Sermon 080209
John 6:22-35; Exodus 16:2-15
Anne and I live in one of those lucky households in America that is blessed with the presence of both cat and dog. Two cats to be exact. I say blessed because we get to witness two very different approaches to the world from each of these animals. None of our animals is Lutheran (although our cats hate change, so they may be the closest). I think our Dog worships us, and our cats, well, they each worship themselves. That’s the old saying anyways, the Dog analyzes the world around him and says, “this person feeds me, loves me, shelters me, he must be a god!” The cats say, “he feeds me, loves me, shelters me, I must be a god.” They take the same evidence, the same information, but they come to two very different conclusions.
In our OT and Gospel readings today, there are people who take some very important messages and come to the wrong conclusions. The Lord is trying to speak to them with some very clear demonstrations of his love, and might, and grace. But the people focus on the wrong things. If I may go back to my cats and dog for a second: When I cook, there is a fury of activity in the kitchen. So much so, that something usually ends up on the floor. At this point I usually call out and our Dog and one cat come running into the kitchen. Here’s the rub though. I will point at the floor where the food has fallen and inevitably, one animal will look where I am pointing and see the treat, and the other will stare at the end of my finger. One get’s the main point and gets a delicious snack. The other doesn’t.
My prayer for us this morning as we venture through God’s Word together, is that God would help us to “get the main point” of the signs of his grace and love for us, and that we would continually look to where HE is pointing us, to his miracle of mercy that he bought for us on the cross. I know this seems a little basic, or maybe a little obvious, but I tell you – God’s people have a long tradition of getting this wrong, and looking in the wrong direction.
Let’s go back a few thousand years, and look at our reading from Exodus. What we find here is the whole camp of the Israelites exactly one month after they had been freed from slavery in Egypt. The Lord sent Moses, and then the 10 plagues, and then brought the whole of God’s people right through the middle of the Red Sea on dry land by parting the waters. All of these were amazing signs of God’s grace and love for his people. But now, just a few weeks later, the people are already complaining about how awful life is.
“And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
But God is merciful, even in the midst of this lack of faith and gratitude for concerning God’s provision. God doesn’t turn his back on his people, but provides for them with a true miracle: “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you!” What a wild deal! Bread is going to fall from heaven, and you will be able to eat from it and be satisfied. So here’s the question: What is the main point of this miracle for the people, what are they to focus on the most?” You can say it any number of ways, but the main point and the focal point is the love and mercy that God has for his people. He gives them a life-giving gift that they in no way deserve.
That’s the right answer, but the other question is, “what is it really that the people end up focusing on?” That one’s pretty simple; they end up simply focusing on the bread, on the physical thing right in front of them, on filling their bellies. How do we know this? Well, God lays out some ground rules for them concerning the Manna (what is this stuff?): “and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”
The people are supposed to be reminded every day that the Lord will provide for them that day. So they aren’t supposed to gather any more than they need for that day, unless the next day is the Sabbath, and then they can get two day’s worth so they don’t have to work on the Lord’s Day. But the people, God’s people, can’t manage this. Some of the people try to gather 2 days worth during the week, but we read that it became, “full of maggots and began to smell.” Other tried to go out and gather the Manna on the Sabbath day (like they were told not to), and they were surprised to find that there was no manna on the ground waiting for them.
In short, you could say, they missed the whole point of the Manna. The Manna wasn’t there to point to itself, it was a sign that was supposed to continually point people back to God, to remind them of His love for them, to keep before them the joy of trusting in the Lord. But this wouldn’t be the last time people got distracted by bread and food and filling their bellies.
In our Gospel lesson, Jesus has just walked on water and crossed to the other side of the sea after meeting up with the disciples. And after the miracle of feeding the 5,000 people were desperately trying to find Jesus, and they crossed over to the other side, to Capernaum, as well. It was great that they were so actively trying to find Jesus, but it seems that they weren’t all trying to seek him out for the right reasons: “When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered 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.”
Jesus gives them something important to think about, in order to get their thinking changed around. He says to them, “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. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” In other words, “don’t just think about your belly and food, think about what the miracle meant, think about the bigger picture here!” Jesus had worked this amazing miracle and in order to show his power, and how much he loved these people. He did it to point them to an even bigger gift he could give them, ETERNAL LIFE! And all they could focus on was the food!
But the crowd did catch on to one thing that Jesus said. Their ears perked up when Jesus talked about laboring, or working. But again, they missed the main point. Instead of hearing what Jesus was telling them, They heard a message about Work, Good Works, Earning God’s gift of life, Earning God’s favor, and all of these ideas were wrong as well. They were excited about their wrong ideas though! They said to Jesus, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”
Now, this is a loaded question in that it tells us a lot about the people who were asking it. First off, notice that “works” is plural. They were looking for a checklist of things that they could do to get this Food that endures to eternal life. And this isn’t really surprising at all! They were used to long lists of Laws. The Pharisees of their day came up with Law after Law after Law that people could try to follow. They ended up with 613 of them and put them together in a book called the Mitzvot.
And here it is, all 613 of these laws (print up the Mitzvot and hold it up in your hand). So they assumed that Jesus would come up with a list like this, or maybe even one a little longer, so they could feel a little better about themselves. The other assumption that is implied is that this group of people felt that no matter what Jesus told them to do, they had the power and strength within themselves to keep whatever Law there was well enough and holy enough to please God, to earn his Love, to earn life eternal with him. They were delusional!
The reason the Pharisees came up with all this in the first place was to make themselves look better than the next guy. They couldn’t keep all these rules! And the ones they could keep were usually just man-made rules that they put in there to make themselves feel better about how they were sinning (I may have divorced my wife for burning dinner, but at least I did it according to the Mitzvot!) It was a farce, it was a fraud, it was ridiculous. You can never find peace in a list of rules and Laws! (Throw the papers in the air)
This kind of thinking led people to ask the wrong questions. They were asking Jesus “How?” and “What?” How can we be saved? What do we need to do in order to make this happen? There’s a real arrogance here. There is an assumption that I AM good enough to do this, I can make this happen, it can be all about ME and what I do!
But Jesus says it’s not about you. The question isn’t HOW or WHAT, but rather the question is WHO. Who can I look to, to find salvation? Who is it that is going to be my hope and security? Who is it that can give me such a wonderful gift of new life, and life eternal? And Jesus gives them the answer, “Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” The question isn’t about what WORKS will save us, but rather it is, “what WORK, what one thing, what one gift, will be my salvation?” And Jesus tells them that the one work is believing. The one work is faith in Jesus and his redemption.
But even this one work isn’t about those people in that crowd, or you, or me or anyone else besides Jesus. You see, even faith, even believing, is a gift from God. Jesus makes this clear all over the Gospel of John. In verse 44 Jesus says, “no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” In verse 65 we read, “no one can come to me unless the Father enables him.” It’s all about Jesus. It’s all about Father. It’s all about the Holy Spirit working faith in us that we could never bring about on our own.
The people had a hard time with Jesus answer. He talked to them about his Grace, his Gospel, instead of his rules and Law. Ironically, if He had given them a long list of things to do, they would have jumped at the chance to try and do them all. But when Christ tells them, “it’s not about you,” they don’t rejoice, they start trying to demand a sign or some miracle to prove his point: So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
They go back to the miracle of the bread from heaven. And Jesus tells them they didn’t get the main point back then, and you certainly aren’t getting it today: Jesus then said to them, “Truly, 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. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 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.
I love how Jesus ends this. It’s not about bread, it’s about “God who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world!” It’s not about you, it’s about what Jesus does for you as the bread of life. Manna was a gift that God gave that lasted a day, two at the most, but people would eat and be hungry again. The gift of life that Jesus gives is eternal. It is a gift sealed in his own blood, shed for you on the cross. It is a gift that is shown to us in the vivid colors of the Easter story and Christ’s resurrection from the dead. This is the main point!
It’s not about you. I know that is sometimes hard to hear, but it’s true. God’s gifts for you don’t come because you’ve done some kind of Good Works, or because you’ve been good enough, or even just better than the person sitting next to you. You would be kidding yourself in the cruelest way if you think that. No, God’s gifts to you, his forgiveness, his unwaivering love, his mercy, his eternal life are all tied up in, and found in one place, in one person, in one Lord, Jesus Christ. Crucified, Buried, and Risen for you.
This, brothers and sisters, was Jesus main point for that crowd. And it continues to be his main point for you here today. What God gives you is all about him. It isn’t about you. And if you ever wonder, “have I been good enough, or do I believe enough, or is my faith strong enough, or have I worked hard enough.” The answer to your question is simply, “no, and you never will.” These are the wrong questions.
But he Good News, our Hope, our life eternal is not found in “How and What do I do,” but rather in, “WHO saves me.” The Good News is found in Jesus. Jesus who says, “it’s not about you and what you do, it’s about me, and what I have already done for you.” It’s about Jesus who says to you, “I AM the bread of life.” You don’t have to wonder, you don’t have to worry, you don’t have to fear. Jesus is the main point.
AMEN
(Leave the papers on the ground so people can walk over these Laws to receive their real hope and real bread of life in the Holy Supper).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/613_Mitzvot
