Seeking Jesus for Jesus: John 6:24-35 - Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were [beside the sea,] they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
  ²⁵When they found him on the other side of the sea, 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.”
  ³⁵Jesus 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.” (NRSV)

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Many congregations in our area, including ours, have set up little free pantries on their church grounds. Throughout the pandemic, the demand for food has been considerable. Over time, we’ve learned what foods people like—and what foods they don’t. Our church and many donors from the community take great care to share foods that people will enjoy eating.

However, on many mornings, I find the pantry packed full of beans, both dried and canned. Beans are inexpensive and nourishing, which is why it makes economic sense to distribute them to food banks. But when food bank clients don’t like beans, they pass them along to us. Now I’m not saying that’s right or wrong on their part. It just is. 

But with so much food going to waste in our society, couldn’t we, as a society, do better to give our neighbors food that they want to eat?

I think we can safely assume that most of the 5,000 people were food insecure, meaning that they began each day not knowing if they would have enough food to eat. It should come as no surprise then, that when they ate their fill of the fish and the loaves Jesus provided, the crowd now believed that if they followed Jesus, and did everything he asked them to do, they would always have food.

I want to be very clear here that Jesus is not angry that the crowd followed him across the Sea of Galilee, seeking more food. He knew what it was like to hungry, and their hunger mattered to him. But he makes it very clear: he’s not a supernatural mega-chef sent to give food to the masses. Jesus came to give people something greater: the living bread from heaven… And unlike actual food, for which they must work to purchase or produce, Jesus feeds you with his very self when you live in relationship with him.

Unfortunately, the people struggle to wrap their minds around this truth—and the same thing happens even now. People aren’t so much seeking a relationship with Jesus as they are seeking to get what they need and want from Jesus. All across this land, preachers are proclaiming to their flocks that if they believe in Jesus and do his works, he will eliminate all possibilities of suffering, and reward them with health, wealth, and happiness. What this does is reduce Jesus into a cosmic vending machine that we control through our own behavior. In other words, an idol! He’s not your God! He’s just a divine means to your human ends. 

When you live in relationship with Jesus, you are not in control of how or when Jesus will meet your needs and answer your prayers. What you have, instead, is a promise that Jesus will give you whatever it is you need to walk with him as his disciple. 

But how can you walk with Jesus if you don’t have daily bread?

Recall how Jesus fed the 5,000 people in the first place: the five loaves and two fish were given to him by a little boy. I highly doubt that Jesus distributed food to all 5,000 people single-handedly. The people he fed join him in feeding others—and gathering up the leftovers.

Living together as people of God, we minister God’s love not only within the Body of Christ, but beyond it as well. If you are truly living in relationship with Jesus Christ, and someone needs what you have in abundance, you are going to share. We take our neighbors’ needs personally, because in Christ, the neighbor’s well-being is directly tied to ours. And we don’t merely throw them our leftovers; we feed one another with the best of what we have—because this is what love does. 

When we seek the cosmic blessing machine Jesus, we forget the relational dimension of our faith. Charity becomes an afterthought. A relationship with Jesus Christ that is exclusively private and personal denies Jesus the ability to minister to you through other persons, as well as Jesus’s ability to minister to other persons through you. Then, we cannot live together as God intends. 

Together, we come to be fed by Jesus. And he feeds us well. Jesus gives us the very best he has—his own flesh and blood, that all may eat, drink, and live forever.

Living together in trust and hope, sharing in Jesus’s compassion for the lost, hungry, and broken people all around us, we receive from God everything we need to walk faithfully with him. We help each other to see that Jesus is faithful, even when we are not; that his goodness is not something we work for but something we receive; and most importantly, that our need for Jesus is greater than even the bread that perishes. 

You can still be hold to ask for what you need; to cry out when you are in need. Faith is all about seeking Jesus to be unto you everything he promises to be. 

Jesus will give the best that he has, and everything else will be provided according to God’s all-sufficient grace. And he will provide in abundance, so that you can share with others the goodness you have received—so that they too will share in the beauty of belonging to the Body of Christ.