I've heard it said that you shouldn't go to the grocery store to do your shopping when you're hungry. They say that if you do, you end up buying much more than you need, and your grocery bill will be much higher. But if you've had a meal before you go, then you won't be hungry and you won't buy so much. And yet, Jesus wants us to hunger for the Bread that He has to give us.
The people to whom He was talking in this text were people who were hungry. They had been fed by Jesus the day before when He multiplied the bread and the fish for them. But then they became hungry again and went looking for Jesus because now He had become their bread king. Wouldn't it be nice to always have a person around who could miraculously provide food for you? You wouldn't need to work or go shopping or even prepare the food yourself. But Jesus didn't want to be their bread king. Though He had provided food for the 5,000 in a miraculous way that one time because of the people's need, He didn't want them to think that's why He had come. He didn't come to do away with the vocations of farmers, bakers, chefs, and waiters. Jesus' office or vocation is not to give us the kind of food we can get at Safeway, but to give us the kind of food that only He can give - Himself, the Bread of Life.
The text before us today deals with two kinds of food: the one kind (the kind you get at Safeway) perishes, as do all who eat of it. But the other kind never perishes; it comes down from heaven and gives eternal life to those who eat of it. We all work for the former, one way of another; even non-Christians work for this kind of bread. But Jesus also wants us to work for the latter, the Bread of Life, Jesus Himself, which God gives us from heaven. Now, it's important for us to have earthly bread (or food), because we need it to live; if we didn't eat we would die. This kind of food usually isn't free either. We have to work for it. We either have to grow it ourselves, or we work to earn money to go buy it in the grocery store. If we were to find a place where they were giving out food for free, we'd probably go there all the time. And that's why the crowds wanted Jesus. Jesus was a walking Safeway to these people, who was giving out food for free. So, they tried to make Him king. We read at the end of last week's Gospel lesson that when the crowds saw the miracle that Jesus had performed with the loaves and the fish, they tried to make Jesus their king by force. But, when that didn't work (as Jesus would not let them make Him into something other than who He would be for them), they followed Him to Capernaum, where they thought they could get more free food from Him. But Jesus wasn't going to let them make Him their Bread King.
Jesus will not let us make of Him a Bread King either. He will not let us use Him as a genie who, if we just rub the right way, will provide us with whatever we want or need. It's not that Jesus is not concerned about our daily earthly needs and bread. After all, He had compassion on the 5,000 and fed them. As a matter of fact, He does give us the earthly food we need for our bodies, but He provides it through people like farmers, bakers, butchers, and parents. And even though we may have to work in order to purchase it, He's the One who causes the wheat, the vegetables, and the fruit to grow and He's the One working behind these people's various vocations putting the food on our grocery shelves. Food is a gift from God. That's why we give Him thanks for it before meals.
But this earthly kind of food perishes. It gets old, goes stale, and is eventually eaten by mold if we let it sit too long. It sustains our lives for a time, and yet in the end we die anyway. It's not only food that perishes, but everything that can be seen perishes: our bodies, our clothes, our homes, our cars, our money, our televisions, our friends, our family, etc. All of these things fall under the category of daily bread which the Lord gives us, but all of them will deteriorate and perish sooner or later. This happens because of our sin. Death entered through sin, and because all of us sin, all of us will die.
So the Lord tells the people who come to Him not to work for the kind of food that perishes. He doesn't mean that you should quit your jobs and stop going to the grocery store (that's just what the crowds wanted to do). But don't let that bread be the only bread nor the chief bread that you pursue. After all, in the end it all perishes and so will you. So don't expect Jesus to provide you with only this kind of bread. The chief bread that He wants to give you is that which endures unto eternal life, the bread which He came to give you. Earthly bread keeps us from dying for a time. But the bread which Jesus gives us gives us eternal life right now even though we die. Physical death isn't the only kind of death we face as sinners. We need to eat bread that will remedy eternal death for us. This bread is the Bread of Life, Jesus Himself, which the Father gives us from heaven. On Him the Father has set His seal. He has confirmed His Son to be the One He sent who would give to you this food that endures to eternal life. He confirmed this by saying to Jesus at His Baptism, "You are my beloved Son. With you I am well-pleased." He confirmed it by His Word and by the miracles Jesus performed. In these ways the Father put His seal on His Son, so that you can know that if you eat of this Bread of Life, you will never go hungry or thirsty again. You will live forever.
Now, the crowds were still thinking about food for their stomachs, and so they asked what they were to do to get this Bread. If this Bread requires us to work for it just as ordinary bread, then what kind of works are we to do in order to get it? The people were ready to do anything Jesus told them to do. He could have commanded them to obey the 10 commandments, and they would have tried. Or He could have commanded them to sell all that they had and give it to the poor, and they would have done so just to get this food that gives eternal life. We are like this as well. When the Lord wants to give us gifts, we think we have to earn them. And we look at a text like this, and we say, "See! Here it says you have to work for this Bread too. Nothing comes for free."
But Jesus corrects this misunderstanding. To receive this food that He gives requires no works but the work of faith - to believe in the One God has sent. But this work of faith is God's work in you. The Bread from heaven isn't earned by your faith but it's received as a gift. You work for this Bread as little as a child works for a present. You don't tell a child, "I have a present for you, but you have to work for it: You have to take it," as if the child earned the gift by taking it into his hands. Paul says that we have been saved by God's grace through faith, and even this faith is not of ourselves. We didn't produce it; it is a gift of God. The work which God requires of you is to believe in Jesus, crucified for you, and He Himself works this faith in you. He's doing this right now right here in church as we're gathered around His Word and His Sacraments. Here we are receiving the gift of faith by which we receive all the rest of the gifts that God has to give us. Here we are feeding on the Bread of Life by faith as we hear our sins forgiven and eat and drink our Lord's body and blood.
The crowds thought it was too simple a thing for them to do just to believe. They were ready to work for the Bread that God would give them, but not simply to trust in Jesus. So they asked Him for a sign, so that they might see and believe Him (as if the feeding of the 5,000 wasn't good enough). It's impossible to believe that God requires nothing of us but the faith in Jesus Christ that He works in us for our salvation. Reason concludes that there must be something we should do to contribute to our salvation. Surely, we must show ourselves worthy of eternal life. Since Jesus was telling them something that went against what they thought was necessary for salvation, they demanded some miraculous sign that would prove to them that Jesus had the authority to say what He was saying and that what He was saying was true and had God's confirmation. They pointed to Moses. They said that Moses had given the Israelites a sign: Manna, bread from heaven, which God gave them in the morning. This confirmed that Moses spoke for God. But Jesus pointed out that even that Manna was only a shadow of the true Bread that the Father gives. Even the Manna spoiled if they didn't eat it the same day that they collected it. But the true Bread that the Father gives comes down from heaven, is in heaven, has seen the Father, is the only-begotten of the Father and gives life to the world. Jesus Himself is the sign, the true Manna from heaven whom the Father has sent and upon whom He set His seal. And He proved that He had God's seal by all the miraculous signs He had been performing. If Moses spoke for God, how much more so the Word of God Himself in the flesh? Jesus is the Bread of Life who gives Himself to be eaten, so that all who do eat of Him by faith have eternal life.
Well, by telling the people about this Bread of Life, who gives it, and what it does for people, Jesus instilled a hunger in the crowds for it. They said to Him, "Lord, evermore give us this bread." This is reminiscent of Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. There He told her that He had living water to give her. This was water that only He could provide, and all who drank of it would never be thirsty again; it would become in them a well springing up to eternal life. By telling her of this water, Jesus created a thirst for it in that Samaritan woman and she too said to Jesus, "Lord, give me this water..." Now, she was still thinking of earthly water, and perhaps the crowds hear listening to Jesus were still thinking that He had some kind of miracle earthly bread on hand that they could eat and never have to worry about going to the store again. But then He told them that it was He Himself who is the Bread of Life. No earthly, temporal, or manmade bread can substitute. Jesus alone is the Bread which the Father gives from heaven, that whoever eats of Him - eating of Him by faith, eating of Him in His Holy Supper - has eternal life, just as He promises, "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."
Jesus wants to awaken this hunger for Himself in you, so that you'll ask of Him, "Lord, evermore give me this bread." He doesn't want you to go hungry, but He wants you to be hungry for Him. And this hunger He will always satisfy for you. He does this by way of His Word. By way of His Word Jesus creates a hunger in your heart for Him, and then through that Word and also His Holy Supper He satisfies you, providing the daily bread that you need for eternal life. This is no bread that you have to buy. It was bought and paid for you on the cross. All you get to do is eat. So enjoy the feast He sets before you today. His flesh and His blood give you life. Death no longer can keep you. You have eternal life now that you have eaten of the Bread of Life, Jesus. He is the antidote to death, the medicine which livens both your soul and your body, so that after these bodies of ours are sown in the ground they will come to life again on the last day just as Jesus came forth from the grave. Jesus is the Bread of Life. You who come to Him will never go hungry, you who believe in Him will never be thirsty, and Jesus will raise you from the dead on the Last Day. Amen.