Jüngel on Jesus as the bread of life

Picture from http://www.bild.de

I’ve been reading an Eberhard Jüngel sermon on John 6:32-35, today, a text in which Christ speaks of himself as ‘the bread of life’ (found in volume 3 of Jüngel’s Predigten: Schmecken und Sehen, Radius 2003)

A few sound bites from the great theologian and preacher:

Glauben heißt in der Bibel oft nichts anderes als satt werden, an Leib und Seele satt werden

('Faith in the Bible often means nothing but being satisfied, in body and soul satisfied')

Auch die Kirche sollte sich davor hüten, das Brot des Lebens zu einem religiösen Pharmakon verkommen zu lassen

('... also the Church should be careful not to allow 'the Bread of Life' to become a religious medicinal cure [Pharmakon]')

Jesus Christus stillt den Hunger nach Leben so, dass nun erst recht der Lebensappetit erwacht

('Jesus Christ satisfies the hunger for life in such a way that then awakens the appetite for life')

He is the kind of preacher who educates his listeners almost without them knowing it. His biblical expositions are doused with liberal citations from Luther and wider literature without it sounding, at least to my ears, pompous. Others of us would claim it as a promotion to even be considered pompous!