Reference

John 6:16-35

If you come to my home for a meal, there is a high likelihood that one of my children will ask you a “Would you rather…?” question. If you are unfamiliar, the classic “Would you rather…?” question—where you pick two equal and opposite (unlikely and quirky) scenarios, and ask a person which one they would rather have—usually sounds like, “Would you rather have a personal maid or a personal chef?” or, “Would you rather lose your sight or your memories?”

But my kids ask strange would you rather questions.

Would you rather have unlimited potato chips or a pot of gold?
Would you rather have have a magic robot that magically creates food, cooks, cleans and does anything you want…or have a blender that is quiet?
Would you rather be able to jump ten feet in the air…or fly?

They are still getting the hang of the art of questions.

You can’t have everything, you can’t have all 31 flavors at Baskin Robbins, so you have to choose. But we are faced with much less entertaining, and much more boring “would you rather” questions everyday.

Would you rather get enough sleep or get caught up on the work your behind on?
Would you rather make time for that relationship or make time for yourself?
Would you rather win the argument or win the friend?

So much of life is choosing: what is my priority? What matters most? And what we all want is to prioritize the right thing, the best thing. If we can’t have everything—and we cannot—then we must choose wisely. So, all of us have within us an unconscious rank of priorities, a first, second, third of what matters most to us. Spending time with our friends is important, but not as important as spending time with your family, which is superseded by spending time with our spouse, which is superseded ultimately by our commitment to God.

Augustine was the first theologian who noticed that our problems in life stem from a disordering of our loves. We confuse priorities, and treat second things like they are first things.

“He loves Thee too little who loves anything together with Thee, which he loves not for Thy sake. - Augustine

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16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

22 On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

John 6:16-35

Jesus’ disciples set off in a boat across the sea—technically, a very large lake—but Jesus remains behind. In Matthew and Mark’s account, Jesus makes His disciples go on without Him, while He remains behind to pray on the mountain alone (Mark 6:45-46; Matt 14:22-23). The crowds see that Jesus’ disciples left on the boat and Jesus didn’t. The day ends, people presumably sleep outside (or at least nearby), and when the morning comes they cannot find Jesus anywhere, so they decide to follow where the disciples to Capernaum.

The Food that Perishes

John tells us in vs. 24 that the crowd is “seeking Jesus.” If you remember, the first spoken words of Jesus in the gospel of John is the question: “What are you seeking?” (John 1:38). And that is a kind of banner over the book of John because John is all about how you can genuinely and sincerely believe in the real Jesus. Many people may be interested in Jesus and seek Him out, but they are seeking out their own idea of Jesus, not the real Jesus. And Jesus, at the beginning of this book looks at us and says: What are you looking for here?

It is possible to seek Jesus—to genuinely seek Jesus—but seek Him in a way that He is not pleased with: if He is simply the means by which you get what you want. He is the pipe, the messenger, the program that gets you what your heart really desires, then Jesus is not pleased with that kind of approach. And if we approach Jesus that way, we may think we are following Him in earnest when we are actually following our own imagination.

Throughout John’s gospel we are going to find that many people who experience the miracles of Jesus become followers of Jesus, but they follow Jesus the way a lawyer follows an ambulance, the way a 20-something follows a wealthy octogenarian: there is good reason to suspect that they have less than sincere devotion in mind, that they may find something besides the personality of Jesus attractive.

25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. - John 6:25-26

Lots of fascinating stuff here.

First, Jesus has a killer opportunity to explain that He just walked on water! They open with the question: “When did you come here?” They don’t understand how Jesus—without a boat—somehow crossed the lake. But Jesus, in stunning modesty and brilliant discernment, keeps that to Himself. He is not interested in fame and popularity, without qualification.

Second, Jesus punches them right in the nose by cutting to the heart of their motive: I know why you are here and it isn’t because you are really interested in me. “You are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” What does that mean? How could the crowd not “see signs”? The crowd saw the miracle—they ATE the miracle! Yet, they digested the blessings of Jesus without gaining the intended nourishment; they failed to see.

You can benefit from the teachings of Jesus, from the ministry of the church, and fail to see the Ultimate Reality of God as the point of the ministry, of the teaching, of the blessings. Maybe what you want most is a happy family—which is a wonderful thing. And, you know what, if you generally follow the moral teachings of Jesus—if you love and serve like He taught—and spend time around other healthy families in the church, your family life will likely improve. But if you stop there, if Jesus is just a means by which you get your family, then you have failed to love Jesus rightly.

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” - John 6:27

Perishes

What is the food that perishes?

The blessing of fish and loaves that they received was temporary. The reason they are here, before Jesus, right now is a testament to that fact. Their stomachs were filled, and now they are empty. The food has perished. But Jesus is talking about more than just bread. Remember, back in vs. 15 the crowds saw Jesus not only as a walking grocery store, but a promising political leader—they were ready to make Him king! The bread trick was great for providing food, but it also would be a way to coalesce a movement, a political revolution: draw in the masses with your wonder-working power, provide bread for them, and we will raise up an army to overthrow the Romans.

But Jesus says, Do not work for the food that perishes.

The food that perishes is any earthly aim or good, severed or unrelated to God.

It is the natural human pursuits, what we think gives us the good life, without thinking about God as the point of it all. It is wanting a successful career, a healthy body, an attractive body, popularity and approval, a retirement account that lasts, a nation that isn’t fraying at the threads, children who are happy and well-adjusted, a marriage that is intimate and satisfying, friends that are close-knit and available, a church community that is healthy and thriving, and so on.

Now, we are creatures. We need “perishable food.” We pray for the Lord to give us our daily bread because we need food every day. And God is happy to provide for us—Jesus just provided perishable food in abundance a day earlier! Jesus isn’t chastising the crowd for wanting to eat, and He isn’t chastising you for wanting to pay your bills or not feel depressed or wanting a happy family. Those are good things!

But they are not ultimate things. They are temporary things. The most perfect of families and marriages and careers and healthy bodies and nations all will one day be taken from us by the grave. They perish. They don’t last.

And if you treat them like they are?

If you treat them like they are the point, and maybe Jesus is just the way to get them? Then they perish before they perish.

C.S. Lewis, in his essay “First and Second Things,” noticed a universal law at work in the world: “Every preference of a small good to a great, or partial good to a total good, involves the loss of the small or partial good for which the sacrifice is made.” He writes, “The woman who makes a dog the center of her life loses, in the end, not only her human usefulness and dignity but even the proper pleasure of dog-keeping. The man who makes alcohol his chief good loses not only his job but his palate and all power of enjoying [a drink]…You can’t get second things by putting them first. You get second things only by putting first things first.”

You see, the only way to really enjoy your marriage or your children or your own health is by not loving them most. If you love your child most then you’ll find that you keep treating that child like they are your source of meaning, hope, and purpose. You’ll be expecting from them what only God can give you, and in time…when they fail to do that, you will have smothered your child with your expectations and will drive them away with your micromanaging and outbursts of anger. You’ll lose them.

David Foster Wallace, a lifelong agnostic, once wrote that “in the day to day trenches of life, there is no such things atheism: everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.” And, he argues, the best argument for formal religion, worship of God as the highest good, is because anything else will “eat you alive.”

If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough…Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you.

Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.”

Aim at heaven, you get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither. The food perishes.

Food that Endures

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” - John 6:27

Jesus is using the image of food here metaphorically because of the miracle of bread and fish. Just like his conversation with the woman at the well who was drawing water, Jesus uses the intuitive appetites of human experience to describe what a real encounter with God is like. What does it mean to believe in God? It is like a thirst being quenched; a hunger being satisfied.

For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” - John 6:33

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. - John 6:35

There is such potent meaning packed into this image. There is a hunger in the human soul for which our physical hunger serves only as a dim image. Physical hunger can be dealt with rather simply. But the hunger that Jesus speaks of here is far more serious and far more complicated.

Modern people are plagued with a malaise of meaninglessness. What are we here for? What is life about? When you’re young, you have new verizons awaiting you: go to school, get married, get a job, start a family, move somewhere exciting, travel…and you expect that each new thing will be what fills the expanse inside of you that seems to be growing. But there will be a day when you wake up and find the bread has perished.

Life is good, make no mistake. You are happy to have what you have…and yet…the same way that a meal can be fantastic yet the next day you still wake up hungry again. And all of our modern life—our consumeristic culture—is predicated on fixing this problem.

The attractive people lounging in the sugar-white sand under blues and oranges of beach advertisements promise you the deep soul-rest you so desperately need. And maybe the vacation is incredible. But then you come home to dishwashers and laundry and problems. You are not transformed, the malaise has followed. What is this all for? You reach for something else to distract you. But the thrill of the new headphones or car or house didn’t last.

Maybe you are there right now.

You were made for God. To be in union with Him. Your heart is restless until it finds its rest in Him. He is the bread of life. It isn’t anything in this world. All the bread of this world is there to point you to Him.

He loves Thee too little who loves anything…which he loves not for Thy sake.

Don’t Work, Believe

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” - John 6:27

28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” - John 6:28-29

The greatest work anyone can do is believe.

This is the aim of John’s gospel, to believe:

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. - John 1:12

Faith that Receives

If you took this story out of John 6, the narrative would flow rather seamlessly. It seems like a strange insertion since the whole chapter revolves around the image of bread—Jesus multiples the bread in vs. 1-15, and then spends the rest of the chapter talking about the miracle and the meaning of the bread of life. But this is tucked in here. Why?

I believe it is because John 6 serves a kind of turning point for the disciples in their faith. The crowds have been a picture of people who are seeking Jesus wrongly, not truly believing. As the chapter progresses, Jesus is going to become more confrontational and more bizarre. He will begin teaching in lurid messages without offering explanations, saying things like, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you cannot be my disciple.” The crowds depart, naturally, assuming Jesus is insane. Jesus’ disciples, however, stay, saying, “Where else would we go? You alone have the words of eternal life!” Something has happened to them.

I think this has happened to them.

The disciples are sent into the dark of a storm. John uses the symbol of dark/light constantly to reference faith or lack of faith. We are told that is evening when the disciples set out, but John then tells us “It was now dark.” That is literally true, but it is also figuratively true as well: the disciples are separated from Jesus, the light of the world who shines in the darkness. The disciples are still spiritually in the dark, they do not yet fully believe (as evidence by their lack of faith earlier at the feeding of the 5000). They are trying to get somewhere on their own, but lack the power to do so. Until Jesus shows up.

At first, they are terrified, until Jesus speaks. Translating Jesus’ words as, “It is I” is a fine translation, but He literally says: “I am.” Which, if you know your Old Testament, you’ll know that that is God’s name revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14. God shows up and promises, “don’t be afraid.” What is frightening to you, isn’t to me. What is a barrier to you, is an opportunity for me. What is stopping you from getting to your destination, doesn’t stop me. This storm, these waves—they are my pathway.”

The text says they were “glad to take him into the boat” but it literally says, they were “willing to receive him.”

And I think it is a perfect picture of what anyone must do if they want to work for the food that endures to eternal life, if they want to believe in Jesus—it looks like this: receive the help that Jesus offers you.