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I Am the Bread of Life - John 6:24-35
How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your life right now?
In 1965 by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote the song "Satisfaction" becoming one of the The Rolling Stones most iconic songs. The irony of the song is that while it is titled ‘Satisfaction’ the repeated catch phrase of the song is ‘I can’t get no satisfaction’.
According to Keith Richards, the famous guitar riff that drives the song came to him in a dream. He woke up and quickly recorded it on a cassette player before going back to sleep. Inspired by the guitar riff, Mick Jagger then wrote the lyrics.
Upon its release in the United States in June 1965, "Satisfaction" became a major hit. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and stayed there for four weeks. The song also topped the charts also in the UK, where it hit number one 3 months later in September 1965. It’s success in the UK was a little slower than in the US abecause it faced some initial resistance to what was deemed its controversial lyrics at the time. Perhaps a little too raw for the prim and proper etquette of the UK.
The lyrics of "Satisfaction" express a deep sense of frustration and disillusionment with the modern world and expresses dissatisfaction with various aspects of life, including consumerism, the pressure to conform, and the superficial nature of popular culture. This in itself is an irony because over the years Mick Jagger has become an icon of that very popular culture and consumerism.
But at a deeper level, the repeated line "I can't get no satisfaction" expresses a deep existential frustration, that gets to the very heart of our human condition and the experience of many people. It points to the same existential longing and hunger expressed in Bruce Springsteen's song – Everybody’s Got a Hungry Heart.
Human beings live with a deep inner hunger. We are constantly hoping to find something that truly satisfies us, but most of the time we are looking in the wrong places. Scrolling on our smart phone’s looking, hoping to find something that will somehow hit the spot. Hoping and dreaming for our sports team or sports stars to win the big one. Then we will finally be satisfied. Maybe buying the perfect house or the perfect car… constantly looking for satisfaction.
In John 6:35, the writer of the Gospel has Jesus speaking these words to us: “ “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Last week we explored Mark’s version of the feeding of the 5000. Our Gospel passage today comes after John’s version of the same story. At the end of John’s version of the feeding of the 5000, Jesus, knowing that the crowds intend to try and make him king by force, withdraws to a mountain by himself. He has no such ambition. Hi Kingdom is not of this world. Instead, He instructs his disciples to cross over to the other-side of the lake where he will join them later.
On the other side of the lake we find that the crowds have followed Jesus again. But in the narrative, Jesus knows that their motivation for seeking him is based on the physical bread they received, superficial surface things, rather than the deeper spiritual nourishment He offers. "You are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves." He challenges them to seek not just physical sustenance, but the "food that endures for eternal life."
It is a profound challenge for all of us. Are we looking for outward, superficial rewards in life, t or are we searching for something deeper and more enduring, what Jesus calls, “food that endures for eternal life”. (It could also be translated – food that abides in eternal life… food that comes from the eternal, timeless dimension).
Now leading up to this point we see a pattern in the narrative of John’s Gospel where those who encounter Jesus repeatedly misunderstand His words by taking them too literally. Nicodemus (John 3), for example, struggles to grasp the concept of being "born again," thinking in terms of physical rebirth rather than an inner spiritual rebirth. The Samaritan woman at the well (John 4) initially interprets Jesus' offer of "living water" as a way to quench her physical thirst. Give me this water she says to Jesus. In today’s passage, the crowd is focused on the physical bread Jesus provided, missing the deeper significance of what Jesus has to offer them. Give us this bread they ask.
To which Jesus responds: "I am the bread of life" suggesting that Jesus is somehow able to bring satisfaction to the deeper, spiritual hunger of the human heart.
But what exactly does it mean to speak of Jesus as the Bread of Life? How is it that Jesus is able to satisfy our deeper more enduring hunger, a hunger for things of an eternal nature rather than things of a temporary, impermanent nature?
One perspective or possible clue comes in those two simple words: ‘I-Am’. This is a literary device in John’s Gospel. The writer of John’s Gospel puts 7 I Am sayings in the mouth of Jesus. (I am the Bread of Life, I am the True Vine, I am the Door for the Sheep, I Am the Way the Truth and the Life). In doing so the writer of John’s Gospel is invoking the Divine Name revealed to Moses in the burning bush and connecting it with Jesus. This is a clue to why Jesus can be the Bread of Life for us. Because Jesus in his humanity has awakened to this Divine "I-Am" presence within Himself, he is thus is able to awaken us to this I-Am presence within us too.
This "I-Am" presence is our true essence, our eternal, uncreated, timeless nature, beyond the outward form of our humanity. It is the part of us that existed before we were born, and it is the part of us that will exist when we depart from this world of form. As Jesus says earlier in the Gospel, when speaking to the Pharisees, ‘before Abraham was, I-Am’ (John 8:58). But the Pharisees misunderstand Jesus. They think he is claiming some kind of unique status as the Son of God, but a little later Jesus challenges their misunderstanding pointing out that in their own Scriptures it says ‘You are Gods’ (John 10:34) and in doing so Jesus is pointing to the DIvine I-Am that exists in all human beings. We all have the Divine I-Am dwelling within us. The problem is we tend to define the I-Am within us in too narrow a way. We confine the I-Am to our physical form and the story of who we think we are based on the outer world of form.
But Jesus points us to an Eternal ‘I-Am’ nature within every human heart that is much bigger than who we think we are… As the writer of Ecclesiastes so eloquently puts it, ‘God has set eternity in the human heart’. (Ecclesiastes 3:11). There is something eternal, timeless, immeasurable, undefinable, uncreated within each of us, and until we discover it, we will forever be singing with Mick Jagger, ‘I can’t get no satisfaction’, because as Jesus says, we are looking for bread that spoils (John 6:27). We need to begin to look beneath the surface of things to find the Bread of Life, the bread that does not spoil, the Bread that can bring true and deep satisfaction. “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that abides in eternal life” says Jesus in John 6:27).
Until we awaken to the eternal, timeless "I-Am" which is our true nature and which is always present within us, we will continue to live with an unsatisfied hungry heart, trying to fill the void with temporary and impermanent things.
How do we do this? You might ask?
One important way is to make time for stillness and silence. Stillness and silence are a gateway into that eternal and timeless dimenion of life and of ourselves. This is one of the reasons I am regularly making a time for stillness and silence in our Sunday services.
But in our Christian tradition, the path to spiritual awakening is also to be found in Jesus himself. Jesus, through His own awakening to the "I-Am" presence within, shows us the way to awaken this profound truth within ourselves also. When we reflect and meditate on the life and meaning of Jesus in the Gospels, and become aware of the timeless and eternal shining through him, it has the ability to awaken us to the timeless and eternal that abides within us too, the timeless, eternal, divine "I-Am" within us.
The life and teachings of Jesus in the Christian tradition in a profound way is our meditation practice in which we see a reflection or an archetype of our true selves, our true spiritual nature. If Jesus is, as John’s Gospel says, the ‘Only Son of God’ then you and I too in our deepest essence are also ‘the Only Son/Daughter of God’. What is true of Jesus is ultimately true of each of us to. Jesus shows us what it looks like when the ‘I-Am’ is fully expressed in human form.
Because Jesus has awakened to His true identity as the Divine "I-Am," he is able to be the Bread of Life for us, guiding us to discover this same Reality within ourselves. That is why in the passage when the crowds ask Jesus “What must we do to do the works God requires?” the answer comes, “The work of God is this: to believe, have faith in, entrust yourselves in the one God has sent.” To have believe in Jesus, to have faith in him, to entrust ourselves to him, to his way and to his teaching, is to ultimately to discover the timeless I-Am Presence within ourselves and which is Present at the Heart of All Existence. When we awaken to this, we begin to live from a place of deeper inner connectedness, discovering our One-ness with the Heart of All things and that all that we need to feel truly safe, secure, happy, content and satisfied is already here and now. Eternity, already exists within us, the I-Am the Bread of Life that can bring true satisfaction to our hearts.
Just some food for the journey… some food for thought for us all today. Amen.
How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your life right now?
In 1965 by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote the song "Satisfaction" becoming one of the The Rolling Stones most iconic songs. The irony of the song is that while it is titled ‘Satisfaction’ the repeated catch phrase of the song is ‘I can’t get no satisfaction’.
According to Keith Richards, the famous guitar riff that drives the song came to him in a dream. He woke up and quickly recorded it on a cassette player before going back to sleep. Inspired by the guitar riff, Mick Jagger then wrote the lyrics.
Upon its release in the United States in June 1965, "Satisfaction" became a major hit. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and stayed there for four weeks. The song also topped the charts also in the UK, where it hit number one 3 months later in September 1965. It’s success in the UK was a little slower than in the US abecause it faced some initial resistance to what was deemed its controversial lyrics at the time. Perhaps a little too raw for the prim and proper etquette of the UK.
The lyrics of "Satisfaction" express a deep sense of frustration and disillusionment with the modern world and expresses dissatisfaction with various aspects of life, including consumerism, the pressure to conform, and the superficial nature of popular culture. This in itself is an irony because over the years Mick Jagger has become an icon of that very popular culture and consumerism.
But at a deeper level, the repeated line "I can't get no satisfaction" expresses a deep existential frustration, that gets to the very heart of our human condition and the experience of many people. It points to the same existential longing and hunger expressed in Bruce Springsteen's song – Everybody’s Got a Hungry Heart.
Human beings live with a deep inner hunger. We are constantly hoping to find something that truly satisfies us, but most of the time we are looking in the wrong places. Scrolling on our smart phone’s looking, hoping to find something that will somehow hit the spot. Hoping and dreaming for our sports team or sports stars to win the big one. Then we will finally be satisfied. Maybe buying the perfect house or the perfect car… constantly looking for satisfaction.
In John 6:35, the writer of the Gospel has Jesus speaking these words to us: “ “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Last week we explored Mark’s version of the feeding of the 5000. Our Gospel passage today comes after John’s version of the same story. At the end of John’s version of the feeding of the 5000, Jesus, knowing that the crowds intend to try and make him king by force, withdraws to a mountain by himself. He has no such ambition. Hi Kingdom is not of this world. Instead, He instructs his disciples to cross over to the other-side of the lake where he will join them later.
On the other side of the lake we find that the crowds have followed Jesus again. But in the narrative, Jesus knows that their motivation for seeking him is based on the physical bread they received, superficial surface things, rather than the deeper spiritual nourishment He offers. "You are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves." He challenges them to seek not just physical sustenance, but the "food that endures for eternal life."
It is a profound challenge for all of us. Are we looking for outward, superficial rewards in life, t or are we searching for something deeper and more enduring, what Jesus calls, “food that endures for eternal life”. (It could also be translated – food that abides in eternal life… food that comes from the eternal, timeless dimension).
Now leading up to this point we see a pattern in the narrative of John’s Gospel where those who encounter Jesus repeatedly misunderstand His words by taking them too literally. Nicodemus (John 3), for example, struggles to grasp the concept of being "born again," thinking in terms of physical rebirth rather than an inner spiritual rebirth. The Samaritan woman at the well (John 4) initially interprets Jesus' offer of "living water" as a way to quench her physical thirst. Give me this water she says to Jesus. In today’s passage, the crowd is focused on the physical bread Jesus provided, missing the deeper significance of what Jesus has to offer them. Give us this bread they ask.
To which Jesus responds: "I am the bread of life" suggesting that Jesus is somehow able to bring satisfaction to the deeper, spiritual hunger of the human heart.
But what exactly does it mean to speak of Jesus as the Bread of Life? How is it that Jesus is able to satisfy our deeper more enduring hunger, a hunger for things of an eternal nature rather than things of a temporary, impermanent nature?
One perspective or possible clue comes in those two simple words: ‘I-Am’. This is a literary device in John’s Gospel. The writer of John’s Gospel puts 7 I Am sayings in the mouth of Jesus. (I am the Bread of Life, I am the True Vine, I am the Door for the Sheep, I Am the Way the Truth and the Life). In doing so the writer of John’s Gospel is invoking the Divine Name revealed to Moses in the burning bush and connecting it with Jesus. This is a clue to why Jesus can be the Bread of Life for us. Because Jesus in his humanity has awakened to this Divine "I-Am" presence within Himself, he is thus is able to awaken us to this I-Am presence within us too.
This "I-Am" presence is our true essence, our eternal, uncreated, timeless nature, beyond the outward form of our humanity. It is the part of us that existed before we were born, and it is the part of us that will exist when we depart from this world of form. As Jesus says earlier in the Gospel, when speaking to the Pharisees, ‘before Abraham was, I-Am’ (John 8:58). But the Pharisees misunderstand Jesus. They think he is claiming some kind of unique status as the Son of God, but a little later Jesus challenges their misunderstanding pointing out that in their own Scriptures it says ‘You are Gods’ (John 10:34) and in doing so Jesus is pointing to the DIvine I-Am that exists in all human beings. We all have the Divine I-Am dwelling within us. The problem is we tend to define the I-Am within us in too narrow a way. We confine the I-Am to our physical form and the story of who we think we are based on the outer world of form.
But Jesus points us to an Eternal ‘I-Am’ nature within every human heart that is much bigger than who we think we are… As the writer of Ecclesiastes so eloquently puts it, ‘God has set eternity in the human heart’. (Ecclesiastes 3:11). There is something eternal, timeless, immeasurable, undefinable, uncreated within each of us, and until we discover it, we will forever be singing with Mick Jagger, ‘I can’t get no satisfaction’, because as Jesus says, we are looking for bread that spoils (John 6:27). We need to begin to look beneath the surface of things to find the Bread of Life, the bread that does not spoil, the Bread that can bring true and deep satisfaction. “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that abides in eternal life” says Jesus in John 6:27).
Until we awaken to the eternal, timeless "I-Am" which is our true nature and which is always present within us, we will continue to live with an unsatisfied hungry heart, trying to fill the void with temporary and impermanent things.
How do we do this? You might ask?
One important way is to make time for stillness and silence. Stillness and silence are a gateway into that eternal and timeless dimenion of life and of ourselves. This is one of the reasons I am regularly making a time for stillness and silence in our Sunday services.
But in our Christian tradition, the path to spiritual awakening is also to be found in Jesus himself. Jesus, through His own awakening to the "I-Am" presence within, shows us the way to awaken this profound truth within ourselves also. When we reflect and meditate on the life and meaning of Jesus in the Gospels, and become aware of the timeless and eternal shining through him, it has the ability to awaken us to the timeless and eternal that abides within us too, the timeless, eternal, divine "I-Am" within us.
The life and teachings of Jesus in the Christian tradition in a profound way is our meditation practice in which we see a reflection or an archetype of our true selves, our true spiritual nature. If Jesus is, as John’s Gospel says, the ‘Only Son of God’ then you and I too in our deepest essence are also ‘the Only Son/Daughter of God’. What is true of Jesus is ultimately true of each of us to. Jesus shows us what it looks like when the ‘I-Am’ is fully expressed in human form.
Because Jesus has awakened to His true identity as the Divine "I-Am," he is able to be the Bread of Life for us, guiding us to discover this same Reality within ourselves. That is why in the passage when the crowds ask Jesus “What must we do to do the works God requires?” the answer comes, “The work of God is this: to believe, have faith in, entrust yourselves in the one God has sent.” To have believe in Jesus, to have faith in him, to entrust ourselves to him, to his way and to his teaching, is to ultimately to discover the timeless I-Am Presence within ourselves and which is Present at the Heart of All Existence. When we awaken to this, we begin to live from a place of deeper inner connectedness, discovering our One-ness with the Heart of All things and that all that we need to feel truly safe, secure, happy, content and satisfied is already here and now. Eternity, already exists within us, the I-Am the Bread of Life that can bring true satisfaction to our hearts.
Just some food for the journey… some food for thought for us all today. Amen.
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