Sermon Title: "Hungry for a Blessing"
Date: August 2, 2009
Minister: Rev. Charles Ensley

Lesson:  John 6:24-35

We all want a quick fix.  We go in to see the doctor, and wonder why he or she can’t give us a shot or a pill to make us feel better by the end of the day.  We take our car in to get it serviced, and are disgusted to find they have to order a part.  What about the parts department just across the service drive?  Don’t they have parts in stock?  We pray for someone or some situation, and it doesn’t get fixed right away.  What’s wrong with God?  Didn’t God hear our prayer?

So too was it with the crowds back in Jesus’ day.  Last Sunday, you heard the wondrous story of feeding 5,000 people with five loaves and two fishes.  There was such an abundance left over that it filled twelve baskets.

That evening Jesus went across the sea to Capernaum.  The crowd returned to the scene of the miraculous feeding, perhaps wanting to crown Jesus as king, perhaps wanting more bread.  Surprised that he was nowhere around, they too traveled across the sea to Capernaum.  What follows is one of those discussions typical of John’s Gospel where Jesus says one thing, and an individual or a crowd continues to ask other questions, completely missing the import of what Jesus is declaring.

After having their fill of bread the previous day, they come seeking Jesus, hungry for more, or perhaps just hungry for a blessing.  “Do not work for the food that perishes,” warns Jesus, “but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” (v. 27)  The barley loaves that Jesus used to feed the 5,000 are “food that perishes,” and he tells the people that they shouldn’t focus their enthusiasm on this kind of bread.  Instead, they should work for the food that endures for eternal life.

In a nutshell—or one whole loaf—this verse captures the reason that Jesus has such mixed feelings about performing amazing miracles.  Any loaves that he multiplies are going to be eaten, and then the people will still be hungry the next day.  Any water that he turns into wine is going to be consumed, and then the wedding guests will still want more.  Any paralytic that he heals is going to become old and then become crippled again.  Any dead child that he raises to new life is going to grow up and then die of natural causes.

Miracles are tricky because they make a big impression and then disappear. They don’t last forever.  Jesus doesn’t want us to feast on a steady diet of miracles because these amazing works don’t provide complete nutrition in themselves.

This is why Jesus attempts to turn the attention of the enthusiastic crowd from quick fixes and microwave meals to “the food that endures for eternal life.”  Work for this food, says Jesus, the food “which the Son of Man will give you.”  Then the hungry people ask, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”  And Jesus answers, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (6:27-29)

The crowd gets closer to understanding when they talk about their Israelite ancestors in the wilderness, eating the manna Moses provided.  But Jesus corrects them.  It was not Moses who provided the bread from heaven, but God who provided.  This bread gives life to the world.  Reminiscent of the Samaritan woman at the well two chapters earlier who wished for the living water so that she would not need to draw water from the well again, this crowd requests:  “Sir, give us this bread always.”

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.”  This is the work of God — that you believe in Jesus, whom God has sent.

This is the long-term solution, not the quick fix.  Back in ninth grade, I was sick the week the novels were distributed for our term papers.  Upon my return, just one was left:  Charles Dickens’ “Tale of Two Cities.”  It was the longest book of those on the list.  I was not thrilled.  I could have instead skimmed the Cliff Notes version and probably prepared a passable essay.  But I plowed through the book and, four-and-a-half decades later, am grateful for having gone the whole route.  It was a much richer, more fulfilling experience that has remained with me.  “It is a far, far better thing” to have read the book in its entirety, with all its complexities and beauty of language.

I can’t tell you how many people, after I conduct a memorial service for their family member, one which they found uplifting, helpful and hopeful, tell me “I’m going to start coming to church.  I need to be here.”  But they rarely do.  They got their quick-fix.  They were helped through the painful, shocking, numbing days that follow the death of a loved one, no matter whether it was expected or unexpected.  And then life goes on for them.  And I don’t see them again.

But those of us who come here—or to any church—people who grow and develop their faith, they are building up for themselves treasure troves of resources to deal with all the problems and crises which ordinary life throws your way.  And they will come.  And that’s when you want to have a Savior you can depend on to throw you a lifeline and hold you and walk with you through whatever storm befalls you.

When Jesus says, “I am the bread of life,” he is not talking about perishable bread that feeds our belly for a short while, but the nourishment of God that feeds our souls.  This is not bread that we are supposed to knead and bake, if we could.  This is bread that God gives us as a gift.  When the confused crowd asked “What must we do to perform the works of God?”, Jesus says, in effect, “You cannot ‘perform’ the work of God.  It will transform you, but you cannot perform it.  God performs the work of God.  You are to believe it, receive it, and live it.”

If only the crowd then, and now, could understand it, the Gospel of John could close at the sixth chapter with the concluding words of Jesus today: 

“I am the bread of life. 

Whoever comes to me will never be hungry,

and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”  (6:35)