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Presumption On Past Blessing Prevents Present Grace (1 Kings 19:3-9John 6:41-51)

Chuck HuckabyChuck Huckaby, August 30, 2009
Part of the Lectionary B series, preached at a Sunday Morning service

Are you satisfied with who you are?

Are you happy with the way your life is?

If you aren’t would you say your life just needs a “mild tweak” to nudge it forward into “perfection”?

If it needs “something more” – how radical a change are you willing to admit you need?

In today’s scripture reading in John 6:41-51, we find our Lord’s encounter with the Jewish leaders who despise His assertion “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” In our Lord’s response we find some of His most open assertions of His own diety and exclusive claims as the unique Savior of not only God’s ancient covenant people, but also, all nations of the world.

In dismissing their arguments against Him as the fountain of salvation because they recognize him outwardly as truly man but not as He who is truly Immanuel, God with us, He equates the logic they find so convincing to mere whining – the opposite of the blessing they should pronounce upon the manifestation of God’s true heavenly bread.
Jesus’ hearers are not condemned for their failure to penetrate the mysteries of the Holy Trinity – instead they are criticized for their spiritual presumption. In a practical sense, they denied their need for a Messiah who offered more than a superficial restructuring of the failed Old Covenant economy. The failure of that economy becomes the focus of passages such as Galatians 3:10-12 and the extended argument of the Book of Hebrews.

To the holy nation which is so clearly suffering the effects of God’s curse for their sin (Deut. 28:16ff) and even in Jesus’ Day only experiencing the preliminary blessings of the restoration promised by the prophets and yet to be fully revealed in the New Covenant (Ezek. 36:24ff), Jesus the Messiah offers more than they are willing to hope for! To those whose wedding day joy is about be stifled by the absence of wine, Jesus turns the water into wine (John 2). He offers the life that characterizes the love, joy, peace and transfiguring power of heaven itself to those who believe Yahweh only offers them some pale extension of the life known through Adam (John 3).

Tags: Curse, Eternal Life, John, John 6, New Covenant, Old Covenant

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« At What Price Following Jesus None Living Bread - The Necessity of Union with Christ »

1 Kings 19:3-9

3 Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

4 But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” 5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” 8 And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.

9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (ESV)

John 6:41-51

41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (ESV)

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