Perishable Things
Jn. 6:24-35[1]
Last week we talked about the difficulty
of putting our faith in a God that no one has ever seen and a Savior whom none
of us ever met in person. I think the
challenge we have with believing in things “unseen” is one reason why we tend
to put our faith much more easily in other things. Things we can see and touch. Things like career, finances, family,
relationships, and our own ability to control our lives. Unfortunately, life
has a way of reminding us that our faith in those things may not be rewarded in
the way we expect. When it comes to our
career, most of us these days can expect to experience a significant disruption
in our career at least once in our lives. Finances are no more reliable. We entrust our life savings to financial
institutions who engage in what is basically a sophisticated form of gambling,
and may wind up losing our shirts. And
people—whether our family or our spouses or our children or our friends—are all
flawed and fallible and imminently capable of letting us down when we most need
them.
In a very real sense, most of the what we
invest our faith in fall under the category of “perishable things” that Jesus
talks about in our Gospel lesson for today.
After feeding the 5000 with five loaves and two fish, he and the
disciples crossed the lake, only to find that the crowd had followed them
there. When they approached him, he
abruptly accused them of seeking the “food that perishes.” In a sense, he said they followed him not
because they were trusted in him and in God’s cause of peace and justice and
freedom in the world, but because they had a good meal. In the dialogue that follows, it would seem
that they were looking for a repeat of the miracle of manna in the wilderness. It would seem that they believed that if
Jesus could give them the manna from heaven like Moses did, then he must really
be the Messiah.[2]
It’s hard to tell whether the crowd was even aware of the miracle that had
happened the day before.[3]
What they did understand was that it was Jesus who fed them, by whatever
means.
But Jesus was constantly aware of the dangers
of faith that is based on tangible results.[4] Whenever you get whatever it is you asked
for, it’s only a matter of time before you begin to wonder, and then you need something
more to bolster your faith. I think that’s
why Jesus was so harsh with the crowd.
He was aware that they weren’t looking for the new life of God’s peace
and justice and freedom. They weren’t
following Jesus because they believed he was bringing them this new life. They were following him because they were
looking for some kind of visible confirmation so they could believe.[5]
But Jesus called them to a completely
different kind of faith.[6] He called them to “Throw your lot in with the
One that God has sent” (Jn. 6:29 MSG).
That means throwing their lot in with God’s cause. It’s the same kind of the faith that the three
young men displayed when they confronted King Nebuchadnezzar and refused to
worship his statue. In effect, they said
to him, “Our God is able rescue us from the fiery furnace, but even if he doesn’t
we will not worship you” (Daniel 3:17-18).
They had “thrown in their lot” with God’s cause in the world. They weren’t about to give that up for the
sake of anything or anyone.
That kind of faith is not easy. It’s very
much like Abraham and Sarah setting out on a journey without even knowing where
you’re going. That kind of faith without
external props can feel incredibly uncertain. It deals with “things hoped for” and “things not
seen” (Heb. 11:1). It’s impossible
to wrap your hands around that kind of faith and get a firm grip on it. It’s no wonder most of us prefer to place our
faith in something concrete, something we can see and touch. But at the end of the day, all those
seemingly reliable objects of our faith fall short. They all let us down. And we really shouldn’t be surprised at
that. Because those “perishable things”
that we put so much of our faith in simply lack the ability to satisfy our
deepest need. What we need is the life
that only God can provide.
I think Jesus knew that we all have a tendency to put our
faith in things that ultimately cannot satisfy the deepest longings of our
soul. St. Augustine said it this way, “Our
hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”[7] The only “bread” that can truly satisfy our
hunger is the life that God offers us. And
the amazing truth is that when we take the risk of “throwing in our lot the one
whom God sent” to carry out God’s cause in the world, we find that somehow we
experience a peace, a freedom, a quality of life that none of those “perishable
things” can possibly provide. When we
take the risk of faith and begin to quiet our restless hearts, we find the life
God offers us truly satisfies us in ways we may never have expected.
[1] © 2012
Alan Brehm. A sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 8/5/12 at First
Presbyterian Church, Dickinson, TX and at A Community of the Servant-Savior
Presbyterian Church, Houston, TX.
[2] Cf. G.
R. Beasley-Murray, John, 98.
[3] To some extent, it would seem that only
Jesus and his disciples knew what had happened. Cf. Gail R. O’Day, “The
Gospel of John,” New Interpreters Bible
IX:599: “The crowd does not recognize the sign that has been enacted before
them.”
[4] Cf. O’Day,
“Gospel of John,” New Interpreters Bible
IX:611; cf. also ibid., 576: “The person who interprets a miracle solely as a
miraculous act will remain transfixed by and limited to the act itself … . Jesus could be revered, perhaps even believed
in on account of that act, but only as a miracle worker.” On the contrary, “it
is not the miracle per se, but the glimpse of the presence of God at work with
and in human experience that can lead to faith.”
[5] This is
somewhat problematic in John’s Gospel, because one of the main emphases in the
Gospel is that Jesus works miraculous signs so that people might believe. I think
Stephen Fowl “John 6:25-35,” Interpretation
61 (July 2007): 315 puts it in perspective well when he says, “the signs challenge
those who see them, hear about them, and ultimately read about them, to look
beyond the miracles that are performed to the one who performs the miracles. …
Signs, rightly understood, deepen and strengthen belief in Jesus. They are gracious
gifts. Like many gifts, however, they are not always received in the right
ways.”
[6] Cf.
Gerard S. Sloyan, John, 73: “This chapter is about believing without
seeing (v. 36), about coming to God through Jesus and being assured that trust
in him cannot be misplaced (v. 37).”
[7] Augustine,
Confessions, I.1; cf. John Caputo, On
Religion, 15, 29, 127, where he discusses Augustine’s statement from the
perspective that faith always involves an element of being restless and “unhinged.”
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