In one of my former churches I worked as a Youth Pastor and then an Associate Pastor to Youth.  Our Senior Pastor had a plaque on his desk that quoted a verse from today’s reading:  “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”  While I appreciated the plaque, I always felt a little uncomfortable with it.

Whenever I read it, I felt like it was saying, “Jesus, nothing better has come along so you’ll do for now.”  I know that’s not the point, but it’s how I felt about it.  And maybe that’s because I see that sentiment so often in our world today.  We follow Jesus, but as soon as something better comes along, it gains our allegiance.  When we can comfort ourselves with a rival belief, we do.  When we can find relief from the pains of life in a bottle, a pill, or another addiction, we do.   Jesus is great as long as He gives us what we want and there isn’t anything better.

Maybe it would have been better had the plaque included the next verse as well:  “We have come to believe and to know that You are the Holy One of God.”  We cannot turn away from Jesus once we have been convinced that He is the Messiah, the “Holy One of God”, for that belief demands a commitment.  I’ve spoken with people who don’t believe, or who question their beliefs, but never with someone convinced that Jesus is who He said He was yet not following Him.  If Jesus truly is the Messiah in all that the Messiah is supposed to be, then we have no choice but to follow.  If we don’t, it’s not Him who has failed, it’s our faith in Him.

There is only one food that is common to every culture on the planet, and that is bread.  Each culture has their own version, from Native American fry breads to Swedish limpa, but every culture in the world has some sort of bread.  This makes it a perfect metaphor for Jesus to us, one that is translatable to every context to which we might wish to minister.

Jesus is in the midst of identifying Himself using the primary Jewish festivals.  He has spoken of Sabbath, the weekly day of rest, to speak to the fact that He is doing the Father’s business.  And now He is speaking of Passover to say that He is the only “bread” that an sustain us for eternity; not the unleavened bread of the Passover and not the manna that came to them in the desert.

In fact, as Jesus identifies Himself as “the Bread of Life” far better than the manna of the wilderness, we get Jesus’ first “I am…” statement, the first of 7.  Through them, He is not just making a metaphorical lesson, but He is saying something far more.  When Jesus says, “I am…”, the word He is using is Yahweh, the name God gave to Moses when asked.  By making such blatant statements beginning with “I am…”, Jesus is proclaiming Himself to be God, the teaching that most infuriated the Pharisees, and the charge that ultimately got Him crucified.

As we continue to learn of Jesus, “I am…” statements, we have to ask ourselves what Jesus is to us?  If we take an honest look at ourselves and our faith, what is Jesus to us?  And what metaphor might we use?  “I am Aladdin’s lamp, giving you anything you want.”  “I am the Sheriff, ready to shoot you down if you slip up at all.”  “I am the Parlimentarian, making sure everyone knows and keeps the rules.”  What “I am…” metaphor would best describe your view of God?