Always Being Followed
This week’s text is John 6:24-35. This must rank as one of my all-time favorite passages, because it underlines so much of the way I frame Jesus’s message and what I think makes it so clear. This is a post-feeding of the 5000 tale. It begins with a crowd getting into their boats and seeking Jesus out. They of course find Him, as they always seem to. If only people today were as intent upon finding Jesus as this group was! Jesus points out to this crowd of seekers that they came looking for Him because they ate their fill of the loaves.
Jesus points out that they should not seek after, or work for the food that perishes but rather the “food that endures for eternal life” (Verse 27). This is food that the Son of Man will give us. That is through Jesus God is providing a way to an eternal relationship with the Father in Heaven. This, whether the crowd realizes it or not, is why they are following Jesus.
Jesus Said It So…
Then Jesus hit us with the key to this passage, and I think to a fuller and deeper understanding of what God is telling us. The crowd in Verse 28 asks Jesus “What must we do to perform the works of God?”. Jesus gives us His answer in Verse 29, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” There then follows a back and forth about what signs Jesus will perform so that they will see and believe. The crowd references the manna that the Israelites received in the desert. Jesus responds by pointing out that it was God, not Moses who did this. The crowd wants bread from God, so Jesus then goes on to stunningly tell them that He is the “bread of life”. Further that “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (Verse 35).
It is just Jesus and only Jesus that will deliver us unto our Father in Heaven. It is as clear as a bell that Jesus is saying that there are no “works”, as we commonly understand the term, that we need to perform in order to be saved. It is simply belief in Jesus as Lord and savior that removes all barriers between us and God. It is at this point we may reasonably ask what works we can perform in response to this incredible gift.
I am not certain if this passage was one of the key passages that motivated Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian, and martyr to the Nazis, to offer his insight, that has impacted me to such a great degree. That insight is that we cheapen God’s gifts of grace upon grace if we do not respond appropriately. This is the insight that meant so much to me that I named this site after the summary of this insight. Regardless of whether Bonhoeffer used this passage or not as a key to his understanding, it has always struck me as one that highlights the point, from no less an authority than Jesus Himself. You should know it by now, if we believe, then we will obey.
Praise Be to God
