"This Bread Is My Flesh"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Elijah faced a great deal of hardship in his life. Of course, it did not help his safety that he regularly challenged the pagan religious establishment backed by King Ahab and his queen, Jezebel. Elijah even had the gall to upstage the prophets of Baal and Asherah on Mount Carmel, and then slaughter the host of them. Because of this outrage, Elijah had to flee for his life, because Jezebel had sworn to put the prophet to death.

So Elijah fled to Beersheba, which is on the southern border of Judah, and there he left his servant, but the prophet himself continued on a day's journey into the wilderness. Then he lay down under a broom tree and prayed to God for death. He fled death at the hands of the pagan queen, but sought death at the hands of the Holy Lord God. He was completely spent from his battles with the forces of evil and his flight from destruction.

But what did the Lord do? Did God grant Elijah's request, and carry him off in death? No, for as you know Elijah was carried into heaven later, without tasting death. Rather, God sent an angel to him and nourished him with bread and water. The prophet took strength, but lay down again and slept. Then the angel came again, and told him to arise and eat, and Elijah ate and drank the bread and water from heaven. After this meal, he arose and went forty days into the wilderness, to Mount Horeb. The bread from heaven which the angel brought to Elijah not only brought him back from the brink of death, but strengthened him for another forty days.

Jesus said in today's Gospel lesson, “Whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst.” The abundance of God is set before all to whom Christ comes. He has just fed the multitude with bread and fish, and they seek more from Him. So He will give to those who believe the Bread of Life. And if you will eat of this bread and drink of this cup, you shall never hunger nor thirst.

This is the abundance which has been promised from of old, over and over again. The Bread of Life is what will satisfy those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Jesus promised that those who so hunger and thirst will be satisfied, and He is true to His Word. Come to Him with your hunger for righteousness, and He will feed you. And the food that He will give to you will bring you back from the brink of death and strengthen you unto life everlasting.

But you want something else. Perhaps one of the oldest temptations to beset man, you are wont to look for things which are not given to you. You bypass those things which God commands and promises in favor of those things which appear good in your own eyes. You search after hidden, secret riches, while forsaking the treasures of heaven which are laid before you. God has promised to be in certain places, under certain forms, and yet you look for Him to work upon you in other, uncertain and un-promised, ways.

Jesus said, “You have seen Me and yet do not believe.” The crowds in front of Him saw Him in the flesh, saw the miracles He had performed, and yet did not believe in Him. When He said, “I am the living bread that comes down from heaven,” their response was akin to that of their ancestors in the desert: “What is it?” They saw God right there, and yet were blind.

God has promised to be present for you in His Holy Word and His Blessed Sacraments. So where do you look for Him? In the meditations of your own heart. In the devotional stirrings of your soul. In the machinations of your own prayers and thoughts. Is this where God has promised to be? No. These are all places of your own creation, and God has not promised to visit you with His grace in these. Seek Him where He may be found, in the gifts He has promised to give to you. Then you will find the God who loves you, who desires to forgive your sins and bestow upon you His life and salvation.

Does this mean that prayer and devotional reflection are bad things? By no means. In fact, both are commanded by God. It is good, right, and salutary to pray without ceasing and to meditate upon the Word of God day and night. But when you seek after the forgiveness of sins, seek it in the places and ways which God has promised to give it. That is, seek the forgiveness in the Holy Sacraments. For these are instituted that you may be sure and certain that God is with you, feeding you with the Bread of Life and forgiving your sins.

You say that you want the Bread of Life. You can repeat the words which St. John records. You even pray for daily bread, the bread to sustain you to the next day. So here it is. God has placed the Bread of Life in front of you. He offers to you His holy Body and Blood in His Supper, that you may eat of His flesh and drink of His blood, and be satisfied. Here it is. But you do not come. You wonder at this bread from heaven, and yet you do not come the the table and eat of the meal which is set before you. For what do you hunger and thirst that is not satisfied in this blessed meal? Do you not desire the daily bread for which you pray? Do you not hunger for the food which saves your soul from death?

“This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die,” said Jesus. Despite you or what you seek, God has sent His Son down from heaven, that He might offer up His flesh and blood for the life of the world. Jesus Christ was sacrificed upon the cross that He might bear the punishment for the sins of the world. He was crucified, died, and was buried, that your sins and trespasses might be dead and buried along with Him. Upon that cross the Bread of Life was lifted up, so that all may see and believe, and that seeing you may come to Him and eat and drink unto salvation. He rose from that grave, leaving behind your sin and guilt, so that He might show forth the Life of the World for all to see. Just as His life was laid down, but could not be taken away, so He lays down His flesh for you to eat, and that food will never fail or run out. “And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

So you want the Bread of Life. You hunger and thirst for righteousness. Then come to the table of the Lord. Look upon Him whose blood was shed for you, and believe. “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” Come, eat and drink the food of immortality. Put your head down and rest, for you have come to the place of safety in the wilderness, where the Lord will send not His holy angels, but His only-begotten Son to feed you, not with bread that perishes but with the bread that strengthens you for the journey ahead, the bread that fortifies you for eternal life. Look to the Lord, who is the source of your life, and who will preserve your life by feeding you with the Bread of Life.

Christ, the living bread from heaven,

Food for body, food for soul;

Christ, the manna daily given,

Nourish, strengthen, make us whole.

Feed us with the food of heaven,

Foretaste of the feast to be;

Quench our thirst with living water

Springing up eternally (LSB 540:2).

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.