CAMINANDO WITH JESUS: Living Proof

Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

- John 6:51-58

They murmured and began to complain about him. In the days just preceding, Jesus has guided his disciples through the miracle of the feeding the 5,000 and walked across three or four miles of the Sea of Galilee to join his disciples in their boat, and yet, when Jesus comes into his own homeland, they murmured. After all, isn’t this just “Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven'?”

I imagine local gossip was as alive and well in Jesus’ time as it is in our own towns and communities. I wonder how many of the murmurers already knew about the recent feast of barley bread and fish or overheard the disciples continue to whisper in wonder among themselves about Jesus’ journey on foot to them across the waves. Such information travels fast from person to person. We put ourselves in their shoes and try to hear across the ages with their ears, when Jesus tells them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” But they complain and murmur among themselves, and the only thing which is clear is their instinctive doubt. They want proof. Proof that Jesus is what he says he is, not only who he says he is.

Consider bread itself, a minor miracle of wheat, water, yeast and temperature. Conditions have to be right for yeast to activate. It’s called “proofing” the yeast. Seeing, if under the right circumstances, it not only proves itself to be alive, but able to develop and expand. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven,” Jesus says to those gathered around, murmuring, doubting, wondering and yet still listening. The circumstances, the moment, the climate are right for them to understand the gift they are being offered. The proof for them, as it remains for us, is the very nature of God in Jesus which activates, which enlivens, which inspires. The proof surrounds us and lives within us. It is the nature of God in Jesus, and in us, and only needs our hearts, hands and faith to grow, to expand, to become Beloved Community.

Elizabeth Dawkins is the executive assistant to the bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina.