Bread That Spoils, Bread That Lasts
Bread That Spoils, Bread That Lasts
John 6:25–35
March 9, 2025 First Sunday of Lent
Lent Series – Bread of Life #1 Bread of Life
Rev. Cynthia Cochran-Carney, First Presbyterian Church, San Rafael, CA
25 When they found Jesus on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Humanity will give you. For it is on him that God has set a seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”
29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom God has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us, then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, ‘The Holy One gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is Abba who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Jeffrey and I both come from food families - families who care about food. Jeffrey's family owned a bakery in Piedmont, West Virginia. Sparing no mouth watering detail, he often tells me about staying with his grandparents above the bakery when he was a little boy and waking up to the smell of freshly baked bread and having an endless supply of warm cinnamon rolls dripping with fresh butter. The bakery was not only a place of daily bread and special treats, but a place where people gathered to eat and talk around small tables and listen to each other's joys and struggles. Black and white, coal miner and paper mill worker, young and old. It was a place to be fed.
My mother was a dietician. In college and later in her work in a large hospital in Los Angeles, she studied the latest information on nutrition. Preparing meals for our family was something in which she took great pride as she balanced our meat, vegetables, fruits, dairy products.
These different approaches to food have led to some lively discussions in our 34 years of marriage, including about the subjects of dessert and the subject of bread. Cochrans go for walk after dinner and then have dessert. The Carneys see no reason to wait. Maybe dessert first. Have it early and often. Bread - And now I like Dave’s Bread with lot of seeds and fiber. Jeffrey prefers delicious French bread and dinner rolls. We discuss how much bread do we really need in the house. We talk about bread and food and we also talk about the bigger question – what are we hungry for?
What is Jesus’ answer to that question? How does the gospel of John depict Jesus? Our passage includes the first “I Am” saying in John’s gospel. The “I Am” sayings are unique to the fourth gospel. This first “I Am” saying is given in response to the crowd’s question, “What sign are you going to give us, then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?” (John 6:30).
So that we may see it and believe you. Two things struck me as Jesus responded.
First, rather than seeing is believing, believing is seeing. As Jesus says in verse 26, the crowd had already seen him but did not believe. Like the crowd, we think our faith will deepen if we experience more events that can prove God’s extraordinariness. Jesus continues to challenge us today: when we believe, we will find the extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary. Our faith, our spiritual lives transforms our perspective.
Second, belief is tangible, not abstract. Bread was a staple food for Jews and non-Jews alike in the ancient Middle East and Mediterranean world. In John’s gospel, Jesus is not a teacher who is ignorant of people’s physical hunger. John 6 begins with him feeding the five thousand, and in this passage, Jesus recalls the time when God fed the Israelites with manna when they were in the wilderness.
The bread metaphor is intentionally chosen; Jesus is not a luxurious charcuterie reserved for the few but a humble loaf of bread that nourishes the many. As the bread of life, Jesus nourishes people both spiritually and physically. We must remember that, as followers of Jesus, we are called to channel love so that food is distributed to the hungry. Our faith calls for more than thoughts and prayers; it demands action so that each of God’s creations can live and thrive.
Bread that lasts. Daily bread to sustain us.
John’s Gospel holds themes together contemplating emptiness and fullness, hunger and nourishment, Christ and bread. We’re asked to contemplate Jesus’s self-description as “the bread of life.” We watch as he feeds people. We listen as their scarcity mindset drives them to clamor for more. And we hear the challenge of his words when he invites the grasping crowds to probe the hungers beneath their hungers. The unspoken deprivations that fuel their desires. The needs they carry in secret places.
Jesus issues an invitation that is far more intimate and provocative when he calls himself our bread. Take him into yourself and never be hungry again.
He says “I am the bread of life.” You know you have deeper hungers. You can feel it in your gut. This is a strange invitation - whether or not we will move past religion and into intimacy. Past abstraction and into communion. Past self-sufficiency and into radical, whole-life dependence on a God we can taste but never control. We become what we eat, don’t we? So what are we becoming and what are eating or consuming?
Which raises all sorts of questions: In her reflection writer Debi Thomas offers these questions - Am I hungry? If yes, what am I hungry for? If no, what has made me full? Does fullness scare me? What kinds of bread do I substitute for Jesus? Do I feel in my gut that Jesus is the bread of life? Not appetizer, not dessert, not occasional-dietary-supplement, but essential, everyday food without which I will starve and die?
Jesus invites the crowds to recognize the deep hungers beneath their surface hungers. Of course they’re hungry for literal bread; they’re poor, food is scarce, and they need to feed themselves and their families. There’s nothing wrong, or “unspiritual” about their physical hunger — remember, Jesus tends to their bodily needs first, without reservation or pre-conditions. But he doesn’t stop there. Instead, he asks the crowds to probe the soul hungers that drive them restlessly into his presence — hungers that only the “bread of heaven” can satisfy.
What are those hungers? A hunger for security and belonging? Meaning and purpose? A longing for connection, communion, intimacy, and love? A desire to know and be known? A hunger for delight, for joy, and for creative engagement with the world in all of its complexity, mystery, and beauty? An ongoing hunger for wholeness, redemption, and courage? A craving for the healing of old wounds?
It’s one thing to name our hungers, but quite another to trust that Jesus will satisfy them.
Bread that spoils, Bread that lasts.
There is so much going on in our lives and the world. Claims of what we need to eat, consume. We are told what is the menu. That what is being served is normal and acceptable and good for us and the country. And we can fill up on it.
But it is not the bread of life that lasts. What are we really hungry for?
We are told we are hungry for more war and violence against our enemies,
but we are hungry for lasting peace and diplomacy.
We are told we are hungry for hate and demeaning others
But we are hungry for love and lifting others up
We are told that we can consume cruelty with no regrets,
but we are hungry for kindness and compassion.
We are told that it is us vs. them and that there is only enough for us to eat,
but we are hungry for a bigger table where all are welcome.
When lies are too often on the menu, we are hungry for truth.
When we are told “its each person for themselves” and find ways to feed yourself,
we actually are hungry for the eternal invitation –
you are beloved by God and you are not alone, for community.
The bread of heaven is ours for the tasting.
May we absorb it. May we share it. May we desire it above all things. May its nourishment permeate us through and through until we, like Jesus, become life-giving bread for the whole world. Amen.
Resources
Materials from the Lenten 2025 packet by Illustrated Ministry
Bread Of Life https://www.illustratedministry.com/breadoflife
Debi Thomans, “Deep Hungers,” 7.25.21, journeywithjesus.net