'The next day, when the people who remained after the feeding of the five thousand saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”'
--John 6: 24-35
Welcome to what the organist at my parish calls Gluten-tide! Each Sunday during August we will be reading this section of the Gospel of John that we call the Bread of Life discourse. So I hope you like hearing about bread. As I told the folks on Sunday, by the time Kristen and I leave at the end of the month, y’all are gonna be experts on the Bread of Life!
Let’s take a second to recap last week and how Jesus gets on this kick about bread. Through the faith of a young boy who offered his five loaves and two fish Jesus managed to feed a crowd of 5000. You might think that Jesus would take a moment to bask in the accomplishment, but if you remember last week’s Gospel, he heads to the other side of the sea under the cover of darkness. He does the deed, and then he moves on. Our modern, celebrity-obsessed culture would not take so kindly to Jesus’ insistence on being so discreet!
But the crowd does eventually catch up to him on the other side of the sea in the town of Capernaum, which is where we pick up the story today. Picture, if you will, that you are part of that crowd. You have just witnessed something that is beyond explanation. Each and every day you experience hunger, real, painful hunger, and you have just witnessed a man feed roughly the population of Capernaum itself! How might you react to him? Would you try to get him to stay in your town, like forever? Would you try to get him to help with other problems in your life? If you’re nodding your head then you’ve got a good idea of what is going on for the folks when they track down Jesus.
So they find him, and the first thing they ask is: “When did you come here?” In other words, when did you leave us? They’re persistent, having tried the day before to make him king after he looked like he could be a perpetual food supplier. But their persistence is misplaced, self-serving, and Jesus knows that and calls them out on it. They are preoccupied with the literal loaves and fish, the food that has just perished, and they’re looking for Jesus for all the wrong reasons. Their primary motivation for going across the sea to find him is that they want more bread to hoard, so that they won’t be hungry again. But Jesus isn’t a Cosmic Vending Machine, and he points out to them that while satisfying their physical hunger is important—after all, he did feed all of them—they must not think that hoarding up more magic bread will satisfy their real desire. Despite what he tells them, they plead with Jesus: Show us some more miracles, they beg, and fix all of our problems!
They wanted signs. They kept asking for more and more, but what they were asking for was something they already had, which was Jesus, right there in their midst. Makes a person wonder: if even they who had him right there with them still don’t get it, what hope do we have? We, like them, ask for greater understanding, for more meaningful work to do and people with whom to journey. We ask to be empowered by him, fulfilled by him, and blessed by him. Again. And again. Meanwhile, we fail to see that everything we need has already been given.
Like a modern church-goer who just wants the preacher to tell them what to do so that they can get their reward, that crowd was only capable of thinking on a surface level. What they truly desire is deeper than that. What Jesus offers is deeper than that. The crowd might feel comfortable in a church that preaches the heretical Prosperity Gospel, that claims God’s favor for a person is measured in their material wealth and possessions – an abundance of food being a sign of both in the ancient world. If you are never lacking for anything, it must mean that God has blessed you, that false gospel preaches. Yet this is neither the Gospel of Christ, nor is it in line with the teachings Jesus himself was taught. Recall the story from the book of Exodus, when the people complain that they do not have enough to eat, and God provides for them manna, a flakey bread-like substance that falls during the night. There is a catch, though, and that is that the people are not to hoard it, otherwise it will go bad. Each will be given just enough to meet their needs. But they want more. The crowd wanted more from Jesus. Like a Jedi who has had a taste of the Dark Side, we too want more: more signs, more bread, more wealth, more security. All we have, though, is Jesus. Is that enough?
We have been allotted just the right amounts of giftedness and have just the right failures to now be and do all that we are meant to be and do. We have even been given companions for the journey, so numerous we have yet to meet them all - and in the case of St. James' in Skaneateles, there is one very important companion, their next Rector, whom they will meet very soon.
Brothers and sisters, we already live in the shadow cast by so many blessings heaped upon blessings, though they may not be the kind of blessings that the heretics preach. The blessings are not the materials themselves, they are the gifts of grace, of manna and mercy, of love, and of beloved community in which Jesus not only lives but thrives. Look around you, this is the miraculous sign; we need no other. Whether or not we see it or believe it, the miracle is radical abundance. Enough for all. Whoever comes to Jesus will never believe the heretical gospel that signs and stuff will assuage our deepest hunger and thirst.
I invited our parish on Sunday to consider three questions: What miracles have you already witnessed in this place? What is still on your secret wish list to see? Are you at ease yet with having just enough, of being good enough, of knowing, in your very soul, that the hunger and thirst you feel is so much deeper than what your outward senses and reactive feelings will tell you?
We all hunger, we all thirst. But for what, exactly? That’s the question the crowd in Capernaum couldn’t answer. But perhaps you can. Because of who you are, where you’ve been, and where you’re going. Allow Jesus to break through any misconceptions you may have of how the whole of existence functions, and you will never hunger or thirst for the things which will perish because you’ll be too busy performing the very works of God.