John
6:35; 41-51 Bread of Life
As
the Psalmist wrote: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be
acceptable to you, oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
When
I left school I went to work at what was then called the Sydney Water Board
situated in Bathurst Street near Saint Andrew’s Cathedral. Often I would have
my lunch in the square between the Cathedral and the Sydney Town Hall. It was
common place to throw some bread scraps to the square’s pigeons. Sometimes
there would also be seagulls in the square and they would join the pigeons in
the lunchtime meal. It was fun to see how easily and how far the birds could be
drawn by a piece of bread and it was a challenge for me to see how close I
could draw the birds to me before they became too nervous to approach further.
You
know some of the characters in today’s Gospel reading and Sydney Square’s
pigeons and seagulls have much in common.
Now
it is important to understand before we precede that when John speaks of the
Jews in our text he is referring to the religious authorities and insiders,
those people who opposed Jesus. John is not referring to the Jewish people as a
whole, indeed possibly all those present were of the Jewish faith, including
Jesus himself.
Today’s
Gospel reading is set on the day following the feeding of the 5,000. The
previous day’s crowd and perhaps some other people have followed Jesus. Most of
the people following Jesus were drawn by the hope of bread, the type of bread
they had received from Jesus the day before, the same type of bread that Sydney
Square’s pigeons and seagulls sought. They had seen first-hand the power of
Jesus and what He could give them; they had a good meal the day before and
wanted another.
However
once they found that what Jesus was offering had changed, at least in their
minds, the Jews began to grumble.
Now Jesus
said that he was the bread of life which has come down from heaven and that
those who eat His food will never hunger. Indeed Jesus was revealing his true
identity, but because of their prejudice against Him the Jews did not
understand Jesus’ message of spiritual food, after all he was only a humble carpenter’s
son, not the all conquering Messiah who they believed would come in glory.
The
situation didn’t make sense to them, they understood what Jesus was saying, that
he had come down from God, that He was the Messiah, but it just could not be
true, they knew who his parents were, he could not possibly be who he was
claiming to be, and besides His message wasn’t what they were looking for
anyway, they wanted another meal of bread and fish, Jesus wasn’t who they
wanted Him to be, so they grumbled.
The
crowd was being drawn by bread to Jesus, but it wasn’t the work of God, instead
it was their own desires for physical food that they followed, as the pigeons
and gulls were drawn by their desire for food. Jesus understood this when he
said “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him”.
Jesus
bids the Jews to stop their murmuring and He advises them that no one can come
to Him unless drawn by the Father. This motif of being drawn to spiritual
truths is the one I would now like to explore.
The
word “draw” is being used in one particular way throughout this scriptural text.
The pigeons, the seagulls, and the Jews, all initiated their approach to bread
as an object of physical desire, it was something they wanted desperately, so
they took the initiative to go out and get it, a selfish and self-serving
desire for immediate satisfaction.
The
word “draw” in the original language of our text today, as attributed to the
Father, has meaning altogether different to the conscious act of our own
initiation. The same word for drawing is used when describing fish being drawn
into a boat by a net. The fish don’t want to leave the water but they are
pulled that way by the fisherperson.
God
does not draw us to come to him with objects of earthly desire. Instead he
draws us, even against our wishes, like fish in a net, via the spiritual realm
of our true nature. Scripture informs that we are spiritual beings created in
the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26) who should worship God in spirit and
in truth (Jn 4:23).
This
picture of God drawing us informs that the approach of the human spirit to God,
or Christ, is not initiated by humanity but rather is a response to a drawing
initiative of Divine grace. This is the doctrine of divine initiative in
salvation, and is a fundamental doctrine in John’s gospel.
A
picture of God dragging us to himself kicking and screaming against our will
may not be an appealing one. We would much rather think of ourselves as being in
charge, and smart enough to choose God ourselves, but scripture speaks
differently.
Romans
8 tells us that we are by nature hostile to God, 1 Corinthians 12 says that we
can’t even confess Jesus as Lord without the Holy Spirit’s help, and Ephesians
2 says that on our own we are spiritually dead. Our text this morning informs
us that Jesus said:
“no one can come to me unless drawn by the
Father who sent me and it is written in the Prophets (Isa 54:13) ‘and they
shall all be taught by God’. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father
comes to me”
The
reality is that we do not approach God because we see Him as being so good to
us, it is the opposite, left to our own devices we would run the other way, we
can’t come to God by ourselves, God must, and does, draw us to Himself.
If this
is hard to believe just think of all the excuses we can come up with in order
to skip attending Church for some extra sleep, or forgoing bible study for
watching TV or to read about sports and hobbies.
The Good
News of course comes to us in the final verse of today’s Gospel when Jesus
proclaims that his mission, and thus God’s mission, is to the whole world. So
the whole of humanity, if looking through its spiritual nature can perceive God’s call, and we should submit
to that call and allow ourselves to be drawn to God rather than resist Him for
only the passing pleasures of this world.
So,
the big question remains:
Are
you going to become pigeons, seagulls, Pharisees or Sadducees, seeking only
those things which belong to the earthly world, or
Are
you going to listen to the call of God which draws you to himself?
No comments:
Post a Comment