to be bread.
Jesus, Bread to Eat
So Jesus clearly said to
them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink his blood, you have no life in you!” (52) What does it mean to eat
Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood? Of course, Jesus was not proposing religious
cannibalism. Instead, what he was saying here is intimacy – believer’s union
with Christ. In verse 56 Jesus said, “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my
blood abides in me, and I in him” – intimate union with Christ!
To eat Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood means to have an intimate union with
him. It is to know him intimately.
J.C. Ryle, pastor of Church
of England in 19th century, had awakened many preachers and
Christians. At that time, many people believed if they were baptized and
members of the church, they would be saved and go to heaven when they died. But
J.C. Ryle, in his sermon Christ Is All, said, “Let us understand that
Christ will be all in heaven… What a sweet and
glorious home heaven will be to those who have loved the Lord Jesus Christ in
sincerity!... But alas, how little fit for heaven are many who talk of
"going to heaven" when they die, while they manifestly have no saving
faith, and no real acquaintance with Christ. You give Christ no honour here.
You have no communion with Him. You do not love Him. Alas! what could you do in
heaven? It would be no place for you. Its joys would be no joys for you. Its
happiness would be a happiness into which you could not enter. Its employments
would be a weariness and a burden to your heart. Oh, repent and change before
it be too late!”[1]
Ryle concludes that the surest way to prepare for heaven is to begin a real,
personal relationship with Christ. Jesus said, in verse 54, “Whoever feeds on my
flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last
day.”
Let us go back to our first
question: When you say “I believe in Jesus,” what does it mean by that? To
believe in Jesus is to commune with Jesus. It is to eat Jesus’ body and drink
his blood everyday. It is to abide in him, and he in me every moment. In
today’s passage the people began to realize that to believe in Jesus, to
commune with Jesus requires a deep profound change in their lives. They began
to realize that it doesn’t work to follow Jesus without making any change. And
they said, “This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?” (60) Then they turned
back and no longer followed Jesus. It was all too much for them to take in.
Come and Eat!
But thankfully, today’s story
is a story with a happy ending. Jesus’ disciples remained faithful. Jesus said
to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” And Peter answered, “Lord, to
whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed,
and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (67-69). They
chose to believe, commune, eat, drink, and follow Jesus.
We know God through Jesus.
We know Jesus through His word. Peter
said, “You have the words of eternal life.” And Jesus himself said, “The
words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (63b). We know and
commune with Jesus through his word. Let us come and eat his word. There are
good devotional books – upperroom and disciplines. There are lots of good
sermons out there. But most of all, take up his word and listen to his word
firsthand. Listen to Jesus at his feet. Ask him questions. Talk to him. Have a
conversation with him. Commune with him. And I am 100% sure you will fall in
love with him. You will trust him more, obey him more, rejoice in him more, and
love him more.
“Oh, how I love your word! I meditate on it
all day long!” (Ps 119:97)
“How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than
honey to my mouth!” (Ps 119:103)
Let us come and eat! Let us
eat Jesus and his word, the bread of heaven, and we will be truly satisfied –
never hunger, never thirst, never die again – and have real and eternal life today.
Amen.
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