The Bread of Life

Pastor Douthwaite’s sermon last Sunday was based on the reading from John 6, in which Jesus continues his discourse about how He is the Bread of Life.  I was struck by the way the sermon showed how Jesus is undoing the Fall and restoring us to the Garden:  an act of eating makes us lose Paradise, and an act of eating makes us regain Paradise; we lost the Tree of Life, now in the Cross we have the Tree of Life. (The text also plays with other Old Testament images:  the manna in the wilderness; the Mountain of God.)  Read the whole sermon, linked after the jump, but I’ll give you samples.

From Rev. James Douthwaite, St. Athanasius Lutheran Church: Pentecost 11 Sermon:

I am the bread of life, He said. Bread that doesn’t just sustain the life you already have, but bread that gives the life you need.

And today we learn more about that as we continue with Jesus’ teaching. He says: I have food for you so that you will never hunger again, and never thirst again. Or in other words, for your every need to be satisfied, as it was in the beginning. I’ve come to bring it to you, and to take you to it on the last day. To take you back home, to Paradise. Your parents were cast out of the Garden, out of Paradise, and into the wilderness. I have come to take you in the wilderness back to Paradise again. Not just to feed you here in the wilderness; not just to make your life a bit more tolerable here, for a time. But to restore what was lost. To take you back again. And then, raised on the last day and restored to what once was, you will never be cast out. For whoever comes to me, whoever comes with me, Jesus says, will never be cast out. I am this bread of life. This is the reason my Father sent me. To give life to the world.

For to Adam it was said: eat of this tree and die. But truly, truly, Jesus says, if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. . . .

This is My Body, This is My Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Here is food for your hunger and drink for your thirst. Here is Jesus come down from heaven and giving Himself and all that He is and all that He has to you. That you live now. That you live forever. For the one who gave His flesh for the life of the world here gives His Body and Blood to give life to you. . . .

 

So satan is saying today: these things can’t do that! We know what these things are, we know where they come from, from the tap, from the store, from the traditions of men, not from heaven. 

 

Don’t be fooled, persuaded, deceived, or mislead. That man from Nazareth was more than just a man, and these things are more that just things. For the Word and promise of God make them more than just what meets the eye. This water, these words, this bread and wine, are bread of life. This water, these words, this bread and wine are exactly what you need. This water, these words, this bread and wine are the food we need not to get to the mountain of God, like Elijah, but are the food from the mountain of God, from that mountain called Golgotha, to give us the life we need. To refresh us, to sustain us, to strengthen us. To soften our hard hearts, enlighten our dark minds, to open our deaf ears and blind eyes, and give us Christ.

 

That’s the food that’s here for you, served over and over. Food from your true home and that takes you home – from sin to righteousness, from wilderness to heaven. So that on the last day of your sojourn, you will be raised up from death to life and live forever. And then home, the real feast will begin: the feast that has no end; the marriage feast of the Lamb. Jesus wants you there at that feast, and so He comes here now to this feast, that you feast on Him. For as He said: I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. Yes, the good, sweet, life-giving Tree of Life, back on earth again!