By now Jesus has attracted quite a crowd. How? Feeding 5000 people on a few barley cakes will work. Now the folks want more. They want some Wonder Bread!Jesus claims they are chasing after him because their bellies are full. Right. They are. These are folks who know hunger. They have seen times of drought and suffered times of famine. They have listened to their children cry in hunger.
The hunger that we know is different from that gnawing emptiness that consumes all one's thinking. In first world America we are more prone to know existential hungers: a hunger for acceptance, for community, for recognition. We hunger after security (generally financial) or status. The hunger is real albeit different from the crowd around Jesus.
That crowd wants to know how to get the bread that feeds all into eternal life. Sounds too good to be true, they are saying to themselves. How do we get this magical bread? " Work the works of God," is Jesus' answer.
OK; these folk know work. They understand hard labor, labor that is required in order to survive. They are accustomed to working day after day after day until they are weary to the bone and very, very hungry. I think that these folks never expected that Jesus would just give them this wonder bread; they always expected to work for it.
They did not expect trusting in Jesus to count as work. They didn't expect Jesus to claim he was the bread of life. They didn't expect it and probably didn't believe a bit of it either. Just believe? Sounds too good to be true. Sounds like a world turned upside down. This would mean that each time we remembered Jesus, called on his name and ate a bit of bread we would be fully and completely fed...until eternity.
Well, that is exactly what it means. It is still hard to understand and to trust. So, come to the table and eat and hear the good news of God's love. It's a first step.
No comments:
Post a Comment