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

 Now 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."

- John 6:16-27

Yesterday we read that, after confrontation with the leadership at the Feast of Weeks (when Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath), Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.  Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased.  And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.  Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.  Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?"  But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.  Philip answered Him, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little."  One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?"  Then Jesus said, "Make the people sit down."  Now there was much grass in the place.  So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.  And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.  So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost."  Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.  Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, "This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world."  Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

Now 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.  Walking on the sea is the fifth sign in the Gospel of John; that is, signs of the presence of the Kingdom of God in the world.  We have noted already how readings from this chapter parallel events from Exodus.  We remember here that Moses led his people across the Red Sea, walking on dry ground in the midst of the water (Exodus 14:15-31).  In today's reading, Jesus sends His disciples across the sea and then walks on the sea as if it were dry ground.

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."  In yesterday's reading, we read that the people wanted to make Jesus king by force, after He performed the fourth sign in John's Gospel, the feeding of five thousand in the wilderness.  In today's reading, we observe how tenaciously they seek Him.  But Jesus tells them, "You seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled."  To grant them what they ask is a false teaching.  He's here to give them another king of food, the food which endures to everlasting life.  His miraculous sign becomes an occasion for teaching, for giving them that which surpasses and transcends the worldly bread with which they were fed -- for a food that endures to everlasting life.

We have to ponder this food which endures to everlasting life.  Of course, the feeding in the wilderness is linked to the Eucharist (yesterday's reading).  Jesus "gave thanks"  (the word Eucharist comes from the Greek word for giving thanks), gave it to His disciples, and they distributed it to the people.  But today, the teaching about the Eucharist continues.  The meanings multiply and give us something more.  And that something "more" becomes a whole new basis for thinking about what the Eucharist means when we take it in our own church.  When we pray in the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread," it sounds as if we are praying for the bread that these people seek who want to make Jesus king.  It sounds as if we are praying for worldly sustenance, for the food of physical survival.  But in the Greek, there's something much more profound going on.  The word in the Greek that is translated as "daily" really means something like "supersubstantial."  This is a kind of bread with a super-essence contained in it, with a quality to it that is something far more than the daily bread we eat for worldly survival.  "Daily," in the true context of understanding, really means that we pray daily for the bread of the "eternal day of the Kingdom of God," as my study bible says.  It is this food which endures to everlasting life that is tied up with what Christ gives, what He is here to offer to people.  As we wrote in yesterday's commentary, to assume that making Him king is simply about being fed with worldly bread all the time is to cheapen who Jesus is.  He knows our needs for survival in the world, He knows our human dependencies and necessities.  But as human beings, we have need for something that surpasses what we eat and is gone at the end of a meal.  We have needs to fill the depth of our souls, to tinge time with meaning, to give us depths of love and care we couldn't know were possible, and to find hope when the world gives us despair.  This is the bread He is offering us.  Not only does He teach that this is what He has to give, but also that this is the bread for which we are to labor.  How does one labor for the food that endures to everlasting life?  This is something we will find in tomorrow's reading.  But as hard as these people are working to make Him the king, so this is what He teaches them they must do to find an eternal kind of food.  This is what comes first.  The power in that food which endures for a life everlasting is a  power that fills us beyond our capacity to understand, and keeps on working through time, through the sum total of existence and memory.  Let us count on it, and seek it for ourselves.