Look Beyond the Food

John 6:24-35

So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”

Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

When the crowd woke up from their post Feeding of the Five Thousand food coma, they realized that Jesus and his disciples had packed up the loaves and fishes and moved on.  Immediately the crowd shoved off to catch up with Jesus, his disciples, and most importantly, those free loaves and fishes!  Now, remember, the people had all been fed to a Thanksgiving level of fullness… for FREE… AND, as Bishop Jack reminded me after church last week, we should not forget that they were ALSO all sitting down in a place where, according to the Bible mind you, “there was a great deal of grass.”  SO, for one reason or another the crowd had completely missed Jesus and the disciples leaving.  But once the fog or haze, or maybe both had cleared, the crowd became understandably VERY eager to catch up with Jesus, the disciples, and particularly… the FOOD!  

The crowd was ready for more free loaves and fish and maybe another place with a great deal of grass!  But Jesus was hoping to move them on from the lessons of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, which were?  Anyone?  (1.  We feed people for no other reason than they are hungry.  2.  A spirit of gratitude and generosity does miraculous things.  And 3. the problems of our world are not solved by sending people off to fend for themselves as individuals, but by gathering people together and generously sharing all we have with one another.)  Good job remembering!

But now, Jesus was hoping to move the crowd on to something more, but the crowd wasn’t having it!  “You’re here for more food!” Jesus told them.  “But I want to teach you how you can have not just a full belly but eternal life!”  In other words, “I want to show you how to have a life filled with purpose, meaning, dignity, and peace.”  To which the crowd responded, “Yeah eternal life!  Sounds great!  Let’s start that eternal life by you showing us how to do that “five loaves and two fish feeding five thousand people” thing!”  Jesus replied, “If you want to know how to do God stuff, you have to WALK through life following the model of the One God sent.”  “Alright” the crowd said, “then WALK us through how to make more food!  At which point Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you.”  Which I believe you can also translate as, “Oh my God, people!  Could you stop for just a minute with the loaves and fishes obsession and maybe focus on what I am trying to tell you NOW?”  

The people then it seems, simply could not do that.  They were stuck on the food.  Maybe it was because the food was free.  Maybe it was the “great deal of grass”.  Maybe it was just the regular old, human tendency to obsess over the shiny object that happens to be in front of us at the moment.  Whatever it was, the people were not able in that moment to move their focus beyond those literal loaves and fishes and onto the person of Jesus… the ONE who said, “I… am the bread of life.”  

The crowd back then could not, for whatever reason, make that move.  The question for us today, is… can we?  Can we figure out a way to stop living life as a frantic, never ending chase after our next meal, our next thrill, our next outrage, our next obsession, our next notification, our next shiny object, our next whatever?  Can we find a way to stop living our lives like rats with ADHD racing around a never ending maze… even for just a moment?  Or perhaps the better question for folks like us gathered here together as the Body of Christ… is how can WE help ONE ANOTHER find a way to step off the treadmill the world has prescribed for us and finally see Jesus.  Who is after all the ONE trying to show us the WAY to eternal life! 

In this Gospel story, Jesus challenged the people to move their focus beyond the food and onto the One behind the miracle.  He tried to expand their vision beyond just MY mouth, MY tongue, and MY belly, NOW… so they might be able to see the ONE who is the Bread of Life for all of eternity.  That’s what Jesus wants for all of us as well.  To certainly give thanks for the fish sandwich and all the other THINGS we are given in our lives, but then Jesus would really like for all of us to look beyond that THING and begin to SEE that Jesus is not JUST the source for loaves and fishes, but that Jesus is the Bread of Life, which means Jesus is the one that gives us ALL we need, in abundance, to live a full and abundant life now and for all eternity to come!  

The world may not be oriented that way but we can help one another learn to look beyond just the food and SEE more.  It can start the same way it started in this story… with giving thanks for the fish and the loaves… for the regular day to day things we need to live.  But from there, we are being called to help one another practice seeing more deeply… first by looking beyond the thing and GENUINELY SEEING the human who has handed us that thing.  Then, after seeing the person beyond the thing, we can remember that person is someone made in the image of God… and from there we can begin to look even deeper and perhaps get a glimpse of the Divine, the Bread of Life, the One from whom all blessings flow.  Amen.