The Bread King

John 6:24-35

On Sunday, August 4th, Doug interviewed me in the “Up Close and Personal” time in the service. His last question was, “Do you have an encouragement for us?” My answer was poet Mary Oliver’s Instructions for Life: “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” So that’s what I’m going to do with this week’s blog passage.

First off, I notice that the crowd was looking for Jesus because, at the Great Wilderness Picnic (Jn. 6:1-15), they had eaten the loaves and had their fill. After that, they wanted to make Jesus king. After all, who wouldn’t want a national leader who, through the working of miracles, could take care of all their physical needs? Wouldn’t we want a president who could do that? We’d choose such a person with no rallies, no speeches, no vote!

But I notice that Jesus wasn’t the least bit interested in being that kind of king. After he had mysteriously vanished from the picnic ground (by walking across the lake), the crowd came looking for him. I assume they wanted to keep moving toward a grand coronation. But Jesus immediately spurned any attention on how he might continue to pull loaves and fishes out of a hat. Instead, he reproved the populace with the words, “Do not work for the food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”

I’m paying attention to Jesus’ response to the hopes of the people for a certain type of king. I’m astonished (sort of) that he had a totally different type of kingship in mind. So now I’m telling about it.

There are several other things in this account that capture my attention, but I’ll draw your attention to just one more. When Jesus said the word “work,” the audience asked, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” That seems like a good-hearted and reasonable question. If we’d been there, we probably would have asked the same.

But I’m surprised — astonished even — by Jesus’ answer, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” What?! Is this an oxymoron or what? Work = Belief?

The crowd that was questioning Jesus was made up of people who were accustomed to thinking of God in terms of what they must do to do the works God requires. Sadly, we may also think of God that way; we hope to gain God’s approval by our doing, doing, doing. But Jesus drops an arresting oxymoron into our religious thinking when he says, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

So, even as I write, it occurs to me that, while the crowd sought a king who could only fill their stomachs, Jesus’ intent was to be a different kind of king. Jesus’ desire, then and now, is to be a king who comes to us in the simple, everyday disguise of bread. But not any ole’ bread, not just the bread that fills our stomachs at picnics. But Jesus’ claim to royalty is, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

So, come. Come and believe.

Come and believe in this Jesus

.Come and believe in this king.

Come and believe in Jesus our Bread King.