I
am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry…
(John 6:35)
In this Sunday’s gospel lesson, Jesus tells his followers he is
the Bread of Life. But then he makes
statements I have difficulty following, such as whoever eats this bread will live for ever… and the bread which I give for the life of the
world is my flesh… This seems
strangely foreign to the ways many of us find we can respond cordially to Jesus
and his way. Perhaps what we are reading
in John reflects more the understanding of the early church at Ephesus, or
wherever it was that John’s Gospel came together, at that time, and their developing
teachings about the sacrament.
I am personally inclined to keep it simple – and bread, as we
know, is an analogy with built-in simplicity.
The ancient, even primeval combination of flour and water in all its
varieties sustains human life to this day,[1]
from the most delicious Selkirk Bannock to the ship’s biscuit which they
knocked on the deck first to shake out the weevils. People come together to break bread. Thanking God for bread, and thanking God for
life, are much the same thing. The very
word companion, in its derivation,
means someone who has bread[2]
– the word company implies meeting
around bread. When gluten intolerance
was discovered, we quickly found ways to keep making bread without it, because
bread is basic and life-supporting.
Jesus applies to himself the expression Bread of Life. Quite a claim… I am the bread of life. What bread is to us in our daily lives, so
Jesus is to us. Sustenance, nourishment,
strength… So we – practical, sensible, 21st
century people – have to ask, how is this so, in any way that makes sense? For some it is a sacramental reality. Jesus
is present in the bread and the wine of Holy Communion, and to join in the
sacrament is to be nourished, strengthened and sustained. The altar of Iona Abbey, of exquisite white
Iona marble, has carved into its front, I
am the Bread of Life. The sacrament
is, for many, the principal way of encountering the Risen Christ, and is
paramount in their faith and life.
There is another path
which for some opens up more easily. We
are fed by his word, his teachings, confirmed in us by the presence of the
Spirit he promised, and likened to the wind.
In a daily life which admits prayer and mindfulness, attention and
humility, we are sustained by the Spirit of the Risen Lord, so that the
teachings we know from Galilee and Jerusalem are received in ever new and fresh
ways. The facts of Calvary and the empty
tomb inform and inspire our attitudes and decisions and actions. It dawns on us one day that we are scarcely
capable of living in any fulfilled sense, any other way. This is being fed by the Bread of Life. The two paths are not mutually exclusive –
most followers of Jesus walk them both.
One or the other may predominate.
But if at your table at home you still give thanks for simple bread,
while friends, it may be, or grandchildren, look on somewhat mystified, you are
remembering also the bread that will sustain you far beyond today.
[1]
Archaeologists in Jordan have found a site with traces of bread which have been
carbon-dated to 14,000 years ago.
[2]
From Old French etc… COM + panis
(bread).
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