August 1, 2021
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois
John 6:24-35[1]
Have you been hungry lately? How about thirsty? So, what’s
wrong, don’t you and I believe in Jesus? Let’s not fool ourselves by taking a
metaphor and making it literal. Jesus often explained things using stories and
metaphor. Bread is one of those metaphors that connect something we know and
understand to something we’re trying to learn.
When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, and ask for our daily bread,
we’re not really asking God to give us a baguette for our supper. We’re asking
for something deeper, the nourishment that our spirits need daily. That
nourishment, that sustenance, that comes only from God is what we pray for.
When the crowd found Jesus, they found someone who gave
sustenance for their souls. They we’re healed, they were listened to, they
heard stories and scripture, and they received love. They couldn’t get enough of
it! Jesus left with the disciples to go to Capernaum on the other side of the
sea. The crowd followed, because they needed more of what Jesus was offering.
Jesus knew something else was going on, beyond their desire
to be healed and fed. At least some in the crowd wanted to make him king. Their
rulers were tyrants, demanding huge sums in taxes, engaging in massive building
projects not for the benefit of the people, but to impress Caesar. A once proud
nation, focused on the worship of God had become a colony focused on the
worship of the emperor. The people wanted to go back to the days when their
kings had been like David and Solomon, rulers renowned for their righteousness
and wisdom.
Another aspect of wanting Jesus to be king is that they wanted
him to be the king they wanted. A king that would meet their needs. They wanted
Jesus to lead them to national greatness. They wanted a king who would fill
their bellies like their ancestors had eaten manna in the wilderness. They wanted,
as Jesus put it, “the food that perishes” (v. 27). They wanted a king made in
their image. A king they could control. A political tool to serve their
political ends. Jesus was not the king they wanted.
Jesus came to bring them nourishment for their souls. The
Son of Man gives “the food that endures for eternal life” (v. 27). The needs of
our bodies always return. We may eat our fill, but we will be hungry again. We
may receive healing, but we will be sick and broken again. What Jesus was
offering was something everlasting, something that would never need to be replenished,
and would never run out.
The story told in The Gospel According to John is a
story situated in a particular context, a certain time and place, but it is
really a story about the meaning of Jesus in the universe. John’s Gospel begins
with the Creation story, and the Word who was with God. The Word became flesh
and dwelt among us, and returned to God. The timeframe of that story is
eternal, and the location is all of God’s creation. In that sense, Jesus didn’t
come to be an earthly king, but an eternal, cosmic one.
“What sign are you going to give us then?” (v. 30). The
signs that Jesus gives them are not the symbols and acts of a conquering king
of this world. Instead, what they receive are signs that point to belonging in the
one true family, the kin-dom of God, which is eternal and boundless. Compassion,
healing, hope, and love, these are not the attributes of a ruler. They are the attributes
of a family.
So why did they follow Jesus? Why do we? It may be that the
crowd that got in boats to cross the sea pursued Jesus because they wanted to
use his power for their own ends, rather than follow him in pursuit of God’s
will. Now I can understand their desire for a powerful leader. Who better to
break the power of the Romans than God’s Messiah? And once they had achieved their
deliverance, what better way to ensure their goals and desires were met than to
use the political and economic power to achieve them? Jesus was, to some, a means
to achieve power.
Do we do the same sometimes? Do we pursue Jesus in order to
achieve our own goals, our own human kingdoms? Or, do we follow where Jesus
leads, in order to participate in God’s kin-dom: to love and care for one
another with the compassion and kindness of a holy family? Are we seduced by
the sparkling gem of Jesus’ power, or are we pulled toward a ministry of
healing and hope?
There was a time when the Christian Church was powerful,
sanctuaries were full, and the world revolved around the Christian calendar.
Sunday was for church, and everything else was scheduled around that fact. And
yet, one scholar asks, “did Jesus cross the water from that church?”[2]
When the Church was ascendant, did it become a club for the saved, and forget
the mission of saving the lost? Mark’s Gospel records Jesus saying, “Those who
are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to
call not the righteous but sinners.”[3]
The crowd had been healed and fed, a sign, a miracle. And
yet it wasn’t enough. They wanted to gain his power for themselves. “When Jesus
realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.”[4]
They had seen his power, but missed the point. Jesus shared bread and fish with
five thousand people, a demonstration of compassion and generosity, and all
that some of them saw was the act of power. Jesus didn’t come to impress the crowds,
but to lead them to a new way of being.
Jesus did the things he did not to gain the support of the crowds
for political gain. He healed so that the sick would know they had a healer. He
forgave the sinners so that they would know that they were still loved. He fed
the hungry so that they would know that God wanted them to have life.
“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’”
(v. 35). Jesus wasn’t offering magic baskets of bread that never emptied. He
was offering a way of being in the world. When it is our souls that hunger and
thirst, it is not power or prestige that we need. When it is our souls that
hunger and thirst, it is justice and peace that we need. It is hope and healing
that we need. It is compassion, love, and family that we need.
What is the bread that gives you life? For me, a smile and
laughter shared; a companion in the waiting room or a hand to hold in the
hospital bed; a kindness given with nothing expected in return. What gives me
life is not pursuing Jesus to try to capture his power, but following where he
leads, into the midst of the powerless and the hopeless. When we eat together,
as Jesus showed us how, we are nourished by the bread that comes down from
heaven, strengthened by our shared mission to bring more love, hope, and peace
to the world. Let us break bread together.
Amen.
[1] The
scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard
Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of
the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] The
Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, “Sermon Seeds: Grow, Grow Together,” reflection on John
6:24–35 for August 1, 2021, from: https://www.ucc.org/sermon-seeds/.
[3]
Mark 2:17.
[4]
John 6:15.
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