Jesus, The Bread of Life
We pick up today after the Feeding of the Five Thousand. That night the disciples struggled across the lake in a storm, and Jesus walked out to them on the water and they finished the trip instantly with Jesus aboard. The next morning, the crowds noticed that Jesus was gone, and had taken boats over to Capernaum to look for him.
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” 26 Jesus answered, “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.
Instead of answering their bewildered question, Jesus answers the question that they didn’t ask: How do we get more free food? They were looking for him for the wrong reason. But in his compassion, Jesus let them find him anyway. He doesn’t curse them or run away from them, and he doesn’t hide from them. He just teaches them about what they should be looking for.
27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
In Greek, the phrase that begins verse 27 is a sharp command: “Stop working for spoiling food.” Look instead, he tells them, for food that lasts forever. They say that a Hostess Twinkie will sit on a shelf and be fresh for twenty years, but that’s not what Jesus is talking about. The key to understanding is hinted at here when Jesus says that he will give that kind of food.
The stuff that nourishes for life eternal is a gift of God. That message is consistent throughout the Bible. But Jesus isn’t going to be vague with these hungry souls. He is going to come out and tell them exactly what he means.
I don’t know how much it matters to this discussion, but later you might want to read the note below about Jesus’ mention of God’s “seal of approval.”
What should matter more than anything is what Jesus says next. Verse 29 is the key to understanding all of John chapter 6.
28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” 29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (NIV)
The word of God isn’t work at all. It’s just faith. The bread of life that gives eternal life is simply faith in Jesus. That’s why the father sent him into the world. And just as gathering manna was hardly work to the Israelites who had suffered for hundreds of years in Egypt—all they had to do was step outside their tents and pick it up—so faith in Christ is no labor for us, either. All we do is receive his love, receive his gifts, and receive his Son.
Notice the difference between the singular and plural emphasis of Jesus and the Jews. They want to do “works,” but he only mentions this effortless “work.” There is nothing else. Nothing more.
It’s as if Jesus says to us as we drown, “Let me pull you up, and your only job is to let me. Just stop struggling and you’re going to be all right.”
Let his love carry you home to heaven. You’re going to be all right.
Note: The Jews in Christ’s time talked a lot about the “Seal of God.” One Rabbi named Reuben (not the Patriarch) said wisely that the seal of God is truth. Another, the head of the Synagogue at Lachish, pointed out that the Hebrew word for Truth, emet (אמת), is made of three letters of the Hebrew alphabet: the first, the middle and the last, and quoted Isaiah 44:6, “I am the first and I am the last, apart from me there is no God.” When Jesus talks about himself as “the truth” in John 14, he lets us know that the truth of God, and indeed the seal of God, is he, Jesus, himself.
Something Extra:
Psalm 37:34-36
ק (Qoph)
34 Wait for the LORD
and keep his way.
He will exalt you to inherit the land;
when the wicked are cut off, you will see it. (NIV)
Qoph is the nineteenth letter in the Hebrew alphabet. It begins qaveh, “Wait…” David is telling us to be patient and to let God’s plan for us unfold at his own pace, in his own way. In the final stanzas of this Psalm, David compares the future of unbelievers with the future of believers. These two futures are very different; for the faithful who have suffered in this lifetime, there will be a reversal of fortune. We begin with the least important reversal: The wicked will be cut off from his earthly inheritance, at least in death, and the believer will inherit the land. But blessings on earth—even the reception of the Promised Land itself—is a small thing compared to what we will receive in heaven.
ר (Resh)
35 I have seen a wicked and ruthless man flourishing
like a green tree in its native soil,
36 but he soon passed away and was no more;
though I looked for him, he could not be found. (NIV)
The twentieth letter in the Hebrew alphabet, resh, begins the word ra’ati, “I have seen,” and also the words rasha‘ “wicked” and ra‘anan “green, fresh.” The word ra‘anan is most often used in a phrase about idolatry taking place “under every spreading (ra‘anan) tree.” That phrase occurs ten times throughout the Old Testament, from Deuteronomy 12:2 to Ezekiel 6:13; from Moses to the exile in Babylon. The phrase “I have seen” shows us that David was aware of sin; he himself was as guilty as anyone, but here he is talking about people living in unrepentant sin.
As David builds to the last two stanzas (verses 37-40), the differences between the future of unbelievers and believers becomes more evident. Here the wicked “passes away,” he is “no more,” and “he could not be found.” There is no future for the wicked without Christ; no future except eternal suffering.
We’re forever grateful to God for rescuing us from destruction. And while there is still time in our own lives, we work to sharing that rescue with the world. We start with the people we love, and we do whatever we can to get that message to the ends of the earth.
The unbeliever “soon passes away.” Let’s get the gospel to him while there is still time.
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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