John
6:24-35 *
In the name of
Christ Jesus, dear friends:
“Don’t confuse me
with the facts. My mind is made
up.” Are you familiar with that
phrase? Have you ever run across a
person with that kind of attitude, a person who is stubborn and unwilling to
change, and person who knows what he believes and there is nothing anyone can
say to change the way he feels?
For example, someone
might be convinced that the earth is flat, and it is amazing that more ships
don’t sail right over the edge. This
once widely accepted idea has been proven false, but convincing someone who
still holds that mistaken opinion is another story.
You can pull out
your globe or satellite photographs taken from space. You can show him charts and graphs and
mathematical calculations proving that the earth is round. You can reason and argue until you are blue
in the face, but it just doesn’t matter what you say or do because his mind is
made up.
Jesus was confronted
with some pretty stubborn people in the text for today. They thought they knew who Jesus was and why
he had come into the world. They hailed
Jesus as the promised Messiah, the long-awaited King of the Jews. But the Messiah they envisioned was an
earthly ruler. They were so sure that
Jesus was the Chosen One that they were ready to march to
Jesus was the Lord’s
Chosen One, but the Lord had chosen him to complete a very different kind of task. Jesus was the promised Messiah, but he wasn’t
the kind of king the people wanted him to be.
Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus was faced with this challenge: to
convince people that he was more than a miracle worker, that he was more than a
political figure, that he was a savior from sin, not a savior from the
Romans.
In all of his
preaching, all of his teaching, all of his miracles, Jesus had one goal in
mind: to change people’s hearts, to raise their sights above the things of this
world, to bring them into a right relationship with God. While he lived on this earth Jesus called
people to believe in the true Messiah, the king of heaven and earth.
Even though Jesus
has ascended into heaven, he continues to speak to us through his Word. And his goal has not changed. In fact, Jesus sets the same challenge before
his people today. He calls us to…
BELIEVE IN THE TRUE MESSIAH
I. He offers more than daily bread
II. He offers bread that gives eternal
life
The day before this
conversation took place between Jesus and the people, Jesus had performed one
of his many miracles. With only five
loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus fed 5,000 men. The miraculous feeding made Jesus more
popular than ever. More and more people
were hopping on the Jesus bandwagon, and this growing following was demanding
more and more of his time. To get away
from the crowds, to get some much needed rest, Jesus and his disciples crossed
the Sea of Galilee at night.
It didn’t take long
for the people to realize that Jesus was gone, and so they chased after him,
hoping that he was the answer to all of their problems. The search for Jesus led the crowds to
On the surface, this
question seems pretty straightforward.
The people wanted to know when Jesus arrived, nothing more. And they called him “Rabbi” (teacher), a term
of respect. But Jesus could see into
their sinful hearts, and his response exposed their sinful motives: “You are looking for me, not because you
saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill” (27).
The people weren’t
motivated by a hunger for God’s Word.
They were motivated by a hunger for food. Even though the motives weren’t pure, their
search for daily bread opened a door for Jesus to speak to them about the food
they really needed.
“Don’t work for food that spoils (Jesus told
them), but for food that endures to eternal life” (27). In
other words, don’t waste all of your time worrying about where you will get
your next meal. Focus on the food that
will never spoil. Focus on the bread
that lasts forever.
This promise of food
that never spoils caught the people’s attention. So their search for bread turned into a
search for proof. How could they know for
sure that Jesus would deliver what he promised?
Their next demand shows that they were still looking in the wrong place.
“What miraculous sign will you give that we
may see it and believe you? What will
you do” (28)? It wasn’t their fault that they didn’t
believe Jesus. He hadn’t really proven
himself yet. The feeding of the five
thousand was a good start, but they needed more. They needed to see more miracles before they
could really truly believe.
To justify their
demand, they made a comparison. They way
they saw it, Jesus wasn’t even as great as Moses, at least not yet. Jesus fed five-thousand men. Moses fed the nation of
When faced with
these unreasonable demands, in the face of these unspiritual people, Jesus
didn’t become indignant. Jesus didn’t
get visibly upset. As only the sinless
Son of God could do, Jesus responded to the demands of his critics with a clear
explanation and an open invitation:
“I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who
has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true
bread from heaven. For
the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world”
(32, 33).
Maybe you can relate
to this experience. You have a container,
a box, and you have some things that need to go in that box, maybe its
leftovers, maybe its clothes your children have outgrown. But there is a problem. No matter what you do, no matter how many different
ways you try to arrange things, no matter how hard you press down on the lid,
the stuff just won’t fit because it doesn’t match the dimensions of the box.
Have you ever
treated God like that? Have you ever
tried to fit Jesus into a box? Have you
ever tried to make God be what you wanted him to be? When people make the claim that Jesus was a
great man and nothing more, they attempt to put the Son of God into a very small
box.
When we think about
our relationship with God only when times are tough, when we go to God only as
a last resort, we try to put God into a box (and take him out only when we need
him).
When we pray to God
and not only tell him not only our problems but also the solutions to those
problems, we are trying to put God into a box.
And because God doesn’t fit our small dimensions, our attempts leave us
eternally frustrated.
In his Word God
reveals to us exactly who he is and what he has done for us. Jesus is not just a miracle worker. Jesus is more than a moral teacher. He is our Savior from sin. He is our true Messiah, and he offers us much
more than daily bread. He offers the
bread that gives eternal life.
The crowds were
skeptical about Jesus, but they wanted this bread. They were even willing to work for it. So they asked: “What must we do to do the works God requires” (28)?
Without hesitation
Jesus told them exactly what they needed to do to earn the bread of life: “The work of God is this: to believe in the
one he has sent” (29). Salvation
does require work, but the work God requires is something no person could ever
do. The work of faith is God’s
work. God freely gives the bread of life
through his Son.
Maybe Jesus was getting
through to them. Maybe the Holy Spirit
was gaining a foothold in their hearts when they replied: “Sir, from now on give us this
bread” (34). Was this a
breakthrough? Did the people really know
what they were asking for? Or were their
minds still stuck on material things?
Whatever their
thinking was, Jesus took the conversation to another level when he proclaimed: “I am the bread of life” (35). Finally Jesus gave them the answer to this
spiritual riddle. Finally Jesus decided to tell them what this bread really
was. Finally Jesus revealed that the
bread of life is not a what, but a who.
Jesus is the Bread
of Life. He stood before them as a
living breathing human being. Jesus came
to give them life. And he promised that
anyone who tastes the bread of life, everyone trusts in him, would never be
hungry again.
I like Chinese
food. In fact, Shannon and I went out
for Chinese food last Sunday to celebrate our anniversary. But as good as that food tastes, you know the
knock against Chinese food. A few hours
after you eat it, you will be hungry again.
Although this is a
common complaint about Chinese food, it’s really true of all food. As long as we live, we will never be done
feeding our bodies. There will always be
one more trip to the grocery store, one more meal to prepare, one more set of
dishes to wash. Even if you eat as much
as you possibly can in one sitting, sooner or later you will be hungry
again.
That was Jesus’
point. He had provided a miraculous meal
for the crowds. No one went hungry. But only a day later, they needed more. So Jesus gave them more. He gave them more than they asked for, more
they could have ever hoped for. Jesus
gave them the Bread of Life. Jesus
offered himself. He gave them an
unlimited supply of food for the soul.
Jesus sets the same
banquet before us today. He saved us
from the death we deserved. He died in
our place to take away our sins. Now our
risen Lord continues to set a lavish feast before us. Week in and week out, he nourishes our souls
through Word and Sacrament. He feeds us
with the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. As we feast on this food, God promises that
it will never run out. It will last
forever in heaven, where we will never be hungry or thirsty again.
Later on in this
chapter, the gospel writer John tells us that many of Jesus’ followers left him
after this. They said that they could
not accept what they called a “hard teaching.”
But really they refused to believe in the Messiah because they had
already made up their minds. They wanted
Jesus to be something that he wasn’t, and they were unwilling to change.
Thanks be to God that the Holy Spirit has opened our eyes to see
who Jesus really is. Our Savior does
provide for our bodily needs, but he does so much more. By grace we believe in Jesus Christ, the true
Messiah, the self-proclaimed Bread of Life, who gives eternal life to the
world. Amen.