The people of Galilee sensed that they were on to something. They sensed that this Jesus of Nazareth was someone really special. In Deuteronomy chapter 18, Moses told the Children of Israel that “the Lord your God will raise up a prophet like me from among you,” and Jesus showed signs of being the fulfillment of that promise. Just yesterday He had fed 5,000 men and countless more women and children with five small barley loaves and two small fish. By the time that their bellies were full, they were already talking among themselves about Moses’ prophecy. They were already talking among themselves about making Jesus their king – their earthly King. And there was more to this than just the age-old Jewish hatred of their Roman rulers.
According to some of the ancient Jewish writings – writings not included in our Bible – this new prophet, this “second Moses,” would feed his people in the wilderness just as Moses had fed their ancestors with manna for 40 years when they lived in the wilderness. The pieces all seemed to fit together. The problem is that they didn’t have all the pieces that they thought they had – and they weren’t putting them together the way God had intended.
And so Jesus tells them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.”
But then they ask Jesus a really wrong-headed question, one that shows just how little they understand about this man whom they would like to make their king. “What must we do,” they ask, “to be doing the works of God?”
What must we do? What must I do? How can I do what God wants me to do, how can I please God, how can Ibelieve in God, how can Iearn eternal life, what can I do to be saved? People have been asking these questions for years – for thousands of years. In Mark 10:17, the rich young man asks Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” When we read of the imprisonment of Paul and Silas in Acts chapter 16, the jailer asks them: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
People are still asking those same questions today – and unfortunately, the answers that they receive are often dead wrong. “Work harder,” they are told. “Pray harder. Do good works. Try to be a good person. Lead a good life. Make a decision for Jesus. Accept Jesus into your life.” We hear words like this all of the time. Many churches – many Christian churches – incorporate these words into their theology, their teachings, their beliefs. Far too many people believe and are taught that they have to do something, that they are somehow at least partly responsible for their salvation.
But you never hear these kinds of answers from Jesus. Listen again to how He answers their question: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” This is one example of how our English translations don’t fully express what the original Greek words are saying. When John writes: “This is the work of God,” he’s actually referring to the work of God, the work performedby God. There’s a subtle but incredibly important difference here. Believing in the one who was sent – believing in Jesus – is not something that we do on our own. Rather, believing in Jesus comes about only through the work ofGod – the work that God does, not us – specifically, God’s work brings us to faith in the one He has sent, His Son and our Savior Jesus Christ. God freely, graciously and lovingly brings us to faith through the work of the third person of the Holy Trinity, God the Holy Spirit.
Luther’s explanation of the third article of the Apostles Creed does a masterful job of explaining this, and I suspect that many of you will remember these words from the days of your Catechism instruction. “I believe,” Luther writes, “that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.”
“This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent,” Jesus said. But that wasn’t good enough for the crowd. That didn’t satisfy them. It’s almost as if they had forgotten what they had seen the day before – how they had seen those few small loaves and fish feed thousands and thousands of people – so they start pressing Jesus for something bigger, something better, something even more spectacular. Sure, Jesus had miraculously provided one meal for thousands of people – but Moses provided manna for hundreds of thousands of people for 40 long years. “Can you top that, Jesus?” they seem to be asking. “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘he gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
At this point Jesus jumps in to set the record straight. Moses did not provide the manna – God provided it. Moses was there, Moses was a witness to what took place, God even used Moses as His mouthpiece – but Moses had nothing to do with the manna that appeared on the ground six mornings per week for 40 long years. God provided the bread from heaven – and God still provides the true bread from heaven.
It’s difficult – in fact, it’s probably impossible – for our human minds to fully understand the difference between something that happened once or even happened for 40 years – and something that happens for all eternity. When Jesus says that “My Father gives you the true bread from Heaven,” the verb that he uses is in the present tense – “My Father gives” – but as it is used here it is a continuous giving, it has no beginning and no end. My Father gives the bread that your ancestors ate hundreds or even thousands of years ago. My Father gives you the bread that you ate yesterday – that you ate today – that you will eat tomorrow. My Father gives you the bread that you will eat every day of your life and that your children and your children’s children will eat. My Father gives you the bread that will continue to give you life – life of body and soul – long after your mortal life here on earth has come to an end.
The manna that their ancestors ate hundreds of years ago and the bread that they ate yesterday was food for the body and nothing more. The manna and the bread provided nutrition, provided what the body needed to temporarily maintain life here on earth. But the manna couldn’t keep people alive forever. Everyone who ate it, including Moses, eventually died – some sooner, some later. Everyone who ate of the five small barley loaves would eventually die. “Man does not live by bread alone,” Moses had told the Children of Israel. “Man does not live by bread alone,” Jesus told Satan when He was being tempted in the wilderness. “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Living – that’s the key here. Not living and dying – but living, period. Living for eternity. Living by being fed by the true bread of heaven that feeds not our bodies, but feeds our immortal souls. Living by being fed by Jesus, who is the bread of life and who gives the bread of life.
The people said to Jesus: “Sir, give us this bread always.” Do those words sound familiar? We use words that are very similar every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer – the prayer that Jesus Himself taught us to pray. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Give us this day our daily bread – give us Jesus. Give us your holy words of Scripture that we read, that we study, that we hear proclaimed. Give us the cleansing waters of Holy Baptism, where we are born again of water and of the Spirit. Give us Christ’s own body and blood that we receive in the Lord’s Supper. Give us the true bread of heaven.
And you know what? He’s already given it to us. We already have this bread. Jesus the bread of life has given each and every one of us the bread of life. We are His beloved children. He nourishes us, He cares for us, He gives us everything that we need to sustain this body and life. He died on the cross and rose from the dead so that our sins would be forever forgiven. And when Jesus decides that the time is right, He will call us forgiven sinners to join Him with all the saints who have ever – just like us – been fed with the bread of heaven. The bread of life.
“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’” Indeed, Lord, give us this day our daily bread.
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