"...And They Grumbled" -John 6:41-51
As many of you know, school started up again this last week. For those schools that didn’t, don’t worry… it’s comin’ soon! And all across this great land, children will be mourning the loss of a summer gone too quickly. You can imagine the scene…Little Joey loading his new backpack with all his new school supplies. “Why do I have to go to school?” “Just when I was having fun!” “School is boring and so are my teachers, why can’t I just keep on playing?” That’s what we call grumbling.
Another example of grumbling…Jeff just got passed over for promotion, again. He sits at his desk and he thinks, “I hate this job.” “My boss is a jerk.” “I am the hardest worker in this place. I deserve better than this. I am better than this. And I am better than all of them.”
Here’s another example…a studious young Vicar. Working hard on his first sermon at the new congregation. He proudly hands in his transcript to his supervising Pastor. Only to get it back marred with red ink. All over it. The witty and wonderful illustration he had at the beginning is crossed out by the Pastor’s pen and the words, “Great Story!! Doesn’t fit the rest of the sermon, get back to work,” are written in the margin. That part actually happened. This part didn’t but you can use your imaginations. The Vicar could have thought, “Who does that guy think he is??” “Just because he is older and has less hair he thinks he is wiser.” “That stole doesn’t make him all that different, I’ve seen him at 6 in the morning.” Once again, if that had happened, it would have been grumbling.
Recently we heard sermon on the miracle of Jesus feeding more than 5000 people with just 5 loaves and 2 fish. We learned how the people ate and were satisfied. Even after this miracle, even after the crowd had their fill and were satisfied, many of them continued to follow Jesus and they demanded even more miracles. They wanted Jesus to prove to them who He was by showing them another sign.
We see in our text today how Jesus answered their demands. He didn’t perform another miracle. Instead, He told them that He is the bread of life and that they should look for food that endures to everlasting life rather than pursuing earthly bread that simply doesn’t last. Jesus went on to say that He was the Bread of Life that came down from heaven. Today’s reading tells us that the people didn’t buy that idea. Matter of fact, they were downright offended by it.
The Scripture says that they grumbled against him – (v.41 ) “The Jews complained (grumbled) about him because he said “I am the Bread of Life that came down from heaven”. Simply stated, they did not believe.
The people of Jesus’ day grumbled against Him. These folks seem to be grumbling a lot-especially when Jesus reveals who He is, the Son of God. Rather than responding to this Good News with faith, rather than responding with “Lord we believe, please help our unbelief,” they ask, “How in the world can this be?” Even after He performs miracles for them and shows through His actions, not only who He is, but how much He loves and cares for them, they still grumble.
Jesus came as a King; He came as the Son of God, who took on the flesh of mankind so that He could save mankind; but His lowly birth and social status gave people an opportunity to “talk” and “murmur” and complain about His claims to be of Heavenly descent. “We know you,” they said – “aren’t you the son of that carpenter Joseph and was not Mary your mother?” If these same people spoke in this same manner about the Roman Emperor, they would have been executed. Yet somehow the King of Kings is the object of their scorn.
Like any other sin, when the sin of grumbling gets out of hand, the problem just gets worse and worse. This unchecked sin leads to them wanting to get rid of Jesus. So they begin to devise ways to dispose of this “trouble-maker”. They begin to formulate schemes to kill Him.
The grumbling intensifies when they finally had Him betrayed and brought before the Sanhedrin. They got bolder in their sin. “Who does this guy think He is anyway? Does He think He is God?”
On the morning they had Pilate beat Him, and bring Him before the crowd; they started milling among the people grumbling against Jesus. It works. Within a few short minutes they have the crowd not only grumbling against Jesus, but screaming at the top of their lungs, “CRUCIFY HIM!!!”
And even when they think they have won, when Jesus is hanging bloody from a cross, their blatant grumbling goes on, and it takes the form of mockery. “This man saved others but he can’t even save Himself” and “If He truly is the Son of God let God come down and save Him, then we might believe”. It’s easy to see how their sin progressed to the point of outright rejection of their God. They even got to the point of disowning their long awaited Messiah. Surely these people deserve God’s wrath.
Grumbling against Jesus didn’t stop back in the 1st Century. No, we still have people today who grumble against our Lord and His Church. There are people who have not been brought to faith that stand outside the Church looking in and they grumble about it. They say we are “closed-minded fundamentalists.” And because we firmly believe God’s Word in all its Truth, they say we are “judgmental”. When they see the effects of sin in our imperfect lives they are oh-so-quick to level a finger and call us “hypocrites”. They say, “Who do those Christians think they are anyway? They need to take their out-dated views and their man-made, make-believe religion out of the schools, out of the media, out of the courthouses, and get it out of my face!!!”
They don’t just grumble about the followers of Christ, they grumble about Christ himself. “Jesus was a crazy man, like David Koresh, except his followers just happened to be successful.” Some of them say, “Sure Jesus was a good guy, but that’s all He was. A good guy. A good moral teacher like Buddha and Gandhi”. They even say, “Jesus was a total fake, an invention of 1st century renegade Jews who wanted a new religion. He never even existed.” The unchecked grumbling from the people of our day leads them to deny that there is even a God at all. It is clear these people deserve the punishment of a Righteous God just as much as the Jews of Jesus’ time.
But don’t for 1 second try to pretend it is just “those people back then” or “the people out there” that commit this sin. Don’t try to fool yourself into thinking that somehow God’s people are exempt from or immune to this temptation-because we are most certainly not! Many times it is the dearly loved children of God, you and me, that grumble against Him the most. The very people He has shown His love to and showered His blessings upon most lavishly, it is often those people that turn on Him and grumble against Him at the first sign of trouble. It happened with the children of God in the Desert of Sinai, it happened with the lost sheep of Jesus’ day, and it happens with you and me.
If you are honest with yourself this morning you will recognize that you are just as guilty, guilty as sin, guilty, guilty of this crime against our God.
But if you are asking yourself, “When did I grumble against Jesus?”, try these shoes on for size and see if they fit.
Have you ever grumbled when you were dissatisfied with God? Things didn’t go your way and you say, “Why didn’t you answer my prayers God???” Or, “Where were you during that tough time in my life Jesus? I really needed your presence and you abandoned me!” Or, “Lord, I deserve better than what you are putting me through right now!” Even if you didn’t have the courage to say it out loud, He heard those grumblings in your heart.
When we see blessings go to others instead of us. When we see other people living better-off than we are and we just don’t think that seems to be “fair”-we grumble. When those who we think deserve God’s punishment and anger get forgiven and even rewarded instead-we complain. We are just like the older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son. Just like Jonah after Nineveh repented. We even grumble at God’s grace to sinners.
We don’t just turn our pointed, grumbling tongues at God; we even turn them on each other. When there are divisions in the church, oh, we gossip and we mutter and we complain. When someone wrongs us, rather than taking it up with them in gentleness and love, we go to someone else and have a little pow-wow and we spitefully grumble about our brother or sister in Christ.
We grumble more often than we like to admit.
What do these groups of grumblers have in common? The grumblers of Jesus’ time, the grumbling atheists of today, and the children of God who grumble against God and each other. What is it that they all share? The wrath of a Holy God. The fierce anger of a God who hates sin. A God who hates the sin of grumbling! But don’t take my word for it, let’s see what God’s Word has to say about it.
Listen to what Paul writes concerning the Israelites who grumbled in the Sinai desert…1Cor10:9-12
9 We should not test the Lord, as some of them did-- and were killed by snakes.
10 And do not grumble, as some of them did-- and were killed by the destroying angel.
11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.
12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
Do you hear what Paul is saying? These things are to be examples to us, they were written down to be warnings! There is a danger in grumbling. God doesn’t take it lightly.
Paul isn’t the only New Testament writer who tries to warn us of this danger. Jesus’ brother James writes…James 5:9
9 Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
Do you see what James is saying? The Judge is at the door...He can hear you! And if you are grumbling you will be judged harshly.
Grumbling deserves punishment. Our grumbling deserves an eternity in Hell, separated from God, along with all the people who ever grumbled, and those that still do, against Christ.
But there is something different about you. There is something that sets you apart from the grumbling Pharisees of Jesus’ time. Something that makes you different from the grumbling atheists of today---And it is this something that makes all the difference in the world!! The something is this…You believe in Jesus Christ. You have been brought to faith in Jesus. Jesus says in verse 44, “No one has the power to come to me unless the Father draws him.” The Father has pulled you, through the Word, into faith in Jesus. This Jesus who never grumbled. This Suffering Son of God who took our punishment upon himself. He paid the price for our sin, even the sin of grumbling.
We are talking about Jesus who, while He was literally being beaten to a pulp by the jagged whips of Roman soldiers, didn’t grumble.
When they were pushing and shoving him up to the hill called Calvary he didn’t say a word. Isaiah 53:7…
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
As He hung there bleeding and suffocating on the Cross-bearing your sin and mine- as the intense pain of the driven nails sent spasms thru his tattered and torn body; instead of grumbling, He uttered 10 words that summed up His whole mission on earth. Listen to Him say, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.”
“Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” Forgive them.
For all the times we grumble, He didn’t. For all the times we complain about God and criticize one another, Jesus kept silent. He who became sin for us simply says, “Forgive them” And that’s what He does. He forgives.
This is the Jesus you have been brought to believe in. He is the object of the faith we have. It doesn’t come through a decision to follow Him. We don’t continue to believe because of a one-time prayer of repentance. You believe because God has drawn you by His Word.
You were brought into the family of God and He called you His son/ His daughter, right here, in the waters of baptism.
You have been instructed and strengthened in your faith by the very Words of the Living God (lift up Bible).
And this saving faith is nourished and fed with the “Bread of Life” that Jesus spoke about in the text. You receive right here at this communion rail when you eat the bread and drink the wine that is His body and His blood.
It is because of this, because of God’s grace, that you and I have been set free from this sin of grumbling. Through the power of the Gospel and the guidance of the Holy Spirit we are able to grumble less and give thanks more. We are able to use our words to build up instead of tear down. Our complaints are turned to praise.
Jesus tells us in verse 47 “He who believes has eternal life”. He is talking about you. He has called you to faith, and given you everything necessary for life eternal. You can be 100% confident, 100% sure as you sit there in the pew this morning…this is what the future holds for you. He who has promised it will see it through. He will see you through this life and into the next, to live and reign with Him in heaven forever. Brothers and Sisters, that’s not a reason to grumble, that’s a reason to praise and to give thanks to our gracious God. A God who is gracious enough to save even ungrateful grumblers like you and me. Thanks Be to God! Believe it now, believe it always. Amen.
