John
6:24-35 (NRSV)
24So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his
disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum
looking for Jesus. 25 When they found him on the other side of the
lake, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ 26Jesus
answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because
you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27Do
not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for
eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God
the Father has set his seal.’ 28Then they said to him, ‘What must we do to perform
the works of God?’ 29Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that
you believe in him whom he has sent.’ 30So
they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see
it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31Our
ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them
bread from heaven to eat.” ’ 32Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it
was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives
you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is that which comes
down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ 34They
said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’
35 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never
be thirsty.
My
text is written in John 6.34:
34They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’
The
reading from John’s Gospel is once again so rich in its deeper meanings. The
crowds were fascinated by Jesus – but according to Jesus himself – for the
wrong reasons because they had seen (and others probably heard) of the feeding
of the five thousand (and probably other miracles). The same would be true
today I am sure. But this is to miss the point.
The
people had experienced a miracle, but had failed to see the sign. This is
another way of saying that they had focused on the literal and failed to move
on to the allegorical and the spiritual. As Barclay writes, paraphrasing the
sentiment of Jesus:
“Your thoughts ought to have been turned to God who did these things;
but instead all that you are thinking about is bread … It is as if Jesus said ‘…You
cannot think about your souls for thinking of your stomachs.’”
By
focusing exclusively on the things of this life, we miss out on what it really
means to live. I understand how difficult this is. The Scriptures seem quite
clear that if I am doing things responsibly, God will provide. And we know the
truth of this. If we are living in according to the ways of God, we can trust him
to provide for everything else. In Matthew 6:33 Jesus exhorts us to “Seek first
his kingdom and righteousness and then all things shall be added unto you.”
The
recurring theme is that there is a deep spiritual hunger in every human being –
it is part of that which separates us from other species – although animals
have it to a very limited extent. Meeting our physical needs is just the
beginning; we also need emotional hunger satisfied and so we need other people
to love us (and this is where animals’ needs end). But even this is not all; we
have a deep spiritual hunger that also needs to be met. Without it we flounder.
People try to meet this deep inner hunger by doing many things, not least
living lavish lifestyles. And this is nothing new. Roman society – after AD 60
– was one where luxurious living was unparalleled. They had feasts of peacock
brains and nightingale tongues – costing the equivalent of thousands of pounds.
They clothed themselves in garments costing the equivalent of over £400,000.
Barclay suggests that …
“… the reason was a deep dissatisfaction with life, a hunger that
nothing would satisfy. They would try anything for a new thrill, because they
were both appallingly rich and appallingly hungry …”
So
what happens today is still nothing new. Poor Michael Jackson had everything
money could buy and yet it turns out that he was deeply unhappy and felt empty.
Jesus
exhorts us not to be interested only in physical satisfaction. The people had
experienced an unexpected meal and they wanted more. There are other hungers
that only God can satisfy – hunger for truth, hunger for life and hunger for
love because it is only on Jesus that God has ‘… set his seal …’ (verse 27). In
the days of the writing of John’s Gospel it was the seal more than the
signature that was the guarantee. This is why only Jesus can satisfy the human
hunger of the soul. He is sealed by God, he is God’s truth, God’s love and
God’s life within each and every one of us and ‘… it is God alone who can truly
satisfy the hunger of the soul which He created.’
28Then
they said to him, ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ 29Jesus
answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has
sent.’
What does it mean to believe? To ‘believe’ in Jesus’ day did not
mean give intellectual assent to. This does not mean that the people committed
intellectual suicide and just blindly accepted everything. Certainly not, once
the Temple was destroyed, the focus of worship for the Jews was the synagogues,
where they certainly wrestled with the Scriptures and sought meaning in them
for their present time. They argued with each other and God, but found that in
the process, they received a word for themselves as individuals and for the
community as a whole. This ‘method’ was adopted by the early Church and they
developed rituals and liturgies to aid the process. Karen Armstrong explains:
“The carefully devised rituals evoked an ‘ekstasis’ – a stepping
out of their accustomed modes of thought. As Theodore, Bishop of
Mopsuestia (392-428) … explained to his
catechumens:
… when you say I believe you say I engage myself
before God, you show that you will remain steadfastly with him, that you will
never separate yourself from him and that you will think it higher than
anything else to be and to live with him and to conduct yourself in a way that
is in harmony with his commandments. “
‘Belief’ in our modern sense, did not come into it. Even though
Theodore saw the importance of a literal understanding, this was only a part of
the process. Armstrong concludes that faith was a matter of commitment and
practical living.’
We need to live in a way that realizes that what we experience
physically in this world is not all that there is – in fact it is the least –
that which we share with mere animals. It can be lovely and enjoyable, but it
can also be a great challenge – as all of us who have experienced serious
illness can testify. However, even in times of serious physical testing, we can
know the depth of real existence – peace, and even joy when we know that our
real hunger and thirst have been satisfied as we are united with God in Jesus
Christ our Lord. As Tom Wright concludes. Verse 34 can be used to this day, as
it stands, as the prayer that we will need to pray if our deepest needs are to
be met:
‘Sir, give us this bread always.’
Amen.
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