John 6:1-14 "True Food, Right Hunger"

Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah.

! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah,

either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us

that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?

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checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us

questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things

that you're really struggling with. So God bless.

Well, I wonder if you've ever had an upset stomach in the evening, after dinner, with pains that feel

like hunger pangs, and thought, well, maybe I'm still hungry. And so you go back into the fridge and

help yourself to a second dinner or a snack. And then, of course, you realize afterwards that I was

not hungry. That was the wrong decision. And I feel worse off now than I did before.

Or consider another example. You enter into the evening completely wrung out from the tasks of

the day, the worries of the day. And you think, I know what will make me feel better.

And what will set me up well for the next day. Netflix or a show.

And of course, you emerge afterwards from the show being just as tired as you were before.

Well, what I'm getting at is this. It's not always easy to know how to diagnose our hunger or satisfy

our appetites. Whether this be physically, emotionally, relationally, spiritually. To know that you're hungry

is one thing. To know what to eat, how to eat, where to find food is quite another.

In the passage we read in John chapter 6, we find the crowds who are hungry in every sense of the word.

John 6 · chapter mention

And they're seeking after Jesus. In verse 2, we read,

And a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.

So just imagine this force of 5,000 men. We don't know how many women and children,

if the men decided to take along their young ones that day. But 5,000 men hiking up into the mountains,

looking after Jesus, this one who performed these miracles, did these signs.

They're waiting to see what he's going to do next. And we hear after the passage that we read,

that after the miracle was performed, more people show up in this place in the mountains.

And when they realize that Jesus wasn't there because of, you know, a bit of a tricky move,

and he's actually gone with his disciples on the other side, then it says the boats that had arrived

actually go back across the Sea of Galilee, apparently with the 5,000 men. And so you have this 5,000

and counting force that is seeking out Jesus wherever he may be. And again, seeking out Jesus, that sounds

like a good thing, does it not? In verse 26, again, just following the passage we read,

we read about Jesus's assessment of the crowds. He says to them,

You are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

And he continues, Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal

life, which the Son of Man, Jesus, will give to you. And then, of course, later in his conclusion,

he says, I am the bread of life. And so Jesus has provided this miraculous feast. The crowds have

satisfied their bellies, but it's left them hungry. Not physically, at least at first, but in every other

way, still wandering about, seeking Jesus, somehow missing the point, eating, but unsatisfied, eating in

the wrong way, seeking not finding. I wonder if we can relate.

In our passage this morning, as we'll take a look at together, Jesus shows himself to be the only one

fit to feed you and me, the only source of true food. In our world, where we have many opportunities

to chase after the promise of satisfaction and satiation, whether we're chasing this out in

experts and influencers, in enriched and exotic food, in vacations and leisure or promising careers,

hungering and seeking to satisfy our hunger, our hungers,

others. We'll hear that Jesus alone can be trusted to provide you the food that you need.

He is the only one fit to feed you and I. He is the only trustworthy source of nutrition to satisfy

all the hungers of our lives.

As we'll see, he does so as the great host of the banquet, of this feast that he puts on.

And as we'll come to see, it's not just any banquet feast, it's actually a new Passover that he offers to

these crowds.

Now, as we start our story, I think this is the type of thing we're supposed to be thinking about.

Many of us have had that moment where our much anticipated time of leave or vacation comes.

We've, you know, sent the last email, we've cleared out our inbox. If anyone actually clears out their inbox nowadays.

We've done everything we need to check out. We go on vacation, wherever that may be, however that may be.

The sunglasses are on and the sun hat is on, whether literally or figuratively. We're ready to be checked out.

And then, of course, the call comes. The notification comes. I don't know about you, but that Outlook notification,

which I have since silenced from my phone, if I hear it on somebody else's phone, it still sends

shocks of distress into my heart from an earlier time of employment.

This is the sort of thing that we're supposed to be thinking about when the crowds arrive on the scene with Jesus.

Jesus has just been in Jerusalem. He's had a very, very intense time, a clash with the religious elites,

who, his own people who have not accepted him, who reject him. And so he goes away, he retreats,

goes up onto the mountain to spend time with God, to spend time with his disciples.

He goes quite far away to do this.

And then as he starts teaching his disciples, we read in verse 5,

What does Jesus do? Jesus starts making plans for his feast. Without skipping a beat, without trying to get out of it,

without suddenly putting up his out-of-office notification, Jesus sees exactly what needs to be done.

And so he turns to his disciple, Philip, and says,

Where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?

Now, there's a moment that seems to happen often in my household where my wife and I are inside,

and the kids are outside. They've collected other kids, other neighbor kids, to play with them.

And all is going well. We have this wonderful moment of peace and tranquility where we can

accomplish far more than we could have asked or imagined, given the prospects of the day.

And then there's that moment where we see through the window the children coming back

with the neighbor kids. And they're hungry, and they're thirsty. And my wife and I have very different

inclinations in that moment. One of us

thinks, Well, we've got to stick to Plan A. There's no harm in locking that door, sending them back out.

They'll do just fine. And the other, of course, opens up,

whips up whatever there is to be whipped up in the house, and serves a meal, whatever we can provide for

the hungry little mouths.

Like the great master of the banquet, Jesus, in a sense, cannot help but host.

He must provide for us, his people. Even if the crowds will turn on him by the end of this very

chapter, Jesus cares for these people, every part of them. It doesn't matter that they, you know,

should have packed the lunch that day. Jesus is the one who will always come ready to serve,

whether we deserve it or not, whether we're ready for it or not, whether we'll understand

what it means to eat from his hand.

And it's not only how he hosts that we see in this passage that shocks us.

It's also who he hosts.

We read in verse 4,

Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews was at hand.

And so it's festival and feasting season.

At Passover, all those with means would go to Jerusalem, singing the Psalms of Ascent,

and they would be celebrating God's rescue from Egypt. At the same time, mixed up with that

celebration, they would be longing for God's rescue from Rome. And this was the great pilgrimage

festival of the year where the city could swell two to four times its size. And so it's quite a,

you know, exciting place to be. There's a lot of energy, there's a lot of fervor.

But we hear in this passage that Jesus essentially gets out of Jerusalem right before Passover.

You might say that he was heading the wrong way.

And so this passage reads somewhat as a protest.

Jesus spends Passover away from the pomp and festivities, hosting his own sort of banquet.

Not for the rich, not for the wealthy and powerful, but he does it for the masses. He does it for the

hungry, the restless, the unrepresented, the disenfranchised.

Now I remember being a youth at camp. I was probably

the age of 12 or so. And there was an 18 year old who was the cool kid. He was good at basketball,

and he was charismatic. And in the eyes of a 12 year old, what more could you need in life?

And for whatever reason, he decided to take me under his wing. He put me on his two-on-two

basketball team for the tournament. He was always genuinely happy to see me and to hang out.

And I thought, well, how cool is this? I don't know what this guy sees in me,

but I know that when he's with me, I feel like a million bucks.

That was a couple years ago, so I don't know, adjusted for inflation, what a million bucks would

be today, but you get the idea. This is the type of gracious invitation that we all receive from Jesus.

We cannot comprehend why he chooses us, why he seeks us out, why he wants to be with us,

but he does. And his love and his pursuit are genuine. If you feel missed, passed over,

which we all do at some point, know that Jesus, the king of the world, seeks you out.

That Jesus is the leader that does not move in elite circles, but seeks out those on the periphery,

and he sets a meal before us. As I said, he is the only leader fit to feed you and I.

When I think about leaders today, many leaders today who have just written a book, maybe, and they go

across the country to spread a message. They may drop in and out of events that have been planned

for months by other people focused in that domain. All the logistics are in order, and they come in and

they spread their message, convince hearts, shake a few hands, and they're out of there.

And you'd imagine how uncomfortable we would all feel if they somehow got kind of pushed behind the

tray of food, and they're expected all of a sudden to start feeding people, or when things are late,

they're making logistical arrangements. We would say, no, that's not appropriate for that type of leader.

They've come to do something very specific, and we want to help them to do that.

And they might think to themselves, I think my time is a bit more important than doing those things.

In contrast, of course, we see Jesus caring not only about what people think,

and what they believe, but he also cares about their stomachs. He says to Philip, where are we to buy

bread so that these people may eat? He cares that while the religious center feasts, the masses are

without a festival. Jesus serves the crowds who are pushing, who are hungry, and who are restless.

This makes me think that

just how every leader, no matter how great their message is, in a certain extent, will

disappoint us because they were not to meet our deepest longings. And if you go out looking for

leaders, influencers, wherever you look to satisfy your hunger, to satisfy this ultimate hunger, you will

leave disappointed. You will leave more broken and with more misdiagnosed hunger than when you came.

So Jesus shows us he is the true leader, the only leader that deserves your following, your discipleship,

for he cares for you, every part of you. Now some commentators pick up on this fact that Jesus has the

people sit down. Before leaving, George said that the people sit down so that they can see the miracle,

which is a good point, right? Otherwise, how would they have been able to see what happened? Maybe

somebody arrived with a warehouse full of food, who knows? So they were able to see it. But something

else that's going on is that it says that Jesus has the people sit down, noting that there was much

grass in the place. Now I think the author's point is not simply that the people were trying to avoid

stubborn grass stains on tunics. The point is that we're supposed to think of something, familiar words

that have come before. In Psalm 23, we read that,

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me by still waters.

He restores my soul. Jesus comes to the crowds and he is indeed the good shepherd, the great host

of the banquet. And now we'll look at this element of Passover.

So Passover feasts happened all around ancient Israel, but there was one main thing other than

the crowds that distinguished the Passover feasts from Jerusalem and elsewhere. And it's this,

the sacrifice, obviously, could only happen in Jerusalem. When I was in university,

a friend and I were invited by my Jewish professor to her home to celebrate Passover. And it was a beautiful evening.

A great kindness of my professor and we were welcomed into this rich and meaningful

liturgy and tradition. But I was struck by the fact that this was very much, in a sense, the Passover of

Passovers outside of Jerusalem. The father who led the prayers, because there are many prayers,

and because he wanted to have read through all of them, he, you know, read in such a way that was

almost on fast forward. I mean, it was probably a great kindness to us so that we wouldn't be there

for, you know, a very, very long time. But we got through it at an extremely quick pace. And

the point being to all of this, there was no lamb, right? There was no lamb.

Conversely, in this passage, Jesus, in intentionally holding an alternative Passover feast out on the

periphery, Jesus is telling his disciples and the crowds something very meaningful, something that

I've missed in the many times that I've read this passage and that I've come to see now.

He's telling his disciples and to the crowds that he himself will provide the Passover meal.

That Jesus is preparing his people for the day when he himself will be the Passover lamb

sacrificed to take away the sin of the world. So did you get it? This meal that satisfies us,

that he gives to us, is his sacrifice, sacrificial death for us. It's the only meal

that doesn't have us coming back for more, because it's the perfect meal. You won't get it anywhere else.

It's what we need to be reconciled to God to bring us back to the table and to eat with him.

And so the, and the crowds, they get it, kind of, right? They, maybe, they, they, they half get it. They

see that something's going on. This is not just a random miracle. It's not just kind of a,

um, uh, yeah, um, this random feeding that happens just because they're hungry. Jesus is doing something deeply

symbolic and, uh, and powerful. He's showing himself in essence to be the second Moses.

Jesus. The one who made a new manna in the desert, this time in the wilderness, uh, or at least in a

mountainous area, the one who would provide a new Passover feast. And this is exactly what they see.

And so in verse 14, we read, when the people saw that the sign, the sign that he had done, they said,

this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world. And this is a direct quote from Deuteronomy,

with the expectation that a prophet like Moses will come again to God's people.

But as we've seen, their hunger is misdiagnosed. They're looking for the wrong kind of bread. In

verse 15, we pick up the story, perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force

to make him king. Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. So the 5,000 men and counting,

you know, half decent potential guerrilla force in the making against Rome, perhaps of eager recruits

willing and able to serve the right leader. They didn't want to believe Jesus in what he was saying.

They wanted to use Jesus in the way that they thought was best.

And so this passage that we've read this morning, it suggests to us that there's a way somehow to be fed

by Jesus, but somehow miss the real nourishment that was intended.

Our stomachs convinced of what we think we need, we seek food that perishes.

To modify St. Augustine's famous prayer,

our hearts are hungry,

Lord, until they find their food

in you.

And so what does it mean, just in our closing moments together,

what does it mean

that we can go to Jesus and miss the nourishment that he provides?

And there is one caveat, I think one thing that can be misunderstood in all of this.

He feeds us through all sorts of ways. He feeds us through word and sacrament. He feeds us through his

gifts. But there's a subtle but massive difference between feeding us, between us feeding on the gifts

directly, right? Feeding on the things of this world, the things that God somehow, you know, many of which he has created and which are good.

There's a big difference between that versus feeding on him, including through his gifts.

And so

think on this question with me for a few moments.

How is it that we might go to Jesus in a way

that we feed and is not giving

nourishment?

I was reflecting on my own

prayers.

What do I go to Jesus

to get most often?

What are the dominant

prayers that circle back in my

repertoire?

Think about how often I pray for

safety, for comforts.

Maybe for a situation

to be miraculously taken away from me.

Maybe not altogether bad prayers.

And yet when we think about the whole

counsel of God and how much of the scriptures

tell us that life will be difficult

and that a life of discipleship

will be hard.

And that God wants us to have strength

and wisdom, endurance to follow Christ

into this messy world.

How often do my prayers reflect the fact

that I want Jesus

to help me do the things that I want to do,

to have the comforts and safety

and pleasures that I want,

versus going to him

on his terms,

understanding his will

and his whole counsel,

and being willing to hear

from him.

A second,

a second thing that

comes to my mind.

The crowds went to Jesus

assuming that Jesus

was there to fill their bellies,

to do what they wanted him to do.

And so how might

we leave our

hungers, desires,

appetites,

unchecked,

assuming that Jesus

affirms those very things

and more than that

is here to help us meet them?

I think of

kind of a type of

Christian Freudianism,

you might say,

where some of us

come to Christ

thinking that all of our

earthly longings

will be met,

right,

for relational fulfillment,

for career fulfillment,

for, you know,

self-expression,

and we assume

that all of these things

will be met

in our Christian walk,

and we go to Jesus

as long as it's working

for us.

But of course,

Jesus seems to allow

all sorts of pain

and disappointment

in our lives

that will cause us

to hate sin

and to cling to him.

He corrects our desires

over time

to order our loves

for him

above all else

for our good.

Going to Jesus

on our own terms

can very quickly lead

to leaving him

without the nourishment

and fulfillment

that he has intended

for us.

The good news

in the passage

that we've read

is that Jesus

is not a stingy,

is not stingy

with his miracles.

He doesn't,

he doesn't wait

to make sure

that we have

perfect motivations

and perfect intentions

before coming him,

but just like the crowds,

we come before him

on our best days

and our worst days,

and he puts a meal

before us.

He spends time with us.

He seeks to listen

and to bless us

and that we might

hear from him.

And yet,

he wants us

to feed rightly

on him

as the bread of life.

And so Jesus

sacrificed his life

to fix our hungers

and to satisfy them

with true food.

His invitation

to feed on the bread

of life

is open to you

and to me

today.

And so will you

join me

in confessing

the ways

that our hungers

are broken,

that we've tried

to satisfy them

in all sorts of areas

and ways

outside of Christ?

Would we believe

that Jesus

indeed is the true

source of real food?

Would we go

to him today?

Please stand

as we pray.

Amen.

Father,

thank you

for this

familiar passage.

Thank you

that you come

to us

as the bread

of life

and that you

give us food

that we can't

get anywhere else.

We confess

the ways

that we

look often

for satisfaction

and nourishment

not from your hand,

not from the gifts

that you give,

but somehow

from these gifts

directly.

we think

time and time

again

that they

will leave us

satisfied.

Lord,

we ask that

you give us

eyes to see

and hearts

to hunger

for things

that will

truly nourish.

Thank you

for your

sacrificial

death

that you

offer to us,

a table

that will

truly satisfy.

We pray

this in Christ's

name.

Amen.

Amen.

desde

!

desde