Wonder Bread and He Even Better

Pentecost 11

August 9, 2015

John 6:24-35

Wonder Bread and He Even Better

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Wheat flour, water, high fructose corn syrup, yeast, soybean oil, barley malt, wheat gluten, salt, calcium carbonate, sodium stearoyl lactylate, vitamin D3, vinegar, glycerides, calcium sulfate, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, and several other things.* Put these ingredients together in the right amounts, bake it, and viola! Wonder Bread.

Maybe you love Wonder Bread; maybe you don't. Maybe you don't eat bread at all. But whether you eat the Bread with the colorful dots on the bag or bologna or fish sticks or filet mignon, you always get hungry again. Even the barley bread that Jesus provided for the 5,000, only stuffed them for a few hours. And then they were hungry again. The wondrous bread that God sent to Moses and the Jews in the desert only lasted a day.

So we need our bread daily. And Jesus gives us the food that we need, sometimes so much food that we can easily stuff ourselves. And for His people, this daily bread points us to the Bread of Life. What is the Bread of Life? Jesus told us who the Bread of Life is.

“I am the bread of life. No one who comes to Me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in Me will ever be thirsty again. (John 6:35)

When it comes to Wonder Bread and Bologna sandwiches, less is more. When it comes to the Bread of Life—Jesus Christ Himself—more is more. And Jesus is talking about both kinds of food here.

When it comes to mouth and stomach food, Jesus reminds us to be alert about where food comes from. David prayed in Psalm 145:

The eyes of all look to You, O Lord, and You give them their food at the proper time. You open Your hand, and satisfy the desires of every living thing. . . . My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord. Let every creature praise His holy name for ever and ever. (Psalm 145:15-16, 21)

If you give half of your sandwich to a beggar on the side of I-74 exit, you expect him to say thank you. If he doesn't say thank you, you're might be tempted to not share your bread with him the next time.

Kids, when you eat, what do you do before you pick up your fork and spoon? You pray, "Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed. O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, and His mercy endures forever. Amen."

But have you noticed that when you go out to eat, most people just put food into their mouths without saying thank you. Why is that? Kids, why don't they say thank you to Jesus for their food?

Some of these people might be praying quietly. But many people just don't care about how they get their food, as long as they get their food. When the crowd of people, who ate from the five barley loaves and two fish, found Jesus, we never hear them say thank you. All they wanted was seconds.

When it comes to food that spoils and passes through us, we can't get enough. But when it comes to the food that remains to life everlasting, we are tempted to treat Him with a second thought.

For example, compare how you look forward to the Sunday morning service and how you look forward to Sunday lunch. Both are important; both are from Jesus our Lord. Yet only one offers food that lasts. Only one offers Jesus Himself. The crowd in Capernaum cared about lunch. What about you? Which food do you care about? Wonder Bread or the Bread of Life?

“I am the bread of life. No one who comes to Me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in Me will ever be thirsty again. (John 6:35)

Let us do the work of God. Let us come to Christ Jesus to receive His Body and His Blood more and more, Sunday after Sunday. Let us come to Christ to receive His Words into our ears, day after day, more and more.

Too much Wonder Bread is just too much. But too much Bread of Life, too much Jesus, is never enough and is always enough. We will never be hungry again and we will never be thirsty again because He has given Himself to us.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. Alleluia! Amen!

*theysmell.com/wonder-bread-ingredients (accessed August 5, 2015)