John 6:35, 41-51约翰福音6：35，41-51

 

Introduction

l Have you ever been hungry…really hungry? 你有试过挨饿？真的很饿那种？

(If you’ve never had that sensation, you will…if we drag this

service on for another 4 hours!) /如果你没有试过这种感受的话，只要我们延长这个早会多四个小时，你就可以体会到。

Hunger has a way of making itself known. Sometimes, it announces its presence in the form of growling noises from the stomach; which can be embarrassing,especially when you are in the pews! /饥饿是很容易辨别的，有时，你会听到肚子咕咕叫，特别是在人群中，多尴尬

Hunger demands our attention; we may try to ignore it,or pretend that it doesn’t exist, but it won’t go away. /饥饿会引开我们的专注力；我们不想管它，或是假装没事，但是它却挥之不散。

Before long, we’d find ourselves going off in search for food to stop hunger from its incessant and increasingly alarming cries for help. /没多久，我们就开始找东西吃以停止这种持续不停的警报讯号。

l And if one were deprived of food long enough, it’d lead to death. Food is foundational to life. Without it, we literally die. /食物是生命的基本需要，一个人 长期缺乏食粮，是可能会死。

It’s no use being a great Greek scholar, or good looking, or talented if you die for a lack of food! /不管是伟大的希腊学者，或是长得多好看，多有恩赐，只要缺乏食物，都可能会死。

l Jesus recognized this fact of life. At the outset of John 6, when he was confronted with the thousands who had gathered on the mountainside to hear him, Jesus honoured the hunger of the people by feeding them. /耶稣清楚这个生命的事实，在约翰福音第六章一开头，当他面对成千的人聚集在山头上听他的教导，耶稣体恤人们的饥饿并喂养他们。

Our Lord did not denigrate the need for food. In fact, in the prayer that he taught his disciples, the only petition for material blessing is the prayer for daily bread (Mt 6:11). /

我们的主没有否定对食物的需要。事实上，在主祷文里，耶稣教导门徒，物质需要的唯一请求就是为我们每天的饮食祷告（马太福音6：11）。

l Nevertheless, it remains the ringing truth of Scripture that human beings are more than just digestive machines./不过，经文清楚带出真理：人类不只是食物的消化机器。

We are more than our bodies. Our needs are greater and

more extensive than what our bodies need. /

我们心灵需要事实比肉体的需要更加深广

Dominant though our need for food may be, there are other hungers in the human heart that cry out for satisfaction. These too are as pressing as the stomach’s cry for bread./

支配我们的或许是食物，但人心里，仍然还有其他的有待满足的饥饿。这些同样像肚复要食物一般，压制着每个人。

To begin with, we need spiritual nourishment that comes to us through the Word of God. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth

of God!” (Deut 8:3). /诚然，我们都需要从神话语而来的属灵营养，（申命记8：3）“人活着不是单靠食物，乃是靠神口里所出的一切话。”

ê Unfortunately, for many in our world today, the drive to satisfy the appetites and cravings of our material bodies is so overpowering that it practically eclipses all other

dimensions of our existence. /很不幸地，在今天的世界中，人们只为了满足肚腹，而追求物质的欲望已经大大控制力我们生活的各个层面。

The dictatorship of our wants and our desires trumps

the truth of God’s word. /我们受控于种种需要和欲望，他们代替真理霸占我们的心

Instead of conforming our lives and aligning our wishes    to what God has revealed about himself and his will,              we make God conform to our paradigms, and we make him fulfil our priorities. /将我们的生命及愿望都降服在上帝的旨意当中。让他成为我们一切的优先？？

ê Like the multitudes who were fed on the hills of Galilee,       we want to make Jesus king, but only on our own terms./像这些在加利利山上被喂饱的群众，我们只按着自己的想法，拥耶稣为王，

So long as Jesus feeds us and meets our needs, he can be our

king. Relationship with God is computed on a strictly utilitarian basis. /其实只要耶稣喂养我们、满足我们的需要，他就可以成为我们的王。所以我们与神的关系只限于这种功利主义。

As long as Christ is useful to us, and so long as he can heal us and prosper us, bless us and make us successful,  he has our allegiance. /只要基督对我们有用，只要他能医治我们，使我们顺利，成功，我们就会忠于他。

So much of contemporary Christianity is nothing more

than Narcissism dressed up in the language of the Bible!/

今天的基督教，往往用许多圣经字眼作包装，其实骨子里全是自恋狂，自以为是

 l The Lord sees through our fundamental selfishness as he

does the hidden motives of the crowds that came to him:

“I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw

miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your

fill” (26). /主看穿我们这种自私自利的本性，他知道这些来找他的人群所隐藏的动机（26节）‘我实实在在地告诉你们，你们找我，并不是因见了神迹，乃是因吃饼得饱。

l Instead of giving in to the people’s wishes, Jesus invites them not to labour simply for the food that perishes, but to seek the food that endures to eternal life, the food which the Son of Man alone can give (27). /与其对群众的要求退让，（27节）耶稣邀请他们不要为那必坏的食物劳力，相反，要为那存到永生的食物劳力，就是人子要赐给你们的

More was at stake with Jesus than just the satisfying of human needs, important though this was as a sign of the dawning of the Kingdom of God. /不只是满足人类的需要，更关切的问题应是带来上帝的国度

The miraculous feeding with bread from above is not an end in itself; it is a sign that points beyond itself to the Person of Jesus, the living Bread from heaven in whom we have the actualization of God’s salvation plan for the world. /以上这个食粮神迹还没有结束，这是指向耶稣这个人，他是生命之粮是本于神为世界所计划的救赎。

l Interestingly, as the narrative of John 6 progresses, we find a subtle shift from Jesus as the giver of bread, to Jesus as bread. The feeder becomes the food. /有趣的是，随着约翰福音六章记载的发展，我们发现一个很微妙的转移就是耶稣从一个分粮者，如今他却变成生命的粮

       God’s salvation is centred on the person of Jesus Christ. /

上帝的救赎就是以耶稣基督为中心。

Jesus declares in what is the first of 7 “I am” sayings in       John’s Gospel: “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.” (35) “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.” (51) /耶稣宣告他在约翰福音中的七个“我是”的第一个：（35节）“我就是生命的粮，到我这里来的，必定不饿；信我的，永远不渴。” （51节）

”我是从天上降下来的生命的粮；人若吃这粮，就必永远活着。“

‘The focus is on person of Jesus as the bread of life. /重点在于耶稣就是生命的粮。

Two assertions in particular will form the thrust of our meditation: /从我们的思考中，得出两个推理：

·       Jesus is the living bread that gives life and satisfies; and /主耶稣是生命的粮，他赐生命，他也满足我们的生命

·       in Jesus, the world finds life; the future of the world depends on Jesus. /唯有在主耶稣里，世界才能找到生命；世界的将来也全在乎他

1. The Bread that Saves and Satisfies /生命的粮可以拯救并带来满足

It is the “I” of Jesus, and not an idea or an ideology, that ultimately saves. Jesus is the saving Bread. /耶稣说“我是’,并不是一种想法或是理想主义，而是真正能拯救我们，耶稣就是那能够拯救我们的生命粮 。

And it is the person of Jesus, not a program, nor a set of proposition that is the answer to the deepest of human needs. Jesus is the Bread that truly satisfies. /

耶稣本身，不是一个方程式，更不是一套论调，他是人类最深层需要的答案，耶稣作为生命的粮能够真正满足一切。

l Bread is an important biblical symbol that is associated with divine rescue. The provision of manna in the wilderness is associated with the salvific event of the

Exodus and the first Passover. /粮食有重要的圣经的象征符号，它联系到神圣的拯救，旷野里玛哪的供应联系到出埃及和第一次的逾越节。

The Jews whom Jesus fed that day could not have missed the allusion to this redemptive event in their history. /耶稣当他喂饱的犹太人不可能错过在他们历史中的这段被救赎的历史事件。

l In the Old Testament and throughout the later Wisdom literature, manna or bread from heaven is frequently identified with the Word or Wisdom of God. /在旧约中，还有智慧文学，玛哪或是从天上的粮往往被看为是上帝的话与上帝的智慧。

And this Word or Wisdom of God is, in turn, often identifiedwith the Torah, so that manna too came to be associated with the Law of Moses. To know the word of the Lord

is to have life. /而这个话语与智慧，认定为“妥拉”，玛哪也可以联想为摩西的律法，认识上帝的话，就得着生命。

l Equally significant is the expectation one finds in the literature of the Second Temple period where the redeemed will sit down to eat with the Messiah. /人们在第二圣殿时期的文学作品里发现，在那里，被救赎者将与弥赛亚坐在一起进餐，这种的期望同样显得意义非凡。

Eating bread is understood not only as an activity in the present world but also an activity in the world to come. /There is thus more than a hint ofeschatological salvation in Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000./ 可以这样理解，吃面包不仅代表目前世界的一个行动，而且也表示将来世界的一个行动。因此，耶稣喂饱五千人的事件，不单单只是一个末世救恩的暗示。

l Now it is likely, as some Johannine scholars suggest, that Jesus is here engaging in a piece of exegesis, whereby he infuses passages such as Ex 16:4 (cf. Ps 78:24) and Isa

54:9-55:4 with Christological significance. /现在极有可能的是，正如约翰福音的研究学者所认为的那样，耶稣在这里着手以基督论的意义来解经，就如出埃及记16：4（亦或诗篇78：24）以及以赛亚书54：9-55：4所描述的，何以他灌输这样的思路。

The thrust of this is to point to himself as the living bread that God is now sending to feed the world, for through him alone will all live and not die. /这有力的一击道明了，他自己作为生命的粮，由神差遣来喂养这个世界，而只有通过他才能永生不死。

Just as one cannot live without physical bread, so you cannot live spiritually without him. Our very existence depends on Jesus the life-giver. “Everyone who looks to the Son

and believes in him shall have eternal life” (40). /如同若没有物质食粮，人就不能生存，同样，没有耶稣，你就失去属灵的生命。我们的存在乃基于耶稣给予的生命。“一切见子而信的人得永生”（6：40）

“I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life” (47-48). Whoever eats of the read from heaven, Jesus says, “will not die” (50). /“我实实在在地告诉你们，信的人得永生。我就是生命的粮。“（6：47-48）耶稣说，无论谁吃了这天粮，“将永远不死”（6：50）。

 

l Along with this promise of salvation and eternal life is the promise that all who partake of Jesus the bread from heaven will not be hungry again (35). /与救恩的承诺和永活的生命紧紧联系在一起的应许是，那些吃了耶稣天粮的人将永远不饿。（6：35）

There is a fulfilment that comes with being filled full by the Bread of Life. /有了丰盛生命的粮便得饱足。

There is something profoundly satisfying about life with Jesus Christ. /可见，有了耶稣基督的生命，就有了足够的满足。

ê And this is so, because the human person is truly alive only when he or she has partaken of Christ. /这就是说，只有当人拥有了基督，人才算真正的活着。

It doesn’t matter whether one believes in God or not, for people everywhere are seekers after God. /管他是否相信神，对人们来说，在哪儿都会寻求神，也没多大关系

h The atheist philosopher John Paul Sartre says: “That God does not exist I cannot deny, but that my whole being cries out for God I cannot forget.” /无神论哲学家约翰保罗曾说：“我不能否定神不存在，但我整个身心迫切需要神，我却不能忘记。”

There is an irrepressible yearning in the soul for union and communion with God, regardless of whether the person acknowledges it or not. /这是难以描述的一种灵魂渴望，无论一个人对神的认知有多少，他都期盼着与神的契合。

ê When we ‘eat’ or appropriate to our hearts the life of Jesus, not only will we find true and lasting satisfaction, we also find our spiritual palate transformed. /当我们“吃”或有合于耶稣生命的心，那么我们不仅能找到真正的持久的满足感，我们还会发现自己的属灵生命得以改变。

Christ not only changes our hearts, he refines our palate;    he sanctifies our spiritual taste-buds so that we become discriminating about what we ‘eat,’ what we allow

into our hearts and mind. /基督不仅改变了我们的心，也提升了我们的嗜好。他圣化着我们的灵性味蕾，以至于我们的心思意念，可以抵挡罪的侵蚀，吃我们该吃的，做我们该做的。

ê Once we’ve tasted the goodness of Christ, we begin to cultivate a corresponding distaste for the stale ‘bread’ of human folly. /一旦我们品尝过基督的好，我们就开始培养自己相应的口味，以拒食杂乱的食粮。

We will find repulsive all those cheap imitations of great theology that masquerade as devotional resources for the soul, however popular these may be. /

我们就会发现，有一些可恶的、大神学的假冒赝（yan）品仍在作为灵魂的灵修资源，

however popular these may be. /然而，人们还可能依然在用。

When we come across those vulgar distortions of the Gospel peddled by religious hustlers, alarm bells should go off in our minds because they have been conditioned

by the bread of God’s truth. /我们已来到一个十字路口，福音正被宗教骗子以粗俗的曲解沿街叫卖，警钟应在我们心中敲响，人们需要以上帝真理的粮所给（ji）养。

Why give ourselves to the bland and the mediocre when we can have the exquisite vintage of truth in Christ? /这就是，为什么当我们自己变得更平凡、更温和的时候，我们就能在基督里尝饮真理的佳酿？

2.    Jesus is the Bread broken for the Life of the World/耶稣为了世人而成了破碎（？）的粮

l The salvation that Jesus brings isn’t just targeted at individuals alone. Redemption may be deeply personal but it is never merely private. / 主耶稣的救恩并不是单单属于某些人，救恩可以很个人，但决不是私人化。

Jesus is the saving and satisfying bread of life for the world at large. “This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (51) /耶稣是世界的拯救与满足的粮。（51节） “我所要赐的粮，就是我的肉，为世人之生命所赐的”

 

There is a cosmic dimension to the life and work of Jesus. /耶稣的工作是涵盖整个宇宙层面。

He did not come just to redeem individuals. He came to rescue the world by turning it upside down, renovating and restoring it to reflect the Father’s glory. / 他不只是来救赎个人，他是来拯救世人，翻转世界，重建、更新、以彰显天父的荣耀。

Whether our world lives or dies depends on whether it is plugged into Jesus the Source of spiritual life and sustenance! /我们世界的生死，关键我们是否有连接到主耶稣，他是属灵生命的源头。

l The world is certainly hungry for the bread of life. There is a worldwide hunger for peace, for human harmony, for security, for love, for hope and for meaning. /世界肯定是期待生命之粮，全世界都渴望和平、和谐、有保障、爱、希望、有意义。

 

 

There is a ravenous hunger for truth, despite being repeatedly told that truth has been murdered at the hands of the postmodern. /虽然真理一再被后现代主义侵蚀，但人们渴望真理达到极点。

Denying the existence of bread does not make our hunger disappear. /对食物的否定并不会使我们的饥饿感消失。

The world may choose to banish God and ignore Christ the bread of life, but it cannot remove that fundamental hunger and need for the transcendent Lord. /世界或许选择远离神，不把耶稣当作生命的粮，但是也不可以除去根本的饥饿问题，以及对这位宇宙大主宰的依赖。

ê When we declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, we are not just talking about his impact he has on us as believers in the Christian community. /当我们宣告耶稣基督是主，我们不是单谈论有关他对于信徒的团体所形成的影响力

 The Gospel cannot be reduced to the mere musings of a people huddling together in an ecclesiastical ghetto. /福音不应之限于教会里一小撮人，孤芳自享的专有

When we proclaim that Jesus is the bread of life for the world, we are making an assertion about all of reality. /当我们宣告耶稣就是世界生命之粮，我们就是在表明所有的现实

He is the food that the world needs; he is the bread by which the world lives. /他就是这个世界所需要的食物，他就是这个世界得以依赖存活的粮

The truth concerning Christ must ever be a public truth. /有关于耶稣的真理应该成为公认的真理，

ê In an age where the pillars of truth and morality are torn down and swept aside as relics of a by-now defunct Enlightenment, we are left only with what is fleeting and ephemeral. 当启蒙运动已经过去，当时的真理、道德支柱早就已经被拆毁，不复存在，只剩下落寞的叹息与短暂的哀怨。

But there is a price to pay for the easy dismissal of truth and the discarding of moral standards. /无论是因轻易离开真理和道德标准的离弃，同样要付上代价

h In the picturesque words of Wittgenstein, we cannot saw off the branch upon which we are seated without  falling down from the tree. /维根斯坦，逼真的说道：倘若我们坐在树干上，当这树干被锯断时，我们也无法幸免于掉下大树的后果。

 

When the world jettisons truth, it invariably finds itself cast adrift on the open sea of relativism, without a clue as to which direction to go because there is now no such

thing as the right direction! /当世界弃绝真理时，就有如浮沉于茫茫的相对主义的大海中，实在难以辨清究竟那面是正确的方向

h The French existentialist Jean Paul Sartre reminds us that, “A finite point has no meaning without an infinite reference point.” / 法国存在主义家保罗萨特提醒我们：一个定点是毫无意义，如果它没有一永恒为依据。“

If we have nothing eternal to measure all our journeys, then how do we know if we are actually doing any meaningful traveling at all? /如果我们没有永恒来测量我们的生命之旅，我们有如何知道到底是否有意义？

l It may be hard to comprehend, and in some quarters, extremely hard to swallow, but Scriptures tell us, first of all, that without Christ, the world has no future; and secondly, the health of the world depends on the health of the church. /可能很难理解，在某各程度来说，特别难以消化，但经文清楚告诉我们，首先，没有基督，世界就没有未来；其次，世界的健康取决于教会是否健康

It’s the hungry that can smell fresh bread a mile away. /当我们真正饥饿时，哪怕在一里以外也都能闻到面包香

When we in the church are true to our calling as authentic followers of Jesus Christ and committed servants of the                Kingdom of God, then our world hungry will smell us

out from a distance. /当我们忠于我们的呼召为耶稣基督真正的门徒，并且委身于上帝的国度，这饥饿的世界，远远也能嗅到我们所发出的香味。

And the reason for this is that the church now wears the aroma of Christ! /因此，教会要散发基督的香味

And such a pungent witness is possible only because we’ve been ‘eating’ of Christ and

‘drinking’ of his blood. / 除非我们吃喝耶稣的身体与宝血，否则我们就难以成为有力的见证人。

As Christ feeds the inner life of the believers, they in turn will begin to feed the world. /当基督喂养我们的内在生命，我们也应该使这个世界得到饱足。

 

Conclusion总结

l Food and drinks on the table are useless if those at the

table do not consume them. / 任何放在桌上的食物与饮料都是无用的，除非我们尽情享用

The hungry will remain hungry if the food remains untouched on the table.

We must take the first step in ingesting Christ. /饥饿的仍旧饥饿，只因没有享用桌上的食物，我们必须踏出第一步就是去品尝基督

We need to personally partake of Christ, the bread of heaven. /我们需要亲自吸进？？基督，他是天国的粮食。

Just as bread consumed and ingested becomes part and parcel of who we are, so Christ, when invited into our lives, permeates our very being. /就有如食物享用后变成我们身体的一部分，同样如基督，受邀进入我们的生命，参透我们当中。

The life of Christ courses through our veins, fills every corner of our soul, and overflows from our heart. /基督的生命穿透我们的身体，充满我们心灵的每一个角落。

l The life of the world depends on the sacrificial yielding up of the body of Christ on Calvary. / 世人需要靠赖基督在加略山上的牺牲

Without the breaking of the Bread of life on the cross, there can be no eternal

life for us, and no new life for the world. /没有生命之粮在十架上的破碎，我们就没有永生，也没有世界的新生命。

As our Lord allowed his flesh to be broken and in so doing

brought life to the world, so we, today, are invited to take

up the cross and follow him in giving our lives as

bread for the world. /既然，我们的主允许他的身体被破碎，为世人带来生命，今天，我们同样受邀背起十字架，跟从他，献出我们的生命成为世界之粮。