John Chapter 6 – Jesus: The Bread of Life

I want to talk a little bit about the book of John for a minute. John is one of my favorite books (being my namesake and all). John is from the Hebrew, meaning: “The Lord is gracious; gift of God.� John is self-acknowledge as on of Jesus’ favorite disciples; and considering he died of old age at about 105 years old after several attempts to kill him (including having him boiled in oil), I tend to believe that. One of my favorite DVD’s is last years’ “The Gospel of John�, which is available online at www.gospelofjohnthefilm.com for $44.95 (DVD or VHS). It's a great flick; taken word-for-word from the text, and beautifully acted. You won't be disappointed.

We’ve been studying this in church the last few month, and last week we were talking about John 6, which includes both the Feeding of the 5000 as well as the “Walking On Water� passage (which was, apparently, Jesus making a hasty getaway from a hungry mob!) I think this is one of the most significant passages relating to Jesus, because it encompasses so specifically just who He was. Everything He talks about here is so clear to us now, 2,000 years later. Yet the people of 33 AD must have thought he’d lost his mind.

First, Jesus crossed to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, followed by a crowd who essentially was there fro the free show (v.2: “. . . the people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed.�) So they get to the end of the day and here’s 5,000 men (that’s not including the women and children), and they’re all hungry. So Peter finds a little boy willing to give Jesus his 5 barley loaves and 2 small fish, which Jesus uses to feed the multitude.

And what’s the crowd’s response? Verse 15 say that “Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.� These goofy miracle-hounds wanted a king; and if he wasn’t willing to serve, they’d make him King – by Force!

No – that doesn’t sound *at-all* like our Instant, No-Patience, Microwave Society today, does it?

So Jesus takes off for the mountains, whilst the apostles grab peter’s boat and hightail it back for Capernaum. So as the apostles are struggling across the Sea of Galilee in the middle of the night in the worst nor’easter storm any of them has ever seen, who do they see coming towards them in the heart of the storm?

You got it, little buckaroo – it was Jesus. Verse 19 states, in one of the great understatements of the entire New Testament, that “they were terrified.� Boy, No kidding. I think I’d have had an episode of urinary incontinence myself if I’d seen a man walk out of the storm over the water – y’know?

But it’s verses 25 – 59 that really cut to the heart of this story. The people catch up to Jesus in Capernaum and begin badgering him with questions. Jesus tells them to believe in Him, and of course they keep trying to parse his responses down to get a short, simple answer that’s easy for them. They want still yet another miracle from Jesus; as if feeding 5,000 of them wasn’t enough! They want another miracle, and they cite Moses’ bringing manna from heaven as a reason.

Then Jesus does something completely unexpected: he tells them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.�(v.35) This little discourse causes the people to grumble and many of them turn away from Jesus. (v.41)

This was Jesus’ way of sifting out the grain from the chaff (to borrow another biblical referent.) He knows (and says so) that the “miracle-watchers� are just there for the show, not the message. Plus he compares himself to the manna Moses brought from heaven; something the Jews considered so sacred they had kept a jar of the manna in their holy of holies as a memorial to it. (Exodus 16:32). Yet He also knew that those who had really, seriously studied their Torah would know that Deuteronomy 8:3 said God was “ . . . feeding you with manna . . . to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.�

In other words, pay attention to ME; not to the miracles.

In retrospect, Jesus was just weeks away from the Last Supper where he said "’This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me’. In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.’� (Luke 22:19-20) Jesus again references being The Bread of Life for them, which had a great deal more meaning after His resurrection. His sacrifice as the redemption of our own sins is re-created in our remembrance of the Last Supper.

Which harks right back to John 6, doesn’t it? Funny how that all works out.

Julian Long; 8th grader at large. Plays Violin very well, indeed! Hard to believe the little ratfink is 14, isn't it?

My New Job. Again.

A friend of mine (Mike Sawin, whose Blog can be found at http://michaelsawin.tripod.com/sawinstuff/id4.html), was lamenting earlier this week about losing his job earlier this year and how awful that feeling was. I was going to send him a cheery little message to “Buck Up, Little Camper!� and Be Of Good Cheer, when I realized I’ve been through three jobs already this year myself.

Hmmph!

This, of course, begs the question of whether (a) I’m just so incredibly annoying I can’t hold a job for long, (b) I have such a low tolerance for B.S. that it makes my holding a job for long problematic, or (c) something other. And, after a great deal of soul-searching on my part, I’ve come to honestly believe (no, really!) It’s a combination of both (b) and (c).

(B) I can work on – but (c) is a problem area.

Looking back on it, the longest times I’ve held jobs were in the Army (15 years) and the limousine business (almost 5 years). The problems seem to come into play when I’m in the Nursing field; specifically, the civilian side of the Nursing Field; which brings to mind a funny story.

I was applying for a job in Indiana one time about, say, spring of 1993 or 1994. I was waiting for my 10am appointment with the Director of Nursing at the place, and as I sat there, the UPS lady came in with a package and her clipboard. The receptionist calls into the D.O.N.’s office: “Your 10 AM approintment is here; and UPS just arrived.�

Two seconds later the (female) D.O.N. whooshes out of her office, handing me the UPS package, saying “That needs to be there tomorrow.� She then grabs the UPS lady by the arm and runs her into the office for the interview.�

MY interview.

Now, mind you, I’m in a shirt, tie, and professional attire for the interview. The UPS lady was wearing those brown Dickies shorts and top they always wear. Nevertheless, she was taken in for the interview, and I got the package. Why?

Because I’m the Male, and she was the Female; and it’s a Nursing Job. (The sad part of this is that this D.O.N. interviewed this lady for almost ***three minutes*** while I cooled my heels outside; then when she realized her mistake, she came back out and spent almost a half-hour convincing me I wouldn’t like it at her facility, and that I should be a “Home Health Nurse.� (Frankly, the last place I wanted to be; but she just wanted to avoid a sexual discrimination lawsuit, I’m sure. Not that I’d sue, but I’m sure she was worried.)

Were this my only story it’d almost be funny, but it’s not. I have literally hundreds of stories of being addressed as “Doctor� in hospitals and clinics by both patients **and** staff; and other, lesser incidents as well. One place I worked recently had a softball team that literally Everyone played on except me (whether they wanted to or not); It was an all-female league, and they didn’t want to move to the co-ed leagues just for me. (That was my Second job this year.)

So, anyway, I have this new job. I’m working for an governmental agency that works with mental health clients (which they call “consumers� here in Texas). I’m one of three nurses that oversee the MR (Mental Retardation) consumers for San Antonio. It’s a lot of driving, but I get mileage, so that’s good for me! Plus I love to drive, as my stint with the limousine business showed quite well. We do very little actual “hands-on� care, but a lot of home visits, sitting and talking with the clients, Nursing Health Assessments, and tons of government paperwork.

Fortunately, my Army Training in “Mountains of Paperwork� works well for me here, as do my Obsessive-Compulsive traits and computer skills. I’ve also made a little “shingle� (as my supervisor laughingly calls it) that marks our office as the “Nursing� office, which everyone in the little building adores. In fact, I had to make on for my Supervisor; she liked ours that much. (Artsy-Crafty stuff is my method of releasing stress after a challenging day.)

So, basically, I get to drive all over town; hug all my consumers, work on the computer the rest of the day, and show off my Artsy-Crafty Skills. This is literally my Dream Job of a lifetime.

So, anyway, I said all that to say this: I was visiting one of my consumers for the first time, and here he comes walking over to where I was sitting. Little old man in his 70's with little funny round ears, thick glasses, pork-pie hat, receding chin (with matching receding hairline), deep-sunken eyes, and double hearing aids.

God help me – but it was my Uncle Howard!

My consumer had a diagnosis of “Fragile X Syndrome,� which is a malformation of the 23rd (male) chromosome. Men with this diagnosis tend to look like my Uncle Howard – almost exactly – and to share certain traits, like slowness of mind, regularity of habits, and practicing “hoarding� or saving things in their pockets or apartments.

Just like my Uncle Howard. So it appears my cousin Nancy was right after all; perhaps moreso than we ever expected.

Man, I **LOVE** this job!

Oriane Sheik-hossen (niece), Ariane Long, & David Sheik-Hossen (nephew) with 2 outraged cats; during our desperate attempt to "Americanize" them (the kids, not the cats); July 2002