Messiah
Lutheran Church, Fargo
Pentecost
10/August 1, 2021
John
6:24-35
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
I’ll bet that many of us have been watching at least
some of the summer Olympic Games being played out in Tokyo, Japan.
It’s really quite the deal: over
10,000 athletes from more than 200 countries, competing in 339 medal events, all
of them hoping to take home one of over 1000 medals that will be awarded.
What you might not realize is that the Tokyo Olympics
are taking place at the same time as another sort of Olympics—what I’d like to
dub the John Chapter 6 Bread of Life Olympics.
Whereas the athletic Olympics roll around every
four years, the Bread of Life Olympics take place in late summer every three
years….
….Because that’s when our Revised Common
Lectionary--the “official” list of scripture texts read during worship services
in many churches—our lectionary hands us not one, not two, not three, not four,
but FIVE straight Sunday gospel readings all from the 71 verses that make up John
chapter 6….a super-long chapter that starts out with the Fourth Gospel’s
version of the Feeding of the 5,000--the only one of Jesus’s miracles that is
recorded in all four gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Now what makes John’s version of the feeding
story unique is the fact that—following the miracle itself (which Pastor John
Jorgenson preached about last Sunday)—this miraculous banquet kicks off a long,
winding conversation between Jesus and folks he fed—five thousand hungry souls
who feasted on just five barley loaves and only two fish, with 12 baskets of
leftovers to boot!
This morning’s gospel reading, begins with Jesus,
having left the location where the feeding took place, Jesus travels to the
other side of the Sea of Galilee—perhaps to have some time alone to rest and
reflect and pray!...
…we see, here in our gospel lesson, Jesus being
confronted by the crowd who lead off sort of a dumb “doorknob” of a
question: “Rabbi, when did you come
here?”
But Jesus sees right through their curiosity about his
itinerary, probing instead what’s really on their minds: “Very truly, I tell you, you are
looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the
loaves.”
Thus begins an awkward conversation in which Jesus and
members of the crowd seem to be talking right past each another, almost as if
they were speaking two different languages--operating on two different
wavelengths.
Here’s what I mean.
1. First of all, as the crowd wants to know when
Jesus arrived at his current location, Jesus discerns what’s really on their
minds: the fact that they want another
free lunch—they hanker for a repeat of the previous day’s bread-and-fish
banquet.
Jesus filled their bellies once—can he?—will
he do it again?
But Jesus tells the crowd
that he’s not interested in setting up his own Old Country Buffet or 24/7 catering
service.
And Jesus says so rather
bluntly--not because the crowd is asking too much of him, but because they’re expecting
too little.
“Do not work for the food
that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the
Son of Man will give you.”
2.
Second,
as the members of the restless crowd ponder what they’ve just heard, they become
fixated on one of the words Jesus used: the word “work.”
“What must we do
to perform the works of God?” members of the crowd
ask.
But Jesus, rather quickly and nimbly, pivots away
from their question to reply that “this is the work of God, that you believe
in him whom he has sent.”
But just what sort of
work is Jesus talking about here---and who exactly is the one who does the
working?
It’s as if members of the
restless crowd are laboring under the delusion that Jesus has come to offer
them a grand D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself!) project, when, in fact, that’s the LAST
thing Jesus wants.
The work that matters,
Jesus clarifies, is the work of God….which is about what God (not
you or I) are doing—but how God is working in and through us for our
life and for the life of the whole world.
The work of God—God’s
work--isn’t what people do for God…but it’s about what God does for them…what
God accomplishes for us, in us and through us—giving us—graciously, abundantly
bestowing on us the gift of faith, hich a trusting faith that lays hold of and
believes and counts on God’s work being done for us and our salvation.
3.
Third, the restless crowd
here in John 6 picks up on yet another word that Jesus had used here—and that’s
the word sign.
“What sign are you
going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you?”
The crowd hankers for a
hint or a clue or some proof that will assure them—that will remove all their
doubts and questions. What dramatic evidence
can Jesus give them to believe and lay hold on what he’s offering them?
But here’s the
kicker: Jesus declares that he
himself is the proof they long for.
Jesus—in his very real presence, right then and there with them—Jesus offers
himself as the sign par excellence….the only one who can align their their past,
their present and their future…..
….in other words Jesus
doesn’t just provide Bread, he actually is the
Bread of Life, having come down from heaven for the life of the whole world.
Even though the crowd seems
to ask all the wrong questions, Jesus somehow graciously offers them all the
right answers…all the faith-nurturing, life-giving, future-opening answers….answers
for the original crowd here in John 6…..but also answers for everyone who has
come after them, right down through the centuries to you and me,today, as we drink
in Jesus’ words, here in Fargo ND!
In doing so—lo and
behold!—Jesus feeds us once again—just as richly and generously as he had fed
the 5,000 with the loaves and fishes.
Jesus feeds you and me,
my friends, with overflowing good news and death-defying hope this morning.
·
Jesus nourishes us with the assurance that
he is always ready to give us more than we realize we need.
When I was a little boy my dear mother often warned me not to get my hopes up too high (especially when Christmas Day or my next birthday were coming around)…my mom wanted me to be realistic in what I was hoping for in terms of gifts and presents I might receive.
But such wise,
down-to-earth realism has no place when it comes to us approaching God in Jesus
Christ. That’s because of the sturdy
hope we have in Christ, the hope that (as it says in Ephesians chapter 3) God
is “able to accomplish
abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.”
·
But there’s
more here: Jesus strengthens us with
astonishing promise that you and I are never, ever left “on our own” trying to
produce even an ounce of faith—but that Jesus is always at work with us,
through us and in us…freely giving us the faith that sustains
us…graciously bestowing on us the faith that saves us.
So it is…every time we hear God’s Word…and every time we taste God’s
goodness in the bread and the wine, the Body and the Blood of our Lord’s
Supper.
When that happens, as it is happening to us this morning!—we simply echo
the fervent request made by the restless crowd here in John chapter 6: “Give us this bread always—give us your very
self, Lord, Jesus, because we know we can count on you.”
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
