The Food that Endures
St. John 6:22-35
August 5, 2018 – Redeemer
At the risk of taking your mind far from the Word of God, I want to ask you a deep philosophical question. Why does food taste good? This past week I had a peanut butter and bacon Juicy Lucy. (That’s a fancy hamburger if you didn’t understand what I said.) It was delicious, but if evolution is true there is no reason for us to enjoy food. If we are merely creatures of random chance made only to live and die then there’s no reason food should bring us pleasure. Everything could taste the same or not taste at all and we would eat, if all we were was advanced animals.
G.K. Chesterton, an English defender of the Christian faith argued that one proof of God is the joy we experience in food. It is a simple, yet wonderful gift of God that a steak tastes different than a potato, and that pecan pie tastes different than rhubarb sour cream pie, and that the smell of fresh bread is different than fried bacon. None of that serves any evolutionary purpose, so Chesterton argued that it is a creation of God who wants you to delight and find joy in His gifts.
Now I hope that you can quiet the rumbling of your stomachs, because Jesus needs your ears to feed you the food that endures.
If you’ve been here the last few Sundays you know what has been happening. Jesus fed 5000 men with five loaves of bread and two fish and they had twelve baskets of leftovers. Following that miracle the crowds wanted to make Jesus their King because Jesus could give everyone everything for nothing. (Politicians still try this to get elected, but it doesn’t work because they are not God – Jesus is.) To avoid the temptation of personal glory Jesus sent His disciples to Capernaum by boat, while He retreated to pray to His Father for strength.
As Jesus prayed His disciples were caught in a storm on the sea. He saw them, walked toward them, and after claiming to be true God, got into the boat and proved it by calming the sea.
The next morning the remainder of the crowd that Jesus fed looked for Him. They had seen His men leave, but knew that He didn’t leave. They finally found Him in Capernaum, across the sea. The only explanation for His being there was another miracle, which is why they ask, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”
Their question betrays their hearts. Whatever is in your heart will find its way out of your mouth. If you’re angry you will shout or quietly get steamed. If you’re insecure you’ll gossip. If you’re unhappy you’ll complain about everything and everyone. If you’re in love with your family that’s what you’ll talk about. If you love food you’ll argue whether the Great Dragon or China Star has the best buffet in town.
The crowds neither feared Jesus nor loved Him. They just wanted something for nothing, bread without baking and buying and working. Jesus rebukes 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.” When Jesus says, “Truly, truly” it’s time to quit dreaming about Chinese Buffet and listen up. The crowds, and don’t think that excludes this crowd, were seeking Jesus to get their fill. That word “fill” is the word for fodder, hay, like a cow getting fattened up for market, like an animal that doesn’t know when to stop eating. It isn’t a complement. It is a condemnation. They just want a full belly from Jesus.
Let’s face it so do we. We know more about our daily bread than we do the bread of heaven. How many of you have spent hours with a financial advisor or poured over your quarterly investment statements? Do you spend that much time in the study of God’s Word or pouring over your Small Catechism? Do you know your doctrine as well as you know your stocks? We’ll diligently search the grocery adds for our favorite foods, but will we diligently search the Scriptures to find Jesus?
“Truly, truly,” Jesus says to you, “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.” Bread perishes – that’s why you need to check it for mold. Meat perishes – just leave it on the counter for a day. Your water heater will spring a leak right before company arrives. Your air conditioner will quit when it’s 95. If you are over 30 you may have noticed your body is perishing too. If you’re over 80 you’re certain of it because you’ve been the cemetery for many of your friends and family.
There is only one food that endures to eternal life – the bread of heaven, Jesus Christ. The meat and bread of the Christian faith is this – Jesus Christ rose from the dead three days after He died. He perished, but now He lives. Everything else that perishes stays dead – check the landfill, check your refrigerator, check the cemetery. Everything perishes because we sinned against the God of life. This is what God’s Word promised and delivers – you sin, you die.
Jesus lives because He put an end to sin. He was born to carry the sin of the world to the cross. Before He breathed His last He said, “It is finished.” That’s your sin He’s talking about. He died the death you deserve. He perished for your perversions and sinful pleasures, for worshipping your daily bread and forgetting the bread of heaven. Sinners die, but in His mercy God the Father made His Son the sinner of all sinners, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The resurrection of Jesus means your sin is forgiven. Where there is no sin there is life. Jesus lives forever. He endures. His body is alive and His blood is coursing through His veins right now.
Are you tired of perishing? Are you exhausted from working 24/7 365 days a year to keep up with your house, your car, your body, your finances, your family? Are you yourself tired of perishing? Then hear the Word of Jesus, “Work for bread that endures to eternal life.”
Now, let’s be clear, that doesn’t mean you can earn this bread of Jesus. You cannot work your way into God’s favor, just as you don’t work for your everyday bread. If God did not give the sun and the rain and the seed and the soil and the farmer and the butcher, baker, and Chinese buffet maker you would not have anything. Your work does not earn bread – your work is God’s way for you to receive His gifts — food and clothing, house and home, etc., etc. So when Jesus says, “Work for the food that endures,” He is saying the same thing. God has established the means for you to receive Jesus. “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” Faith receives the gift of Jesus. Faith is given in the waters of Holy Baptism. Faith is created and fed by the hearing of God’s Holy Word. Faith is nourished by Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. You want Jesus? Go where this eternal bread is given. How do you work for this bread? Attend church, work hard to pay attention to the Word as it is read and preached, prepare yourself for the Lord’s Supper, exercise your faith by praying, by saying no to yourself, by confessing your sins, by receiving forgiveness.
I am currently reading a book about Church architecture. One of the goals of church architecture, especially the sanctuary, is to point us toward heaven, to the future reality of being with Jesus face to face, alive, resurrected, and in the company of the Saints and Angels. That is why some churches paint their ceilings with gold and others have high domes that call your eyes to look upward. It is the same reason some churches fill their sanctuaries with statues and artwork of the Saints who are now with Jesus. A church shouldn’t look like a factory or your house or your favorite restaurant because the church isn’t about daily bread. It should look a little bit like heaven – since the bread that is given here is from heaven, the food that endures, and gives us life forever, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
August 4, 2018 anno Domini