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

 "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 the 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 when evening came (after the feeding in the wilderness), 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 the 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."  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 the heaven and gives life to the world."  Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always."  We see the point of view of the people:  they are impressed by signs and power, but moreover they especially look to Christ because of the bread with which He fed them when they were hungry.  But Christ tries to turn their minds to faith.  When they ask, What shall we do, that we may work the works of God? Jesus enforces purely a "work of faith," so to speak:  This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.   Yet again, they demand a tangible sign in order to do so.  They quote from Scripture, Exodus 16:4, Nehemiah 9:15, Psalm 78:24-25, regarding the bread from heaven.   Jesus points back to the Father, the true source of the bread from heaven, and Himself as that very bread of God.

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."   Once again, even in declaring Himself to be the bread of life, Christ emphasizes the unity between Himself and the Father.  It is those whom the Father gives Him that He seeks.   He is the bread of life come down from heaven, not to do His own will but the will of the Father.   My study bible notes here that since Christ has two natures, He has two wills -- the divine will and a human will.  At the Sixth Ecumenical Council, held at Constantinople in 680-681, it was proclaimed that these two wills of Christ do not work contrary to one another, but that "His human will follows, not resisting nor reluctant, but subject to His divinity and to His omnipotent will."   Jesus emphasizes the will of the Father, which directs all that He Himself does as Son of God and Son of Man:  the bread of life must lose nothing which the Father has given Him but rather raise it up; that is, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

When Jesus speaks of everlasting life, one can't help but remember the stories of Jesus' Resurrection and the associated appearances to the disciples before His Ascension into heaven.  Jesus speaks of raising up all that the Father has given Him.   What does this mean?  We think of "all that the Father has given Him" as all those who are believers.  But reviewing the stories of the risen Christ who appeared to the disciples, we may expand our perspective on what this means.  In chapter 20, it is Mary Magdalene who first sees the risen Christ (20:14-18).  The quite odd and striking thing about this story is that she doesn't recognize Him, until He calls her name.  This gives us a clue that this isn't just the Jesus who's had a ministry in Israel, but rather Christ who is preparing to ascend into heaven, in a different kind of body that is more than His human body.  Next He appears to the disciples (20:19-29), and the text tells us specifically that He showed them His hands and His side (verse 20).  Then, in order to "hammer home" (so to speak) the point, the text tells us that Thomas had not been there when Christ made His appearance to His disciples, and Thomas specifically says, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe" (verse 25).  After eight days, John tells us, Jesus appeared again to them all, and tells Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing" (verse 27).  All of this is to explicitly emphasize that the experiences of the human Christ are also raised in His Ascension.  We can specifically conclude that "all that [the Father] has given Me" includes not simply our persons as believers, but also those experiences and actions in the world that go with us as we have sought to live our faith.  Let us consider all that the Father gives Him.  The Greek word for "all" in the text doesn't mean every person; it is a word that means everything. It is my view that the Gospel is teaching us that nothing is lost of life lived in faith.  Everything touched by faith in Christ has life in it, is given life, because it becomes a part of the substance of truth.  Therefore this bread of life becomes something that conveys life to the world in the broadest and deepest sense.  What it touches in faith becomes imbued with an essence in the way that the Eucharist is a "super-essential" bread for the new day of the Lord.  Christ, as the bread of heaven, has the power to imbue all things with life -- even as the Church testifies historically to the holiness not just of persons but even of objects which have been touched by those working in faith.  What is touched by Christ and used within the Body of Christ is endowed with a capacity for life that is more than a worldly understanding of life, and this of course is a picture of the Eucharist itself.  We can't really fathom these mysteries.  We don't know Christ's Ascended life, and we can't imagine even the worldly capacities of holy people and holy things, and what life is carried through faith and what it can do.  But we may have the testimonies of people whose lives have been touched by Christ who is the bread of life, who have experienced "more" than the life they knew, their own personal experiences of a resurrection in their own lives:  a second chance, a new identity given through faith, and maybe the most potent of all -- a changed experience of life itself, a transformed and transcendent gift they could not have imagined was a possibility.  Through faith we may find a strength we didn't think we had the capacity for, a new start and new hope in what seemed like a hopeless circumstance, a new day in what was a sea of darkness.  We just don't know what the life He holds for us can give -- our worldly perspective not capable of discerning all the possibilities of the life He offers.     The powerful life Christ has to give isn't only about the fact that we breathe and have consciousness; it is also what we do in faith, our experience of living with His love and acting in His name.  Even -- if we believe the story of His appearance to the disciples -- our suffering for our faith will be a part of what is raised with us.  Let us consider the power of His life that He offers to us, and all that it may mean for our worldly capacity to truly live the life of the Kingdom, even here and now.