What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?

 

 "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 

 

On Saturday, we read that, after the miraculous feeding of the multitude, 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."  To understand this passage better, we might consider what it means that Jesus says God the Father has set His seal on Him.  A seal is an imprint; it was also a representation of an important person, something that conveyed more than image in a physical sense, but the presence and authority of that person.  In this case, it is the seal of God the Father, meaning that Christ acts for the Father, fully represents the Father to us in all ways (see John 14:9), and therefore gives this food which endures to everlasting life.  Christ speaks of labor, and therefore people as about the works of God they may do for this eternal food.  But to receive this food is something that comes from faith, from following Christ's word and participation in His life, and that faith is the union we seek to grow within all of our lives, for this is the true life of faith.   St. Augustine has a very interesting comment on this passage.  He first quotes from St. Paul:  "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Romans 10:4).  Then he remarks that therefore Christ "did not wish to separate faith from work, but he said that faith itself is a work. For this is the faith that works by love" (Tractates on the Gospel of John 25.12.1-2).

 

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."   Although these are the people who were fed in Christ's fourth sign given in John's Gospel (see Friday's reading), when it comes to Christ's teaching about faith, they demand another sign.  They refer to the manna in the desert, which they say was given by Moses.  But Jesus once again points not to Himself, but to the Father.  The manna in the desert was given by the Father, and now the Father is giving another gift of the true bread from heaven:  Christ Himself.  Jesus describes Himself as the bread of God, 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."  The people still seem to misunderstand Jesus, and it seems that they ask yet again for what they believe in some form of physical food or bread.   By asking to receive this bread always, they even seem to be confusing His earlier statement  about food that perishes and food that endures to everlasting life with a sense in which somehow they may receive this bread always.  But Jesus clarifies.  It is He who is this bread, and it is faith that is the "work" for this bread of life.  Even so, "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 on Jesus' phrase My own will.  It explains that since Christ has two natures (that is, human and divine, which are indivisible and united in His Incarnation), He also has two wills; one divine and one human.  At the Sixth Ecumenical Council, held in Constantinople in AD 680-681, it was proclaimed that 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 His omnipotent will."  But what we can read here for ourselves is Christ's repeated turning to His relationship with the Father.  Whatever Christ has or will have, whatever He does, all has been given to Him by the Father -- and this includes those who will come to Him in the future.  In fact, it is the Father's will that He should lose nothing that is given.  

In these last few verses, Jesus' words are very interesting.  He speaks of all that is given Him and will be given Him by the Father, and that of all this He should lose nothing.  Earlier, Jesus spoke of Himself as the bread of God, who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.  In these statements, it is not specified that the things which are given to Him by the Father are only human beings; nor is the "life of the world" specified to mean only for human beings.  In the Revelation, we're told of the vision of a "new heaven and a new earth" (Revelation 21:1).  There is similar language used in the vision of Isaiah, and also in a letter of St. Peter (Isaiah 65:17,Isaiah 66:22; 2 Peter 3:13).  With so much testimony (and prophecy), we must accept that in the spirit of the language Jesus uses here, He speaks of the renewal of the world and all that it contains, and that His mission as Son of Man, as the One who is sent by the Father, is crucial to the  renewal of all of life, this new heaven and new earth, whatever that entails and means.  The phrase "for the life of the world" uses not the word for the planet earth, but the word that means all of the created order, the whole universe and everything in it; that Greek word is κόσμος/kosmos.  But then Jesus does something very interesting, and speaks again of human beings, and it is again using the connection between faith and work, or perhaps, as in the comments of St. Augustine, faith as work.  Continuing from the connection to all that the Father has given Him, Jesus says, "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."  This promise of everlasting life for human beings -- and we must infer, the new heaven and new earth -- is linked to the life of faith, and faith means so much more than simply an espousal of a particular belief system.  Faith means living out the life Christ offers by participation in all that He offers.  In the Greek, the word for faith is rooted in the word for trust.  To have faith in Christ is to put one's trust in Christ, and thereby to live by His teachings, to live the life He offers, to participate in that life through all the ways we're given to do so, including through worship and sacraments, of which the Eucharist is particularly and expressly significant in this same sense.  For in the Eucharist, Christ becomes our food to nurture us for this eternal day to which He has taught us to look, the food which endures and does not perish.  For the life of the world most surely depends upon our understanding of what it is to live our faith, and thereby faith is inseparable from work -- for to truly live that faith encompasses everything we do, a prayerful life that entrusts to Christ guidance for what we do, safekeeping for our lives, the direction we need, and the particular kind of blessedness that He offers to us.  All of this is inseparable from living faith, a prayerful life in which God becomes closer than our heartbeat, the word of God a sword that pierces between everything and enters deep into the heart (Hebrews 4:12), a sense of self in which soul and spirit and mind and strength become participants in the life He offers.  For faith involves our whole being, and not merely an intellectual reasoning out of what one might call a belief system; it touches us in places we don't know, encompassing so much more than intellect.  We entrust to Him all that we are, including our responses to life, our hurts and pains, our desires, our goals and dreams, our trauma, and even the things we don't yet know.  This is what it is to live faith, and why it is inseparable from whatever "work" we do in life, just as Christ's works are inseparable from His understanding of His closeness to the Father who has set His seal on Him.