Communion Sunday Oct 2022

COMMUNION SUNDAY: Give us this day PART TWO

FEEDING OF 5000: on of John’s signs (not just sharing)

IMAGINE: To have been there

Word spreads through the crowd: “5 loaves, 2 fish”

See? Hear? Smell? For once—Taste?

How would you feel?

Before the miracle?

During the miracle?

How about after the miracle?

How would you feel then?

What would be going through your mind as you sat there on the grass, enjoying how it feels to be full and satisfied, watching the disciples of Jesus gather up the leftovers: enough to fill 12 baskets!

Then the whispers start echoing through the crowd, building into murmurs and then rumblings…

“This must be him! The prophet we’ve been waiting for!”

And as the excitement grows, you see people making their way towards Jesus with a determined look in their eyes.

They want to declare him king and get about the business of restoring Israel.

Then…just like that…he’s gone.

Jesus has slipped away.

And you’re left there with a huge multitude of folks.

A bunch of excited, confused, but at least not starving folks.

And again the question: How would you feel at this point of the story?

As this remarkable day draws to a close.

Let’s keep reading…picking up the next day (2 verses early)

[JOHN 6:22-35]

So the very next day this same crowd that had been fed by the loaves and fish start wondering just what’s happened with Jesus.

They’re confused, because they know that only one boat had been there, and only Jesus’ disciples had taken it across the lake.

He had not been with them.

Of course, the readers of John’s gospel know that Jesus had taken another way across the lake--the little-known footpath—but this crowd doesn’t know that.

But they do know that he’s been hanging out in Capernaum, so when boats become available, they make their own way there.

And sure enough, that’s where they find Jesus, and they greet him with a petulant, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

It seems like such a simple, innocent question.

“When did you get here?”

And yet it’s a question that leads to a teaching of Jesus that has been called some of the most profound in all the gospels.

It’s rooted in Jesus’ razor-sharp insight into this crowd and their true motives, and his crystal-clear understanding of himself and what he offers to humanity.

There is so much here in these few words Jesus speaks that reveals him for who he is…and also unmasks us for who we are.

Because, truth be told, we don’t need to use a lot of imagination to see ourselves in the crowd of John 6.

Their reactions are typically human, rooted in the same frailties every one of us knows from time to time.

Just like so many in Scripture before them, even after they experience the power of God in a significant way…almost immediately they just don’t get it.

And I don’t know about you, but I can identify with that.

Even the disciples, as close to Jesus as they are, struggle with the same kind of misunderstandings, confusion. and short-sightedness.

And here Jesus uses the misunderstanding to offer them…and us…a powerful image of who he is and what he came to do.

“Rabbi…when did you get here?” the crowd asks.

They start their question off with a word of respect, calling Jesus their teacher.

But Jesus knows their desire to be with him is based on more primal urges than the quest for knowledge.

“You’re here,” he says, “not because I filled your minds, but because I filled your bellies.”

“You want another free lunch.”

Jesus sees right through them and identifies them for what they are:

Consumers.

They’re only interested in Jesus because of what they think they can get out of him.

And isn’t that still our struggle sometimes today?

Aren’t we tempted to approach Jesus as some sort of divine Father Christmas whose primary purpose is to meet our felt needs?

Sad to say, but the church in recent decades hasn’t done much to dissuade us from that kind of thinking…

…in fact a lot of times the church has promoted that kind of thinking, offering a narcissistic approach to faith that focuses more on what we think we need than it does on what God desires for us.

Because sometimes what we think we need is the last thing we need, and sometimes what God desires for us is not something we’re willing to accept.

And as long as we are stuck in consumer mode as Christians and as a church…

…we will never thrive.

“Don’t work for food that spoils,” Jesus tells the crowd.

“Don’t focus on such minor, temporary things.”

The Apostle Paul will echo Jesus’ words in his letter to the Colossians when he writes: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

“Do not work for food that spoils, but for 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.”

I have to be honest, the first time I read this passage I chuckled out loud because I never expected to encounter the phrase “seal of approval” in the Bible.

I associate that with Good Housekeeping (UK? Queen?) more than I do with the God of the universe.

But it’s a good image, in the Greek more of a verb than a noun: “For him God the Father…has sealed.”

Not in the sense of sealing something shut (kitchen), but in the sense of an important letter from the king upon which he has placed his seal as a way of authenticating the message it contains.

One of the coolest gifts Sharon and I ever received was from a dear friend in Scotland who knew of our fondness for ancient things…

So as a parting gift to us when we were moving back home he gave us a beautifully preserved wax seal that had been on letter from the 14th century sent by the abbot of a Scottish abbey.

It’s a fascinating thing to look at, to hold something in your hand that’s 400 years older than the nation where I was born.

Seals like this were used to prove that the message you received came from who they claimed to come from…and that’s the meaning of Jesus’ words here.

God himself has placed his seal on Jesus, he has authenticated his ministry.

He did it at his baptism: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I’m well pleased.”

And he did it every time Jesus performed a miracle, just like the crowd had seen the day before.

These clearly show that Jesus is no mere rabbi, more than a wise carpenter or sage philosopher, he is the one sent from God himself.

And we should pay attention to what he says.

God says that pretty directly at another moment of authentication, the transfiguration, when he declares, “This is my beloved Son—listen to him!”

Because what Jesus says—what Jesus offers—is far richer than whatever we might gain from all these other pursuits.

What he offers is better than food for our bellies, it’s food for our souls.

Food, Jesus says, that “endures to eternal life.”

And what Scripture makes clear is that this kind of spiritual food should be our foremost pursuit.

Not that this means we’re just meant to fill up our lives with Christian activity.

When Jesus says, “work for food that endures to eternal life,” it seems the crowd really only hears one word of that: WORK.

Immediately their thoughts turn to what they need to DO for God.

“What must we do to do the works God requires?”

Interesting wording there.

What must we DO to DO the WORKS God requires.

I looked it up in the Greek, and it’s an accurate translation.

More literally, “What should we DO to WORK the WORKS of God?”

I don’t want to read too much into that, especially since the crowd wouldn’t have been speaking Greek, but I think John is capturing the mood and feel of their question…and their hearts.

They’re focused on activity, they’re associating the kind of full and abundant life Jesus is talking about with the things that they can do to earn it.

But Jesus stops that thinking in its tracks: “The work of God,” he says, “is believing in the one God has sent.”

He takes the emphasis off of DOING and onto BELIEVING, off of WORKS and onto FAITH.

I often talk about the dilemma I’ve seen a lot over 25 years or so of pastoral work.

Although to be honest I’ve seen it most in myself.

It’s the sad truth that for many Christians, we grasp the reality of salvation by grace through faith…that it has nothing to do with us and what we do but with Jesus and what he’s done…

…we grasp that initially…but then we so quickly fall back into the trap of legalism and works.

As if God give us a ticket to heaven for free but then we have to earn everything else.

But how freeing and marvelous it is when we as children of God come to see that when it comes to the Christian life and Christian growth…

…it’s all grace.

The kind of spiritual food we need is not something we can create ourselves.

It’s not something we earn, it’s something that is given by a loving Father who delights in giving good gifts to his children.

PUSH BACK: just sit back and do nothing? CAVE ANALOGY (warmth)

We make an effort, but it’s not our effort that creates the growth.

It positions us in such a way that God is able to grow us.

By his grace.

Our role is to come to him…in faith.

WHY WE COME FORWARD TO THE TABLE: image of coming to Jesus

Because it’s him that we come to, and we need to keep that in mind.

Only Jesus himself can provide the kind of spiritual sustenance we need.

But even when we are met with the truth of who Jesus is and what he offers to us…

…our flesh is reluctant to let go of our old thinking and desires.

You see that at the end of our story here.

Jesus has met their every concern and question head-on, he doesn’t mince words, he speaks plainly and clearly.

And yet still they push back:

“Give us one more sign!” they say.

“Like Moses in the wilderness giving manna to the people!”

They want one more piece of evidence, one more proof that Jesus is who he says he is, before they take the step of faith Jesus is calling them to make.

They even quote Scripture at Jesus.

Amazing how we can quote Scripture sometimes as a way of promoting our own agenda instead of God’s.

But again Jesus sees right through them.

“Your focus is all wrong,” he says.

“In fact, you’ve missed the point of that story entirely.”

As we often do.

The crowd is still focused on the material not the spiritual.

They’re saying to Jesus:

“Look…you fed a few thousand for one meal, but God fed thousands more than that for 40 years in the desert.”

“If you are who you say you are, then give us something along those lines.”

And I can almost picture Jesus shaking his head as they continue to just not get it.

“Don’t you realize…that the manna in the wilderness wasn’t from Moses but from God?”

“Don’t you realize…that God still provides manna for his people today, just not the kind you’re thinking of?”

“Don’t you realize…that the true bread of heaven…is standing right in front of you?”

Again, Jesus unmasks them—and us—with surgical precision.

For one thing he exposes something that I think we all struggle with from time to time: the temptation to confuse the messenger with the message.

“Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven…that was God.”

And if you have ever—like me—had the temptation to think that the kind of spiritual nourishment that we so desperately need can only come from one place…or one person…or one church…or one style of worship…

…I think there’s a good corrective here in Jesus’ words.

It’s dangerous if we think that our spiritual growth depends on a place or a church or a pastor or…whatever it might be…

…Jesus’ words here remind us that spiritual growth is not about the place or the messenger…

…it’s about the work of God in our lives:

God meeting us.

God feeding us regardless of the tools he might use to make that happen.

“My Father gives you bread from heaven.”

And then the clincher: “That bread…is me.”

“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Beautiful words, aren’t they?

Great words for a Communion Sunday.

But here’s a question: are they true?

NOT OBJECTIVELY TRUE.

TRUE FOR YOU? TRUE FOR ME?

If Jesus says that those who come to me will never go hungry or thirsty in the depths of their souls…

…why are so many of those in the church today suffering from spiritual malnutrition?

COMES: “is coming.”

BELIEVES: “is believing.”

TRANSITION