August 4, 2024 Sermon

Sermon title:  “Looking for Jesus”

Scripture:  John 6:24-35

(Other lectionary suggestions include 2 Samuel 11:26 - 12:13a, Psalm 51:1-12, and Ephesians 4:1-16.)

John 6:24-35

24So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 25When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” 28Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” 29Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

          If you were here last week or the week before, you heard about Jesus feeding the 5,000, first from Mark’s Gospel and then John’s Gospel. Today we are told that the people are looking for Jesus - but Jesus isn’t particularly happy about their effort. Something is going on here that is not immediately obvious, and I want to thank Diana Butler Bass for her insight. Jesus himself says the people are only looking for him because they want to see another miracle, and perhaps have another free lunch! So, he tells the people to seek the bread that comes down from heaven - the TRUE bread, he calls it. That bread gives life to the world, says Jesus. What does he mean?

          Last week the first verse of John 6 talked about the Sea of Galilee, which is also called the Sea of Tiberias. Says Diana Butler Bass, “There are few lines - seemingly a throwaway remark by the author - that are more politically loaded in the entire New Testament. And that single sentence frames up the Feeding of the Five Thousand in a powerful way. This is an anti-imperial text.” She could have said ANTI-ROMAN text!

          John is reminding his readers of the Roman name of the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Tiberias. Why? To hear the name “Sea of Tiberias” “was like a kick in the gut to Jews under Roman occupation. (T)he moniker was a daily reminder of their Roman overlords, their ruinous economic program, and their idolatrous paganism.”

          Herod Antipas, the puppet king of Israel, had wanted to kiss up to the Roman emperor Tiberius, so he built this gleaming city that he called Tiberias in honor of the emperor. “He planned it to be primarily a pagan city, filling it with occupants from all over the region who were not Jews and building temples and shrines to meet their religious needs. Religious Jews hated Tiberias and avoided it - most refused to call the city by its new name and continued to call the site by its traditional name, Yam HaKineret.”

          According to Diana Butler Bass, “The intent of the opening sentence -- Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias -- is startlingly clear. The author wants readers to know this location and its politics. This story, such a nice tale about lunch with Jesus, is really about the contest between the Roman Empire and the kingdom Jesus proclaimed.”

          Isn’t that great? Nobody lives in a vacuum, and Jesus didn’t, either! Thanks to Diana Butler Bass, and her insight into what it means to talk about the Sea of Tiberias, we know or think we know what Jesus was doing. By feeding the 5,000, Jesus is showing that “The Kingdom of God is a reign of gratitude, provision, and abundance. The gifts of God are available to all who hunger, all can be seated at this meal, and all will be fed. And there will be more than enough! Twelve baskets more!”

          If Jesus sounds a little testy in today’s Scripture reading, it’s because he wants the people to choose his way or the Roman way, and some of them seem to be having a hard time. Again, Diana Butler Bass:  “Although these were Jews, they probably also understood the Roman approach to politics. It was common practice for Roman emperors to gain favor with the populace by giving them free bread and offering extravagant public entertainments. This political bribe had come to be expected throughout the empire. If you were in charge and wanted to quell discontented locals, give them something to eat and some games. It usually worked. Eventually, around the year 100 {and this would have been AFTER the time of Jesus}, the Roman satirical poet Juvenal coined a phrase to describe it:  panem et circenses, that is, in English, ‘bread and circuses’”.

          Jesus’s frustration with the people occurs because they can’t seem to decide which they want:  the Jesus way or the Roman way. Perhaps his feeding of the huge crowd confused some people, because some wanted to make him king. (Remember that from last week?) Maybe in their thinking was the idea that Jesus gave us bread, and that’s what kings do, apparently. But as we know, Jesus walked away from power by withdrawing up the mountain. Maybe Jesus was surprised by the crowd’s response because the Kingdom he was talking about was not like that of Caesar.

          At the end of the story, the disciples got into a boat without Jesus. As we know, a storm came up, and Jesus walked across the water to save them. Approaching the boat, he said, “Don’t be afraid. It is I.” Diana Butler Bass wonders if Jesus said something else, too. “Maybe he added, ‘Let’s land over there, on the other side - trust me, you won’t be lost at sea anymore. The Kingdom awaits - right on the horizon. Can you see it?’” Bass says she imagines the disciples “squinting at the shoreline. Something was visible. But the contours weren’t quite clear. Because it can be hard to see beyond the bread and circuses.”

          “Bread and circuses.” Had you heard that term before? I had, but I didn’t know that it came from that Roman poet Juvenal. If what Diana Butler Bass said is true, then it’s possible that Jesus was trying to draw a difference between what he was offering and what the Romans were offering. In today’s Scripture reading he says, “Do not work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life....” And he says, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” In other words, accept the values that I am offering and don’t buy into what the Romans are trying to sell you.

          And finally, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Do you know what this sounds like? It sounds to me like what Joshua told the Israelites when he took over the leadership when Moses died. What he told the people was this, and you can read it in Joshua 24:  “Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” I think that was what Jesus was saying:  choose what I am talking about or go to Hell with the Romans! Amen.

Pastor Skip