Jesus said, John 6:48 & 50
I am the bread of life. This is the bread that comes down from heaven,
so that one may eat of it and not die. This is our text.
We continue our review of the
Catechism.
The Introduction of the Lord’s Prayer:
Our
Father who art in heaven.
What
does this mean? With
these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and
that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may
ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.
“God tenderly invites us to
believe. . . .” That’s what God wants.
That’s what God is working toward for each of us. He calls and invites us to
believe. He wants us to know about Him. He wants us to agree with His ways all
our life. He wants us to trust that He is good and He will save and deliver us
and give us eternal life. God invites us to believe.
Jesus, God’s Son, says it this way
in the Gospel reading today. John 6:40
For this is the will of my
Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have
eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."
Jesus says, “I am the Bread of
Life.” and He wants us to believe in Him.
When you believe in Jesus, you have
eternal life. Eternal life. So that
means, even after your body dies, Jesus promises you will live. Even after this
old world crumbles apart and burns away, Jesus promises that He will raise you
up, and on the last day you and I and all believers have the glorious, joyful,
eternal life with Him. It will be a life that is free from sin and evil because
Jesus died on the cross to forgive sins, and triumphed over all evil. It will
be a life that is free from pain and death because Jesus rose from the dead and
has put an end to death for all believers. It will be a life free from want or
lack of any kind, because Jesus is the bread of life. And if you have that
bread, you need nothing else..
This good news is yours to believe.
Jesus said, I am the Bread of Life. These words are very helpful to understand
what it means to believe. You say, “I believe”. What do you mean when you say
that? What does it take to believe? How do you believe? What do you say if you
start to wonder, “do I believe?”
Jesus the Bread of Life, gives
Himself to you. He comes down from heaven. He feeds you. You are nourished,
fortified, energized, enlivened because of Jesus, food for the soul.
So that’s what faith is. It’s
simply taking what Jesus gives, and living on it. Just as bread enters the
mouth and nourishes the whole body. So Jesus’ words and promises enter the ear
and feeds the soul.
This is such good news for us,
folks. There’s this temptation to think of believing as something you’ve got to
do for Jesus. Jesus turns that completely around. He says, “I am the Bread of
Life.” Here. Take. Eat. There you go. That’s what it is to believe.
Back then, when Jesus first spoke
these words, if you had bread, then you had enough. You wouldn’t go hungry; you’d
get by for the day. That might seem strange for us today, because we have so
much food, and so much variety of food. It’s hard to imagine just having one
thing, and being satisfied. Many people around the world will do that today.
They’ll get by with bread, or rice, or whatever the staple food is. They’ll
count themselves fortunate to have something to eat. And they’ll live on it.
So the faithful children of God,
look to Jesus and say, dear Lord give us our daily bread, even a morsel and we
can live, just a few crumbs so we can believe. And our Lord blesses us
abundantly, with food for our bodies and His Gospel that feeds our souls.
There’s a lot of helpful
comparisons that can be made with bread for our bodies and the Bread of Life
for our souls. We who have so many choices every day of what to eat, are warned
about the long term results of bad eating habits. We know of cases where it
seems that lives have a person’s health has been damaged, lives have been
shortened, because of bad choices of food and drink.
So it is with what you will
believe. There is the wholesome food which our Lord Jesus gives you in His true
and inerrant Word. There are bad ideas that are served up and passed around in
this world as things you should believe: False ideas about creation, how people came
into existence, false ideas about morality, about love and marriage about what
is a family. Little by little, false ideas can harm the health of your faith.
Stick to the healthy eating of Jesus the Bread of Life. Encourage others to do
the same.
Actually, there are some false
ideas about faith itself. That is, what it means to believe.
There is the false idea to think
faith is easy.
There is the false idea to think
faith is hard.
Let me explain each. The devil leads
some to believe that faith is easy. It’s a little thing. These are those whom
we confirm here and we never see them again. They are the ones who have their
children baptized, but then don’t bring them back to God’s house and God’s
word, in what is really the worst child neglect. Others will come around once
in a while, but they don’t listen carefully, they don’t take it all very
seriously. They say they believe, but their thoughts, their speech, their
actions show the opposite. They think too little of faith. They consider that
faith is too light, too easy of thing.
On the other hand, there are those
who think that faith is hard. They say to themselves, I must work harder on my
faith. I need to make sure I am believing. Constantly they fuss about whether
they believe or not. Doubts rise up. The devil likes to tease such insecure
believers, subtly saying to them, if you truly believe, then why do you have
such terrible thoughts. Faith is too hard for the likes of you.
Don’t fall for that nonsense. Both
of these ideas stem from the false idea that faith is some work you do for the
Lord. But the Lord says, “No, faith is what I give to you.”
Look to Jesus.
Here how He talks about it: John 6:51
“ I am the living bread that
came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And
the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
Just listen to that. Take it in.
Let it feed your soul and nourish your faith. That’s what it is to believe.
And keep hearing it. Faith comes by
hearing the Word of Christ.
So hear that word, in the church,
in your homes, in the sacrament, in the absolution.
Luther had a great way of saying it
and we are in agreement with him on this: “God is superabundantly generous in
His grace: First, through the spoken Word by which the forgiveness of sins is
preached in the whole world. This is the particular office of the Gospel.
Second, through Baptism. Third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Fourth, through the Power of the Keys. Also through the mutual conversation and
consolation of brothers and sisters in Christ.”
Through all these words, the Lord
feeds faith. Over the next few weeks, I hope to talk with you especially about
the one point mentioned by Luther here, The Office of the Keys, that is the job
the Pastor does for the Lord by telling
people to repent of their sins and believe in Jesus. That task, is like turning
a key. It opens the doors of the Kingdom of God for people. I want to remind
you that I, as the pastor am here for you to talk to you about the things of
the Gospel, to serve you the Bread of Life. The particular setting where we can
talk specifically and personally about the Gospel of Jesus is in confession and
absolution.
Most of you know that I am
available to have confession and absolution with you. But now, as it says in
the bulletin, I will be regularly available, Wednesday mornings, for private
conversation and, as the Lord calls me to do, absolving sins.
By absolution and by the Gospel in
all these good ways that God brings it to you, He tenderly invites us to
believe. Amen.
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