That day, some of the multitude returned to that spot looking for Jesus, and knowing that He had sent His disciples ahead of Him, gathered at the shore for more. They noticed that only one boat was missing—the one He sent His disciples in. They also noticed that Jesus was gone. Seeing the one boat across the lake, they get into the others and head to Capernaum, near where the one boat was in the region of Gennesaret. There, in Capernaum, they found Jesus.

They are surprised. “Rabbi, when did you come here?” There was only one boat missing, so Jesus couldn’t have taken one to follow after His disciples. He could have walked there, but that would have been a long walk around the lake…unless He walked on the lake, but that’s absurd.

Now, you know how you ask a question in order to “break the ice?” It’s a rather innocuous question to which you neither really want an actual, detailed answer, nor do you expect one. “How are you doing?” “How have you been?” “What’s up?” Those questions so innocently, perhaps mindlessly, and the expected response is “Okay,” “Not much,” or something like that, and then the regular conversation can continue from there.

Here, the people ask Jesus what might be considered a pretty innocuous question; “When did you come here?” I call it innocuous because I don’t think they were concerned with the when as much as with the how. More than that, I’m certain that they didn’t go to Capernaum merely to ask Jesus how He got there.

And Jesus knew it:

Jesus got right to the point. The crowd arrived in Capernaum because they wanted their bellies filled again. Here was the man they wanted to make king because He gave them enough food miraculously to fill their bellies, and they didn’t have to do a thing for it. (cf. John 6:15) It’s the kind of promise you could easily come across from one candidate or another in an election year, a promise to meet all your physical needs, seemingly miraculously; such a promise is made to garner votes because it speaks to felt needs, it speaks to the false god of self, to the belly god.

That’s who the people thought Jesus to be. To these people, Jesus was their belly god. For them, He was someone who would fill all of their wants and needs, and I’m not saying that hunger and thirst, homelessness and nakedness, disease and death aren’t actual needs. Nevertheless, this is an error as old as time—since the fall—and one which still plagues people today. Jesus is not seen as God; on the contrary, He is reduced to the cartoonish image of a genie in a bottle. You rub your magic lamp and say, “Dear Jesus, I could really use $100 today. Amen.” Who couldn’t use $100?

But what does Jesus say to this kind of thinking? “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” In other words, “[S]eek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) Jesus is not come to fill your bellies with bread; He is not come to give your $100 when and where you want it.

Now, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t pray for these things. Jesus gave words to pray which sound very much as if you should. “Give us this day our daily bread.” What does this mean? “God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” What is meant by daily bread? When you pray the Lord’s Prayer, you are praying for everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body. $100 (or more) fits in that category.

However, when you pray the Fourth Petition, you are not asking for an abundance of these things. If God determines that you need bread to fill your bellies, then He will supply a way that you will get that bread. If He determines that you need $100 to get by, then He will supply a way that you will have that $100. What it doesn’t mean is that you are to expect these things every time you want them or feel you need them, but you pray for them realizing that He is the giver of all that you need, not to mention the way to obtain His temporal gifts, whether that be some benefactor or charity, the hand of a parent or guardian, or, perhaps the most common of all, the vocation or job you are given to do.

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25) And so Jesus said, “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” Jesus has moved into the realm of trust in God, of believing in Him, of receiving everlasting life. All of those temporal blessing from the hand of God are good things, they are His First Article gifts, which He wants you to have, and He will give them to you as He deems you need them. But, they perish. They do not endure to everlasting life. A belly daily filled with bread miraculously derived will not last to eternal life. However, there is a food which endures to everlasting life, and the Son of Man will give it to you.

It comes as a bit of shock, then, having just heard that the Son of Man gives this everlasting food, when the people ask, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” The heart of man since the fall is geared against the Gospel; it is geared against hearing that God gives and does everything for fallen man—in fact, it is geared to rejected God and His graciousness. “No,” sinful man responds, “I do not want what you have to give; I will work it out myself.” “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” It’s an error as old as time since the fall, and one which still plagues people today. This error often rears its ugly head in one of two ways, both of which are deadly.

First, you have the idea that in order to be acceptable to God, you must work it out. There must be something to do in order to garner God’s favor, not only for this eternal food, but also for all of His First Article gifts, those things which He gives to support this body and life. In short, in order to be saved, you must please God with what you do. It’s the idea that people who are generally good get into heaven. So, you start to bargain with God: “Lord, I know I’ve sinned, but look at all of the good things I’ve done,” or “Lord, if you’ll just give me this one thing, I promise to do something else in return.” Do these sound familiar? I’m guessing that they do, for who is immune from ever having at least thought them?

Second is the thought that you are good enough at one time or another that you can get away with neglecting God and what He has to give you. You may even boast about how good you are, sounding like the Pharisee who compared himself to the tax collector: “God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.” (Luke 18:11-12) You start to reason or justify your neglect of the Word of God: “My sins weren’t so great this week, so I’ll pass on the Sacrament today; we’ll have a shorter service and I’ll be home all the sooner for it.” “I did pretty good this week, I think I can skip church this once.” “I don’t feel like going to Bible Study tonight, but I’ve studied my devotions with extra intention this week.” To this, of course, can be repeated Jesus’ words today: “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” (emphasis added)

Both of the ways of this error neglect the truth that Jesus spoke to the people today: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” Jesus took their question and turned it around. Instead of talking about the works man does, He spoke of the work that God does. The work of God is that you believe in Him whom He has sent. Or, as He inspired St. Paul to write, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) Faith is the work of God—it is His gift to you—not the result of any work you do.

Jesus said, “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” Faith and salvation—believing in the Son of God and the food which endures to everlasting life—are the free gifts of God; they are yours by faith.

How gracious and long-suffering Jesus is. For the people in today’s text still don’t get it.

They go right back to the bread; the bread that miraculously filled their bellies and twelve baskets of leftovers wasn’t sign enough. Sinful man is always asking for proof, always asking for a sign, always wanting more so that he may take things on sight and not by faith. Since the fall, man is geared not to take God at His Word. Again, how many times, in torment of conscience or confusion, have you asked God for a sign or for direction: “If this is what you really want me to do, give me a clear sign, O God.”

Jesus doesn’t oblige. He turns to His Word, which is what He gives you, too. To the people in today’s text, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” This is now the real meat of what Jesus has to say. He laid it out there for their hearing. The food which endures to everlasting life is not merely some bread to be eaten, but a person. “The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world…which the Son of Man will give you…[the work of God is] that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

When the Law of God has it’s killing way with fallen man, it can produce repentance, which always cries out to God for mercy. “Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison; Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy.” This cry for mercy can find expression in many ways as the soul finds itself without that which it needs and, by grace, earnestly desires: “Sir, give us this bread always.” Here you have the cry of faith for life.

“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

Bread is the central object in today’s text. Yet, there are two kinds being discussed—daily bread which sustains and nourishes the body, and the Bread of Life which sustains, strengthens, and nourishes the soul. Daily bread provides for life when it is consumed; conversely, the Bread of Life provides life when He was consumed in His passion and death—the death of the cross for the sins of the world.

It was there on the cross where He who knew no sin became sin for you that you might become the righteousness of God. (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21) There, He shed His blood for the propitiation of your sins, and not for yours only, but for the sins of the world. (cf. 1 John 2:2) He who called Himself the Bread of Life is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. (cf. John 1:29) He has borne your sins of self-righteousness, self-justification, all the works you do in rejection of God’s grace, the works of which you boast—indeed, all your sins—He has taken them all from you, they are no longer yours, but His. Jesus died with them on the cross; He was buried with them in the grave, but He rose victorious over sin and death, while they all remained in the grave. They haunt you no more; you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

The life that He gives is everlasting: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17) The life He gives is a seat forever at the heavenly victory banquet at which there will never be hunger nor thirst. There is celebrated the Feast of Victory of Our God—His victory over death and grave, which was won as He burst forth from His three-day prison and which He has given to you by grace through faith.

“Sir, give us this bread always,” you pray by grace in faith. Your prayer is not for daily bread alone, but also that His kingdom come and that you be delivered from all evil, by which you also pray that you would be given the Bread of Life. Repentant souls clamor for this life-giving Bread. And so, Jesus of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, which means House of Bread, is come to give Himself to you in Word and Sacrament. More on that in the coming weeks, I’m sure, as the Gospel readings continue through St. John’s 6th chapter.

Therefore, for now, it suffices to hear these words. Jesus answers the prayer for the life-giving bread, which He is. He is come, and He gives Himself to you freely. Your seat at His everlasting victory banquet is sealed in His blood, even as your banquet robes are washed clean in it and made white. There, you will hunger and thirst no more, neither for the food which perishes nor for righteousness, because by grace through faith you are the righteousness of God, received by Baptism, strengthened by the Word and Sacraments, all of which give you Jesus, the Bread of Life, for whose sake you are forgiven for all of your sins.