Proper 13 RCL B

Proper 13 RCL B

St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church Cornwall

John 6:22-35

Law & Gospel

Shortly after the feeding of the five thousand, the people found themselves being hungry again. And so they looked and sought for Jesus but neither He nor His disciples were anywhere to be found. By that time, Jesus and His disciples had already gone across the sea, and the people they fed were back again where they started, hungry, needy, and wanting.So they went and found theirown boats to take across the sea to follow Jesus and His disciples. Not to follow a Messiah, not to hear the words of a prophet, but to get some free food.

As Jesus says; you guys didn’t follow me because you saw the signs that I was the Messiah or that I was a prophet of God, you just liked being fed. They followed them because they didn’t grasp the meaning of the miracle that they had just witnessed, not only about who or what the bread represented, but also how the bread got to them.

They were going to ridiculous lengths to get this free bread, doing far more work than they would have done going back home and making a sandwich, far more than even a full days work for money to buy something more interesting to eat than what they had received in this miracle. Jesus, picking up on this, tried to draw their eyes to their own insanity, saying don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures forever that the Son of Man (the Messiah) will give you. All of the work that they were putting in was for nothing more than bread, a perishable food item that is the cheapest, most common, and the least special of all items in the grocery store. But they still could not hear what Jesus was saying, because like so many of us, they only spoke in the language of imperatives and commands. “What must we do to receive this bread” They had so greatly misunderstood what they had just seen the night before, that they were looking to themselves, to what they must do, a work that must be done by them to receive the eternal food. Jesus said, Don’t work for the food that perishes, but the Son of Man will give you the food that grants eternal life. But somehow they misunderstood Him, asking, “What must we do to get this food, to get this eternal life.” Nothing! It is freely given. Immediately, as if they had either not hear him at all, or simply rejected out of hand everything that Jesus had just said, they then asked “what must we do to perform the works of God.” Again, like so many of us they only spoke the language of imperatives and commands. They could only hear what you said so long as you began with a do this and ended with or else. They could hear IF/THEN statements, but they could not hear promises. They could not see, or accept, or understand the concept of gift, of grace, mercy, or forgiveness. And when that happens, when you lose the ability to perceive yourself as the person that things are done to, things are done for, and to whom gifts are given, you will always be trying to do the work of God yourself.

And that is directly where this conversation goes, because while they were busy trying to figure out how they were going to do God’s work, Jesus was again trying to point them back to the gospel – saying, no no – thisis the work of God, that you believe in meand mywork for you. You don't do God’s work for Him, but receive what He has done for you. And then they again, miss what he has said. As if the work of God was indeed for them to do, and it was to believe“strong enough” or “rightly” or “truly” or “savingly.” They understood rightly that faith was a work, but they misunderstood who it was who would do that work. It is the work of God! As Paul says in Ephesians 2;8, faith is a gift, it is not your own doing. And as Jesus said, your faith is the work of God! Yet the people, totally missing the point said – then do something, a sign, a miracle, that we might see it and believe you, stop with the riddles already, just be like Moses and give us more food, because again, for them, the Messiah was there to feed. So close to the truth, yet so far. He was there to feed. But they did not understand what the food was. He was there to give them the bread from heaven, but it would not be a reward for anything that they had done, but the forgiveness but what they did do. Why couldn’t they see? They have again missed almost every point that Christ has made this far. They mistook earthly bread, earthly salvation as the work of the Messiah and the core of our faith. They mistook the gift of Christ as a reward for their work. They mistook the work of God as something that they were to do and that they were to perform. They mistook faith in Christ and His work as something that they were to do. All because they could not understand the language that Christ was speaking to them. They mistook Him for a new Moses. And eventually when He failed to give them the commands, opportunities, and offer of rewards that they so deeply wanted, they turned back, and rejected Him, because He was a mediocre Carpenter, and a horrible Lawyer, and as far as they could tell a lunatic who wanted to be cannibalized. They simply did not have the eyes to see the heavenly bread before them. They did not have the ears to hear the words of gift, grace, promise, or forgiveness. They could not believe – they could not do God’s work for Him.

But the good news, is that while you cannot, God can, and God is. Through the preaching of the Gospel the Holy Spirit is enlightening minds, softening hearts, calling light, faith, and salvation into being where there is only death and condemnation. Our God resurrects those who are dead in sin by the power of water and the Word in Baptism. Our God comes to bring us His very own flesh and blood given and shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins in the Lord’s Supper, that we may take and eat Christ Himself, and so be forgiven, and so receive life, and so be saved, by the one on whom the Father has set His seal and His promise. This is the work of God; your salvation from beginning to end. And it is given to you freely, as a gift, right now, every Sunday, ever day – for it is truly yours.