Today begins a series of gospel readings where Jesus reflects on being the Bread of Life – the true bread from heaven. Last Sunday you heard another encounter of Jesus with the crowds that happens just prior to where our gospel picks up. In that encounter, Jesus feeds thousands with just a little bread and two fish. And as is apparent in today’s gospel, the crowds are amazed at what Jesus can do, and they’re hoping he can do it again – not because they’re looking for salvation, but more because they’re looking for security. Knowing that Jesus can provide food for them is enough. They aren’t looking big picture. And Jesus is trying to get them to see beyond the immediate need of their stomachs.
For those of us here with kids, we know that they sometimes have fickle tastes, right? One day they’ll absolutely love a certain snack, and then the day after you buy the Costco sized box of that snack, they’ll decide they don’t like it any more, and “frankly, never really liked it, so why would you buy that and dare to put it in my lunchbox, dad?” And it’s not just snacks. I just recently have had this occur with one of my kids – he used to eat his entire sandwich, no problem. But recently, he’s been resisting eating the crust. He wants the sweeter, softer stuff on the inside, but when the bread is ever so slightly more firm, he’s wanting nothing to do with it. Even more drastically, I’ve recently learned about this pre-packaged sandwich called an “uncrustable.” An uncrustable is basically a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the crust removed. You can buy them by the box at the grocery store, and each one comes in its own little bag. The bread, reportedly, is super sweet, and it’s super processed.
I know one parent whose three year old will only eat Uncrustable bread. And this isn’t to judge parents who have to resort to Uncrustables to get you kids to eat a Peanut Butter Jelly sandwich. Parents, if you can get your kids to eat anything, you’re doing okay.
But the hope is eventually, they’ll stop eating Uncrustables, right? The hope is they’ll graduate to a less processed bread, one that hopefully doesn’t cost as much as the Uncrustable costs by comparison. And eventually, they’ll enjoy healthier breads. But we all start somewhere. And the reason I bring this up is the people of Galilee who are seeking Jesus definitely seem to be at the Uncrustable level of their faith.
I’m not suggesting that they were complaining about the crust on their bread, asking about what they could put on it – although I think the miracle of the loaves and fish would have been even more impressive if Jesus had multiplied a whole bunch of peanut butter jelly sandwiches instead – did the people of first century Palestine know what peanut butter even was? Note to self, look that one up later.
Anyway, I say that they’re at the Uncrustable level of faith because these crowds aren’t interested in who Jesus is outside of what they can receive from him right now. Jesus calls them out today, telling them, “you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” They aren’t looking for salvation. They’re looking for security. Their insecurity may be different than that of their ancestors who wandered the wilderness, but the echoes are the same. The moment their needs aren’t being met, many of them question what they’re doing there in the first place. Remember, the Israelites who traveled with Moses in the wilderness had seen with their own eyes God’s deeds of power. They saw plagues that opened the way to freedom from Egypt. They saw the Red Sea part. And yet, the moment their food supplies run short, they begin to wish they had never left Egypt.
For the Galileans who are following Jesus today, there is a similar feeling of insecurity, but it comes largely from external forces. Their seeking the bread from Jesus is a symptom of the tension they are living in. Israel has been occupied by Rome. Rome, while in many ways a much better occupying force than many of Israel’s previous colonizers, still made life harder for the Israelites, and there were some who believed the peace they were being granted wasn’t worth the added taxes and harassment by Roman forces that came with it. Almost ever since Rome began their occupation less than a century prior, there had been whispers of revolt. And revolt meant uncertainty. So if the Galileans could trust that Jesus could feed them, when even food wasn’t guaranteed, that was enough for the moment.
But Jesus can see beyond the moment. Jesus can see beyond their immediate need, because that’s who he is – it’s what he’s here for. Much like those of us who are parents must respond to the immediate need and yet see beyond it, Jesus has responded to their need for food yesterday and today is hoping to give them so much more. Because bread is what they want, but bread isn’t what they need.
What the crowds need goes so far beyond the daily bread. Because if they’re focused solely on daily bread, they can’t think bigger. They can’t ask the big questions about what it means to be a chosen people. They can’t ask what it is they can accomplish together for the good of others, and how they might unite because they aren’t able to look beyond this moment. But Jesus is asking them to do so anyway. Jesus is asking them to look for something that sustains beyond today. Jesus is asking them to look for him – not as a source of food, but as a source of life.
The problem is, what it means for Jesus to be a source of life is a little hard to swallow. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to follow this conversation between Jesus and the crowds that seek him, and we’re definitely going past Uncrustable territory. We’re going to be going beyond just feeling good for a moment to hopefully feeling good for life everlasting. But that takes a perspective shift. That takes listening to Jesus, and believing his words, and trusting him. And if those gathered can trust in Jesus, then they have the opportunity to become closer to God and closer to one another. By looking beyond this moment, they can truly receive Jesus as the bread of life, and find something so much more than daily bread.
So let me ask you– what keeps you from looking beyond your need for daily bread? What is it that holds you back from recognizing a larger picture of God’s grace that is here for you today and every day? Family of God, every day we abide with Jesus and trust in him, we come closer to seeing the deeper truth of God’s abiding grace and eternal providence given to us for the sake of all people. The work of daily bread received in the feeding of the thousands is for us and for them a foretaste of a much more incredible feast. Today we begin to see that the goodness of God lies not just in a moment, but also in a promise of eternal life that we all receive in Christ our lord, who provides for us daily, but also calls us to look to God’s eternal promises for the sake of the whole world.