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 today’s text were people who were hungry. They had been fed by Jesus the day before when He multiplied the bread and the fish for over 5,000 of them. But then they became hungry again and went looking for Jesus, because they now saw Him as some sort of a 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.
Now, it’s important for us to have earthly 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 have to work to earn money to go buy it in the grocery store. If we could 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, giving out food for free.
But Jesus wasn’t going to let them make Him their Bread King. Jesus will not let us make Him our Bread King either. It’s not that Jesus isn’t concerned about our daily bread. After all, He did have compassion on the 5,000 and fed them. And He does give us each day the earthly food we need for our bodies, providing it through people like farmers, bakers, butchers, and parents. And even though we may have to work in order to purchase it, He's still the One who causes the wheat, the vegetables, and the fruit to grow. 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. This happens because of our sin. Death entered through sin, and because all of us sin, all of us will die. What we need is a different kind of bread, a kind that doesn’t perish and gives eternal life to those who eat it.
So the Lord tells those who come to Him not to work for the kind of food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, the food which He gives us. He doesn’t mean by this that you should quit your jobs and stop going to the grocery store (which is just what the crowds wanted). But Jesus doesn’t want your earthly food to be the only kind of food nor the chief food that you pursue. Again, in the end it all perishes and so will you. Jesus is more concerned about providing you with the food that gives eternal life. While earthly bread keeps you from dying for a time, the Bread which Jesus gives gives you eternal life right now even though you 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.
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 like ordinary bread, then what kind of works are we supposed 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; they would have done so just to get this Bread that gives eternal life. We are like this as well. When the Lord wants to give us gifts, we think we have to work for 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 the Bread that He gives requires no works but the work of faith, believing in Him whom the Father has sent. Faith may be called a work, but it is God’s work in you. The Bread from heaven isn't earned by your faith, but it’s simply received as a gift. You work for this Bread as little as a child works for a present. 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 faith which God requires of you, He works 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 in Jesus. Here we are feeding on the Bread of Life by faith as we hear the Gospel and eat and drink our Lord’s body and blood, which He gave and shed on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, life, and salvation.
The crowds thought it was too simple a thing for them just to believe. They were ready to work, but not simply to trust in Jesus. It’s impossible to believe that God requires nothing of us but faith in Jesus Christ. Reason concludes that there must be something we have to do to contribute to our salvation. Surely, we must show ourselves worthy of eternal life, loving our neighbors more, praying more, going to church more, etc. What Jesus was saying went against what the crowds thought was necessary for salvation. As a result, 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 the people didn't eat it the same day that they collected it. But the true Bread that the Father gives not only comes down from heaven, but is in heaven, has seen the Father, is the only-begotten Son of the Father, and gives eternal life to the world. Jesus Himself is the sign, the true Manna from heaven whom the Father has sent and upon whom He has set His seal.
The seal that the Father has set upon His Son is His confirmation that Jesus is the Bread of Life that He sends us from heaven. The Father gave His confirmation at His Son’s Baptism, when He said to Jesus, "You are my beloved Son. With you I am well-pleased." He confirmed it by the words of His prophets, all of which Jesus fulfilled. He confirmed it by the miracles Jesus performed and by the words which He spoke. And finally, He confirmed it by raising Jesus from the dead. 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.
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 the Samaritan woman of this water, Jesus created a thirst in her for it, and she too said to Jesus, “Lord, give me this water...” Now, she was still thinking of earthly water, just as perhaps the crowds here listening to Jesus were still thinking that He had some kind of miracle 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 and sustain this hunger for Himself in you, so that you’ll continue to ask of Him, “Lord, evermore give me this bread.” He doesn’t want you to go hungry, but He wants you to always be hungry for Him. And this hunger He will always satisfy. He does this by way of His Word and His holy Supper. By way of His Word Jesus creates a hunger in your heart for Him, and then through that Word along with 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 Word, flesh and blood give you life. Death no longer can keep you. You have eternal life now that you have eaten and continue to eat 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 into 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 go thirsty, and Jesus will raise you from the dead when He comes again, so that you might feed on Him at His heavenly banquet forever. Amen.