Our Sermons

Bible Passage: John 6:41-51
Pastor: Pastor Nathan Berg
Sermon Date:  August 15, 2021

“So the Jews started grumbling about him…” It was Solomon who was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Spanish philosopher George Santayana is credited with the aphorism, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” while British statesman Winston Churchill wrote, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Put all three together and you’ve got a pretty accurate picture of our lesson in John chapter 6. The first words of our lesson are striking. “So the Jews started grumbling about him…” Grumbling, again. We need only go back to last week and remember our first lesson where the children of Israel were grumbling against Moses and Aaron, but ultimately against God and again about food! Grumbling is not something to be flippant about. Grumbling is toxic. Grumbling is simply the audible voicing of the stubborn, natural human heart. It’s the heart’s ceaseless internal reasoning that’s never happy because God refuses to say or do what our sinful hearts demand or expect. 

So what was it here that caused their grumbling? The crowds here aren’t merely grumbling about rumbling tummies. They are grumbling about the heart of the gospel! They are grumbling because Jesus said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” Completely undeserved, Jesus is offering them eternal life. He’s offering them the real bread from heaven, the only thing that saves, the only food that doesn’t spoil. Despite knowing their false motives, despite their constant looking downward and inward, Jesus, in grace, is offering them exactly what they claim to want all the time. And their reaction is grumbling.

Now, let’s just stop there for a second. Think about what’s happened over the last few days. Jesus is weary from all the teaching and healing he’s been doing. He tries to get away and get some down time, but the crowds keep following him wherever he goes. He feeds the crowd with the miraculous multiplying of loaves and fish. Again, he tries to escape, but they just keep coming. And he knows exactly why. They want him to be their bread king. They have their sights set firmly on the ground. And even though he’s offering them eternal food, even though he’s proven time again exactly who he is, it’s not good enough for them. “So the Jews started grumbling about him. They asked, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? So how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”  

Here it is again. They thought they knew everything about him. They thought his words were nonsense, an empty boast that would leave their hearts as empty as their stomachs were again. Now as scary as it might sound, put yourself in Jesus’ shoes. How would you have reacted? Wouldn’t you have washed your hands of this ungrateful crowd? Wouldn’t you have written them off as a lost cause? Would you have lost your patience and let the crowd have it? I know I would have. And that’s the most remarkable thing about this story. It’s not the grumbling of the crowd. We’ve seen that pattern play out over and over again. What is stunning is Jesus’ patient response to their stubborn unbelief. 

“Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the Last Day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. I am not saying that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He is the one who has seen the Father. Amen, Amen, I tell you: The one who believes in me has eternal life. “I am the Bread of Life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 

Jesus’ love for these people doesn’t allow him to stay silent. In love, he addresses their unbelieving grumbling head on. “Stop grumbling among yourselves.” Their under-their-breath grumbling didn’t go unnoticed. But that’s where the rebuke stops. What follows is an impassioned display of grace. He lays out for them what they were missing. Do they realize that in the words they were so quickly dismissing, that they were in fact being taught by God in multiple glorious ways? They were hearing the Father in heaven tugging at their hearts to draw them to himself through his very own Son. The Son who had seen the Father from all eternity was there in their midst. In his words, these divine words, were the power to raise them up in glory on the last day. Because he was giving himself for the life of the world, all who would eat the Bread of Life, all who would believe in him would live and never die.  “Amen, Amen I tell you!” He can’t emphasize this truth more strongly than this.

Friends, I pray that you realize that this episode is recorded for us because Jesus isn’t just speaking to their grumblings, but also ours. Like the crowds near Capernaum or like Elijah in our first lesson, our hearts’ grumblings are eternally toxic. That poison is at work in our hearts when they begin to believe–for our own unique reasons–that Jesus’ promises are empty boasts that in the end leave stomachs and hearts hungry and disappointed. Far too often we rely on our eyes and our observation. We let our own doubts convince us that our sinful, ignorant view of reality is accurate. And it’s to those doubts that Jesus still says to us, “Stop grumbling among yourselves.” 

But he doesn’t stop there. He does far more than simply rebuke the remnants of our stubborn unbelief. He continues to hold out the truth before us. Rather than leaving us to the confused mumblings of our own deaf and blind hearts, he invites us again to be taught by God himself. He assures us that no one in heaven will ever be disappointed that they fed on what the Father revealed about his Son, the Bread of Life. Those raised up in glory on the Last Day will have no complaints that they listened to him rather than the ceaseless whining of their sinful nature.

The Bread of Life is Served in Grace! Such is the love of the Father for each of us! Daily, weekly, in Word and Sacrament he tugs at our hearts. With cords of everlasting loving kindness, God loves us with an everlasting love. He draws us to himself in mercy. He draws us away from the deceits of our hearts to be fed by the One who tells us nothing but the saving truth. And as we eat of him, as we are fed by the truth of his Word, we will never die.

So we eat of him! And starting in just a few weeks, we’re going to have many more opportunities to eat of him. I’m going to let you in on a little secret here. In September, we’re going to be starting a year-long focus called, “A God-Lived Life.” And one of the components of that focus is a life being a disciple,  a life sitting at Jesus’ feet and eating of him in his Word. September also begins at least four new Bible Study opportunities here at Eastside. Challenge yourselves to eat of him! Fill up your hearts with the Bread of Life which is served up in grace. Eat of him so that together for eternity we can laugh at the lies our hearts tell us. But even more than that, as those taught by God himself, together and forever we will feast on his glorious truth! May God grant it for Jesus’ sake. Amen