Introduction
We’ve all had this experience. Every one of us has found ourselves in front of the TV a couple of hours after a satisfying and filling supper and seen a commercial – and not just any commercial. You know what I mean: One of those commercials. There it is: a delicious looking triple bacon cheese-burger or maybe a pizza smothered in mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. It could be any sort of food advertisement. Maybe it’s an ad for a Dairy Queen Blizzard or those Cadbury Easter Cream Eggs. All of a sudden you’re hungry – and you didn’t even know it!
No matter how many times we eat enough to fill us up – even to make us feel stuffed! – we always get hungry again. We don’t have the option – we have to eat again. One meal will never do us forever.
Feeding the Crowd
Well, the crowd that follows Jesus in this story act just like us when we see the fast food commercials. And what I mean by this will be clear in a few minutes. First note that this crowd of people had followed Jesus because of the signs that he was doing for the sick. And while they were with him, he had fed them – all five thousand of them, not including women and children. He did so with five loaves of bread and two fish. Not only had this been enough – but there were leftovers! Twelve baskets of leftovers! Having followed Jesus on account of the signs he performed, they become witnesses to another sign: the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Our text says in v. 14, “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’” They did see the sign. They knew that Jesus had fed them miraculously. They knew something had happened that was outside the realm of common experience. They knew something was up here. And they responded by recognizing something of who Jesus was. They called Jesus a prophet. The question is: did they really understand Jesus? Did they really understand the importance and meaning of the sign?
We don’t find out until the next part of our passage. It’s the next day, and once the crowd realized that Jesus was gone they went looking for him. What was their reason for looking for Jesus? Why did they want to find him? Perhaps they wanted to confess their faith in him. Or it could be that they wanted to learn more about who he was. Did they want more teaching? Maybe something intangible about Jesus’ character compelled them to seek him.
Jesus, of course, knew exactly why the crowd sought him out. He tells them: “You are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” Wow. They came because he fed them. He had met their physical need. It seems that the memory of the sign had either disappeared, or been rationalized away, or at least faded enough that all they focused on was the result of the sign: food to eat. They came to Jesus again because maybe he would feed them again. Maybe he would satisfy their hunger one more time.
Now, of course, there’s nothing wrong with asking Jesus to meet our physical needs – “Give us this day our daily bread” is our ongoing prayer – and so we shouldn’t downplay the significance and legitimacy of seeking God to meet these needs. And Jesus, we see, does meet those needs – and here he does so in an incredibly miraculous way that demonstrates the providence, power, and graciousness of God!
But you see, while because of the sign they realized that he might be the prophet “who is to come into the world,” like so many others they ended up completely misunderstanding who Jesus is. Like so many others they just didn’t get Jesus. They missed the point entirely.
That the people missed the point is clear when Jesus takes the opportunity to tell about the “food that endures”: the food that gives eternal life. Using the image of food he tells them that he can give them eternal life. The food that they work for is food that perishes. He can keep giving them loaves and fishes, but they will just get hungry again. Nothing he can give can forever satisfy this basic physical hunger – and that is not the need that Jesus is largely interested in meeting. Jesus is essentially saying to them what he said to Satan in wilderness when tempted: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” In this case, the word that comes from God is Jesus himself, the Word made flesh. It is Jesus that gives life and this is what he offers – something infinitely more important than their next meal.
Another Sign? More Manna?
Then the people do the unthinkable. They ask for a sign that they should believe in him. They ask for a sign! Can you believe this? They want more proof that Jesus is the one who can give them eternal life. As one scholar comments, “The crowd’s request is jarring. How can they make such a request immediately after the feeding miracle in which they shared? The crowd does not recognize the sign that has already been enacted before them.”
So while it seems that they did see the sign of the loaves and fishes, they really had no idea of what it meant. The crowd then refers to Moses’ gift of manna, ironic since you might say that they had already received the equivalent of manna: through the loaves and fishes. And if the crowd failed to see the sign in the loaves and fishes, how likely is it that they will recognize another sign? Even if they see a miracle, why should we think they will see a sign?
Now this is why these crowds act just like us when we see fast food commercials: miracles never satisfy; they are the fast food equivalent of spiritual experience: it just breeds desire for more of the same without ever satisfying that desire. That is why the Gospel of John calls them signs – they point us to Jesus, who can satisfy our spiritual hunger. Just as those who drank the miraculous wine at Cana will get thirsty again, those who ate their fill of bread and fish will get hungry again. And, in the same way, it doesn’t matter how many signs you see, you will never be satisfied. You will want another sign – just one more. And the crowd in our story doesn’t come any closer to Jesus because of these signs. “The people’s confession of Jesus as ‘the prophet who is to come into the world’ is therefore ambiguous, because while it is an appropriate confession, it rest on the evidence of signs.”
The True Bread of Life
And when Jesus offers them the true bread from heaven, they think he means some sort of heavenly manna of the kind that Moses gave the Israelites in the wilderness. They say to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” We hear echoes of the woman at the well who didn’t grasp what Jesus meant by “living water.” She was looking for a kind of water that would prevent her from having to return to the well. This crowd is looking for bread from heaven like manna – something to fill their present hunger. They want another sign. And they want something akin to manna in the desert, thinking that this is what Jesus offers. For them receiving this manna would be sign – but would it be the sign? Would it be the sign that would finally point them to Jesus?
So when Jesus offers them bread – the true bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world – the people say to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Again, they don’t really get it. They don’t. They think he means something like the manna Moses gave the Israelites. While the crowd recognizes that the bread Jesus offers is better, they do not realize why it is better.
So Jesus finally delivers the punchline: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” He turns the conversation in a completely different and totally unexpected direction. He redirects their attention, he adjusts their focus. All this time they were focusing on the signs. They had been focusing on the food they had received. Jesus pulls the rug out from under them and says, “Focus on me. Believe in me. Come to me. That is how to get eternal life.” Forget for a moment your present hunger, whether for more food or more miraculous signs, because none of those things will satisfy you. None of those things gives you eternal life. And that’s what matters here. Jesus tells them that they ought to pay attention to eternal matters, and that the only way to do so is to focus on and believe in him. He wants them to take seriously something other than their earthly needs. He invites them – and us – to do this by drawing upon our own experiences of hunger and thirst. Imagine what it would be like never to get hungry again. Imagine what it would be like never to need or desire another drink – imagine being forever satisfied. It is this that Jesus invites the crowds to consider.
What Are You Hungry For?
Once again we see that miracles have little value unless they point us to Jesus. “A basic theological tenet of the fourth Gospel is that a sign alone is not an adequate ground for faith; the believer must come to understand the theological and Christological truths revealed in that sign.” Miracles and signs are there to point us to Christ and have little value unless they draw us to him and deepen our relationship with him.
The crowds wanted another sign. Perhaps they wanted more food. Why are you following Jesus? They wanted more from Jesus rather than more of Jesus. You see, Jesus was not interested in simply feeding the crowd and satisfying their immediate needs – he wasn’t going to give in to their notion of a prophet or king and he wasn’t going to give in to their need for instant gratification. Jesus isn’t there simply to fill our needs. Sometimes we don’t even know what it is that we really need anyway. Sometimes we come to Jesus with desires that he is not there to fulfill. Sometimes people come to Jesus with wrong expectations. What Jesus wants to give us is himself. He is the bread of life. Jesus himself is the gift, not any miracle he can perform.
So the question is: what are you really hungry for? And what am I really hungry for? What are we really hungry for? Are we willing to look past our immediate physical needs to something that is really important, namely, eternal life, real life, everlasting life? We all know what it’s like to feel famished. We all know what it’s like to be thirsty. Jesus is saying that the real hunger and thirst we ought to be focusing on is the hunger and thirst for eternal life, for the truth that is revealed in Jesus, for the righteousness only he can give, for the hope only he offers, for the salvation only he can provide, and for the love that only he makes available. Is this what you want or will you be satisfied with more fast food?
