i don't want to seem the way i do

but i'm confident when i'm with you

a sermon on Jesus' bread of life sermon:

A few years ago, pop theologian, David Zahl, wrote the book “Seculosity.” This word is a portmanteau of secularism and religiosity. Zahl’s point with the title is that, although we live in a secular age, we are more religious than ever! Only now we have redirected our religious longings onto the secular plane. Now we try to find fulfillment, not in spirituality, but in secular endeavors. Things like careers, childrearing, politics, and even hobbies. 

The result, argues Zahl, is that we are less fulfilled than ever! Transferring our yearning from the sacred to the secular has not succeeded in stemming our longing. On the contrary, it’s only stoked it! 

What’s more, argues Zahl, we’ve also gutted what would otherwise be perfectly pleasant pastimes! Now, our hobbies must be side-hustles. Now, instead of marveling at the miracle of childhood, we’re fixated upon the idea that there’s a right way to raise a human being! As if such a thing ever existed. 

No longer do we have areas of life that are simply ordinary. Now every last aspect of our existence must matter, and matter vitally, too. This also means, by the way, that we have to optimize every last bit of our lives… 

While I tend to agree, I’m not so sure this is a modern phenomenon. It seems as though, as humans, we’ve always tried to find our vindication in all sorts of places. Religious or otherwise. In fact, Jesus addresses this predilection of ours in today’s Scripture. 

And, proactively, he seems to go ahead and just assume, like Zahl, that we’re all hungry. Jesus takes it for granted that we’re all craving something. And worse still, all our attempts to provide for ourselves haven’t satisfied us. On the contrary, they’ve only made us hungrier. 

“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.’” Jesus frames his invitation to receive what he has to offer as long-sought-after nourishment. And while the implication that we haven’t managed to assuage our deepest longings may sting, it is an invitation that sounds good. Doesn’t it?

It’s a staggering presumption Jesus makes about our predicament. But it’s one that bears itself out. Doesn’t it? The truth is, on this side of Eden, we’re all hungry. And, most vexing of all, all the ways we try to sate our appetite has only piqued it!

The truth is, this dilemma is an ancient affliction. A malady passed down from generation to generation. A parasite that’s lived within the human race for ages. I’m talking about, of course, the original curse contracted at the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. 

Ever since our common ancestors ate the fruit, we have all become infected. Infected with a hunger that only grows the more you try and feed it. It doesn’t matter who you are or how you’re doing. We all have areas of life where satisfaction eludes us. I mean, if Mick Jagger, of all people, can still sing “I can’t get no satisfaction” with any earnestness at all, what hope is there for the rest of us?!?

As is so often the case, though, it’s here, at the peak of our predicament, that the Gospel peaks through! Jesus’ words reveal two things. First, there’s something worse than hungering— becoming so accustomed to our longing that we can no longer sense we’re undernourished. And second, that Jesus himself is the bread of life! Your life.

Jesus is the nourishment that finally and fully satisfies! “Whoever comes to me,” said Jesus, “will never be hungry.” Jesus declares he’s the antidote to the fruit’s cursed virus! And what’s more, Jesus refuses to turn anyone down! “(A)nd anyone who comes to me,” says Jesus, “I will never drive away.” And still more yet, Jesus isn’t stingy with his bounty, either! “I am the living bread that came down from heaven,” says Jesus, “Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” Forever! Jesus’ nourishment doesn’t run out!

…We’re all hungering for something else. Something more. And that’s not the worst thing in the world. Worse than our ache is becoming so numb to it that we don’t notice it anymore. In fact, the hankering of yours that refuses to abate may be the very thing that drives you to Jesus! 

Whatever else you think of Zahl’s argument, he’s done us all a very good turn by shouting out the obvious, those buckets we’re trying to fill our lives by are leaking! The treadmill doesn’t turn off. The only finish line is the one we’re all, impossibly, trying to avoid, death. 

In the meantime, we tell ourselves this lie. This lie that if we just work hard enough, we can manage our lives. Manage them so perfectly that we will catch every last break. Even the last one. That one where we close our eyes one last time and perfectly ascent to even death.

It’s such an obviously absurd story! Isn’t it? But that hasn’t stopped us from believing it. Has it? However, all it takes is a diagnosis, a what the insurance companies call “act of god,” or a nagging that won’t go away to call the lie to our modern myth that’s as old as time.

Technically speaking, this myth is an idol. And the way you can spot an idol a mile away is that idols have nothing to say when we most need to hear something. And that means your persistent ache is trying to tell you something important! That whatever your preferred idol is, it’s coming up short.

And listen to that instinct, too, because it’s right when those idols fall silent that Jesus, the Word made flesh, speaks loudest! And he says, “anyone who comes to me I will never drive away.” And he says, “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.” And he says, “all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.”

Jesus is your fulfillment. But his fulfillment is cross-shaped. This means he isn’t going to make your life picture-perfect. On the contrary, it means he’s going to take your blemishes and use them to reveal his glory! This means those areas in your life you’re desperately trying to shore up are the very ones Jesus himself is showing up in!

If you haven’t perfected your life, that just means you’re perfectly human. And it’s only real-life humans Jesus has come to save! As we like to say around here, Jesus is for real people. Real people living real lives. And if you’re really going through it, that just means Jesus is really for you!

And so, on that note, let’s stop talking about this nourishment and instead just receive it! Let’s wrap this sermon up! Let’s hasten this service along! Let’s get to the meal! The meal where Jesus feeds us with himself! His body broken and his blood spilled for all those places we’re all busted up and coming up short! Because, Lord knows, we all have them. And Jesus promises he just the thing for them!

But first, a hymn…