Knowing Jesus (Luke 5:4-25) - 3/16/2014

By: Tim Keller

This is a famous passage when Jesus calls His disciples and takes them to ministry with Him. But the reason we are looking at the lengthier of Luke 5, we are looking at 3 incidents: the calling of disciples after the miraculous catch of fish, the healing of the leper, then the healing of the paralytic. The entire passage shows us what it really means to be in mission with Jesus. The word mission is from the Latin word "be sent", and Jesus sends us, and anyone who comes to know Jesus Christ is sent into the world to serve others. Most of us thinking that being sent (mission) as a something very draining, but it's ironic, it is almost paradoxical that when you come to see that you should not live for your own fulfillment, but you should live for the fulfillment of your brother, your sister, or your neighbor. Ironically, that is a very fulfilling life. So what we want to look at here tonight is what it means to be in mission, what it means to be sent by Jesus into the world to serve others. There are three aspects to what it means to be in mission with Jesus:  1. Jesus sent us out to take our faith in our work, 2. take our faith out to the marginalized society, 3. and to help people change their hearts toward God. And each of the three tells us some aspect of what it means to be in mission with Jesus.

1. Jesus sends us out to take our faith in our work

Verses 4 to 7 is about the miraculous catch of the fish. Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Go on out, and throw your nets in."  And Simon was skeptical, for one of the reason is because it is not the best time of day (which is dawn or dusk - fish doesn't like wearing sunglasses :p) And as a result, it also was a bad day, for they already fished. But Peter does it, and the response is not only that they caught some fish, but they got a miraculous catch. Not only their ship was sinking because of the fish, but another ship comes by and began to sink, and clearly this is a miracle. Peter knows this is a miracle, that is why he responses the way he does. And slightly these professional fishermen never seen a catch like this in their lives. And Peter's response is, when he sees the miraculous power of Jesus, "Go away from me." (Old King James: "Depart from me, O Lord for I am a sinful man.") But Jesus says "Follow me, and I will make you fisher of people." And they followed HIM. What are we supposed to learn from this? First, when you come in contact with Jesus, there is a self-quake, like an earthquake, with radical change in your identity. For example, if you think you are smart, and you meet someone who is just far smarter, that is painful. But if you like to think that you are smart, in fact that being smart is a part of yourself image, which makes you feel good about yourself and you come in contact who is way smarter than you , that is not just painful, that is psychologically disorienting, dislocating. If the basic of your identity is thrown out, you will experience a self-quake. It is very difficult. And that is just with people.  For example, when you say that being with the nature is the way that make you feel close to God, and give you the feeling of peace. However, let's say you are in a bad mood, then let's think that if there is a God, then HE will be infinitely beautiful, which should make you feel ugly.  He is infinitely wise, that should make you feel stupid. And He is infinitely good, which should make you feel small, and sinful, and flawed. That is what happened here. When Isaiah comes in contact with God (Isaiah 6), Isaiah says, "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips." (Isaiah 6:5) And when Job gets near to God, he says, "I heard you with my ear, but now I see you with my eyes. And I despised myself with ash and dust" And when Peter gets near, the divinity of Jesus, "Depart from me O Lord, for I am a sinful man." See, that is reality! When you get near something, or someone, that caused a question of your very identity to self-quake. But when you come in contact with Jesus, there are 2 moves: First is when you get near to Jesus, it is humbling. Martin Luther says that all human being s are sinful, which means that we are curved in ourselves; we are self-centered. When you get near Jesus, in other words you know you are getting near Jesus, and the Gospel's starting to come home to you and you are beginning to see how radically self-centered you are, you start to feel like Peter. Second move is that Jesus speaks the words of grace. When Peter says "Depart from me... I am sinful" Jesus doesn't say, "Yea, you are right! you'd better stay away for you are sinful." NO! He says "Don't be afraid, and come with me. I got work to do, and I want you to be my partner of work" So it is not just charity, it is grace. Jesus want you to be a full and love partner of what He is doing in the world. So because of that move, being radically humble, and also built up in a firm, suddenly the old thing that is used to be the basic of your identity is not there anymore, and you have a solid, unconditional, something that is not based on your performance, something that is not up and down depending on circumstances, and knew solid identity and secure in who Jesus is. And the minute that begins to happen is lots of things to happen. But in this text, you are told that it affects your work. In fact, this section is often thought that way. When they change their identity, they walk away from their "catch". Keep this in mind, commentators say , almost certainly, that is the biggest fish catch in their lives. You never see so many fishes that even 2 ships begin to sink. That was an enormous amount of assets. And Jesus says "FOLLOW ME! Leave everything and follow me!" And Simon doesn't response, "next week but not this time for we got stuff to market. We will be rich and we will be so much more a service to you, Jesus with this asset and investment." That was an enormous  amount of money they are leaving on the beach. And actually Jesus say "You get a new identity in ME." And they walk away from all that profit. And this really happened, not just a legend. It is almost comical when you think about when other people see them leaving that enormous amount of money, they would be "Go get it guys!". But when you get a new identity in Jesus Christ, it means success and profit, no longer, anything like, is important as it was before. Being successful, making money was a base line before you. You don't want just do your job, or work. You want to be successful.  How important that is?! What if, in order to make that profit / deal, you have to do something illegal, or you have to do something unethical  or even ruthless? But it is a big deal!! If you have a new identity in Christ, you will walk away from it, because it is not your identity. It is not that important to you. Do you have that identity? But not only that it would make you more honest, but it would affect everything you do in your job. Have you ever noticed how many English names are actually from jobs, e.g. Fisher, Baker, Smith, etc. Those are jobs and become identities. What it is saying is, especially in Western world, our jobs often become our identity of who we are. Because we are good, because we are successful, we feel good, which means we are enslaved! Because if you are successful, it will destroy you by going to your head (make you over confident, arrogant). And if you are unsuccessful, it will destroy you by going to your heart. But Jesus is saying - You've gotta have fishing beyond fishing. You've gotta have wealth beyond your wealth. You've gotta have art beyond your art. You've gotta have some meaning beyond the art, wealth, or beyond the work. Something to make the work just work, just a way of serving people, a way of using your talents; not a way of getting yourself, otherwise your work will strangle you. If you have a Christian identity, which is an enormous impact, in how you do you work out in the public sector of life. Jesus is not just for a private world. So, do not keep your faith private, take it out to your work!

2. To be in mission with Jesus is to go to the marginalized society - the healing of the leper.

If you go to the historical and social context, the word leprosy, used by ancient people and the Bible, refers to kind of family of a various very serious skin disease, physical disorder, most of were very fatal. But when you get leprosy, because of the fear of contagions, you are thrust out of the community completely. You are not just sick, not just like the cripples, or the paralytic, because they were not just physically sick, they didn't have jobs. They were not allowed in the city or town or in human community, or be a part of the economy. So, they were absolutely poor, absolutely emotionally isolated, no one would come near them. They couldn't go to worship. They were considered cursed. Now, when you keep that in mind, look at what this is saying, "When Jesus was in one of the town..." This is what the commentators' saying, "What in the world a leper doing in a town?" Lepers could not walk to town. They couldn't be there. So, almost certainly this leper has made a mad dash in to town, knowing that Jesus is there, trying to find HIM, falling on the ground. See how dramatic this is? Mad dash for life. And you know, he would have rightly known that he was taking his life in his hands, because if someone saw a leper they wouldn't arrest or touch him, they would have stoned him. And so this is why it is so moving.  Put all his hopes in Jesus. But when it gets to Jesus, he says, "Lord, if you are willing..." You would have thought he was going to say "You've got to heal me or they would kill me. I pinned everything on you. You've got to help me! You've got to!!" Instead, he says, "Lord, if you are willing..." See what respect, what trust, what humility. And Jesus responds in an amazing way, "Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" And immediately they leprosy left him." (v. 13) The fact that Jesus Christ healed the man of physical disease should not be a shock, right?! It is not that surprising. But there is something that is kind of shocking in there. He is not just healing him of his disease. First of all, He touches him. Now, we know that Jesus does not have to touch him in order to heal him. Jesus does not need hocus pocus. Jesus can heal from a distance. Jesus can heal without a word. So, when he's touching  him, he's not healing him physically. What is He doing? He is touching the man, a man who  probably had not actually been in human contact in a long time. And he is not just saying, "Be hold!" but "Be clean!" - meaning, I am taking away  your being an outcast. I am bringing you back to the community. I want you in the community. He is healing him emotionally. He is bringing him to the community, says 'come on back'. This is one of the them in the book of Luke. People asked me, why in the world we have 4 biographies of Jesus - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? What is wrong with just one comprehensive one? The answer is that Jesus is just too wonderful to one biography. It's too many great things to see in HIM. You need different people. In fact, there is no one person who can see all the wonders and all the glory of Jesus. You need a community. Everybody sees a little bar of it, a part of who HE is, then you have to share it. And one of the things Luke loves to do is to show how Jesus Christ reaches out to people that world considers failures, people who are exclusively from the center of power, such as lepers. Luke tells more about Jesus dealing with lepers than everybody else. He deals with tax collectors. Tax collector were collaborator with the enemy. They were Jews collaborating with Roman occupiers. This isn't more like the French Norwegians that collaborating with the Nazi during the occupations in the WWII. That's what we are talking about. Jesus is always reaching out to women who are considered women or their repute. There are lots of places in the book of Luke where Jesus reaches out to people where the world can't stand, and excluded. And HE brings them in, into the Christian community, and often makes them prominent and leaders. Matthew, one of the 12 disciples, was a tax collector, a collaborator. Peter denies Jesus 3 times very publicly. Mary Magdalene, etc. And they are prominent. They are leading light. One implication and one big question. The implication, if you want to follow Jesus, then you need to follow him to the margins. That is where HE wants you to go.  He loves to be with the poor. He loves to be with the oppressed and the needy. He cares about them. And Jesus says to you - 'Come up! I want to give you fishing beyond your fishing. I want to give you a service beyond your service. Meaning I want you to be in mission with me, which means, caring about those folks, caring about those margins, caring about the people who are poor and oppressed.' But we shouldn't just think about this. The leper was not just poor and sick. He was also not loved. One of the problem that we are talking about this is, young New Yorkers, whether they are Christian or not, say "Yea! Social justice! Big deal!" They all want to be about social justice. They also only want to be with cool kids. They only want to be at the hot spots. They want a network. They want to be with people who wants to open doors for you. But if you are following Jesus, you should just love the person next to you, no matter how many social media followers he/she has. It doesn't matter a bit! The Christian gospel should make you so anti-glitz. Implications, we have to follow Jesus out to the margins - to love the people that other people don't really love. The average elite New York people does love working with the poor. But they don't love people who they consider ordinary, without credential, without money, without smart. And we should be willing to love who is next to us, whoever that person is. Secondly, what Jesus does here also raised a big question. Do you know why? An astounding thing that Jesus does, when He's reaching out and say "Be clean!" Do you realize that He is reversing everything that anyone knows that the physical or spiritual realm about how things work. And the physical realm, if you are healthy and you touch something infected, you can get infected. Your health does not heal that person. That person's infection can make you sick. And in every religion, including the Old Testament, when the clean touches the unclean, it becomes unclean. When you touch something that's defiled or soiled, then you have to do all things of purifications. And for most religions, that's how salvation works; you have to purify yourself, and make yourself ready for God. But Jesus astoundingly touches an unclean person and says "Now you are clean." There is no indication Jesus went off and did purification or something like that because he touches a leper. He is the first and only person in history who says, 'when I touch an unclean person, I don't become unclean. The person becomes clean. I don't care who you are. I don't care what you've done. I don't care your record. I don't care how defiled you are. Though your sins be like scarlet, be whiter than snow. Just a touch, contact with me.' How can that be? What He is saying that 'I am not a prophet telling how to purify yourself to fit for God. I AM cleanliness itself. I make you fit for the present of God. How can salvation be that strong?

3. To help people change their heart - a paralytic man

A man who is paralyzed, a terrible disease, was brought to Jesus. And Jesus looks at him and even though He's not asked to do this, He says, "Friend, you sins are forgiven."And that says volumes. Jesus can heal you psychologically, change your identity. He can heal you sociologically, bring you into the community. He can even heal physically. But unless you are made right with God, unless He restores you spiritually, unless He is between you and God, so you are reconciled with God, all those other things can happen. Look if someone wrongs you terribly, really sins against you, there is the barrier between you and the other person. Something has to be done. You can't just ignore it. And because of the way we live our lives, there is a barrier between us and God. And Jesus is saying 'The most radical thing I can do for you is not to heal your body, as terrible as that disease is. You got 2 diseases, you got one in your body, but also you got the disease of sins, and that is the only disease that can kill you forever. So what I am going to do is I am going to deal with that. I am going to put you right with God. The most radical ministry I can do. I can go to the margins. I can help the poor. I can help you with your work. I can change your identity with the most radical thing than anybody can do with anyone else, which is to reconcile them to God and forgive their sins. But what interesting is, Jesus actually says, and we have to look at it carefully that as easiest as it seems to be, the salvation, it is not. What is so intriguing, HE touches the leper and say "You are clean" In all the other religions of the world, if you are ceremonially unclean or defiled, you have to walk through all kind of rituals, washing, etc. to get yourself right. And yet Jesus says "Even though it is easy for you, it is not easy for me." Notice what is interesting? He does a little riddle here, "Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven, ' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home." Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God." Commentators have been obsessing over this for years, because there are layers here. It is a bit of a riddle here. Because on one hand, which is easier to say "Your sins are forgiven" or "Take up your mat and walk" Now, for me, frankly, it's easier to say "Your sins are forgiven". I mean I can walk up to you and say "your sins are forgiven" and that is easy. No one has any idea whether your sins are forgiven or not. But I can say it. But if I say to a crippled man, "Get out of your wheel chair and walk" and he doesn't, then I am revealed. So there is a certain sense to what is easier for me to say. But for Jesus, what He is actually saying is, "I am going to heal this man as a sign that I can do far harder thing, which is secure forgiveness of sins. " See, any old supernatural  magician can do healing. But as the Pharisees said, to actually forgive sins is really hard. Do you know why it is hard? It says in 2 Corinthians 5:21 "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." God made HIM all that we were, and HE took our punishments so that we can become all that HE is and gets HIS rewards, the rewards that HE deserves.  And what it says, "GOD made HIM all that we were..." Take that principle and walk back to the passage. Why can He heal this paralyzed man? Because Jesus Christ became immobile on the cross. He was nailed to the cross. Why can He bring the leper in? Because Jesus was crucified outside the gate. Jesus was cast out, outside the wall of the city. He became a pry. He became a leper. And why was it possible for the disciples to leave everything and follow HIM? Because Jesus Christ left everything, HIS father's throne, HIS glory to came to earth and die for us. And because HE became all that we are, we became all that HE is. And that is why HIS salvation is so powerful. BE CLEAN! HE is cleanliness. It is salvation by grace.

Three practical applications:

1. Would you please trust this MAN?  JESUS. Let me show you how much you can trust HIM. When HE says, "My friend, your sins are forgiven." Put that up against the fact that everywhere else in the Bible that God says God never forgives sins unless you repent, right?! So, how in the world HE says "your sins are forgiven"?? And the only possible answer is that HE perceives an unspoken, unexpressed, imperfect, hard longing for forgiveness.  So eager is HE to give us HIS grace. Don't think that we have to get ourselves together, pull together and say it just right. You can trust HIM. He desires to bless you.  His desires to give you grace. Here is a man, who had not had gotten it out, and yet Jesus saw his heart and HE gave him grace. You can trust HIM. You can trust HIM. You can trust HIM.

2. This great identity I've been talking about, If you know who you are in Jesus Christ, you can walk away from profit, not be afraid of how you look. And that takes a long time to work that in. I don't want to give you the impression the minute you become a Christian, you get this new identity. Well, in a way, you do. But generally in principle. Because what very often happens is that, especially the earlier in being a Christian is "Oh I know who I am in Jesus Christ". And somebody who criticize you, or cut you off or hurt your reputation, and you turn them on and just operating the old identity. It takes a long time. And one of the ways that reminds me of that the fact in this passage when Peter sees Jesus Christ thru HIS miraculous power, fill a boat with a miraculous catch of fish, what is Peter say, "Get away from me". But in John 21, sometime later, after Jesus' resurrection, and Peter is in a boat, and Jesus says "throw the nets to the other side" And another miraculous catch of fish, and Peter realizes it's Jesus, and what does he do? Peter runs as fast as he possibly can to get near Jesus. It is because it takes time from the identity to sink in. It takes years for the identity to sink in. So give it years.

3. Lastly, Jesus says, "Follow me, and I make you fisher of people." What's that mean? Literally that actually means to liberate. The word "fisher" means to "liberate" . What it means is, in a year of public faith, you need to be willing to let people know what you believe so that they can even begin to at least have a chance to imagine the same kind of identity shift, which is like life itself, that comes to Christian who knows God's words of grace. Let's go to the margin for the poor. Let's call people to repentance and faith. We'll be a weird church if we do that, some people say, "that's too liberal for me" or "that's too conservative for me" That is actually just the church Jesus wants us to be. 

The Feeding (John 6:1-14; 27-35) - 2/9/2014

By: Tim Keller

We are looking in the gospel of John and its description of the miraculous signs. Jesus did many, many miracles; more miracles than recorded in the gospel of John, but John says in the end of the book that "I've chosen the miracles that I have chosen to tell you, because each of these miracles is not only a miracle of some right, but also a symbol; it was also a sign, it symbolizes who Jesus is and what He came to do.

The first part of John 6 talks about the miraculous feeding of the 5000, more than 5000 probably. Back then things were counted by households, so if it's 5000 men, it means 5000 families, so probably more than 5000. He had a small number of loaves and fishes, and he miraculously fed them also until there were all full.
Even though all of the four gospels recount this miracle, which shows how important it is, only John gave us this explanation Jesus gave us, which He actually explains the symbolism. What does it mean? Why did He do it? He says, I fed everyone with physical bread to signify / show that I AM the bread of life. And what I want to do is to meditate on that text, "I am the bread of life." (v. 35) So there are 3 points in this message, "I am the BREAD of life", "I am the bread of LIFE", and "I AM the bread of life".

- When we are stressing in the middle, "I am the BREAD of life", we are looking at what is "bread" mean in general.
- When we are stressing the last word, "I am the bread of LIFE", what is this particular bread that Jesus is giving.
- And when looking at the first two words, "I AM the bread of life.", how is it that Jesus is able to give it, and bring it to us.

"I am the BREAD of life"

First, lets look at what bread signifies in ancient times, esp. to the Israelites. When HE says the word "bread", it meant something, it meant "life" itself, because bread back then was made either of wheat, or barley. It is at a time when people didn't have meat at every meal, it was too expensive. In fact there are lots of, lots of food stuff that you and I have access to that they did not. And therefore, bread was really at the heart of almost every meal, and it became a symbol for food itself. That's the reason Jesus can say in the Lord's Prayer - say to God, "Give us this day our daily bread". Because it meant everything I need to live. But it's not just that. Because to ancient people, the word "bread" is actually meant more important than it is to us, and therefore "bread" is really meant "life" itself. For the Israelites, bread had 2 very, very powerful historical references. First of all, when Jesus says "I am the bread of life", HE was invoking the story about manna. In fact HE literally is talking about the manna here. In the wilderness, when God has brought the children of Israel out of bondage, and HE was taking them into the Promised Land, there were in the desert, and there wasn't any other kind of sort of food there, and they were facing starvation, and then miraculously God began to feed them. And the way manna worked was, in the morning, six days a week, manna, according to eyewitness account, it looked like frost on the ground, it was flaky, and it could be gathered and turned it into cakes, and it had the taste of honey, so it's sweet. So that meant was that manna was represented to the children of Israel, not only sustenance of life, but also savory for it tastes good, so it was satisfying in savory, and strengthening in life giving. But the other reference to the bread in the Old Testament in Israel history was the altar of the show bread in the tabernacle. When God told the children of Israel how to build the tabernacle, which was the place of worship, the place they were related to God, one of the key piece of furniture in the sanctuary was a table, it wasn't a big table, where you offered sacrifices, but it's a small table where you ate food. And on the table, there was always 12 loaves of bread (representing 12 tribes of Israel). Now the priest ate it. When you think of the tabernacle is a wonderful, wonderful aroma of newly baked bread. So what did it mean? It was a symbol. It wasn't just for the priest to eat it. It was a symbolic. Even today, when we offer to take somebody out to eat, or ask them into our home to eat, that's friendly, of course. But in those days, it was even more formally and intensely a sign of friendship. When you broke bread with him, that meant "we are friend." And if there was any kind of opposition, and people came to peace, and there were a truce between formally hostile parties, how was the covenant ratified? Almost always thru a meal, thru breaking bread. And as for God to put bread in HIS sanctuary is a way of saying "I don't want to just be your God,  I want to be the friend of your heart." So bread is represented not only of strength and satisfaction, but also love, peace, friendship and fellowship. That's what bread meant in general.


"I am the bread of LIFE"

But Jesus doesn't not just talking about bread, in fact He said "I did miraculously gave physical bread, but as a symbol of the fact that I can give you the bread of life." What was the bread of life? Let's look at verse 27, "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." In other words, the bread represents eternal life, obviously the bread gives you physical life, but what HE is talking about was something higher, something deeper, something beyond that, which is spiritual life / eternal life. Now, what is this eternal life? This is one of the main theme of the whole book of John. It is a metaphor for it. There are 3 things we can learn about eternal life from the text here:
1. It's a quality of life. There are 2 Greek words that can be translated "life"; bios, which means physical existence, and zoe, which means quality of life, not just existence. Zoe is what makes life worth living, it is life beyond existing; energy, joy, engagement, being thrilled, being feeling useful, feeling love, ... all the things that take you beyond mere existing into real living. In fact, it literally says in verse 27, "I can give you eternal zoe", not eternal bios. In fact, eternal bios means your current existence, with all your self doubts, with all your emptiness, with all your frustration, just going on forever. There is a word in the Bible for that eternal existence, called hell. But, eternal life is ultimate life, it's radical life. It's joy; it's fulfillment. So eternal life means quality of life.
2. Its quality of life that starts NOW but goes on FOREVER. In verse 27, "eternal life endures", which means when you get eternal life, it goes on forever. But verse 35, which is the key text says, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, who believes in me will never be thirsty." What that means, of course, HE can't be talking about bios, or physical hunger. He can't say, "when you become Christian, when you come to me and believe in me, you will never have to eat food again." That's not true. We still have to eat. So what does He talk about here? What He was saying, that the zoe , the eternal life, starts now. It means that there is a deeper hunger than physical hunger; there is a deeper emptiness than physical starvation and hunger. And we are trying to find things that move us beyond existing into real living. Unless it's Jesus Christ and the"bread" He gave, it will not endure. In fact HE says, "if you look here, for anything else to deal with that spiritual hunger besides me, it will spoil." HE is probably talking about the manna story. Some of you may know that when God began sending manna six days a week, HE told every body, that "You go out and gather enough just for today, and then you wait, and tomorrow I give you more. But don't try to gather more than you need for the day; don't try to store it up, or save it up. Otherwise it will spoil, faster, stink, be filled with worms." That's what happened. Why did God do that? Because God says, "I want you to be looking to me for your life, I don't want you to be looking at the manna. I want you to be trusting me." What probably happened, they were facing starvation, and Moses said God will begin to feed you, and then the manna shows up. Then people think "we better get as much as we possibly can, who knows that's not going to come back tomorrow." Of course it spoilt,  because they were not looking to God, they were looking to the manna itself. And this is what Jesus means why HE is referring to this, that everybody in this room is trying to find someway to move from bios to zoe - everybody is trying to move from just existing to life. So we are looking to things that give us meaning, and they are great things. They are manna, in a sense. Just like thinking "I don't wanna just life, I wanna make it different!! I wanna work for social justice!! I wanna get something accomplished!! I wanna have a family!! I want to love people!! I wanna do things!!" These are moving from bios  to zoe.  But Jesus says, "If you rest your heart in them, if you look to them instead of to me, they will spoil. They will never satisfy that spiritual hunger. You will stay hungry all the time. They will never give what you think they should give you." Nobody would ever says this better than C.S.Lewis in one of his great radio talk that he gave over the BBC during WWII, "Most people, if they really learn how to look into their own hearts, would know what they do want, and want acutely something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fell in love, when we first think of some foreign countries, or first take up some subjects that excite us. Our longing that no marriage, no travel, and no learning can really satisfy. I am not speaking about what ordinarily would be called an unsuccessful marriages, or trips or so on, I am speaking of even the best possible ones. There is always something we are grasped that in that first moments of longings that just fade away in the reality. The spouse's made a very good spouse. The scenery has been excellent. It has turned out after all to be a really good job. But "it" has evaded us." What's "it"? It is what you are looking for in those things, its satisfaction of spiritual hunger. It's the thing that really moves you from existence to living. And if you want prove that Lewis is right here, just look at the people who are the most successful in their field, whether it's in acting, whether it's business and finance, whether it's government and politics, it does not matter. Go, look at the most successful people, if they are successful enough, read their biographies. If less successful, look at their magazines, or look at their interviews; or even if they are less successful, you know some of them, has their success endured? or has it spoilt? Has it really satisfied them? Has it really brought them from bios to zoe ?? NO! Jesus is the only one that can do that. So, wherever you look to, to bring you from existing to living, Jesus says, it will never give you what you think. It will give you something, the "manna" but it actually will spoil, if you look only what I (Jesus) can give you. And Jesus can give you now. He says, "if you come to me, if you believe in me, you get it now!" That deeper "hunger" begins to be dealt now.
3. It is actually not something that Jesus gives you, it is JESUS Himself. The bread of life is actually not a "thing", but it is a person. He doesn't say I have the bread of life, I can show you the bread of life, or I can take you to where the bread of life is. but HE says "I AM the bread of life." And when He does that, that means uniqueness. It means, if you have faith in Jesus Christ, you are reconciled to God, and you can have the heart satisfaction, nothing else can give you. Now, what is so unique about this? That HE is the bread of life. That makes Christianity unique in 2 ways:  philosophically and religiously. All history of philosophy is nothing but a set of footnotes on Plato. But that doesn't mean that Plato himself was so wonderful. What it means is that the original debates among the earliest philosophers - the basic debate - is it the one? or is it the many? It is the general? or Is it the particular? Is truth objective, basically and we just have to confront to it? Or is it subjective and all of us have our own truth? Is truth really abstract and transcendent, and we are all have to align with it no matter what we like always having that kind of "fit ourselves" to it? Or is truth really nuance and subjective, and personal to every individual when everyone has their own truth. See, the problem, of course, is you either have the coal of abstraction and we have to align to it, or else you've got no truth really. Everybody got their own truth. Nothing's binding us. Nothing's uniting us. And Jesus comes and says, "I AM the divine cosmic truth and reality becomes a person, who walks, and laughs, and cries, and dies, and embraces. I AM the objective becomes subjective, the general becomes the particular, the ideal becomes REAL!" The great ultimate absolute becomes a person you can know and love. Secondly, religion. You realize how unique that makes Christianity a religion. Unlike all the other founders, which basically what they says is "I can show you where the bread is. I can take you to the bread. I can show you the way to the bread. I can show you how to get the bread" And in fact, that's true, if Jesus, Himself, is like the rest, then basically salvation is through your effort. You'd find the bread by bang the five pillars, or the Ten Commandments, or the golden rules, or whatever. And it's basically be a crushing burden, because you have to become somebody. But HE doesn't say "I can show you the way to life". HE says, "I AM life." So, when you know me, you get the salvation. You see, that comes out in the very beginning in the part of the tree when they asked Jesus, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" (v.28) Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." , means I am the LIFE. If you believe in ME, if you believe I have done the works of God. I have done the works what it required, then you have it when you have ME." Every child can have this. You don't have to become a monk. You don't have to come to stages of consciousness. And therefore salvation is by grace, through something that you receive, it is a gift. And therefore, it makes it absolutely unique.
But how can Jesus give us this?

"I AM the bread of life"
When God comes down on Mt. Sinai, there is the life of God, there is the Glory of God, and the mountain was trembling, shaking, and there is fire, smoke, thunder, lightning, and God says not to touch the mountain, because He is great and we are puny, He is holy and pure, and we are flaws and sinful. So how do we get the life of God in us? It might sound like 'how do we get an elephant in a doll house?' And the answer is "You can't!!" This spiritual hunger, how are we going to get God in us? And the answer is through JESUS! Because there are 2 things in Jesus, which He actually tells us:
1. When He says "I AM the bread of life" refers to infinite greatness. John 8, Jesus's debate with the religious leaders, saying "Before Abraham was, I AM". The people who heard it knew exactly what He meant, for they instantly wanted to kill Him. When Moses asked for God's name, God says "I AM who sent you". God is saying, "I" always "AM", I have the beginning and the end, means nothing stops me, "I" depend on nothing, and everything depends on ME, means "I AM" the source of everything. Outside of every mineral, except salt, dies. Bread can't be eaten, unless you break it. So, it is either the bread, or you. When Jesus Christ says "I am the bread of life" means I am GOD becomes breakable; I am GOD becomes vulnerable. I AM DEFINE POWER becomes accessible to you, because "I" have come to go to the cross, die on the cross for your sins.
Outside of mineral, besides salt, when you looking for something, eating for something, you are looking for substitution, something dies that you could live. And in Jesus Christ, Jesus knew that if HE dies that we would live; and if HE lives then we would die, and so HE died. He is the great I AM that becomes a piece of bread that can be broken. And that is the reason why you and I can have the bread of life as a free gift by grace, and to satisfy us to the bottom.

What does it mean practically?
1. "I AM the bread of life" is not just someone to believe in, but "I" should be your life (food) and your strength, not just something you believe abstractly, and like manna you have to gather and feed on me everyday. And you can't just do it once for 5 years, you can't. You have to do it everyday! Just like the manna. You can't save it up! Every single day you have to take me as your food, and make "ME" your life, and strength, so that "I AM" that is your life, joy, the thing that is making live rather than just exist. Because if you rest your heart in anything else, you are going to constantly find it spoils, for it does not endure. For example, are you worried? Make Jesus your life! As you think about that, you will relax, and HE becomes the reality. It is thru prayer, thru the Word! And you have to do that EVERYDAY!
2. HE is especially important to feed on in the wilderness, like manna. If you now are going through a very difficult time, all your food or joy sources have dried up, all the other things that encourage you, that when you can go to HIM. Sometimes you don't realize that JESUS is all you need, until JESUS is all you have. Sometimes, you don't feed on HIM and just believe in some abstract thing, until you feed on HIM when you have no other food source. It is hard to change your diet. But ultimately, if you turn on HIM, HE will feed you in the wilderness.
3. Do you now see that eternal life is a gift that you can only find it in JESUS CHRIST? HE says, how to feed on him ultimately. In vs. 35, you have to come and you believe. How do you believe in BREAD? That is where the metaphor is in. How do you feed on HIM? How do you get this eternal life? "COME TO ME AND BELIEVE IN ME"(v. 35), and there is no other source.