You Are What You Eat!

11th Sunday after Pentecost, 8/16/09
John 6:24-35


You Are What You Eat!
I. All earthly bread spoils.
II. The Bread of Life is eternal.


At least weekly you hear the news that America suffers from an obesity epidemic. And even if you don’t suffer from it directly, you will suffer from it indirectly as it will cost our healthcare system billions of dollars in the coming decades. What’s so frustrating about the obesity epidemic is that an abundance of information is available to avoid it. Consider all the advertising which encourages viewers to eat healthy foods. Look at all the money and effort spent on weight loss. Pick up any package of food and you will find all the information you need to make the decision on whether that particular food item is healthy or not. Each serving of that food will give you this amount of calories, fat, carbohydrates, protein and sodium. It’s all there. We know exactly what foods are good for us and what foods are not. But all too often we make the wrong choice.
And when done repeatedly, even habitually, that choice leads to trouble. We become what we eat.
The same is true of us spiritually. Our souls need to be fed just as our bodies do. Satan wants nothing more than for us to feed our souls on the junk food of his lies. Those lies range all the way from trusting in a god that doesn’t exist to thinking that there is no god at all. And in between those two extremes is the lie that we’re pretty good people, so God must be happy with us.
There’s only one true food for the soul, and that’s Jesus, the Bread of Life. We hear Jesus proclaim that very truth in this morning’s gospel, our sermon text for today. The people he dealt with in this event from John 6 wanted nothing to do with him as the Bread of Life but everything to do with him who would supply them with earthly bread. In his perfect love for them, Jesus warned them about their lack of spiritual food. He also encouraged them to feed on him.
He does so as well for us this morning. In a way, he warns and encourages us, “You are what you eat.” Let’s see what he means and feed ours souls on him, the Bread of Life.

I.

Do you know the term “gravy train?” I don’t know how that term evolved, but I know how it’s used. It refers to someone or something that will provide another person with free food or with an easy life filled with all sorts of luxuries. For instance, why would a beautiful, young woman marry an 80-year-old billionaire? You might hear her say she’s in love with him. Most people would say she’s in it for the money. She knows a gravy train when she sees it coming down the tracks.
The crowd that followed Jesus around at this point in John’s Gospel viewed Jesus the gravy train coming down the tracks toward them. John 6 begins with the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. He miraculously multiplied 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish and made it enough to fill 5,000 men plus women and children. And there were 12 baskets of leftovers. They quickly realized that Jesus could feed them every day in that same way if he so desired.
But they missed the point of the miracle. One of the reasons Jesus did that miracle was so that they would believe what he said about himself—that he was their promised Savior from sin and the very Son of God. His words didn’t impress them, but being filled with bread did. Jesus confronted them with that truth, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” To paraphrase what Jesus said, “You like me because your gut is full.”
Not very complimentary, but entirely true. They were impressed with one thing: free food. They wanted food that they didn’t have to work for. Jesus could provide it. And thus they had plans to make Jesus their king by force. They wanted Jesus to establish a kingdom in which he would use his almighty power to protect them from all their enemies and put bread on their tables three times a day. Could Jesus do that? Sure he could. Would he do that? Absolutely not.
Why not? Because earthly bread and everything else earthly doesn’t feed the soul and it doesn’t last forever. It spoils. So remember, you are what you eat! All earthly bread spoils.
We don’t have any plans today to offer you refreshments after worship, as we do on some Sundays. Therefore I can’t and won’t accuse anyone of being here today only to get some free food. In fact, just the opposite is the case. You’re not here to get something earthly. One of the reasons you’re here is to return to Jesus something earthly—your offering. That’s part of your worship.
But isn’t it true that we often have an unhealthy appetite for only what is earthly? Isn’t it true that we often lose sight of what truly has meaning in our lives? Isn’t it true that we spend a majority of our day concerned only about what is earthly and precious little time concerned with what is spiritual? And we’re all busy. Many of us have jobs and careers that demand the major portion of our week. Others have small children to care for or an aging family member. And if you have some health issues, you can spend a huge amount of time and effort just in taking care of yourself and getting to your doctor appointments. And what about finding time to relax and enjoy this world which is a gift to us from God? All of those things are good things. They are things to be concerned about. But they’re all earthly and earthly bread spoils. You are what you eat.
Thank God that Jesus still offers us what we truly need. He offers us food for our souls.


II.

We live in a world that wants to be impressed. A color TV with a 32-inch screen isn’t good enough anymore. We want HD TV on a 5-foot-wide screen or more. We want products that are bigger and better. We want to see something we’ve never seen before. We want to hear something we’ve never heard before. What entertained us yesterday won’t entertain us today. Give us something new. Give us something more. We want to be impressed.
The people of Jesus’ days on earth weren’t much different. Thousands of people made the journey into a remote place to see and hear Jesus. They had heard that he could perform miracles. That was impressive. They wanted to see some of it. They asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?” They were asking Jesus to make an impression on them.
And they pointed to the fact that their greatest prophet, Moses, had done that very thing. They told Jesus, “Our forefathers ate manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” They were impressed with Moses, not for the words he spoke to the people, but for the bread he gave them each morning.
Jesus gently corrected them. He said, “It is not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.” Did you notice the double correction in that sentence? The obvious one is that Moses wasn’t responsible for the miracle of manna from heaven each morning; it with God the Father. The second correction, and less obvious one, is that they were wrong about their opinion of Jesus. Jesus calls God “my Father.” This is another bold proclamation that he is the eternal Son of God, a truth these people weren’t willing to swallow.
So Jesus encouraged them further. He proclaimed, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” In other words, Jesus was telling them, “Don’t be so concerned about earthly bread. Instead, be most concerned about feeding your souls on me, the Bread of Life. As the Bread of Life I give you eternal life.” Now there’s something we can sink our spiritual teeth into. There’s something that will never perish, spoil or fade. Eternal life is something all of us deeply desire and look forward to. Who wouldn’t want to live forever? Who wouldn’t want to enjoy perfect bliss in heaven forever? It comes in only one way: through Jesus as the Bread of Life.
You are what you eat. The Bread of Life is eternal.
I began by saying that one of the lies Satan feeds us is that we’re not that bad; we’re pretty good people. We’re good enough for God. And if that’s our attitude, then we have no reason to seek out the spiritual food Jesus offers. If that’s our attitude, then we’re free to focus our concern and efforts on enjoying all that this life has to offer. If that’s our attitude, then our focus is on living for the day, not tomorrow and certainly not for eternity.
But if we believe what we said when we confessed our sins, if we believe that we have sinned in thoughts, words and actions and thus deserve eternal punishment, if we know that our focus is all too often away from the Bread of Life and consumed with earthly bread, then we know that we have an eternal problem. We’ve been eating the wrong things and we are what we eat. We’re sick, and we can’t make ourselves better. But that’s where the love of our God comes in. He sacrificed his Son for us. The death of Jesus is the payment for our sins. He won eternal life for us. He now offers us himself as the Bread of Life and he feeds our souls on his gospel—his good news in word and sacrament. His word proclaims our forgiveness—full and free. His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper offer that forgiveness and assure us of our eternal life. There’s food for the soul! Living food. Eternal food.
You are what you eat. Feast on Jesus, the Bread of Life! Amen.