The people in today’s text are guilty of two errors. These are errors as old as time since the fall; errors which still plague us to this day. Before we get there, though, it serves us well to reiterate the back story.

Spare a week off to celebrate St. Mary Magdalene, everything we have heard in the Gospel readings for the past month and a week are events which happened one right after another. This is a pattern we will continue over the next month and a week, as well. What we missed on July 22nd was the feeding of the 5000 men, after which, as we heard last week, Jesus sent his disciples across the Sea of Galilee while He stayed behind only to walk to them on the water early the next morning.

Later that day, some of the crowd that Jesus had fed returned 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, but so was Jesus. Seeing that boat across the lake, they get into the others and head to Capernaum, near where the one boat was and near Gennesaret. There, in Capernaum, they find Jesus.

They are surprised. “Rabbi, when did You come here?” No boats were missing for Him to have taken one and follow His disciples. He could have walked there, but that would have been a long walk around the sea. The only other option, which makes no sense, is that He walked on the sea. That sounds as crazy and nonsensical as if He were to ascend into the sky and fly there.

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 answer nor do you expect one. “How are you doing?” “How have you been?” “What’s up?” We ask those questions so innocently, and the expected response is “Okay,” or “Not much,” and from there we expect to proceed with the intended conversation.

Here, the people ask Jesus a pretty innocuous question; “When did You come here?” Certainly, there was some confusion over how Jesus got to Capernaum, and I would guess they wouldn’t mind an actual answer to their question, but they didn’t go to Capernaum merely to ask Jesus how He got there.

And Jesus knows it:

Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.

Jesus gets 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) As we are in an election year, it’s a promise we could easily come across from one candidate or another, a promise to meet all our 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. It’s an error as old as time since the fall, and one which still plagues us today. No longer is Jesus God; 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.”

What does Jesus say to this? “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” 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 we shouldn’t pray for these things. Jesus taught us words to pray which sound very much as if we should. “Give us this day our daily bread.” What do we believe according to these words? “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 we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are praying for everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body.

What we are not doing is asking for an abundance of these things. If God determines we need bread to fill our bellies, then He will supply a way that we will get that bread. If He determines that we need $100 to get by, then He will supply a way that we will have that $100. What it doesn’t mean is that we are to expect these things every time we want them or feel we need them, but we pray for them realizing that He is the giver of all that we need, not to mention the way we 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 we 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 which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give 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 shall we do, that we may work 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 shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” It’s an error as old as time since the fall, and one which still plagues us 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? They should, as you have all uttered or thought things like these from time to time.

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 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 which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give 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 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 which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him. This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He 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. “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” We’re back to the bread; the bread that miraculously filled their bellies and twelve baskets 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 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 us, too. To the people in today’s text, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give 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.” Now, we’re down to the real meat of what Jesus has to say. Now, He lays 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: “Lord, give us this bread always.” Here you have the cry of faith for life.

“I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who 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 us that we might become the righteousness of God. (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21) There, He shed His blood for the propitiation of our sins, and not for ours 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 us by grace through faith.

“Lord, give us this bread always,” we pray by grace in faith. Our prayer is not for daily bread alone, but also that His kingdom come and we be delivered from all evil, by which we also pray that we would be given the Bread of Life. Our 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. We’ll get into that more in the coming weeks, especially as we continue through St. John’s 6th chapter.

Therefore, for now, it suffices us 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. You have His Word on it!