Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 17), Year B

BREAD FOR A HUNGRY WORLD

John 6:1-21
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 17), Year B
Analysis by Louis Moehlman

1After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” 6He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” 8One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” 10Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. 11Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” 13So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14When 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.” 15When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. 16When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.

“In going to the cross, Christ would do for the crowd (and for us all) that which we could not do for ourselves – satisfying our hunger in the one promising response we most desperately need.”

DIAGNOSIS: Hungry People

Step 1: Initial Diagnosis (External Problem): Lost in the crowd and hungry like a wolf
It must have been hard not to get wrapped up in the frenzy of the day. Following Jesus was easy to do because everyone was doing it, and the risk-to-reward ratio was favorable. Curing the sick. Preaching and teaching like no one else. He even gets in the face of authority and challenges the religious status quo (ch. 5). He’s the long-awaited prophet come to tell everyone of the “good news” of God’s kingdom for us now. This Jesus is going to do what we have long been desiring! That is what this benevolent, divine, messianic Prophet-King is going to do, right?

Like a one-trick pony, unable to think for itself, the “messiah” is our personal genie in a bottle and we want him to do for us that which we can’t do, but certainly want to get done!

We believe the right things, we’ve followed you to this place, you knew we were hungry, and you fed us. So, what else can you do for us?

Step 2: Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem): Insatiable appetite
But this Prophet-King in whom the crowd – and us – have placed our plates, stacked full of expectations, slinks away and hides (v. 15)! Not the kind of action we were expecting from the long-awaited messiah.

And really, whose expectations is this “mob” carrying? God’s own expectations, of course (or so they thought)! It was God who delivered them from Egypt and it would be God again, who will deliver them from Rome. It was God who gave them the Law and told them to live up to it – or else.

Our need for a Prophet-King is real and the King of Israel is what God promises the people. We cry out as the crowd, “Don’t just feed us now, but feed us for eternity!”

Yes, there is frenzy, perhaps – but is the real motivator behind the crowd’s action, and ultimately our own actions, rooted in fear? Fear of a God who will rightfully judge us for what we are (or are not)?
Still, who wants to believe in a God that we are all afraid of? That’s certainly not a God I’m willing to put up with. So we turn our backs on God when Jesus slinks away and doesn’t do what we expect a king to do for us.

Step 3: Final Diagnosis (Eternal Problem): Eternal, tantalizing hunger
Truth be told, the crowd isn’t so much looking for someone to make a leader or king as they are looking for a scapegoat for anyone who fails them, even God – someone they can ultimately blame and put before God as the reason as to why they themselves could never live up to God’s expectations.

There will come a time, soon enough, when this same large crowd turns against the one, who on this day, they wanted to make a King. A King this Jesus becomes – but not on a throne and with a crown of jewels. It’s on a cross and with a crown of thorns, hanging and dying because we couldn’t have our fill. The hunger of our own expectations, ego, and self-centeredness have turned us into a blood-thirsty-mob who, upon not getting enough fish and bread, will turn and “eat” our own – the Messiah – God’s anointed one.

So it seems, our hungry scorn and hatred for this God-King and for neighbor is only satisfied with blood, with death and dying.

But this leaves us with all former hope of the deliverance we sought from this king seemingly lost forever, and a hunger that can never be truly satisfied.

PROGNOSIS: Feeding Lord

Step 4: Initial Prognosis (Eternal Solution): Feeding that hunger through the cross
Yet it is this Christ who goes to the cross for us all. The crushing expectations of the large crowd and the design of God’s plan for us both find their fulfilment. In going to the cross, Christ would do for the crowd (and for us all) that which we could not do for ourselves – satisfying our hunger in the one promising response we most desperately need.

Instead of giving us what we deserve in our accountability for that which is “right” and “just,” with our blood-soaked hands that demand vengeance, God gives us that which is “right” and “just” in Christ’s blessed passion for us. Instead of what we deserve – our own death and dying – Christ makes these just desserts his own on the cross for our sake. Christ gives us forgiveness, satisfying with his own body and blood all our insatiable appetites. Even more, he turns and says to us, in the midst of our own stormy lives, “It is I. Do not be afraid!” (v. 20)

Step 5: Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution): A meal that truly satisfies
Don’t be afraid? How could we not be afraid, after all we have done and continue to do in all our own sinfulness?

But Jesus’ words of comfort for his disciples are rooted in who they are now, having taken our sin to himself. We are not on our own, but we are his. In his death and dying, and finally in his rising, we are clothed in his righteousness, justified by faith. That same comfort and peace is so freely offered to us – especially when the storm makes landfall in our life. Death, illness, war, exploitation – tragedies of all kinds abound in our lives. Yet standing in the middle of the storm is none other than the Christ himself, offering us his peace through his very body and blood in wine and bread.

Step 6: Final Prognosis (External Solution): We come, inviting, to the hungry feast
We can live, hanging our hearts on the Good News of what God has done for us in Christ. The promise is made real in our lives through our baptism. It’s God’s promise to us that we are made God’s own and that our expectations are set right in Christ. Through the Holy Spirit, God gets done in us that which God needs to get done for the sake of the whole world.

Now, this isn’t a promise that life will be without storms, large crowds full of expectations, hunger, and clueless disciples. There’s no “get-out-of-life-trouble-free” card that we get because of what Christ does on the cross for us. But it is a promise that because of what God has done for us in Christ, God will and does work through us as Christ re-presentatives. It’s no longer about our expectations of what God is going to do, but rather about what God has already declared that He is going to get done through us – going out and encountering others who, because of their own expectation-laden life, are being crushed and crushing others, and to say to them a Word of Good News and invite them to join us for supper at the Lord’s Table.

Get fed! Get nourished. Be set free! And then, join us in getting sent out.