Feeding the crowd of 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish was an enormous crowd-pleaser. Getting free food had so enthralled the crowd that they wanted to make Jesus their bread king–by force, if needed!
So, Jesus withdrew to a mountain to slip away from their plots and schemes. His disciples left by boat and headed across the sea of Galilee. That normally would’ve been the easiest way to cross. But because of the winds, it wasn’t.
The disciples are delayed, so when Jesus later leaves, He catches up with His disciples by walking on the water. Of course, Jesus walking on the water in the middle of the night scares His disciples senseless. They think they see a ghost. But once they hear His voice, they realize who it is and welcome Jesus on board.
But when they get to the shore, the crowd is puzzled, for much of the crowd is now on the other side of theSea of Galilee. They saw the boat leave without Jesus. So, they ask their questions: “Rabbi, when did you get here? How did you get here?”
But instead of satisfying their curiosity, Jesus stretches them on what it means to believe, to have faith. Where was their trust? Why were they following Him? What did they want? So, Jesus says: “I assure you: You seek me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” In other words, “You want me to fill your bellies, satisfy your wants, and bandage your bruises. But I have more to give than bread and fish, than your earthly needs.”
Jesus then said: “Don’t work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
There are two kinds of food: The food for which you work, and the food you are given; the food that perishes, and food that endures to eternal life. You know about the food you buy from the wages you earn. That’s one reason you go to work, to put bread on the table. That food goes back to our Fall into sin at the dawn of time: “By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your bread until you return to the ground” (Genesis 3:19).
But that wasn’t how it was in the beginning. In the beginning, God gave to all the food they needed. For it was all a gift of creation from the Creator. And even more, there was the tree of life, from which one could eat and live forever. In the beginning, it was all gift and no work.
But sin, disobedience, and death changed the way the world ran, even your diet. It was no longer fruits and nuts that freely came from the trees. It was now food by the sweat of your brow. It was now farming uncooperative ground. It was fighting weeds, foul weather, and insects. It was grinding grain and kneading dough. It was work, work, and then some more work.
That’s how life is in this fallen world. It’s production schedules, meeting budget, dishonest business partners, lawsuits, cranky customers, mean bosses, and lazy workers. Ecclesiastes calls it “futility,” an endless chasing after the wind.
God rigged it that way. He made work a sweaty, frustrating business, to teach us that work is not the way to life, especially eternal life. Work is simply work. We can’t work our way to heaven; we can only work our way to the grave. That’s what this fallen creation is to teach us. Even creation is to turn our eyes toward God.
The food for which we work perishes. It spoils; it gets moldy and smelly. That’s why we have refrigerators and freezers. For our food is dead and slowly decaying. We’re just trying to slow it down by freezing, canning, and using preservatives. Even the manna, which God gave to the Old Testament Israelites, was like that. If you tried to store more for the next day, it rotted and began to stink.
The world is decaying. It’s as the Apostle Paul says, “For the creation was subjected to frustration” (Romans 8:20). All that doom and gloom you hear in the news–that’s all a part of death, which is the wages of sin. We can’t turn the clock back. We can’t undo the Fall into sin.
Our food is dead and, in the end, we die with it. The bread Moses gave, the manna, couldn’t save them–or us–from death. All who ate of it still died. Neither could the Law that Moses gave save them–or us. That’s our lot as sinners. That’s what Paul means when he says, “The wages of sin is death.”
“But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” It’s all gift, not works. And for a gift to be a gift, it must be free. And it is. Even more, it’s also undeserved and unmerited, and God places such life into dead and empty hands. Jesus says: “Don’t work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”
Jesus promises food, food that needs no preservatives or refrigeration. It doesn’t spoil and endures to eternal life. And guess what? It also preserves the eater to eternal life. Imagine that–food that never spoils! But even more, this food prevents you from decaying eternally, as well. Wow, if Jesus is giving that, where do I line up to get some?
And yet the world, even you and I here this morning, pay more attention to belly food than eternal food. We lavish more devotion on our daily bread than on the Bread of Life. We’re more concerned about Sunday brunch than we are about the Supper of our Lord, that our Lord’s Supper makes the service last 20 minutes longer. Do we think this? Do we act this way? Jesus is here to give eternal life, but we’re more concerned about filling our bellies?
Like the Israelites of old, we need to repent. They were fed by God’s hand in the wilderness, but what did they want? They wanted the menu ofEgypt: Leeks, garlic, meat, and wine–even though that was the food of their slavery.
The food that endures to eternity is not the food of our labor. It’s food that Jesus gives to you. And He earned the wages to bring you this food. It’s from the Son of Man, from Jesus, the Source of your salvation. It’s from Jesus and no one else.
But the crowds, like us, when we’re not consumed by our bellies, are still thinking about works. “What must we do to do the works that God demands?” Surely, we have to do something? “There is no free lunch,” which even in this day of Government handouts, life is still teaching us. “What must we do to do the works that God demands?”
Listen carefully to Jesus’ answer: “This is the work of God–that you believe in the One he has sent.” Did you notice that Jesus didn’t say, “works”? He said “work” in the singular. That’s because it’s not our works but the work of God, the singular work that God does.
That’s because even the faith we have is a work of God, not ours. It’s the work of God that we believe and trust in Jesus, whom He has sent. St. Paul fleshes this out in Ephesians, Chapter 2: “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not from works, so no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Any works that we may do grow out of the work of that God has already done through His Son, Jesus, in the Holy Spirit. Our virtuous and moral life doesn’t save us. No, it’s Jesus’ life, death, and His victory over the grave that saves. And it’s all given to us freely, as a gift, and received through trusting God, which He works in us.
Our work can’t save us. Our bread can’t save us. Only Jesus has a work and a bread that gives life to the world. He is the Baker and the eternal loaf of bread. He is the food of eternal life. He is not like the food that Moses gave, the manna in the wilderness. When you get Jesus, you get food for eternal life.
The people asked, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you?” And with that question, Jesus has them–and us–right where we should be. For we are now at the place where Jesus gives Himself, for the bread that Jesus gives is Himself. Jesus says, “I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will not hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
Jesus is our bread; He is our drink. If you’re thinking the Lord’s Supper, you’re on the right track. And what is the sign that He gives that we should take Him at His word and trust Him? It’s nothing short of His death and resurrection. That’s how this Bread of Life is baked. He’s put in the furnace of God’s wrath against sin. He chooses to be baked in the burning heat of His passion to save His fallen creation. Like wheat ground up by the mill and put into the fire, Jesus endured the cross, bearing our sin, to be our Food and Source of eternal life.
Jesus says, “I am the Bread of Life.” He’s not a delicacy we are to indulge in only once in a while. Bread is everyday food. And Jesus is our everyday food for eternal life. Jesus is food for those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Bread is a staple of life. And like a staple of life, Jesus is here for you every time you come to worship, which is how it should be. For Jesus does not call Himself a rare delicacy, but the bread of life. Receive Him as the everyday staple of Life that He is.
So, come to eat and drink that you may have your fill to eternal life. Amen.
