I Am The Good Shepherd (John 10:11-23) refracted Glory: Jesus revealed in the I Am Sayings in John's Gospel (Part 4)

It’s hard to look at Jesus saying “I am the good Shepherd” without dealing with the traditional pictures or images that it has inspired. Images that have stuck in our minds from Kids picture books and posters pinned to Sunday school room walls. Iconic representations of Jesus with the lamb draped round his neck.  There is nothing wrong with them, but I wonder if they don’t hold our imagination captive. Anyway here is an advert that started life being for an IT company at the Superbowl a few years ago and has taken on a life of its own; I hope it will give us a fresh perspective on “I am the Good Shepherd”…

Roll film ‘Herding cats’

 

We are working our way through Jesus “I am” sayings in Johns gospel; Sayings which Jesus uses to point us to the mystery and meaning of his divine origins and nature, his “Iam-ness”. I’ve called the series ‘Refracted Glory’ because in the prologue to his gospel John says of Jesus “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The word glory means the weighty reality of who someone is. And just like Light passing through a prism is refracted into its different constituent wavelengths and colours, my hope is that as we look at each of these ‘I am’ Saying we will catch the deep and wondrous dimensions of the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ. That we might have a renewed vision of the Glory of God in our midst; the weighty reality of presence of God in Jesus with us, that would fill us and overflow to the world round us.

Jesus saying I am the Good Shepherd comes right after his affirmation that he is the gate for the sheep, both are used in the light of the Pharisees mistreatment of a man born blind that Jesus had healed. As we saw last week behind this is the richness of a biblical motif used in poetry and song, like the psalm with which we opened our service and harsh words of judgement and souring words of hope, as in our reading from Ezekiel 34. At the centre of it all is the amazing reality of a compassionate God who cares for his people, who feeds them, guides them, seeks for them when they are lost, does not desert them in the face of danger and darkness, who binds up their wounds and restores them. Who cares enough to lay down his life for his sheep, the glory of God ultimately revealed in the cross.

Both metaphors are used to contrast Jesus with other would be shepherds. While with the gate Jesus had contrast himself with those who came over the wall being robbers and thieves who did not want the sheep to enjoy the abundant life that Jesus has to give. Now he contrasts himself with hired workers, who when the going gets rough abandon the sheep to the danger of wolves. The sheep are not theirs, it’s only a job, so they bail.

In the Mishnah, which is the collection of the oral traditions round the Mosaic Law there are strict rules about what is expected of hired shepherds. Nowhere does it say a shepherd even the one who owns the sheep, even ‘a’ good shepherd should die in defence of his sheep.  But Jesus is “the” Good Shepherd and willingly gives up his life for his sheep. The Pharisees are willing to abandon people who do not keep their strict interpretation of the law, they write them off, and ostracise them, saying they are beyond the sphere of God’s care, but Jesus does not, he lays down his life, to free them from sin and its consequences. He lays down his life so they may have life, in all its abundance.

In verse fourteen Jesus again says “I am the Good Shepherd” and it leads on to a discussion about relationship with his sheep.  That he knows his sheep and they know him. When I was studying for the ministry I did a couple of summer’s ministry in Clinton. While I was there one of the farmers showed me that even in our New Zealand farming environment that his sheep knew his name and he could call them and they would come to him. He said I could try it but well they would just keep on munching away.  Jesus being the shepherd is not just an image of a distant corporate farmer but rather with his sheep.  That Jesus invites us into the most intimate relationship with him, a relationship that he can only describe as being like the one he shares with the father.

This is a picture of Andrei Rublov’s  Icon, it is a depiction of the three visitors to Abraham in Genesis 18. In iconography you only paint real life events that like the icons on a computer desktop lead to a greater reality behind them.  If you read through the narrative the conversation slowly morphs from Abraham talking with the visitors to talking with the Lord, so the icon is called the trinity. There is a real sense that you and I are being invited to sit down at the table with the trinity, welcomed into that most intimate of friendships. In David’s most well-known of Psalms ‘the Lord is my shepherd’, one of the outworking’s of that is that God prepares a table for him, even in the sight of his enemies and he will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The Good shepherd leads us into that relationship.

In verse 16 Jesus says “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also”, Which reflects on a different dimension of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. In a rather cryptic way, Jesus points to the fact that his role as shepherd is larger than Just being the shepherd to Israel. It picks up the idea of Jesus mission being to the whole of humanity, that after the crucifixion and resurrection Jew and gentile would be called to be God’s flock. All the way through the Hebrew Scriptures there is this missional element to God’s calling and guiding of Israel, that through their relationship with God, he would be revealed to all people. Right from genesis twelve where Abraham is called and told a big part of his call is to be a blessing to the nations. Right through the call of the Psalms that all nations would come and worship. God has purposed to bring us back into relationship with him. In Jesus coming, his life, death and resurrection there is the fulfilment of God’s mission and purposes.

Jesus finishes this part of this discourse by once again pointing to the fact that as the Good Shepherd he will lay down his life for his sheep. It’s interesting as we move into Easter, as we move further into John’s gospel there is a subtext of the political and religious authorities plotting against Jesus, but here Jesus affirms that behind the swirl and turmoil of that intrigue and the schemes of man that God’s plans are at work. The crucifixion is not an accident, an ignominious defeat, rather it is God’s plan for our salvation, it is an expression of God’s great love for humanity.

The Christian Ska band OC Supertones  sing one of my favourite worship songs, I can’t find the sheet music for it so we haven’t used it in church. But it talks about  the forgotten poor in the slums and sweat shops oppressed and exploited , drug addiction in the streets of southern California, abortion, people suffering and it looks for hope and the haunting chorus with the redemptive reggae beat behind it is “the shepherd is the lamb, do you understand God became a man.” The shepherd is the lamb.

 

Jesus as the Good Shepherd is also a motif in the other gospels. There is the parable of the lost sheep, which again shows Jesus as going beyond the expected behaviour and conventional agrarian wisdom of his day, in the care of his sheep. He leaves the ninety nine to go and search for the lost sheep. The amazing picture of God caring enough for those who are lost… In  case you are wondering that is New Zealand’s most famous lost sheep Shrek.

In Matthew chapter 9 we have an insight into Jesus very human response to the people he sees in the villages and towns around him. The crowds he sees flocking to him and simply swirling past in that everyday hustle and shuffle. It says that Jesus is moved to compassion. He says they are like sheep without a shepherd. He continues to heal and teach and preach but it also moves him to turn to his disciples and ask them to pray. In a way that reflects the mixed farming model of his time and place, he says the harvest is ripe, but the labourers are few. The Good Shepherd invites us to share his concern and compassion.  It leads to him sending out those whom he asks to pray to go to the lost sheep of Israel. You and I are not only recipients of the compassion of God, in following Christ we are called to be expressions of it as well.

The flip side of Jesus “I am the Good Shepherd” saying of course is that we may not actually like the fact that we end up being seen as rather sheepish.  And while some are young and cute and  can get away with it…most of us can't. We live in a society where we value our independence and our right to make our own choices and decisions…  its perhaps best illustrated by a mug I bought my brother in law  for his birthday once that said ‘I’m too busy making my own mistakes to learn from yours.’ But in the midst of that Jesus is able to lead us guide us through life, to life… If we will listen to him… Despite the current draught we are used to lush pasture and plenty, but the metaphor of the good shepherd comes from a desert land, perhaps more like the spiritual landscape we live in. We can trust Jesus to guide us through that.

As I was preparing this message a tweet from Leonard sweet appeared on my face book page it said that sums this reality..’ The Good Shepherd leads His sheep into pastures that are green and good, not desolate and bad. But wolves will stalk, sheep will wander, and the wilderness ambushes.’  Jesus can be trusted because he has given up his life for his sheep.

So let’s finish by being still… and encounter the Good shepherd

Are you here today and you need to hear the Good Shepherd’s voice. Calling you in the midst of all that is going on to lead you to good pasture. To guide you through. Jesus says to you “I am the good shepherd I can be trusted.

Are you here this morning and it feels like the words of psalm 23 and you find yourselves in the valley shadow of of death. Do you need to know the comfort of the Good shepherd’s staff and rod, do you need to know God is close. Jesus says I am the Good shepherd I am with you I do not abandon my sheep.

Maybe there is a real sense of lostness in your life. You know you’ve wandered away from God… or you know that He is calling you. Jesus says to you “I am the Good shepherd”  I have sort you out. I am the door, to abundant life, I am the one who ill enfold you to be with me and mine. The invitation is to come and know him and be known. The Good shepherd gave up his life for you.

As we are still where are those who are like sheep without a shepherd around you, situations,  people on your heart, placed there by the God that cares . Where is the Good shepherd calling you to take his compassion. It may seem as impossible as herding cats but Jesus says “I am the Good Shepherd” I have laid down my life for my sheep, will you do the same.

I am the Gate (John 10:1-10) Refracted Glory: Jesus revealed in the "I am" saying of John's gospel (Part 3)

The way we farm sheep in New Zealand does not help us that much when it comes to what Jesus has to say in the reading we had today… we are used to driving sheep, with dogs, private farms and fenced pasture rather than open range and communal sheep pens for security at night. Garry Burge sets the scene of Jesus day and the proverb he tells the Pharisees,  by telling the following story…

During the Palestinian uprising in the late 1980’s the Israelis decided to punish a Palestinian village near Bethlehem for not paying taxes (the villagers said that the taxes simply  went to supporting the occupation of their land so why pay?). The officer in charge placed everyone’s sheep into a barbed wire enclosure as an incentive to pay, they were held hostage. Later in the week one lady came to him and begged to have her sheep returned, she was a widow and it was her only means of support. The officer laughed and said that there was no way he could separate out her sheep from all the others, unlike here they don’t tag ears. The women explained that she could round up her sheep, and the office quipped that if she could do that he would let her take the sheep. They went to the gate, opened it  and the women’s son came and started to play a tune on his flute, over and over again. Slowly some sheep popped their heads up from amongst the whole herd. They came to the gate and the women and her son went home followed by her twenty five sheep.

In John 10 Jesus says I am the door and I am the good shepherd to help his listeners understand a proverb he told, about sheep listening to their shepherd, that they hadn’t got.  In doing so Jesus reveals who he is to them and us. This week we are going to look at the I am the door saying…next week we will look at the I mam the Good shepherd saying…

In saying I am the gate Jesus states that he is the only way in which people may enter into relationship with God and find abundant life. He contrast himself with other would be shepherds who are out only to use the sheep for their own purposes.

In the prologue to his gospel, John says that in Jesus, the word of God came and dwelt in our world, pitched his tent in our neighborhood and we beheld the glory of the one and only son, sent from the father. Glory has the meaning of the weighty reality of who someone is, and in Jesus the weighty reality of who God is came and dwelt with us, and in exploring the I Am saying in John’s gospel I am hoping that just like with the different colours we get when we pass light through a prism that we might see the different dimensions of the glory of God revealed  in Jesus Christ. That we may capture a renewed vision of the Glory of God in our midst that it would fill us and overflow to the world around us.

To understand what Jesus is saying here, we need to put it in context with what has gone before. Last week we looked at John chapter 8 we saw Jesus standing at the festival of tabernacles in Jerusalem and saying I amthe light of the world. He repeats that claim at the beginning of chapter 9 and as a sign of what that means he heals a man who was born blind.

 The Pharisees investigate the miracle and because it happened on the Sabbath they deduce that Jesus must be doing these things because he is demon possessed. How could he work on the Sabbath even to heal.  They reject the man’s assertion that Jesus is a prophet and when he continues to champion Jesus’ cause they cast him out of the synagogue. Now whether that is simply getting him to leave or excommunicating him… instead of being received into the people of God healed and restored, he is ostracised.  Jesus finds him and reveals that he is the Son of Man, a messianic title from the Old Testament and speaks of spiritual sight and blindness. The Pharisees object to the suggestion that they are blind and Jesus tells them the proverb we have at the beginning of our reading this morning. Contrasting himself with others who would call themselves shepherds but are simply out after what’s in it for them.

To get our heads round what is being said we also need to look at some of its context within the whole of scripture. In the Old Testament God is often referred to as the shepherd of Israel, psalm 23 is probably the best known example of this ‘the Lord is my shepherd’ says David. Israel’s leaders are also referred to as shepherds and in the reading we have from Ezekiel 34 we see that God will remove the false shepherds, who feed on the sheep rather than feeding the sheep, and God will look after his sheep himself.   In the proverb that Jesus tells the Pharisees he is insisting that he is the true shepherd of the flock, and those who God has given him will know his voice and listen to him.  The man born blind is an example of that he had not listened to them but To Jesus and found life.

The Pharisees don’t get what Jesus is saying, So Jesus unpacks it by saying that he is the door.

He is the gate and while we may be used to hearing this saying in Matthew’s gospel. Here Jesus points to the fact that for both would be shepherds and for those who are God’s flock they must enter through him. As I mentioned last week the Pharisees believed that they were put right with God because of their heritage and if they kept the law faithfully and strictly that God would bless them. Anyone who did not keep their standards were shunned. But Jesus says it’s not the keeping of the law but rather it is in him that life and belonging to God’s people comes.

In fact he goes beyond that to assert that all who have come before him are robbers and thieves.  There are other false messiahs and many people pedalling ways to find life, but Jesus says unless they come through the gate they are no good. Like with the break down laws in rugby today unless they come through the gate they are offside and should to be penalised. Now it is hard to fully understand who Jesus is referring to. And it helps us when we ask does he mean Moses and the prophets from the Old Testament. The answer is no because Moses and the prophets point us to Jesus.  Once someone points us away from a dependence on God’s grace and God’s goodness revealed in Jesus Christ then there is a problem.

Jesus is the gate; he is the one who invites us to find life in him. Jesus is the one who like with the man born blind speaks light and wholeness into our darkness and brokenness. He is the one who welcomes us in. He enfolds us in his love and grace, and makes us his people. He is the one who is able to lead us to good spiritual food, which is what a shepherd does, as we looked at before Jesus said I am the bread of Life, whoever comes to me will not be hungry or thirsty again.

Jesus is the one who offers us grace and mercy, it is not through what we do or what we can achieve but only through him.  It is that wonderful revolution of grace. It is only as we ourselves come to Jesus and enter are we able to be shepherds for those around us, drawing them into the same gate that we have found.

I want to make some observations today about how Jesus as the door applies to our lives.

The first is really going back to the proverb Jesus told… In his book “when Love came to town “, Paul Metzger starts his commentary on this chapter by talking about TV Preachers who while preaching about Jesus demand people send them money and when they do God will bless them. He doesn't name names or put anyone specific down, but rather leaves it open for all of us to ask the question how are we like the TV preacher. It gives us a modern day example of what Jesus is up against. The shepherd who is more interested in what they can get, and manipulates people to get it. Contrasting that with Jesus who is the door and next week we will see is the shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. He says that this passage invites all who would be in ministry and leadership in the church to look at ourselves.  It may not be about money, but what about status and power. The Pharisees wrote people off who didn't keep their standards do we often put people in the inbox or the out-tray, in the fold or outside dependent upon how they measure up to how we think things should be done?

The second is that one of the things that stood out to me in this passage was that the door wasn't just the way into safety. Do you notice how in the proverb Jesus uses the shepherd comes and calls the sheep out of the fold and they follow, did you notice that the sheep go in and out of the gate and find pasture and abundant life.

 

Jesus does call us into the safety of his sheep fold but there is the sense also of Jesus not calling us into a hunker in the bunker mentality either But to follow him out into the desert round about and as we follow him he will lead us to pasture and life.

The phrase our goings in and goings outs is in scripture a figure of speech which means all of our lives and it is good to know that Jesus is able to care for us in all of life, and in all of life’s terrain. But the other thing is that the gate often leads us out of our comfort zones and our walls and it’s only as we follow Jesus as our shepherd  into new paths and new places that we will find food for our soul and abundant life.

I had the opportunity to speak to many university students, when I worked there, about why they were studying and it was interesting many of them even the Christian ones talked about their aim being to get a good education and get a good job and get the good life and it worries me when I hear that because they were simply settling for the western materialistic dream. Just maybe the gate leads to a willingness to serve; it leads to dark shadowy places or places where we will doubt ourselves and our choices, but if Christ is the door to that place if he is the shepherd leading us it is in those places that we find, not just the good life but abundant life.

Andrew Dunne uses another analogy. He says that Christian often want to swim between the flags but find that their spiritual life can often go flat doing that. I am a parent and I want my children to be safe so I swim between the flags, but I am also a surfer and I know that often the real adventure of life is out where the big waves are where it is not so safe. My prayer is often that of Francis Drake, captain Jesus meet and guide me midst the wild waves.

People Jesus is the door, today he might be speaking to you about coming to him and finding life, be it a new relationship with God through him. It maybe that there are places of darkness and desert in your life and you need to have the door of God’s grace open there. Or just maybe today Jesus is opening the gate and calling you out beyond your comfort zones where there he will lead you to pasture. Either way Jesus is the door to abundant life. 

I Am The Light of The World... John 8:12-29: Refracted Glory: Jesus revealed in the 'I Am" sayings of John's Gospel (Part 2)

Seamus McGarvey, Robert Richardson, Claudio Miranda, Janusz Kaminski and Roger Deakins… they are not household names are they… does anyone know who they are? 

 Would it surprise you to learn that they are all nominated for Oscars this year. Their contribution to the movies they make is so important and so significant but we don’t know them like we do the actors or directors. Yet they are people who have such a major influence on what we see on the screen…in fact they allow us to see the things on the screen. They build on camera worlds with light and then frame it for us…they are the cinematographers. They use light so we can see what is happening, they light up night and turn day into night, they set the mood and tell story. They make average actors look brilliant and help make beautiful actors dark and threatening. They are light artists who create cinematic worlds.

While they light  the on screen worlds that can transport us to another time and place, today we are looking at Jesus words “I am the Light of the World’. John tells us Jesus is the word and light that created our reality, Jesus is the one that illuminates the very reality in which we live, that drives away the darkness around us and within us, Jesus is the one that allows us to see the reality of who we are through the lens of the reality of who he is.

 Over the period leading up to Easter and a bit beyond we are looking at the ‘IAm’ Statements is John’s Gospel. The series is called Refracted Glory. In the prologue to John’s Gospel he tells us The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. In Jesus the glory of God, and glory means the weighty reality of who someone is, came and dwelt with us. John goes onto say no one has seen God, but the son who is himself is God, and has the closest relationship with the father has made him known. My prayer is that as we look at “I am’ statements in John’s gospel we might see the weighty reality of God revealed to us in Jesus. Just like light refracted through a prism gives us colours that we may capture the amazing hues and wavelengths of the weighty reality of who Jesus. That we might have a renewed vision of and passion for the glory of God in our midst, the weighty reality of God with us and that would fill us and overflow into the world around us.

The first thing Jesus saying sheds light on is Jesus himself, his identity is illuminated.

 Jesus had come to Jerusalem for the festival of tabernacles, which celebrates God’s leading the people of Israel through the wilderness, and he uses various aspects of the festival to reveal who he is to the crowds gathered there. In their book “Jesus: a Theography” Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola show how the whole of the Hebrew scriptures point to Jesus and nowhere is that more true that in John’s Gospel. As we saw last week leading up to the festival, Jesus had used the feeding of the five thousand and its connection with the provision of manna in the wilderness to show that he was the bread of life, come down from heaven that could meet our deepest spiritual hunger. In John 7 Jesus at the festival takes the retelling of the provision of water from the rock, in the aptly named desert of sin, recorded in exodus 17,  to tell the people that he was the one who could give life giving water. During the festival a great candelabra would have been lit at the temple to signify the way God had lead his people by a cloud in the day and a pillar of fire at night John tells us that that was the place Jesus stood up and taught. When it was ablaze or on the last night of the festival when it was not, as people were going home, and this may have been when  Jesus stood up and Said ‘I am the Light of the World’. This other light may not be here but I am.   Either way Jesus takes that sign to point to him as the one who can lead us from darkness to light and life.

 More than that Jesus claim goes beyond simply leading the Israelites through the wilderness it points to a greater light a greater salvation.  A light for the gentiles, for the whole world, a salvation from slavery to sin and death.

 “I am” of course is a not so veiled reference to the name YHWH, I am who I am’ that God revealed to Moses at the burning bush. In Jesus “I am-ness’ Jesus is referring to his mysterious part in the triune life of the God head.  At the end of this chapter after our reading from this morning we see later Jesus says before Abraham I Am, which caused many to want to stone him.  Saying that he is the Light of the world particularly at this festival points to his divine nature. Yet while John may have the highest understand of the divinity of the son of Man in any of the gospels it is also paradoxically where we encounter the most vivid expressions of Jesus humanity, like in that shortest of verses when confronted with a dead friend it says ‘Jesus wept’.

Light of course is a common motif in the scriptures full of messianic expectations , as we had read out in Isaiah a prophecy we equate so closely to Christmas, we see the promise that those who dwell in darkness shall see a great light. That a new age the kingdom of God would dawn on them. In the first epistle of John we also have the assertion that God is light, and in him is no shadow, no darkness. It is God’s nature to shine and reveal Gods self to us and he has done this in the sending of his Son Jesus.

Once again this claim of Jesus to be the light of world, like the bread of life leads to Jesus speaking of his death on the cross in verse 21. The light of world does not come demanding our belief demanding that we put our trust in him; rather the light of the world comes to show us what God is like through sacrificial love.  The weighty of reality of who God is, the glory of God is shown in the crucifixion and the ultimate witness from the father to who Jesus is comes in that central tenant of our faith the resurrection.

 

Jesus assertion that he was the light of the world leads him into conflict with the Pharisees a group within the religious landscape of Jesus day who thought that if they just kept the law, God would deliver his people from roman oppression. All the way through John’s gospel, Jesus assertion that he has come from the father brings him into conflict with someone. For the Pharisees they questioned his authority to stand and make that claim, they know the law and they know that there must be more than one witness to prove that something is true. They question Jesus assurance of his own identity. Jesus enters into debate with them.

In our own world today Jesus saying ‘I am the Light of the World’ also calls us into conflict with the world views around us. John says in his prologue people love the darkness. But also in our multi-cultural post-modern world, people find that it is offensive almost hate speak to suggest that Jesus is the Light of the world. They may see him as a good teacher, as a leading light, as an enlightened one, but Jesus claims more than that, he claims a unique relationship with God. Christians have been rather dismissive of acknowledging truth and light in other religions or worldviews, it’s there. But as Jesus points out to the Pharisees if they do not come to know him and the father they will remain in darkness. In fact he is rather abrupt they will die in their sin.

This light also illuminates us …

Jesus says that whoever follows him will never live in darkness that they would have the light of life. Just as God had lead the people of Israel out of slavery to the promised land so he is the one who leads us out of the darkness of sin and slavery to sin into abundant and eternal life with him. Just as God as able to lead his people through the wilderness so Jesus is able to lead and guide us through this life.

I love the journey motif that goes with this saying, we often see the Jesus as being the light of the world as Jesus being an end point an answer rather here the image of the light of the world is one of following of journeying rather than simply resting where we are. One of my favourite ways of thing so of Jesus is not as the answer, but the burning question, the chief quest-er, who invites us to follow him.

It is the light that reveals the truth and shows us a way forward…that make our story come to life.

We stopped our reading this morning at verse 30, with a great many people coming to believe in Jesus. Jesus continues on from there by equating light with truth. In verse 31-32 He tells those who would follow him if they hold to his teachings they are his disciples. Then they will know the truth and the truth will set them free’. Once again the reality is that to come and believe in Jesus is not just a decision that we make, it is a willingness to put what Jesus says into action in our lives. One of the ways we use light as a metaphor is to talk about truth and here Jesus brings these two things together. He gives us a very practical way in which we will not walk in darkness but in light.

It also is a light that shines on our false hopes and challenges how we see our identity in the world.

Of course there is also a continuing conflict through this chapter with the Pharisees, and it shows up their false hopes, they put their trust very much in their identity as children of Abraham, but Jesus says that that is not enough, that it is only by putting our faith and hope in him and following him that we find life. He is not righting off their faith but rather as this and Jesus other statements are pointing to he is the fulfilment of the hope they have and He is to take primacy… he says to them before Abraham ‘I am’. We can all have hopes and build our identity on things in this world. Nationality, race, our religious heritage, our wealth our social status, social circle, being a good person but in the end Jesus says before all those thing ‘I Am’. Our true identity is found in the light of who Christ is. In relationship to Jesus at its deepest core it is forgiven, redeemed, made new in Christ. 

Two quick things to finish.

Firstly the challenge for us like with those who listened to Jesus in his day is to respond to the light, Jesus says he is from above and we are from below, he only does what the father tells him and what pleases the father. Jesus says even to those very righteous and religious people the Pharisees they were in darkness. We all need to open our lives up to the light of Christ and allow it to show up the darkness within us, bring it out and deal with it. That we might be filled with the light of Christ.  It may be you know You’ve never given your life to Jesus and you need to do that or like me that as you see more of Jesus you are aware of the darkness within and the need to have it forgiven and dealt with.

Secondly, in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus says we are ‘the light of the world’ because Christ is in us. We are called to be like cinematographers to be light bearers and light artists and take the light of Christ and bring it to bear on our reality to allow it to bring life into the darkness round us. We are called to step in to the shadow and darkness round us and shine the light of Christ’s love and bring his truth. We can do it with the assurance that we will walk in his light in those places.        

The bread of Life (John 6:24-59) Refracted Glory: jesus revelaed in the "I am" sayings of John's Gospel (Part 1)

I ran a young adults conference for the Presbyterian Church  when I lived in Rotorua, and one of the speakers we invited was Timo Tanagloa. Timo was an international rugby player and is now an evangelist with athletes in action. As he shared his testimony with us he pulled out various jerseys out of the bag he had with him to illustrate his life story… An Auckland NPC jersey… a new Zealand sevens jersey… a new Zealand xv jersey… a Samoan national jersey… and of course the international xv jersey, you know the ugly one with the different colours on it that was used by the team that played the all blacks to mark their centenary. The audience was suitably impressed… but the whole atmosphere changed when he pulled out a black jersey… it was an all-black jersey that a friend had given him. It wasn’t any jersey it wasn’t a replica it was a genuine All Black test jersey… it wasn’t just any friend it was a special friend and this was a special gift…an almost  religious hush fell over the auditorium as Timo turned the shirt around and there was the number seven on the back… This was Micheal Jones first test jersey… that he had given to his best school friend. Now if you’re too young to remember who Micheal Jones is just think Richie Macaw but even better. But I’ve never been part of such an awestruck crowd… it was strange… there was a weighty reality associated with it…there was a sense of glory associated with the object…

The word glory has that sort of meaning of… the weighty reality of who someone or something is …Maybe you’ve meet someone important like the Queen or Nelson Mandella and you are aware of the weighty reality of who they are.  In the prelude to John’s gospel John says that in Jesus, the word of God came and dwelt in our world, pitched his tent in our neighbourhood and we beheld the glory of the one and only son, sent from the father. No one has seen God but Jesus has made him known. In Jesus we see the glory of God, the weighty reality of all that God is, is revealed to us in Jesus. 

For the next eight weeks we are going to be looking at the “I am statements in John’s gospel, statements that Jesus makes about himself. I’ve called the series Refracted Glory because it is my hope that just like light is refracted through a prism and shows us the different hues and wavelengths that make up white light, a metaphor that John also uses of Jesus in his prologue, that  in these seven saying we might capture a fresh vision of the glory of the one and only son sent from the Father.  That we might capture a renewed vision of the glory of God in our midst; The glory of God who is with us and that our passion and love for Jesus might grow and deepen and over flow from us to the world around us.

Today we are going to look at the first of these sayings from John chapter 6… ‘I am the bread of life’ Jesus says that he is the one who is able to meet our deepest need, our deepest hunger and thirst , in such a way as it can only be described as eternal life. Not our physical hunger but our deepest spiritual need at the core of our very being. Remember from the beatitudes that amazing revolution of grace at the beginning of the sermon on the mount… blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled’… they will be filled because the one who makes that invitation is the bread of life able to meet such a hunger and quench such a thirst.

The passage we had read out to us this morning follows on from Jesus feeding of the five thousand. He had taken a small amount of bread and fish and gave thanks for it and feed the gathered crowd with enough for the disciples to gather a basket of left overs each. The crowd see this miracle and it fills them with messianic expectations and they want to make Jesus their king. They want someone who like Moses will lead them from oppression to liberty and political freedom.  Jesus does not want this so he goes over the lake to the other side. The next day some of the crowd come looking for him and in the dialogue that ensues Jesus explains the significance of what he had done and makes the statement I am the bread of life.

Jesus is aware that the people who have come to find him are after the bread. They and seen what Jesus and done and were hoping for a repeat. They saw something special in Jesus but only on a material level. Jesus says that they have missed the sign of what the feeding miracle meant. In John’s gospel Jesus miracles are called signs they point to a deeper reality of who Jesus is.  Jesus echoes Isaiah 55 to say that they should work not for physical bread but for the food that bring eternal life; The sustenance for the soul that only the son of man could bring because of his unique relationship with God.

That want to know how they can do this work that will put them right with God, that will give them eternal life and Jesus reply is that for this they need to believe in the one who God has sent., That faith in him that gives us abundant and eternal life. The word believe speaks not of just a one of response to Jesus but an on-going way of living trusting whole heatedly in Jesus as the one God has sent.

Those that had followed him still don’t get it… they are still looking for the manna from heaven, and ask for a further sign… their ancestors lived for forty years on manna in the wilderness. Jesus response is to again point them to the father. It was God the father not Moses  who provided the manna in the wilderness and the people who ate that still died, but know God was providing the true bread from heaven that gives life. When they ask for that bread Jesus says I am the bread of life. It is Jesus himself who is able to provide the food to meet our deepest spiritual need for reconciliation with God and new life. He is the bread that has come down from heaven. People will not stumble on their own says Jesus only those who the father draws will come to that realisation.   

Then the Jews that were there  begin to grumble… because the setting for this narrative is Jesus neighbourhood the people here know him, they would have seen him grow up they knew who his family was, how can he say he has come down from heaven… and Jesus responds to them by saying once again that it is only by the fathers drawing and teaching people that they will come to the realisation who Jesus is. But that to receive life they need to eat of his flesh.

The Jews again begin to argue about what he is saying… and I don’t know about you but I would be wondering what Jesus was on about as well. Is Jesus talking about cannibalism. Jesus response is to point to his death as a means by which his body would be available to us. It was only when the bread had been broken and the blood poured out that people would be able to receive this food.

 It’s language we are used to because we associate it with the Lord’s supper with the sacrament, but in John’s gospel there is no account of the last supper, it points back to Jesus sign of feeding the five thousand. It is only as Christ died on the cross for us that this living bread is available to all of us. In a symbolic way it is as we believe in who Jesus is and put our trust in his death that we receive this bread of life.

How does this help us to see Jesus and see the glory of God in Jesus.Firstly, in this passage there is a focus on the sovereignty of God. That God is for us, That God’s love is strong, that God wants his people to have life in Christ. God has sent his son into the world to provide for us. At its heart God chooses us, God opens our eyes and draws us towards Jesus and enables us to see who Jesus is, God enables us to persevere in the faith. The glory of God is shown in God saving grace shown to us. Salvation from beginning to end is the work of God, we are called to respond by believing and trusting in Jesus and we will receive life giving food. in the one who is sent from heaven.

Secondly, ultimately the glory of God is shown in the cross, the weighty of reality of who God is and what God is like is shown in the sending of his son, of the son being broken for you and for me. That we may have life. That the deepest thirst and hunger within us; the need for forgiveness and reconnection with our creator with one another and with creation may happen in Christ. In Christ we are welcomed into fellowship with God, we are welcomed into a new  fellowship with each other, we are welcomed into a renewing of the brokenness of the world around us. It is in Christ and Christ crucified.

Thirdly, in Jesus we have sustenance which will nourish us and keep us going through this life and on into eternity. It does not mean it will all be plain sailing, the picture of manna from the Old Testament is manna in the wilderness is travelling through a desert land, Christians and people of faith talk of long dark nights of the soul and desert times when they feel hunger and thirst, but Jesus promise is that there is only one source in which we will find that filled and it is in knowing and being known by Jesus.  We use the words of Jesus from this chapter when we celebrate communion and the sacrament of bread and wine is symbolic of that deeper spiritual food of trusting in Christ crucified. It is an outside sign of an inward reality.

Fourthly, having this bread gives us the strength to both share what we have with the world around us trusting that we have the bread of life and also gives us something that we have to offer to the hungry and thirsty world around us.  Again looking at the sign of feeding the five thousand the disciples gave Jesus the little they had and he gave it to the people and there was enough left over for them to collect a basket of left overs each. God provides.

Not only that but we have something of value to offer the world, and we can share about Jesus the bread of Life with the assurance that  God is the one who takes that and enables people to receive and believe in the one sent from heaven, the bread of life.

The chapter finishes after our reading this morning with two responses. John tells us that because Jesus teaching was hard, many turned away. They wanted the bread, the political and material messiah not Christ crucified. Many stopped believing. The other response was from the disciples where Jesus said I suppose you will leave me as well and they respond where can we Go Lord you are the one who has the words of eternal life. We have come to believe that you are the Holy one of God. The response to this discovery of who Jesus is and that he is the bread of life for the disciples was choosing to, choosing to believe and choosing to follow. God had called them and chosen them and they had responded. And this is the choice before us…