11 PENTECOST, PROPER XIII - B
- 18 JOHN 6. 24-35
If there is one story from
the Bible that describes the patient love of God and his slowness to anger it
is the Exodus story.
From the moment, Moses
instructed the people to get ready to leave Egypt and quickly eat the Passover
meal, until the moment they were about to cross over the Jordan into the
Promised Land, the people God had chosen as his complained, whined, and gripped
about their lack of this or that and the situation they ultimately found
themselves in.
They even convinced
themselves that they had it good in Egypt as slaves of Pharaoh! “If only we had
died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots
and ate our fill of bread…” On more than one occasion, they wanted to turn
back. Yet in their entire complaining God did not abandon them.
When they were thirsty, he provided
water from rocks in the desert. When they were hungry, he littered the ground
with quails for them to eat. If that were not enough, he sent manna from
heaven, the very bread of God. Even then, they questioned, “What is it?” Moses
had to tell them “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.”
Our gospel lesson for today picks up the theme
of bread in the wilderness where the Exodus passage ends. The crowd, which had
followed Jesus and had been miraculously fed by him, discovered the next day to
their dismay that neither he nor his disciples were anywhere to be found.
Therefore, they got into their boats and crossed back over to Capernaum.
These people were anxiously
seeking the prophetic rabbi to see additional miracles and hopefully to eat
again. What they received instead was the meaning of the story: that God gives
the true bread from heaven and that Jesus is that bread.
The people know the
wilderness story and they immediately relate it to Jesus. However, like their
forefathers in the wilderness, they misunderstood what God did then. They
thought it was Moses who had somehow been able to feed them and satisfy their
thirst. Now they misunderstand what Jesus is doing.
They continue to seek “signs,”
as though what God has done and what God is doing in and through Christ is not
enough. “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and
believe you? What works are you performing?”
God rescued Israel from
slavery and led them to the Promised Land. Jesus is here to rescue them and us
from sin and death and lead all who believe in Him whom God has sent into the
fullness of the Kingdom of God to live the new life that kingdom living brings.
However, the more Jesus does, the more the
people want from him. Are we any different? Do we continue to seek “signs” from
God in order to convince ourselves that He is really who he says he is? Do we
take for granted what God has done for us and continues to do for us?
It seems that as people of
faith we live in constant tension between the meaning and message of biblical
stories for today and the reality of life today. As I said in last week’s
homily, we are not here to ask what God is going to do for us next, but to give
thanks for what he has already done in our lives and what he is continuing to
do through his Son, Jesus.
We are here to open our eyes
to the understanding, through Word and Sacrament, to the fact that the new
Passover, the new Exodus, is taking place right now, and that Jesus is leading
it. That is what Jesus was trying to
teach those who were on that side of the cross. It doesn’t matter just what
Jesus can do for you or me. What matters is who he is.
First, John tells us, he is
the one whom the father has set his seal. It is a mark that declares not only
where he comes from but also that he carries God’s authority. What Jesus is
doing in today’s gospel and what Jesus continues to do, God himself does. Jesus and the Father are One.
Second, God is making a
demand on us, and it is this: that we believe in Jesus as the one whom God has
sent. He is the bread of life. This will require a change in heart along with
the recognition that in Jesus, and everything he is doing, the same God is at
work that was at work in the Exodus story.
What was going on all along
as Israel wondered in the wilderness, was that God was providing not just the
physical bread dropping down from the sky, but the spiritual nourishment which
kept alive their faith and hope - faith and hope that kept them moving, albeit
sometimes in circles, toward the Promised Land.
That is what God was doing
then, and that is what God is doing now. The Exodus story is our story. If we
cannot see that, we need to read it again. His grace nourishes our faith and
keeps our hope alive as we continue the journey from the font of new life to
the throne of God.
Scripture teaches us that our
God is a loving and a patient God who provides all of our needs. Because of His
love for us, he has sent his Son, Jesus to rescue us from sin and death. By the
merits of Christ’ death and resurrection the way to eternal life has been
opened to us. Moreover, the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of Life, is Christ’s
gift to those who believe in Him as the one whom God has sent.
Until we, as God’s people, recognize who Jesus
really is, we may eat our fill of loaves and fishes, but there will remain a
deeper hunger inside which will never be satisfied. God feeds us and nourishes
us with “the bread of heaven” in the sacrament of Christ’ own Body and Blood.
It is our spiritual food that enables us through the eyes of faith to see Him
as He really is and to see ourselves at one with Him.
“For the bread of God,” Jesus
told them, “is that which came down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus responded, “I am the
bread of life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes
in me will never be thirsty.” AMEN+
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