Bread: A Communion Meditation

Bread: A Communion Meditation
Read John 6:1-14

We find ourselves in the gospel, over the Sea of Galilee about one year after healing the paralyzed man in chapter 5 (Hendrickson). In Chapter 5, we saw Jesus rejected in Judea because of his claim to equality with God the Father, in chapter 6, we will witness the rejection of Jesus in Galilee making Israel’s rejection of their Messiah complete.

Verse 2 says that a great multitude followed Jesus because of the signs they had seen. In fact, we are told that there were some 5 000 men among this multitude. But most commentators assume that, when you add the women and children, there more likely closer to 20 000 people. A great army. If they had been allowed to follow through on their plan to make Jesus king by force, there would surely have been a bloodbath in Jerusalem.

This multitude resembles the modern Seeker driven church where the gospel has been neutered of anything that would be offensive. In these churches (big and small), God’s plan of salvation through the atoning death of Christ is re-imaged for 21st century consumption. Instead of repentance for sin and obedience to an almighty Law-giving God who hates sin, the Seeker gospel promises the good life, health, wealth, friends, self-esteem, and so on (the very things our fallen culture esteems most). They want the blessing without the hassle of duty to the one who blesses them. “But Jesus did not commit himself to them, because he knew all men…. For he knew what was in man” (2:23-24).

Jesus once condemned the Pharisees for sign seeking comparing them to the Gentiles saying:
An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas…. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. (Mat 12:39ff).

And yet many signs accompanied the preaching of Jesus. John’s gospel record 7 signs; four of which we have already seen: water into wine in Cana; healing the Nobleman’s son in Capernaum; healing the paralytic by the sheep gate; and multiplying the bread on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. The People of Sodom would surely have repented at the site of those signs.

Signs also accompanied the Apostles’ preaching;
…And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. (Acts 2:43);

For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost…. (1 Thess 1:5);

Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God… I have fully preached the gospel of Christ (Romans 15:19)

So why do Jesus and the Apostles perform signs and wonders if sign seeking so adulterous and evil? There are (at least) three things that make sign seeking evil and adulterous; four if you include the fact that Satan, who masquerades as an angel of light, is capable of many signs and wonders (which we are promised will increase as we near the day of Christ’s return):

1. The first thing is that the signs can be misinterpreted. Have you ever seen a complicated road sign and thought you were following it correctly and you ended up going in the opposite direction of what you wanted? I do that whenever I try to get onto the Portman Bridge from Highway #7 coming off the Maryhill Bypass. East and West should be North and South; lanes divide and then subdivide, and it doesn’t help that they seem to change it all around about every 6 months.

That’s what this multitude was about to do. They saw that Jesus could make bread for them, so they decided they were going to make him their earthly king by force. The reality is that Jesus’ Spiritual Kingdom is greater then just Israel; and he does not manifests it in this world by force, but through his humiliation and obedience unto death.

2. The second mistake is to seek the sign alone and not the sign maker. This is an even greater problem for Christians in North America because we are so surrounded by so much affluence and stability that we can come to think that there is something in us that makes us worthy of these blessings. Or that it’s because of our good government, or enlightened modern thinking.

But good government and modern science don’t prevent earthquakes, and hurricanes and the outbreak of disease that we see in other parts of the world and so we must consider ourselves spared by the grace of God from the wrath of God that is so due our nation. But the blessings are trap, they anesthetize us to the spiritual perils that wage war against our souls all around us. It may be that God’s favour is more upon the nations and people who suffer because it is in the context of affliction and poverty that men soften their hearts to God.

Once, when Jesus was passing through Samaria, ten lepers came to him and cried out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" So Jesus sent them to show themselves to the priests and as they went, they became healed

And one of them… returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on
his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus
answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were
there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?"
And He said to him, "Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well." (Luke
17:11-19).

3. The third mistake in sign seeking (the one that the Pharisees made) was demanding a sign when you should already know who Jesus is. The Pharisees, had scripture and the testimony of John the Baptist, but they chose to reject Jesus. Even when he showed his power, they tried to find fault- he healed on the Sabbath, or, his disciples did not wash their hands.

Likewise, Christians should not be seeking signs because we already believe; our eyes have been opened and now we live by faith and not by sight. So why should believers need a sign from Jesus? It’s not to say that God won’t answer our prayers and do miraculous things in our lives, but we don’t need those things to believe. This is the trouble I have with signs and wonders movement where some famous traveling super-apostle comes into town and sets up tent advertising signs and wonders for believers. “Come expecting a sign!” Worshipping in order to get a miracle is the ultimate act of unbelief for a believer to seek a sign!

So why Signs? Nichodemus told Jesus, “We know that you are from God, because no one can do these signs unless God is with them” (3:2). John’s gospel records seven signs, but at the end of the gospel, John admitted “truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book” (John 20:30). The he said that the sign were so that “you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (v. 31).

The Metaphor and Meaning of the Sign of the Bread:
The gospel uses a lot of metaphors: the lamb of God represents Jesus; the water turned into wine represents new birth; the wind blowing where it wills represents the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration; the water at the well represented the continuing work of the Holy spirit… So what does this miracle… the fourth sign represent?

Perhaps Jesus’ ascension up the hill foreshadows his ascension to heaven. And the multitude are his people the church. Notice in v. 3 it says “he lifted up his eyes to see the great multitude.” Jesus had to have been looking downhill at the multitude, because they came after him. So in other words, before he lifted his eyes, he must have been looking way down at the ground as if he was in a posture of prayer. It’s a picture of Jesus in heaven, sitting at the right hand of power, forever making intercession for us.

Another way of looking at this sign is to see it as the advance of the Kingdom of God. Each piece of bread represents one new believer miraculously multiplied by the foreknowledge and pleasure of God.

Or we could see it as the power of Jesus to resurrect the Body. Some people ask me “how will God resurrect our bodies, if the body has decomposed over centuries so that there is nothing left of the DNA to reconstruct it?” Or “what if the Body is destroyed in a fire or cremated?” The fact is that God can make something out of nothing. Jesus proves it here in front of five to twenty thousand witnesses- he didn’t even need the five loaves and two fish. Jesus didn’t stretch the bread, he multiplied it out of nothing. And he will do the same with our bodies at the resurrection when he reunites our spirits with our incorruptible Bodies.

But I think the best way to see this sign, is as the sign of Jesus’ Body. Jesus is the bread of life who comes down from heaven (v. 35). And we cannot have life unless we eat that bread. Verse 51 says, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."

It’s like the metaphor of the tree from last week’s sermon that pastor Sam preached: “I am the vine and you are the branches” (John 17:1ff); by eating the bread, we become the branch fed by the tree- life giving sap flows through us. Likewise, when we eat the bread by believing in Jesus we have life and communion with him (He who believes in me has everlasting life- v. 47). This bread and this cup are signs that we are abiding in him, that we are nourished spiritually by his spirit.

Let’s not try to make him King by force, rather, let us submit to his rule and come humbly to his table as servants of our King.