Fourteen Sunday after Pentecost
Bread Familiar and Mysterious
Eating the bread was easy; but then things got harder.
After the feast, the people who ate the bread were frustrated when Jesus didn’t show up where they expected. Then he refused to give them a sign. Then he challenged them to give up old ways of thinking about familiar things (like bread) to embrace mystery (like “bread of life”). Now, Jesus is speaking in such puzzling ways that his followers are overwhelmed. “This teaching is difficult,” they whisper to each other. “Who can accept it?” Eating the bread was easy; but now Jesus’ teaching is hard to swallow.
Jesus is aware that people are complaining. He’s aware that his teaching is hard. He knows that when frightened people whisper in corners, those corners become echo chambers, amplifying their doubts and fears.
So he confronts the whisperers. What are they willing to say to his face—and to the world? What public commitment are they willing to make? Will they willingly stake their lives on his words, which are “spirit and life”?
Jesus knows his followers’ needs. He knows when we need bread to fill our stomachs, and when we need to hear more about the bread of life. He knows when we need to be comforted, and when we need to be challenged in our faith.
May we, like Peter, know our need for Jesus; and when Jesus pulls us out of our corners, may we follow with confidence in the Holy One of God.
Ginny Tobiassen, pastor, Home Moravian Church
Winston-Salem, North Carolina