Jn 6: Taco Tuesday and Bread from Heaven
Have you ever cried from disappointment over your food in a restaurant? I have done that twice. Once I was 8 months pregnant so that doesn’t count. The most recent time, I was homesick and my taco was fancy. I looked down at the tiny gourmet taco and seriously couldn’t fight back a couple of tears. I was mortified by how emotional I felt over a taco. It’s just that tacos remind me of celebrations, family, and being loved by my students and friends. The fancy gourmet taco was a glaring reminder of how far I was from most of my family and anyone else who would celebrate with me.
I’m not usually that emotional about food, but if I am, it will probably be a taco…maybe a biscuit. Today feels like another traumatic taco day. It’s Taco Tuesday and Cinco de Mayo Covid 19-style and this morning, it honestly just felt like the last unbearable straw on a lonely camel…
As I sat down to journal and possibly write a blog post about John, I realized I hadn’t written in two weeks.
Why? Because I was discouraged. I am not doing well with isolation. I hate how it’s shut down my plans. I’m tired of trying to have a great attitude. I was already struggling with the empty nest thing, moving, and changing jobs, the social distancing feels like too much.
As I shared in my introduction to this series on John, I have been reflecting on all that John had seen by the time he wrote his reflections on the life of Jesus. How did he live with so much loss and still say “Jesus is the light of light that has come into the world and the darkness has not overcome it.”?
My expectation as I focused on John and what he knew was that I’d learn tons of applications for seeing the world in a different way. Today, I learned to see myself differently. Today, I realized that, sometimes, I say I’m discouraged by the darkness, but I’m actually discouraged by Jesus’ plan to fight it. I like the work he does. I just honestly wish, as I walk with him, he’d give me more stuff and more ease along with all the great purpose.
(Sigh…I’m growing…)
Approaching Jesus’ Teaching With the Attitude of Middle-Schoolers
Sometimes, I feel like people look at Jesus’ teaching with about the same depth of understanding that my middle school students had during my classes on figurative language. Really, you haven’t experienced frustration in this world until you have tried to teach a group of at-risk youth what symbolism is! I remember one particular young concrete thinker yelling at me from his frustration, “How can setting the world on fire be a good thing?”
My students wanted black and white easy answers so they could fill in the correct circle and get a diploma one day. They had no interest in really understanding or learning. They didn’t want to be challenged. They would constantly ask me, “When am I ever going to use this?” Which is another way of saying, “I’m not going to learn this unless you can show me how it’s going to benefit me.”
We often approach religion the same way my students approached learning: OK Jesus. Sure, you are God, but show me how following you is going to benefit ME!
Of course, we don’t directly say it that way. I have a million ways I can convince myself I’m being super holy while focusing on myself and my comfort
John 6 tells a powerful story about Jesus addressing our middle-school nature. The story begins as Jesus miraculously multiplies some fish and bread to make enough to feed a crowd of over 5000 people. The crowd was full of people who had heard of Jesus’ teaching, healings, and miracles. They were curious and they were coming to check him out. After listening to him preach for a while the disciples said Jesus should send them all away to get food. Instead, Jesus demonstrated his power over the situation.
In ancient Israel, getting food to eat was most of what your work would have revolved around. Making bread was an involved process. They didn’t have electricity so even grilling some fish was more involved than anything we cook today. Most of Jesus’ audience was poor and even the wealthy certainly didn’t have the abundance of food that we have. So, feeding them was a really big deal. The equivalent for us would probably be something like getting a free house. or maybe just instant tacos but not gourmet ones!
The people reacted to this miracle by wanting to make Jesus their King. He knew that this was their intent so he left. (Which is hard for me to wrap my attention-seeking brain around!)
The next day, the crowd found Jesus again. John shares the lesson Jesus taught them in 6:25-70, Jesus turned to the crowd and said, “You are only following me because I gave you food to eat and you are full. You want to follow me because of all the physical things I will give you. That’s not what I’m about. You need to follow me and devote your life to the truths I’m showing you.”
In response, some asked, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” 6:28 NIV
Jesus said, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” 6:29 NIV
Then they ask him for a sign. I imagine Jesus face-palmed at this point. “Uhmm did you guys see the miracle yesterday?”
“Yeah but you just said you aren’t going to keep that up. So what else you got?”
Jesus Points to a New Way
Jesus then reinterpreted their most deeply held religious beliefs. He said, “It’s not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 6:32-33.
Moses was the revered patriarch of the Jewish religion. Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, around 1200 BCE. Then they wandered in the desert until they entered the “promised land “ of Israel. While the Israelites wandered in the desert, God gave them “manna” to eat every day
Over the centuries, many traditions and teaching had developed around Moses and the bread he gave the Israelites. Jesus explained to the crowd that he is the “true bread” from heaven.
Jesus continued to teach the crowd about the provision from heaven God longs to give the world. The crowd clearly understood Jesus’ use of figurative language. They asked, “How can he say he is the bread from heaven when we know his parents?” They didn’t ask, “How can this dude be bread?” They understood the symbolism. They knew “bread from heaven” or “manna” meant provision from God.
The Middle School Approach to Following Jesus Shows Up in Scripture
The interesting thing is how the crowd suddenly couldn’t understand what Jesus meant. They were all-in chasing Jesus down and ready to overthrow Rome for him. Then when he talked about giving them his flesh, they shifted to “Hold-up. We can’t understand. What do you mean? How is this going to happen?” And they began to leave.
I’m not 100% sure why Jesus said things the way he did at the end of this discussion, but it’s interesting to consider it from an ancient Jewish perspective. As weird as it is for us to read “You have to eat my flesh and drink my blood.” It was even worse for them. The Jews were obsessed with clean and not clean animals and following a strict dietary code. They would have freaked out at him saying, “you are going to have to eat a pork steak cooked rare.” So the gross-out factor would be intensified for his audience. Besides the gross-out factor, there would also have been a moral dilemma. What he was saying went against some of their deeply held beliefs about how the world works. In order to follow Jesus, they were going to have to look at everything differently.
Like all of us, they had the hardest time changing their focus away from themselves. I bet if Jesus had said, “Hey guys here’s my pinky pass this around and y’all nibble on it then we’ll go overthrow Rome like you want.” The crowd would have stayed. Because most people are OK with changing their beliefs when the change gets them what they want. Most of us, like my example in the beginning, have a hard time focusing on anything besides ourselves.
The Hope We Are Called To
The beautiful symbolism of “eating Jesus’ flesh” and “drinking his blood” comes from thinking about this teaching in the context of the whole story of Jesus. Jesus is God’s provision from heaven for us. He gave us himself so that we could know God, so we can know how to live the best life, so we can have an eternal relationship with the Creator of the Universe, so we can be sustained by his presence every day.
No one in the crowd that day could have fully understood the amazing thing Jesus was calling us all to. I’ve been walking with him for decades and I don’t fully understand how amazing it is. As John wrote, he had been sustained by Jesus walking with him through trials I can’t begin to comprehend.
Jesus will sustain us through whatever trials we face. Even in the times when we aren’t focusing on him, he still sustains us. He promised he wouldn’t leave us. His presence isn’t dependent on how great we are at following him (thankfully!). He sustained me even in my spoiled American whininess… and after two weeks when I re-focused on him, I remembered how great his way really is. I still miss hanging out with friends (and getting tacos) But as I grow in my thinking, I understand that following Jesus connects me to a greater purpose that sustains me through whatever trials I face.
I hope you see it too.
Praying for you and whatever struggles you are facing in our current crisis. I can’t promise you things will be easy. I can promise you that Jesus, the bread from heaven will sustain you as you face whatever lies ahead.
Blessings to you my friends! Thanks for reading and commenting!
Cindy