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"Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him." Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent." Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always."
And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
- John 6:27-40
We are reading through chapter 6 of John's Gospel this week. On Monday, we read of Jesus feeding five thousand men (and more women and children) in the wilderness. See Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat? In yesterday's reading, we read what happened after the people tried to make Jesus king. He evaded them, and went up to the mountain. When evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them. Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing. So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid. But He said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid." Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going. On the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except that one which His disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples, but His disciples had gone away alone - however, other boats came from Tiberias, near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks -- when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, "Rabbi, when did You come here?" Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him."
"Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him." Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent." Today's reading begins with the last verse in yesterday's. The emphasis cannot be too great. In Monday's reading, we read that the people sought to make Jesus king. But He made it clear that they simply seek Him because He filled them "with the food that perishes." So His admonition now leads into deeper discourse and understanding. Their question in response is a good one, and important -- indeed, essential to our understanding of what it means to be a follower of Christ. What shall we do to work the works of God? And Jesus' answer? Faith. My study bible says, "The most fundamental work of God is true faith in Christ!" It is a kind of reciprocal action that Jesus describes as the works of God: God sent His Son; our work in response is to have faith in the One who has been sent to us from the Father.
Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always." John's Gospel takes us deeper into Jesus' meanings, as so often happens, as His and the Gospel's way of teaching. What is the true bread from heaven? Jesus speaks of Himself as the Bread of Life - the One who has come from heaven and gives life to the world. In the words of the people, "Lord, give us this bread always," we hear echoed the words of the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, who also learned in stages about the living water that springs up into everlasting life: "Sir, give me this water, that I may neither thirst, nor come here to draw."
And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out." Jesus teaches us about the bread of life. With what are we filled through Him and in Him? Yet He tells them that they do not believe, even though they see. But His faith goes back to the Father: there are those who are given to Him, and they will come to Him -- and these He will by no means cast out. My study bible tells us: "Since the Son and the Father are united in essence and will, those who are chosen by the Father will also believe in Jesus and receive eternal life."
"For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." Here is an emphatic proclamation, once more resting in the Father. In that will is the binding of promise: that He should lose nothing the Father has given Him, but all will be raised up at the last day. My study bible explains the theological significance of Jesus' words: "Since the Son is of one essence with the Father, He shares the one will of God the Father. In His Incarnation, of course, the Son of God gains a human nature and a human will as well. Thus, the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451) teaches that, in the Person of Christ, there are united a complete divine nature and a complete human nature. Similarly, the Third Council of Constantinople (A.D. 680-681) proclaims there are two natural wills in Christ, not contrary to one another, although 'His human will follows, not as resisting or reluctant but rather as subject to His Divinity and omnipotent will.'"
What does it mean to work the works of God? I think that's an important question, much more so than we might think. Jesus declares that the work of God is to believe in the One whom God has sent. We think that sounds rather simple, but it's not. To believe in the One who's been sent is to believe what He teaches us, and more. It's to trust in Him. To trust takes us into an even deeper field of understanding. When we pray, we enter into a trusting relationship, and through the mysterious workings of spiritual life, we trust that we may be led into ways of life that will help us to become the person that Christ calls us to be. If we think about it, these things involve a lot of work, indeed! It's not enough, I think, to be satisfied with faith as an understanding that we believe in something. But if you really look at the roots of that word for faith, in the Greek, you come to the notion of trust -- and then you have to go forward into that trust. It's much much more than a declaration of an emphatic "yes" to certain ideas about God. Faith enters into relationship, it entrusts oneself and one's life to the care of someone else -- the One who has been sent to us. And that leads to discipleship. So let's think about what it is to work this work of faith. It's a lifetime of entrusting oneself, of becoming more "like Him" -- of trusting His teachings and His word, and more importantly of giving ourselves to Christ. Nothing touches us so deeply as the time of prayer, individually and corporately in the prayers of worship and the prayers we find throughout Scripture. So, let us understand this trust and this work. It endures to an everlasting life. This is what it is to labor for the food that endures.
