(040) The Gospel of John XIII: Earthly King or Eternal King?
The Gospel of John XIII: Earthly King or Eternal King?
John 6:1-71
August 10, 2008
Prep:
· Newbigin (p. 78)
· Blinded by Might
· NT Wright
· Sermon: John 10
· Leftovers
Intro
· My shoplifting.
· “You pick the sermon”
Prayer
· Be with those out camping and on vacation
Moses rides again
We are in chapter six, which is far too long to read, but we will be referencing it, so turn there.
Four stories:
· Feeding of the 5,000 men.
· Jesus walking of the water.
· Conversation in the synagogue: They want more miracles and more bread, he says he is the bread of life, eat him.
· Challenges his disciples.
Not simple related, but all part of the same story. John is a master story teller, weaving these events together around the upcoming Passover (v. 4).
· Passover celebrated their deliverance, like our 4th of July.
· But imagine if America was occupied – the 4th would be a time of unrest and rebellious sentiment.
Furthermore, the miraculous feeding sharply brought to mind Moses’ manna. They are watching an OT drama and prophecy play out before them and they knew it.
· But they completely misunderstood it.
Ä To understand this passage, you have to understand the religious and political climate of his day.
Jesus’ way
We have to go all the way back to the OT:
· Obey the rules or be exiled.
· Disobeyed and were exiled, but promise of return.
· Did return, but were still living under theological exile.
When Jews spoke of the kingdom of God, this is what they meant, not the afterlife. And Jews of that day had very different ideas of how to get the kingdom of God:
1. Essenes: Hide out and wait for God to violently bring it.
2. Herod and Sadducees: Gain it through compromise and political appeasement.
3. Zealots and Pharisees: Help God out a little.
Jesus option was completely different and radical: The kingdom of God will come within the current system within your hearts through his death and resurrection.
· This also meant that many Jews would not be part of the Kingdom, an important point later.
A lot of Jesus ministry was attempting to dissuade his people away from political solutions that would destroy them both politically and spiritually:
Matthew 7:13-14 13 ¶ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
And in fact Israel was destroyed 40 years later.
Israel’s king
So in this climate, the people saw Jesus as a political figure, Israel’s conquering king. The very thing they wanted was the very thing Jesus refused to be. Key verse of entire passage:
John 6:14-15 14 After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
Begging for bread, passing on gold
Undeterred, they went looking for him, with a delegate taking boats across the lake.
John 6:25-27 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” 26 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
Jesus is trying to take their eyes off of their temporal perspective, and place it on eternal things. Before the prophet, all they wanted was stuff from him and political solutions.
From our perspective, their mistake seems rather obvious: But they were simply more interested in filling their belly than eternal life.
· It showed how earthly minded and short sighted they were.
· It’s like offer a kid candy or to pay for college, but in fairness, we tell them to “trust us.”
Jesus is trying to show the how temporary their wants were. They were asking too little, not too much.
“Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life...”
Filled people soon become hungry again, sick people still die. Every one of the people that Jesus fed and healed died. His goal was far higher than postponing death, it was eliminating it.
His goal was more than satisfying a temporary need, it was bringing the fullness of life – not simply going to heaven, but experiencing life as God intended now and forever.
· Every person there died.
· Some of them probably witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem.
Walking in their footprints
But I hate it when we read the stories but don’t see us in their shoes: The way I see it, I, we are frequently guilty of looking at Jesus more as a earthly king, here to take care of my earthly needs, than my eternal Lord who I trust to do what is best.
Like these Israelites, I see at least two ways that we mistake Jesus for an earthly king, one national and one personal:
1. We turn Jesus into a political figure.
In the blog I asked “Would Jesus vote?” Perhaps that was too controversial of a topic, or perhaps people are overloaded, but I would have loved to hear your opinion.
· I don’t see that as prominent in this church, but there is a real danger when Jesus become a political cause.
In my opinion, he would have voted (like paying the temple tax), but he would not have expected politics to make a lasting change in our culture, any more than his.
2. We seek him as a miracle worker.
There is a really danger of looking at Jesus as a miracle worker, as one coming to take care of our needs.
Ä At Summit ‘08, they said the leap between immature Christians and mature Christians is asking God to bless our agendas and us seeking his will.
The gift of his flesh
This point in John is a real watershed in Jesus ministry – everything is different from here on out. He sifts through his follower to find the truly committed verse the groupies. He becomes less popular from this point out.
He does that by making an obnoxious statement:
John 6:53-56 53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.
This is confusing, yucky stuff, no doubt. (The Romans later misunderstood it and accused us of cannibalism.)
Obviously he is speaking of his own sacrificial death. But what is the point of saying in a way so likely to be misunderstood. There are two points that I see:
1. Jesus is offering himself, as opposed to “stuff.”
2. You have to trust him. This stuff made no sense on the surface, so what are we to do with it?
We find the answer in Peter’s response:
John 6:66-69 66 ¶ From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. 67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Did Peter understand Jesus? No, but he trusted him. He knew that he was the Messiah, the Son of God, so he could do nothing else other than follow and obey.
The situation has not changed: Jesus doesn’t always make sense, God does not always answer our prayer. The only question is: do we trust him?