Sermon April 18 "I Am the Bread of Life"

The first "I Am" statement of Jesus is "I am the bread of life", which can be found in John chapter 6 (6:25- 35; 41-51 were my focus verses). Using a portion of this chapter a number of months ago in my sermon series on our church mission statement I wanted to take a different angle. With such a rich text in the context of such a full narrative it was not difficult to find a different facet of to focus on.

In my study of this passage this time I saw an interesting pattern that this "I am" statement was a part of. The back drop of this passage is once again "the crowd" that is an ever present character in the gospels. The thing I noticed is that Jesus isn't who the crowd wants him to be when they want him to be it.

When this passage begins we read, "a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick." They show up to see miracles of healing. So what does he do? He feeds this healthy multitude with five loaves and two fish. They expected one kind of sign, he blows their mind with another.

The next thing this crowd wants from Jesus is for him to be their king. They want a ruler. What does Jesus do? He withdraws from them in order to escape. He crosses the sea on foot, at night. They want a king, he turns into a secrative hermit.

The crowd follows him across the sea the next day. They want him to be the bread maker again- just like Moses. He could obviously do it. They just want him to do it again. He refuses. Instead he takes on the role of teacher saying that he himself is the bread they ought to seek.

Next, this crowd that wanted to make him king, grumbles at this teaching and says, "Who does this guy think he is? We know his mama and his daddy. He isn't special." They want clarity on who he is. So instead of clarity he tells them to eat his flesh and drink his blood. What?

Ate very turn he resists being who they want him to be when they want him to be it. They want a doctor. He gives them a grocier. They want a king. He gives them a hermit. They want to see so they can beleive. He tells them to beleive without seeing. They want clarity on who he is. He only confuses them with a difficult teaching.

One of the things that we will learn thoughout this series is that Jesus may not be who we want him to be. But he is always everything we need him to be. He was never not what this crowd needed. But they rejected him because he was food when they asked for healing, alone when they asked for a king, required faith when they wanted to see, and was cloudy when they begged for clarity.

Jesus may not be who you want him to be. But he is everything you need him to be. I closed this sermon with a simple story about how two people discovered this truth of Christ's sufficiency at the table of our Lord. One had been asking for deliverance. He discovered a broken Christ. One wanted more blessing. He discovered a Christ that demanded more of him. Jesus, in those moments was not who they wanted him to be. But he was everything they needed him to be. Thanks be to God!

Pastor Scott
Click here to listen