Bread from heaven

For some Christians, every three years the month of August becomes “Bread” Month. Congregations like First Lutheran Church lean on a three-year cycle through the Gospels called the lectionary. Matthew, Mark, and Luke each have their own year to tell Jesus’ story, while the Gospel of John gets sprinkled throughout all three. Since Mark is the shortest Gospel, John shows up the most this year — Year B. And, in August we take the whole month to walk through John 6, where Jesus feeds the 5,000 and teaches about how he is the bread of life.

I share all this, because spending this much time in John highlighted a phrase that is used throughout the Gospel of John, “the Jews.” In light of the recent robocalls by Patrick Little to our community and his desire to stir anti-Jewish sentiments, I felt a need to speak to how this phrase from scripture can be misused. But, it was never intended to justify the vilification or scapegoating of the Jewish people.

If you read the Gospel of John, you will come across “the Jews” named as opponents to what Jesus is doing and teaching. The piece we need to understand is, this was an in-house argument. Everyone in this story is Jewish, including Jesus. But, at the time John wrote the Gospel of John, some of his community did not regard Jesus as the Messiah. Some of the leaders and people in the synagogue, actually felt the teachings were leading believers astray, so they said some of the Jewish people were no longer welcome in the synagogue.

Imagine if fellow church members did that to you for something you taught about God, in which they didn’t agree. Hopefully, you would still follow Jesus, even call yourself a Christian, but you’d probably talk about the people who sent you packing, “the Christians” at “_____” Church. (Add disgust or hurt as you read “the Christian”). You don’t mean ALL Christians, just the ones you knew as your community of faith, but now won’t let you in.

In the same way, the Jews, following Jesus, held to the study of Hebrew scriptures (the only testament they had at the time). They leaned on the story of Moses promising “bread from heaven” in Exodus 16, as a primary means for understanding what God was giving them through Jesus. Just as God did for their ancestors, God continues to do for them; provide daily bread for their journey. Jesus, their bread from heaven, offering abundant life now and a foretaste of the feast to come.

Yes, the followers of Jesus saw themselves as Jews, no longer welcome in their place of worship. They were right to feel hurt, betrayed. But, we discover in John 6, Jesus also sensed tension growing among the crowds.. They hungered physically, emotionally, and spiritually. They wanted a sign to prove he was who he promised to be. But, as he sought to point the people toward a deeper relationship with God, it required too much change, too much risk, too much grace.

“Love one another as I have loved you” didn’t seem like enough to go around. So, he too is rejected, “The King of the Jews,” written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. And, even today in English.

Lori Morton is pastor of First Lutheran Church in Sandpoint. She can be reached at flcpastorlori@frontier.com.