The Fourth Sunday in Lent

Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that He may live in us, and we in Him.

+In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
           
Back when I was a new priest, serving in Monroe LA as the Curate at Grace Episcopal Church, one of my responsibilities was to be the Chaplain at the parish day school. That meant I got to celebrate and preach at the school masses which were held every Wednesday during the week. One time I used an illustration with the kids that I’m going to share with you today: How many meals have you eaten today? How many this week? How many this month? How many this year? How many meals in your lifetime? I had the kids calculate in their heads the numbers. Many of them came up with some accurate numbers without calculators. My point was that as you start to add up all the numbers, over time that number gets big. As you think about all the meals you have eaten, how many of those meals do you remember? I expect only a few of those meals to be ones that you remember. Now, you might have your list of favorite foods, but you probably cannot remember every time you ate your favorite food.
           
The truth is that all those meals that we ate, starting from the time we were little babies, helped us grow up into healthy adults. We can’t remember every meal, but we do remember fondly those special meals, those special treats and dishes we ate, and who served them to us—maybe it was our mother, our grandmother, or our father or grandfather. Maybe it was something our spouse made for us. Or maybe it was a meal shared with a loved one that we remember. So much of our life is wrapped around food—the preparing of food, eating food, and sharing it with others. Not only does it help keep us strong and healthy, but it is also how people show love and care for each other, and it forms an important part of our relationships.
           
In today’s Gospel lesson from St. John, we read about Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fishes. In this story, we read not only about Jesus’ love and compassion for people in need, but this incident reveals to us who Jesus truly is: that He is the Son of God. Furthermore, we get an understanding of how Jesus intends to build and strengthen His divine life in each of us.
           
In his Gospel, St. John gives us seven miracles, or signs, that Jesus performed. One was at the wedding at Cana when Jesus turned the water into wine. This morning, John shares with us another sign, the feeding of the five thousand, where Jesus uses bread and fish to feed the multitude. The use of bread is significant, as it points back to what God did for the people of Israel in wilderness on the way to the Promised Land. There, God fed the people, with manna that fell from the sky like rain. Bread from heaven. God miraculously feeds his hungry people with bread in the desert. Now we read about Jesus miraculously feeding the people with bread again, this time through the miracle of multiplication. And you will notice that Jesus doesn’t just meet their need, He does it generously, to overflowing. Starting with five loaves of bread and two fishes, Jesus feeds a crowd of five thousand, with twelve baskets full of leftovers!
           
John tells us that the people recognize the miracle that has taken place, and they understand that only God can miraculously provide food for His people in a desolate place like this. They recognize that Jesus is a prophet, but more than a prophet, and they want to make Him their king! Jesus is the King, but He is not to be the kind of king they want Him to be, so John tells us that Jesus went away up to the mountain to be by Himself.
           
What John wants us to understand is that this incident, while miraculous and wonderful, points us to something bigger about Jesus and what He intends to do with us and through us. Jesus, the Son of God and Messiah, has come not just to meet our needs, but He has come to do a deeper work of transformation. Later in John 6, Jesus explains the deeper meaning behind the multiplication of the bread and fishes. Beginning in verse 22, we read about how the crowd started looking for Jesus, but he was on the other side of the lake. The disciples catch up to Him, and Jesus tells them, “Truly, truly I say to you, you are seeking Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” (John 6:26) Jesus goes on to explain that it was not Moses who fed the people manna in the desert, but God. Jesus then says, “For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:33) When the disciples ask for this bread, Jesus replies, “I am the bread of life.” (John 6:35).
           
These statements cause more confusion among the disciples, who are wondering how Jesus is going to give them this bread to eat. Jesus then says, “Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.” (John 6:54-55) These statements remain a mystery and a source of speculation for the disciples. It is not until the Last Supper, when Jesus institutes the Eucharist, that they begin to understand. It is here that we discover that in leaving us the Eucharist, Jesus intends to feed us with Himself. And it is His food, His bread, that will feed our souls and our spirits so that we may gain eternal life and live His divine life through us.
           
St. Paul expounds on the meaning of Jesus’ feeding of our souls and spirits in our Epistle reading for today. When we feed on Jesus in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, something real and tangible is given to us. It is spiritual nourishment for eternal life. Another name for it is grace—God’s unmerited favor! But it’s more than simply God doing something “nice” for us. Grace is God’s eternal life being given to us and infused into us. Paul says, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with Him and seated us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-6). Paul goes on to says that this eternal life that we have been given is not the result of the works that we do, because none of us could ever earn or deserve this grace, this gift of the divine life of God imparted to us.
           
Good works cannot save us. We are simply the recipients of God’s grace and love, given to us through Jesus Christ, by His death, resurrection, and ascension, and by His divine life imparted to us through the Sacrament of His Body and Blood.
           
Good works cannot save us. Rather, we are saved to do good works! Again, Paul says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)
           
Jesus gives us His Body and Blood as food for our souls and spirits so that we can live out the divine life He has given to us. Most of us cannot remember how many times we have received the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. But we know that because we have received it, that the life of Jesus is growing in us. Just as all the meals that we have eaten in the course of our life made us grow healthy and strong, so the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation enable us to grow strong and healthy in the life of God. Through it, we can do the things Jesus commanded us to do, love those He commands us to love, and experience His joy and presence in our lives.
           
And just as we fondly remember those special meals and the special people who served them or shared them with us, so we remember Jesus each time we partake of His Body and Blood. This Jesus we love and serve is not an abstraction, nor a nostalgic memory from the past. We serve and living Savior and Friend who loves us and has given all of Himself so that we might give ourselves away that the Life of Jesus would be spread throughout the whole world for the life of the world.

​+In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.