\u00a0<\/strong>John 6:22-35\u00a0 <\/strong>[English Standard Version, \u00a9 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers]<\/em><\/p>\n 22\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.<\/p>\n 25\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, \u201cRabbi, when did you come here?\u201d 26\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Jesus answered them, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.\u201d 28\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Then they said to him, \u201cWhat must we do, to be doing the works of God?\u201d 29\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Jesus answered them, \u201cThis is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.\u201d 30\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>So they said to him, \u201cThen what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, \u2018He gave them bread from heaven to eat.\u2019\u00a0\u201d 32\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Jesus then said to them, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.\u201d 34\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>They said to him, \u201cSir, give us this bread always.\u201d<\/p>\n 35\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Jesus said to them, \u201cI am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.<\/p>\n Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n The past few Sundays in church, we\u2019ve heard readings from the Gospel of Mark.\u00a0 A couple weeks ago there was the account of Jesus feeding of the five thousand and last week was the account of Jesus walking on the water and calming the wind.\u00a0 Starting this Sunday and for the next two, all the action of Mark is kind of interrupted by John\u2019s explanation of what it all means.\u00a0 John means to show us that Jesus is who He claims to be, the Savior of the world, your Savior from sin and death to forgiveness and eternal life.<\/p>\n So this is how it went.\u00a0 The day before the events in the Gospel reading today, Jesus fed the five thousand men, plus women and children on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.\u00a0 After supper He put the disciples into a boat and told them to head out for the other side while He dismissed the crowd.\u00a0 Jesus went up on the hillside to pray and was apparently praying most of the night and sometime between three and six in the morning, Jesus looked out from where he was and saw the boat and saw the disciples struggling against the wind.\u00a0 They had been struggling against the wind all night.\u00a0 And so he took off walking on the water of the sea to where they were in the boat.\u00a0 As you can imagine the disciples were terrified because people don\u2019t walk on water and they thought what they saw was a ghost.\u00a0 But Jesus spoke to them and then got in the boat and the wind stopped blowing.\u00a0 Our Gospel reading starts up on the very next day.\u00a0 All this other is important because the crowd that shows up looking for Jesus in Capernaum were some of the crowd that had been fed on the other side of the lake.\u00a0 Got it?\u00a0 Good.<\/p>\n Why do they go looking for Jesus?\u00a0 Well, if I invited you out to dinner and paid for it, you would be looking for me again too, right?\u00a0 And in this case, Jesus had done something remarkable.\u00a0 He had fed five thousand men plus women and children with a miraculous multiplication of 5 small barely bread rolls and two small fish.\u00a0 And so they go looking for Jesus in Capernaum and they find it very odd that Jesus is there.\u00a0 How did he get there?\u00a0 It\u2019s a perfectly reasonable question.\u00a0 Did you notice that Jesus doesn\u2019t answer it?\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t even deal with it.\u00a0 Jesus gets it right, \u201cYou are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.\u201d\u00a0 (v. 26)\u00a0 He knows precisely why they followed after him.\u00a0 It\u2019s because He bought supper yesterday afternoon. But then Jesus follows that up with something rather extraordinary.\u00a0 He says, \u201cDo not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.\u201d\u00a0 He might as well be saying that to us.\u00a0 In fact Jesus is saying that to us.\u00a0 \u201cDo not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.\u201d<\/p>\n So which food do you labor for?\u00a0 If you work you probably labor to pay the bills.\u00a0 \u201cI owe, I owe, it\u2019s off to work I go.\u201d\u00a0 But more than that, what\u2019s truly important?\u00a0 That\u2019s what Jesus is getting at.\u00a0 They came looking for Him not because they believed He could be the long promised Messiah of God sent to redeem Israel but because He could help them with their present condition, hunger.\u00a0 Don\u2019t we often do the same thing?\u00a0 \u201cGod, I\u2019m sick.\u00a0 Please help me.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cGod, I\u2019m broke, please help me.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cGod, I\u2019ve sinned.\u00a0 Please, if you get me out of this jam, I promise I\u2019ll be good in the future.\u201d\u00a0 We don\u2019t often pray, \u201cGod you are the savior of the entire human race and all creation, I may be dying, or I may have to file for bankruptcy, or even though I\u2019m in the midst of some pretty deep trouble right now and I throw myself on your mercy and I\u2019ll face the consequences here and now confident things are right between us.\u201d\u00a0 No we rarely pray that way.\u00a0 We would rather have the Jesus that makes us well, gives us money, and gets us out of the jams we created for ourselves.<\/p>\n The crowd of Jews that followed after Jesus even in the face of at least two miracles, one they did see but did not understand, the feeding of the five thousand, and one they didn\u2019t see and understood even less, Jesus walking on the water and calming the wind, were not looking for the Son of Man, the One on whom the Father set His seal.\u00a0 They were not working for the food that endures to eternal life but rather for the most ordinary of ordinary things.\u00a0 What must they do to be doing the works of God, to be seeking after the food that endures to eternal life?\u00a0 They must believe in the One whom God that Father has sent, His only-begotten, the eternal Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And they can\u2019t.<\/p>\n They can\u2019t believe even after the teaching of Jesus led that great crowd out of their villages into the wilderness where they could hear the word of God preached to them.\u00a0 They can\u2019t believe even after Jesus feeds five thousand plus in the wilderness just like the Lord fed all Israel in the Sinai wilderness with manna from heaven.\u00a0 They can\u2019t believe even after Jesus walks on the water like the Lord led Israel through the Red Sea and like the Lord Himself in the Old Testament tread upon the waves. That\u2019s in Job, look it up, chapter 9, verse 8.\u00a0 They can\u2019t believe Jesus is the Lord.\u00a0 Oh, we\u2019ll believe, they say if you show us a work.\u00a0 We want Jesus to day to them, \u201cWhat work?\u00a0 Aren\u2019t you still full from yesterday?\u00a0 Are you that blind?\u201d\u00a0 And the answer is yes, they are.<\/p>\n They were so blind to their own story, they thought Moses had provided the bread in the wilderness.\u00a0 Jesus reminded them it was the Lord, His Father, who provided the manna.<\/p>\n And isn\u2019t that how it is?\u00a0 We pray those prayers.\u00a0 \u201cGod, I\u2019m sick.\u00a0 Please help me.\u201d\u00a0 And we thank the doctor.\u00a0 \u201cGod, I\u2019m broke, please help me.\u201d\u00a0 And we think we have earned all the money we made.\u00a0 \u201cGod, I\u2019ve sinned.\u00a0 Please, if you get me out of this jam, I promise I\u2019ll be good in the future.\u201d\u00a0 And we thank whoever helped us, the lawyer who was slick, the judge who was lenient, or the jury who believed our story.\u00a0 We\u2019re still looking for bread for a day and Jesus is giving us His very self for all eternity.<\/p>\n He gives us His very self in these words today.\u00a0 \u201cI am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.\u201d\u00a0 Open your eyes and behold not just your problem solver, feast your eyes on your Savior, Jesus, the Son of Man, the eternal Word, there with God at the beginning before all worlds, sent into this world, into your human flesh, not just to heal your sickness but give you life, not just to take care of your earthly needs but to provide for all your needs, not just to get you out of a jam, but to declare you righteous and holy before His heavenly Father.\u00a0 The great \u201cI AM\u201d who lead Israel out of Egypt, who led them through the Red Sea, who fed them in the wilderness who speaks now from a human mouth born of Mary, \u201cI am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.\u201d<\/p>\n With a great twist of irony we can take the words of the clueless crowd and pray to him who fills our every need.\u00a0 \u201cLord, give us this bread always.\u201d\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n Let us pray:<\/p>\n O Lord Jesus, You are the Bread of Life; draw us ever closer to You, Amen.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n The Rev. Andrew Smith<\/p>\n Heavenly Host Lutheran Church<\/p>\n Cookeville, Tennessee, USA<\/p>\n E-Mail: smithad19+prediger@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pentecost 10, 1 Aug 2021 | Sermon on John 6:22-35 | by Andrew Smith | \u00a0John 6:22-35\u00a0 [English Standard Version, \u00a9 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers] 22\u00a0On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,191,157,108,110,250,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-5543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-johannes","category-andrew-smith","category-beitragende","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-06-chapter-06","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5544,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5543\/revisions\/5544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5543"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=5543"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=5543"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=5543"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=5543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}