“Wonderbread and Superman”
John 6:24-35
August 6, 2006
Associate Pastor Doug Forsberg
Look. Up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Superman!
It sure is good to have Superman around every few years. He’s a good guy to have around because there are a lot of bad guys out there and without Superman we’d be lost. I guess you could say that we need Superman. We need someone who is powerful enough to defeat all of the evil that is out there and bring it under control. We need someone who can give us a sense of security. Even if he makes a fashion faux pas, wearing blue tights and a red cape, we’re willing to let that slide because we need him, we really need him.
One day Jesus fed a crowd of over 5,000 and that led the crowd to believe that they had found their own superhero. The day after he had fed them they searched high and low for him. In the scripture before us today, it is clear that the people were so focused on the material bread that Jesus had given to them that they could not see the spiritual reality of what Jesus was offering. They just wanted Jesus to keep giving them bread; they wanted security and prosperity in an unpredictable and often unkind world. Truth be told, we all want security and prosperity. Jesus might give us those things, but that is not why he came. He came to bring life, and if you want to live, you must be filled with Jesus. Nothing else can sustain your life.
When the crowd found Jesus, they asked him three questions that reveal to us how much they misunderstood Jesus. Let me invite you to follow along with me in the text because their questions might show us how much we misunderstand Jesus too. Their first question seems innocent enough: “When did you come here?” What they were really saying was “We know that there was only one boat and that your disciples left without you last night, so how did you get here?” If they knew or guessed that Jesus had walked on the water, we can only imagine how elevated his superhero status would have become.
This crowd saw so much in Jesus. He could feed them. He could protect them from the Roman occupiers. He could heal them when they were sick. They hoped he would do whatever they needed him to do to make sure that they didn’t suffer. Jesus didn’t wear a cape and tights, but you get a sense that these people hoped that he was the answer to all of the difficulties they faced. Isn’t that what we often tell people about Jesus too?
Interestingly, when faced with the crowd’s first question, Jesus rebukes them. They want him to feed them and he wants them to see that they have missed the point of that miracle the day before. That miracle, the feeding of the 5,000, wasn’t about the bread and fish; it was about Jesus. It pointed to who he was and what he came to do.
The crowd wants a miracle worker. Jesus desires followers. He desires those who will come to him because of who he is not because of what he will do for them. “Don’t labor for food that perishes,” says Jesus, “labor for food that endures to eternal life.” Jesus says the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount when he commands his disciples not to worry about what they will eat, drink or wear. The reason he gives that we should not worry about these things is that “[Our] heavenly Father knows we need them. But [we should] seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to [us] as well.”
Isn’t it easy to take our eyes off of what really matters? That’s what happened to this crowd and it happens to us to when we start to think of Jesus as the one who simply provides all that we need as if Jesus is just a means to an end that we desire. Instead, we need to see Jesus as the one that we need. Our life is found in him - not in our food, clothing, houses, jobs, or relationships.
Jesus wants this crowd to know that he and he alone will give them food that never perishes, but it is so hard to believe this and the crowd immediately thinks that they have to earn such a blessing. Jesus wants to give freely; the crowd wants to earn their way to God, so they ask a second question of Jesus, “What do we have to do?”
Jesus’ answer is a surprise to them, just as it is a surprise to us. He says, “You must believe in me.” That’s it. That’s all he says. Surely, we have to do more to be given food that endures to eternal life, but Jesus doesn’t elaborate. In this short statement, Jesus again focuses on the fact that our life is found in him. This crowd goes from wanting Jesus to do neat stuff for them to wanting to make sure that they earn the gift that Jesus is offering them. Without realizing it, the crowd has stumbled upon the heart of the Gospel. Christ comes to us not because we have been righteousness but because he is righteousness. His coming is God’s way of ending our rebellion because he pays the penalty of our sin, and he did so before we could even ask him to. We stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ. The part we play in all of this is to believe. In our first scripture reading this morning we were reminded that: “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”
So often we are tempted to believe in superheroes and miracle workers instead of this One who simply told us to believe in him. Jesus wants the crowd in this story to focus on what is significant rather than what is insignificant. Jesus is not saying that food, water, and clothing are insignificant; we’ve already been reminded that our Father in heaven will provide these things. Jesus is saying that the multiplication of the fish and bread was not as significant as the presence of the One to whom that miracle pointed: Immanuel, God with us. What is significant is that Jesus has been sent by God to accomplish our salvation and to provide food that endures to eternal life.
I think the crowd gets a sense of what Jesus is saying, and they don’t like it. It’s easy enough for them to believe that Jesus is a superhero. It’s a different story for them to accept that he has come from God, so they ask him a third question, and this one really isn’t very friendly. They ask Jesus how he’s going to prove to them that he is who he says he is. We can almost see Jesus rubbing his temples wondering about these people and their demands. Hasn’t he already healed scores of people? Didn’t he just feed more than 5,000 the day before? Signs? There have been plenty of signs, and now Jesus is asked for a few more. The people even compare what happened the day before to Moses, who led the people in the desert for 40 years. Jesus fed them one meal and when compared to feeding a whole nation he didn’t feed that many people. It seems to me that given the difficult realities of life this crowd wasn’t ready to put its faith in Jesus.
Jesus is straightforward in his reply to the crowd. He tells them to check their facts. He reminds them that Moses did not give the people manna each day but that this provision was a gift from God. Then he tells them that the true bread from heaven is he who comes to give life to the world. God’s gift of manna to the Israelites had to be renewed each day, and the reality was that it was more than just food for their stomachs; it was a sign of God’s faithfulness to his people day in and day out.
The crowd thinks that maybe Jesus will agree to be their superhero, so they exclaim, “Sir, give us this bread always.” They want the kind of bread he’s offering, but they just don’t understand what he’s trying to tell them. It’s as if they’ve stepped into a fine bakery and before them are the most incredible breads in the world, breads that are amazing, but instead of choosing one of the fine products made on site by the baker, they ask if the bakery has any Wonderbread. Can you imagine asking for Wonderbread when all these other options are before you?
In essence that’s what this crowd is doing. They are mistaking the enduring nourishment of Jesus, for a pleasure that is here today and gone tomorrow. They are refusing to see the true power of God, so again Jesus speaks plainly to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
We’ve come together from far and wide today looking for Jesus. Maybe you’ve come looking for peace in a violent world. You’ll find that in him. Maybe you’ve come because you’re worried that some of your basic needs might not be met. He’ll meet them. Maybe you’ve come hoping that he’ll help you out of a jam that you find yourself in. He may very well do that for you. Maybe you’re looking for Jesus because someone else has let you down. He’ll never do that to you.
Maybe you’re looking from something else from Jesus. Friends, it is good to ask Jesus into these areas of your life, whatever they may be, but don’t miss what is most significant here. It’s not about what Jesus might do for you. It’s about who Jesus is. If you want to live you must look to him and him alone, for in him is life. He is the bread of life who will sustain you. Do you believe in him?
I pray that you do.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.