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 

 

Yesterday we read that, when evening came (after the feeding of the five thousand), 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 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." Our reading continues from yesterday, repeating Christ's statement to this crowd who has been fed in the wilderness, chased after Him to make Him king by force (which Jesus evaded), and now followed Him to Capernaum.  He teaches them not to labor for perishable food, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which only He can give.  They follow with a logical question, part of the ways in which John's Gospel uses misunderstandings and overlapping earthly and spiritual meanings:  "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"  And Jesus responds with a teaching about faith, that to believe, to do the work of faith in Christ, is work the works of God:  "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."  The people then move on to the next question; they want a sign so they can believe, so they can "work the works of God."  Jesus moves them to a new place, the true bread from heaven.  And what, or we should say, Who is that true bread from heaven?  It is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.  It is Christ Himself, the Son of Man.

 

 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.   Finally, answering their demand for this bread, Jesus explicitly claims, "I am the bread of life."  Nonetheless, they still 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."   My study Bible comments here, regarding the will of Christ, that since Christ has two natures (human and divine), He has two wills -- the divine will and a human will.  At the Sixth Ecumenical council, held at Constantinople (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 to His omnipotent will."  Jesus' statements here build upon and amplify what He has taught earlier when disputing with the religious authorities:  "I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me" (John 5:30).

 

"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."  And here Jesus explains the will of the Father who sent Him, that of everything that belongs to Christ -- that the Father has given Him -- He should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.  How are we His?  How do we make that connection to what is eternal and everlasting?  Through faith, through belief in the Son who was sent.

We observe the teachings of Christ, as He moves from "earthly" subjects to divine ones.  He does this through His answers to the questions and demands of the crowd, whom He's fed in the wilderness with earthly food multiplied through divine power, and they now want more.  We keep in mind they wanted to make Him king by force, so much do they desire the life they imagine He can provide for them, through the sign of the feeding in the wilderness.  They do not truly know Him, do not understand Him, nor do they understand what He offers, but nonetheless He explains and He teaches them.  He is the One who was sent by the Father, the Son of Man, as He referred to Himself in yesterday's reading.  That is, the One upon whom, He said, the Father had set His seal.  Within that seal, within the Name of God, there is one "will" which Jesus does.  There is one power, which Jesus honors through doing the works the Father asks Him to reveal to the world.  But for we human beings, we might ask what is the key to belonging to that will ourselves, to that divine power working even through One who is sent to us as fellow human being?  The key is faith, belief -- that we believe in the One who was sent.  So let us think about faith in Christ, which Jesus says is how we "work the works of God."  It is faith that links us to Christ, and in turn we are then part of what the Father has "given" to Him, part of what will be raised up with Him, part of that "bread of heaven which is unto everlasting life.  It is faith that connects us.  But what does faith entail?  What does it mean?  How is it a work?  Does faith simply mean that we intellectually choose something, or swear to it, or participate in a code?  Or does faith really ask more of us?  Faith, in the Greek of the Scriptures, is a word whose root means "trust."   So to have faith in Christ is to trust in Him -- and that necessarily means all the works, choices, actions, decisions that follow when our trust is there.  To trust implies something more deep than to believe, because we tend so often to separate various intellectual choices into different categories, and apply them to different circumstances in our lives.  But to trust in something means we rest ourselves there, we place ourselves on that rock, and our security is there.  So to trust in Christ in this way implies an entirety of our being, and our subsequent way of life.  It means that we belong -- and there we return to Christ's words:  "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."  When we trust in Him, we belong to that which is given to Christ by the Father, for this is what forms connection and belonging.  We trust to Him, to the bread of heaven.  So, we may become children by adoption, part of a bigger family than we know, the family of the Father and the Son.  Let us ponder these mysteries, for we may participate in them, and "work the works of God."