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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
Yesterday, we read that after feeding thousands in the wilderness, when evening came, the 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." Here is the work: to have faith, to believe in Him whom He sent. How can we believe that it's just that easy? Just that simple? This is the way that grace works. God does the rest of the work, even in us.
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." So powerful is this image of bread from heaven, that those who speak to Jesus cite the Scriptures, in which we can find it referenced three times: see Exodus 16:4, Nehemiah 9:15, Psalm 78:24. But Jesus takes them from "earthly" images of being fed in the wilderness, to a true heavenly bread, one which is bound up with the work of faith. The true bread of heaven is the gift of God to the world, the Son given in order to save.
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." My study bible has a note here that tells us that since Christ has two natures, He has two wills. One will is divine and the other human. The Sixth Ecumenical Council, held at Constantinople in AD 680-681, proclaims these two wills of Christ do not work contrary to one another, but rather "His human will follows, not resisting nor reluctant, but subject to His divinity and to His omnipotent will." Again we see that with Jesus, everything comes constantly referenced back to the Father. All things begin there, with the God who is love and who wishes us to be with Him.
Jesus refers everything back to the Father. We have repeatedly observed this, especially in John's gospel. Jesus' identity as Son is derived solely from the Father; without Father there is no Son. Everything is dependent upon the Father. And the real bread of heaven, He's telling them (and us) isn't that which came down in the wilderness to feed the Israelites when they were led by Moses, and it wasn't even the sign He performed of feeding thousands in the wilderness, so that these people seek to make Him their king. No, the real bread of heaven is standing in front of them, and it's been sent -- given, actually, is the real word used in John 3:16 -- it's been given by the Father to the world. The bread of heaven has been given to the world that through this spiritual food, all might be saved. Not condemned, but saved. And what does that really mean? It means that God who is love desires all of us to be with God eternally, in an eternal state of life, not a temporary one. It means God wants to free us from death. It means that all the signs that Jesus performs -- and we remember there are seven in this Gospel of John -- all those signs are here to show us what God wants to give us and what it means to be saved. Salvation means a kind of addition of life to us that changes everything. It changes the qualities about us, per St. Paul's references to the gifts or fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). It changes our relationships: “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother" (Matthew 12:48-50, NIV). It changes our relationship to the whole of the world, as in this viewpoint we become stewards of the world, guardians and caretakers of all the good gifts we're given by a gracious God. This bread of heaven gives everything meaning, because the start of everything is this gracious gift and its inception in the love that we must know as the nature of God and thereby the foundation of everything. And that's going to rock our entire lives. This God the Father, who loves us and whose love we can truly sense in the great devotion of this Son, teaches us that love is the foundation of all things: that we are loved, and if we are to understand what it is to be God-like then we will also have to know what it is to live with love, and to make it the foundation of what we do with our lives. And that will change everything. And that's what it means, in my opinion, to be saved. A selfish perspective on love gives us the image that some people are meant to sacrifice everything, and some people are given everything. Well, that's not love, in my opinion. That's a whole different reality. That's a limited, narrow, self-centered, abuse-prone point of view that is all about manipulation. The real viewpoint of love is different, because love understands that loving is the same as wanting what is really best for us. Love isn't just indulgence or granting our fondest wishes as in a fairy tale. It's different, and it works differently. Love might teach us to be patient and long-suffering, if we need that. It might teach us forbearance and kindness to others, because these fruits of the Spirit make us truly good, even perhaps great. Love might teach us to be less selfish, or that there are some things that we can live without. Love will give us what is really best for us, the same way a good parent will want a child to be healed of illness even if it means using medicines the child doesn't like taking. Love also means sharing the best gifts. That's what God the Father brings us, a life in which we can have eternal life, with Him. Ultimately, love is about this sort of relationship, in which the best gifts are ours, even if we are not quite prepared to understand what is best. So let's just start there, with the bread of heaven that wants what is truly best for us, eternal life, a kind of life that adds to our live not just in time but also in the here and now, in the qualities we understand are good, that make us more fully human somehow. That is, truly human in the sense of the fullness of what we can be, in the potentials built into us by Creator that we might not even be aware of in us. Love can bring us a joy and peace we can't really understand, and not based on visible external circumstances. It's in John's gospel that Jesus will also tell us that we are given this bread of heaven so that His joy may be in us and that our joy may be complete (John 15:11), and that He leaves us with His peace which He gives not as the world gives (John 14:27). All of this is part of this bread from heaven, standing there in Person, the gift of God the Father for the salvation of what it truly means for us to have life. Can we do the work of that faith?
