EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME B

[cappie]

Jesus said he came that we might have life and that abundantly. In our gospel reading for today, Jesus has met the immediate needs of a host of people. Those remaining after he fed 5,000 with a little fish and bread seek out Jesus. Jesus tells them, “ Do not work for food that cannot last, but work for food that endures to eternal life,   the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you.”

The previous day, Jesus fed their physical hunger with bread and fish, and the crowd sought him out once more. Jesus points them to their spiritual hunger, which is what he really wanted to fill. After all, the people were created to love God and love others as they loved themselves, and in chasing after other needs, they risked getting further from the real nourishment they needed.

Jesus compares this to the original bread from heaven, manna, with which God miraculously fed the children of Israel for 40 years in an uninhabitable wasteland. This was the daily bread that would come anew each morning, with enough to last the day and a double portion for the Sabbath. Now Jesus compares the daily bread of manna, which God gave in the desert, to the Bread of Life, which God offers in Jesus Christ. Jesus says, “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Jesus offers nourishment, which goes to the heart of our most basic human need to fill a spiritual hunger. Having been created to be in relationship with God, without that connection, we can feel empty.

It is an easy move to connect Jesus referring to himself as the Bread of Life to the Eucharist. For in the mystery of the Eucharistic feast we eat the bread and drink the wine, and in so doing we partake of the body and blood of Jesus. But we don’t want to jump to that correct response so quickly that we miss the bigger picture.

This discourse comes when Jesus has two more years of ministry ahead of him. In fact, this is, after all, John Chapter 6, out of 21 chapters. There is much more time left in Jesus’ ministry before he gets to that last meal with his disciples. John’s gospel makes clear what the other three gospels only hint at: the Eucharist is not about Jesus’ death alone.  Everything Jesus did – who Jesus was and how he acted – are part of God’s revelation to us. We cannot separate one part of his life from the rest. Nor should we have a Christian part of our lives separate from the rest of our lives. We are to take Jesus’ whole story and make it part of our whole story. This is much more than hearing the word, it is word and deed.

In baptism, we do not simply hear of Jesus’ baptism, but water is poured over us as a sign that we are united with Christ through baptism. We don’t just hear the story, we actually get wet. In the Eucharist, we don’t merely listen to the words, “Take eat,” but we actually get up, come to the altar to take and eat. It’s not just the bread that we take, bless, break and give. God took Jesus’ whole life, blessed, broke it and gave it to us.  

 And what sign do we have? Where can we look when seeking Jesus? Jesus points to his own presence among us, in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, we meet a God that became flesh for us and invites us to live  lives that value simplicity, humility, and presence. In broken Bread and poured Wine we meet a God who offered his life at Calvary for us, and who from the cross and the altar calls us to offer our lives so that others may have abundant life. In the Eucharist, we meet a God that rose from the dead, that breathes life into simple bread and wine, inviting us to believe in life, to trust in a nurturing God as we go through the deserts of our lives, to believe that with God all things are possible.

This is the food that God longs to give us. This is the bread we should be seeking. But too often we don’t ask for this bread.  We have to trust God more. If we seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, all these things will be ours as well