Pentecost 12 2021

John 6:24-35 | Pastor Evan McClanahan | Pentecost 12, 2021 |

How much would have to be taken away before you would stop following Christ? John 6 is a fascinating study in the psychology of commitment. As you heard last week, John 6 is the story of the feeding of the 5,000. But as incredible as that is, it’s just the beginning of this incredible sequence of events. Today’s portion of John 6 is what happens next.

Not surprisingly, after being miraculously fed by Christ, he becomes a lot more popular. Having already amassed quite the following, now something else has kicked in as Jesus flees the scene in the middle of the night. His followers are less passive and more brazen. They have gotten a taste of the miracles and they want more. There is a whiff of desperation in the air. In the parlance of our day, we might say these 5,000 possessed FOMO, or the “fear of missing out”, and those thousands that just got free food were not keen to let that fish off the hook, no pun intended.

But Jesus is no dummy. He knows that their desire for him is superficial and that it is firmly rooted in their stomachs. So, he begins what we might call a church shrinkage campaign. Rather than promise gimmicks to grow a shallow audience, he takes things away from his biggest fans. He is not interested in having a massive audience to give the world the appearance that he is popular, as though a big enough number of people actually adds credibility to one’s truthfulness or integrity. No, he reframes what they just witnessed to point it to the truer and larger picture of who he is and what he has come to earth to accomplish.

The confrontation – and that really is what this appears to be – begins by the crowd asking him, “When did you get to the other side?” This is an odd question at face value. Who cares? Why would it matter? But it is asked by those who already feel entitled to what Jesus is offering, who already believe they have a claim on his person and his time. “Who are you to leave us? Why didn’t you let us know of your whereabouts? How dare you sneak off when we were not paying attention!”

And so often that is how we treat Jesus. Jesus, because he is kind and gracious and sacrificial, we think we own him. Because we know a little bit about Jesus, and because we are even pretty sure we like him, we can easily come to believe that we are entitled to his grace and mercy. And we are pretty certain that he died for us, just as he provided food for those who were hungry. He fed all so he must have died for all and that includes me.

We believe we can demand his grace, even that we are owed it. And that kind of superficial thinking can get us in trouble and here is where the rubber meets the road. When something bad happens in this life or when we die and lo and behold it is not the Pearly Gates at which we appear, will we say to Jesus, “When did you get to the other side?” Or in other words, “Hey, I thought you worked for me!” Grace is free, but it is not cheap, and it cannot be demanded. That is, we must guard our hearts so we do not resemble the crowd and want Jesus for our own benefit and purposes. Grace, by definition, cannot be demanded. We are in no position to demand Jesus stay with us, save us, feed us, or heal us. If we could, it wouldn’t be grace. God would just be our errand boy.

The response to every kind of grace in our lives – and not just the forgiveness of sins, but our wealth and food and good weather and amazing vacations and homes and children – is not to say to Jesus, “more, I want more, and how dare you not give it to me, how dare you go to the proverbial other side!” It is to say, “Thank you. How may I follow you better? How might I correctly respond to your grace?”

And I think Jesus agrees with me because instead of answering their question, he cuts to the heart of the intention behind the question and calls out the faulty presupposition in even asking it. He says in essence: “When did I leave? Let’s not worry about me. The issue here is not what I did, but what you want. You want bread. You sought to make me a king. But let me strip you of that expectation right now. 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 work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life…”

Now, of course, it is not bread per se that we hope Jesus offers us and will disappoint when it is not offered. It is anything that makes life easier. A culture or political forces that see things the way we do. An entertainment complex that makes content for my children. An educational system that will teach my children my values. An economy that benefits me. A body that will never break or be diseased.

But do not confuse the provision of any of those things with Jesus. Seek the bread of life. Seek Jesus. Be faithful to Jesus no matter the context. Even in the midst of moral evil and hunger and violence. You seek Jesus. Make Jesus the Lord of your household. Teach your children Christian values. But perhaps more than anything else, guard your heart against the evil forces that would drive you from Jesus: difficulty, envy, hardship. Whatever the lack of bread may be, don’t blame Jesus or resent Jesus or hate God.

And do not demand signs. This was the next move in the conversation. “Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you?” Well, I guess the feeding of the 5,000 men wasn’t enough? What sign? What sign would suffice if not that? How sad it is that we are a “show me” people. I guess it’s okay for Missouri, but Jesus does not need to justify himself with signs in this day or any other. Indeed, this would be a key text if one wanted to answer much of the Charismatic Movement and the insistence on healings or tongues as being of the Spirit. Maybe they are. But we should not demand them.

For the moment that we demand a sign that meets our satisfaction, we have stopped worshipping God and started to desire an idol. What if God did no signs? Could you still believe then? Would you? The truth is that the moment you allow yourself to only believe in signs, you believe in the sign, not in the person or God to which the sign points. And the devil, knowing that, is more than happy to counterfeit signs.

This part of the conversation ends with Jesus saying that bread from heaven will give life to the world. So naturally his audience says they want this bread. Jesus replies that he is the bread of life. Probably, some in the crowd were satisfied with that answer. Some were undoubtedly disappointed. They wanted more.

So, the question is before us just as it was before the crowd of thousands who were just miraculously fed by Jesus: How much would have to be taken away before you would stop following Christ? If we assume that to truly and really follow Christ will not involve Jesus saying to us “No” from time to time, we are fooling ourselves.

If and when Jesus goes to the proverbial other side without doing for us what we demand, the correct response is not, “How dare you!” But rather, “How may I?” And what Jesus promises is that for those who will be content with himself and his person and his work, he will give us everything we need. For he is the bread of life. Amen.