John 6: 24-35
I had spent my working career as a salesman. Dirty word, I know. But I was one of the good guys.
As a salesman, the question, “What have you done for me lately?” was the reality check that sales managers would use to bring a successful salesperson back down to earth. You might have concluded a difficult negotiation and booked the biggest, most lucrative sale in decades for your company – but then on the next day – the day after everyone had been slapping you on the back and congratulating you on what a great job you were doing – your sales manager will confront you and tell you, “That was yesterday. This is today. What have you done for me today?”
Having this image as a backdrop to today’s Gospel lesson, let’s consider how Jesus and the people who are following him interact. In this scenario, Jesus is our top salesperson. He is on the road traveling from town to town making his presentations about God, his Father and the story of God’s steadfast love for his Creation and his chosen people. And he has been successful at it. He is attracting crowds wherever he goes, and their numbers are growing by the day.
If we look back in the lectionary, what precedes today’s lesson is the Feeding of the Five Thousand. Now that head count was of the five thousand men who were in the crowd. But if you consider that these crowds were on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover feast, you would also know that these men were probably traveling with their wives and families. Conservatively, we could say that the crowds numbered closer to twenty thousand. Now that would be on the day of the recorded feeding in John’s Gospel. Perhaps on the day that we are learning about in today’s lectionary – the day after the feeding – those numbers are continuing to grow. After all, now the word is spreading – there was free food being served. Hey, if you sit and listen to this Rabbi teach, afterwards, they serve you a meal. It’s not the fanciest buffet, but it is all you can eat.
Well now you’ve got this crowd. This huge crowd is looking around and searching for Jesus and their next meal. They can’t find Jesus, but they do see his disciples sneaking off to cross the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum. So, they take off by foot around the shoreline and eventually they find Jesus there in a Synagogue.
They ask him, “Why did you leave?” “Where did you go?” “How long have you been here?” “Oh, and by the way, what’s for dinner?”
Jesus decides it’s time to get down to brass tacks. He quite frankly says to them, “…the only reason you are here is NOT because you have seen signs but because you were fed.”
You see, that is the beauty of Jesus. We can’t hide from him. We can’t put on any airs or pretense. Well, we can but they just don’t work with him. He see right through us just like he did with the five thousand. “The only reason you are here is because I fed you, not because you saw the signs that I did and not because you heard anything special in what I said. But because I fed you.
Now a lot of Christian evangelists and missionaries subscribe to that theory. Bring the people in, feed them and when their bellies are full preach to them the word of God. Their thinking is that no one can hear you when they are crying out for food. And admittedly, it works – to a degree.
Well, Jesus is the one who started that – but he doesn’t allow it to string out. He won’t become the people’s waiter. Yes, he has fed them but now he challenges them. “If you labor for the food that perishes, you are wasting your time. If you are looking for the things of this world, you are wasting your time. Work instead for the food which will give you eternal life.” That is a right relationship with God. “That is the food that the son of Man can give to you. God has set his seal upon Him.”
Wow! Food that gives eternal life. Now you’re talking. How do we get that?
Jesus’ answer, “Believe in him who God has sent.”
Now picture this. Jesus is probably standing right in front of them. There’s a crowd around him and he’s probably got his arms outstretched and he says, “Believe in Him who God has sent.” In other words, believe in me. I have shown you the signs, haven’t I? Believe in me.
And how does the crowd respond? What does this crowd that has been fed until its collective bellies were full say to Jesus in response? “Then what sign will you do for us that we may see and believe in you?” The day before they were ready to seize him to make him king. Today, they respond by saying, “What have you done for us lately?”
Jesus and his disciples may have tried to remind them of the food that was miraculously catered out to them the day before, but they retort, Moses [our greatest prophet] gave us manna that fed the entire Hebrew nation for the entire time that they wandered in the wilderness. What do you think? That we will follow you because you fed a mere five thousand – once. Really, Jesus, you’ve got to do better than that. We want to see bigger and better signs that you are God’s Messiah.
What have you done for us lately? Prove yourself. Show us signs that you are truly God’s Messiah.
Wow! They were a tough audience.
But what about us? How tough are we? Do we come in search of Jesus and the salvation that the Son brings kneeling prostrate before him in humble prayer or do we hand him a list of Honey Dos.
Think for a moment about what our personal prayers sometimes sound like:
Jesus, help me to be successful.
Lord, hear our prayers.
Jesus, help me to get my children into the best schools.
Lord, hear our prayers.
Jesus, we need a bigger house in a better neighborhood.
Lord, hear our prayers.
Jesus, I need a raise.
Lord, hear our prayers.
Jesus, die for me and give me my salvation.
Lord, hear our prayers.
Jesus, what have you done for me lately? Prove to us that you are the Son of Man. Fill our bellies with our wants and demands, and we will believe in you. Is that what we sound like to Jesus?
Are we very different from the crowds who chased after Jesus for a quick meal?
But Jesus won’t play their game. He tells them flat out. Moses gave you nothing. It was God, my Father, who gave you bread in the wilderness. And it is the same God which gives you this bread – the bread that will give you eternal life. This bread comes down from heaven and gives new life to God’s Creation.
AHH! [a light goes on] a bread that gives eternal life. That’s the bread we want. “Give us this bread,” they say.
And Jesus responds to them; I AM the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger. Whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
No tricks. No more signs. The show is over. It is time to believe.
