John 6:24-35 "He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." (v. 33)

John 6:27   “. . . the food that perishes.” 

The crowds were seeking Jesus because they had witnessed his miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, and they wanted to see more and to eat more. Jesus reproved them because they were seeking him for the wrong reason. So he said, “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give to you.” (John 6:27)

Of course, Jesus understood that we need food and drink. He understood very well the importance of friendship and family and work. He valued good health. Many of the miracles of Jesus were healing of the sick; Jesus taught values that would make for good relationships and productive lives. Jesus understood the desire for longevity. He raised the dead. Still, he said, “Do not labor for the food that perishes . . .” Finally, everything perishes; everything in this life slips away from us. We are mortal.

The good news, the gospel, is the message that Jesus has come to bring us eternal life. Indeed, the nature of this gift is such that when we seek God’s gift, God’s kingdom, God’s will, then, all the other things in life are added to us in their proper proportion. When we eat the bread of heaven, that is, when we receive Jesus into our lives we can enjoy the life we have now because we see this life as a hint of the wonders yet to come.

Paul wrote to the church at Corinth to say that “ . . . we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

Paradoxically, those of us who are able to think more about heaven are, also, more able to enjoy this mortal life. When we come to Jesus we receive abundant life now. We receive a taste of heaven which makes every good gift in this life a pointer to God’s love, and every sorrow becomes an affliction that will pass with us into a glory beyond all comparison.

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Branch. Recently I was in a meeting with a group of church leaders who were interviewing me as a potential interim pastor. One member of the group is a banker and she inadvertently referred to the church as a branch. She quickly corrected herself and explained that her job took her to a different branch in her bank’s network everyday. Actually, I liked her reference to the church as a branch. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches.” (John 15:5)  The image became even more poignant for me as we later joined together in worship. The first song we sang was the last song I had sung 7,500 miles away with another church a week earlier. Same song, same faith, just a different branch. 

John 6:1-15 The Feeding of the 5,000

John 6:14   “. . . the people saw the sign Jesus performed.”

All four Gospels record the feeding of the 5,000, and in John’s Gospel the account of this miraculous sign and the response of the people takes almost as many verses to record as the resurrection does. Clearly, for the early church this event in the life of Jesus was important. On the surface of the telling we see the compassion of Jesus for hungry people, and his response to their hunger gives us a model for our own ministry to the needy. However, Jesus spiritualized this event so that the miracle more importantly became a sign of salvation than an act of compassion for the physically hungry. Jesus said to the people who received the food that he had distributed, “. . .you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life.” (John 6:26-27)

Following the example of Jesus and taking a spiritual interpretation of this feeding ministry we observe that Jesus used this event in the wilderness, first, to confront his disciples with the fact of their spiritual scarcity. They did not have the ability to feed the people, physically and more importantly spiritually. Philip, exasperated with the instructions to provide food for the multitude of people, complained to Jesus that it would take eight months of wages to give everyone even a bite to eat. (v.7) Before we can see the miracle of provision the church first acknowledges its inadequacy. We cannot feed the hunger of people for God. We cannot even fill our own spiritual need for God. We look at what little insight we have, and we are like Andrew who looked at the five barley loaves and two fish, and said, “how far will they go among so many?” (v. 9)

However, it happens in John 6 and in the church again and again that we witness the power of God when we acknowledge our own limited resources. When we face our spiritual scarcity then we hear Jesus say to us as he said to his disciples, “Have the people sit down.” (v. 10) We stop looking at our empty pockets and our scarce resources and we simply follow the instruction of Jesus. When we do we discover that the people will be able to eat their fill with food left over. (v. 12) When we simply give people the Gospel of Christ, not in our own strength, but in obedience to the instructions of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, we discover a spiritual abundance that fills our deepest hunger and the hunger of those to whom we preach. 

God revealed this Gospel principle to Paul. He wanted to be strong, but he suffered an infirmity that made him weak. He pleaded with God to have his infirmity, his thorn in the flesh, removed. Then he heard God’s response, “. . .my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9) The church receives power to feed the spiritually hungry when it recognizes its own limitations, its spiritual scarcity, and awaits the instructions of Jesus who will say at the right place and the right time, “Have the people sit down.” 

Mark 6:30-52 It is Hard to Understand

Mark 6:52  " . . .their hearts were hardened."

People disagree about the meaning of hardened hearts as described in the Bible. I'm putting an idea out for reflection that I have found helpful to me this week, but I know my view does not explain all the passages in the Bible on this important topic: why does it seem so hard to understand what God is doing?

This question came to me in a practical personal way recently. Through a tanslator I had a conversation with a man from Syria. He asked me why Christians in his country are called upon to suffer so much. Suffering of the innocent is a mystery, and I simply acknowleged that I didn't know the answer. He didn't let me escape the question with such a facile response. We struggled together to explore the question, and because everything was being translated we had to keep things simple, even a bit raw. He didn't want to hide behind nuances, and our exchange didn't allow me to hide either. Finally, we finished with his testimony: he said, we want to do God's will, and we are prepared to continue to suffer if that is our calling whether we understand fully or not.

The disciples saw the miracles of Jesus as recorded in Mark 6:30-52. They were immersed in the wonder working ministry of the Lord, so much so, that they often did not have time to stop and eat. They saw and heard Jesus as no others have. They saw him feed 5,000 men from five loaves of bread and two fish. They saw him walk on water. They saw the sea go calm in his presence. Still, the text says, "They were completely amazed for they had not understood about the loaves and fishes; their hearts were hardened." (Mark 6:51-52)

They did not understand the good work, the miracles, Jesus performed. God hardened their hearts because they were not ready to understand. For the time, amazement, was enough. They knew Jesus. He calmed their fears (v. 50), and that was enough. They did not yet need to understand. Later, after the cross and the resurrection and the day of Pentecost they would understand much more. The time would be right.

On many subjects--particularly the suffering of the people in the world's oldest churches--our hearts seem hardened. We don't understand, at least, not fully. The time is not right.

In amazement, in shock, in near but not total despair, the persecuted church continues to give witness. May God soon help this suffering church. May they and all who care for them and pray for them, find a way to go forward in the trust that the time is coming when all will be clear, and all will be made right.

Mark 6:14-29 Speaking the Truth to Power

Mark 6:20   ". . . he liked to listen to him."

John was arrested by King Herod because John criticized the king for violating the biblical standards of morality (v. 17). Even though the king had John arrested and eventually executed he still understood that John was a man of God; he found John's prophecy worth hearing (v.20).

Herod's birthday party provides the setting for the account of John's arrest and execution. During this party Herod's wife and her daughter manipulated the king into a decision to execute John. A dance performance followed by a prideful boast and an unwillingness to bear embarrassment before his guests led Herod to order John's execution through beheading and the shameful, public display of John's head on a platter at the banquet.

Speaking the truth to power on a moral issue of rightful marriage led to John's death. Hints in the text (v. 16, v. 20, v. 26)) suggest that Herod acted against his best judgment. Wanting to seem a certain way before his wife and guests led him to violate his own conscience.

Moral issues eventually reveal one's strength of character and conviction. Herod believed that God had power to raise the dead (v. 16), and Herod believed that John was a prophet, but Herod did not have the moral character to stand for truth; instead, he misused his power, and he failed the opportunity for redemption that John's message brought to him.

True religion includes moral decision making. Truth requires the choice for right or wrong. Wanting to seem one way or another, wanting to please our significant others, wanting to protect our pride--all efforts to avoid the decision that's required--will not keep us from finally making a choice. We will be forced to use our power--great power or little power--to make a decision, to take some action. Either we will decide based on the word of God, as John did, or we will be manipulated into a decision we ultimately regret. Prophets will speak truth, and those who hear will have to decide.

Mark 6:1-13 Jesus in His Hometown

Mark 6:5 "He could not do any miracles there." (NIV)

In his hometown Jesus was met by suspicion and ridicule. These people with whom Jesus had grown up from childhood were sure that they knew everything about him, and they were not open to the possibility that anything new and important could have arisen in his life or in their relationship to him. They knew his family and background, and they took offense when Jesus taught in the synagogue because his words came with an authority that his old friends found shocking and unacceptable. Jesus quoted a saying from that day, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor." (v. 4)

Actually, Mark recorded some miracles. Verse five reads in full, "He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them." Jesus could have and would have done more. The reason he did not is explained in verse six. Jesus was "amazed at their lack of faith."

Quantity of faith was not the issue. Jesus could have taken a mustard seed of faith and moved a mountain. The problem was lack of faith. Most people in Jesus' hometown did not have the faith that would draw them to him to ask for help. Their pride prevented them from even asking. One could use a common saying sometimes quoted today to describe these folks: "Familiarity breeds contempt." They were so sure that they knew everything about Jesus that they would not entertain the possibility that God's supernatural power was present and available to them through him.

Amazingly, people fall into this same prideful disdain for the Gospel today just as the folks in Jesus' hometown rejected his ministry. For many of those who live in what are described as Christian lands, the Gospel seems too familiar. For them the stories of Jesus and the church and the call to Christian disciplines of prayer, Bible study, worship, giving and service are just too pedestrian, too familiar, too boring. Consequently, people with "itching ears" as Paul described them, listen for some new source of authority, some new approach, some novel interpretation. Their confidence that they have heard everything that Jesus has said and know everything that the church has to offer, makes them spurn the message that God would use to transform their lives if they had enough faith to ask.

So, Jesus left his hometown to teach in the villages that were responsive. He sent his disciples throughout the land to call people to repentance. Those who rejected the message received a symbolic witness. Jesus told his disciples, "And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them." (v. 11)

People who welcome the authority of Jesus and the message that he has entrusted to the church will be transformed. If they have the humility to repent and the faith to ask for help, they will find that the power of the resurrection and the strength of the living Christ will dwell within them, and with Paul the apostle they will say, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:13)

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The Supreme Court Decision. In a very helpful article published in the Washington Post Russell Moore has stated his exception to the decision for same sex marriage and in a gentle but firm spirit written a challenge to the church to stand for truth and speak and minister in love. He made the observation that the church has always been on the wrong side of history; always the church is given the charge to stand as a countersign and witness to a culture gone wrong. Read his article.

Mark 5:21-43 Messianic Secret

Mark 5:43    ". . . strict orders . . . "

Jesus healed people. Jesus raised the dead. He was a wonder worker. Even the most sceptical historian will acknowledge that Jesus was understood to be a person who did wonders. In this passage two people are directly  blessed by the power of Jesus. One was a woman whose illness  had taken her to the exhaustion of all her resources, physical and financial. The other was a synogogue leader who humbled himself before Jesus because he saw his child slipping away into death and he was powerless to help her. The humility and desperation of these two people make us cheer for them. We want Jesus to help them, and he does. Strangely the passage concludes with Jesus saying that he did not want his disciples to spread word of his wonders. Famously, among scholars this statement of Jesus and others like it in the Gospel of Mark have stirred interest and debate.

A question mark at the end of the wonder report reminds me that this important part of Jesus' ministry is not completely understood. In part he did wonders out of compassion, but not all sick people then or now receive healing, and none of the people healed by Jesus were saved from their eventual deaths. Often it is said--and Jesus sometimes explained-- that he did his wonders in order to demonstrate his authority as the Messiah, but then in this passage he told his disciples not to spread word of the wonders. Keeping his work secret suggests that in this passage, at least, he was not working the wonders to support a claim to be Messiah. Perhaps, it was a matter of timing. He was not ready to put forth his claims or he knew the people were not ready to hear his claim. Other ideas can be explored, but the question mark remains. What was the purpose of the wonders Jesus performed, and how do we understand them now, and what wonder do we expect to receive from the touch of Jesus in our lives?

Like the two people in this passage we seek Jesus in faith. We want to touch him; we want his touch of blessing upon us and our loved ones. Faith means that we trust him. We put ourselves before him and under his direction. We want to obey his word. We believe that Jesus will perform the wonder in our lives that we need most. We believe that God loves us and wants the best for us. We do our part, and we rest in the peace that passes understanding when we believe that the all powerful God of love will do his part as well. None of us fully understand the ways of God in each person's life so the question marks remain with us. We cannot fully explain why or when God will bring us to the place that is best for us. Our faith is growing as we learn to live with our questions.

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Grandchildren.Sweetie Pie and Mr. Happy were climbing a tree in the front yard when the disposal truck turned on to our street. The driver saw them and tooted his horn. He knows that the children love his recognition. They waved to him and jumped down from the tree to go and watch the men put our containers onto the truck. Jumping up and down, waving, shouting their greeting the children took such pleasure in this simple weekly event. I've seen the same excitement in them over a roly poly bug. To be childlike means to take wonder in all the gifts sent our way. Jesus told us this approach to life opens the doors to the kingdom of God.

Mark 4:35-41 "Even the wind and the waves obey him!"

Mark 4:41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this?”

This passage has several phrases that offer a way into meditation and reflection. For example, as someone in the evening years of life I read the opening verse of this passage as a potential epitaph. Evening came and Jesus said, “Let us go to the other side.” It comforts to imagine those words from the lips of Jesus.

I recently heard that a particular church was suffering a loss of attendance. That can be a disturbing sign or perhaps we read these words in Mark 4:36 and see it differently. “Leaving the crowds behind they took him along.” The disciples were with Jesus. In some cases we may need to lose attendance  or depart the crowds in order to go with Jesus.

The passage turns on the sudden appearance of a storm as the disciples cross the lake. Their boat is nearly swamped. This squall recalls to my mind the way God spoke to Job out of a whirlwind (Job 38:1). The storms of life, actual and metaphorical, often become the means by which God gets our attention so that we listen to his word.

The disciples woke Jesus with the question, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Our doubts are sometimes along the same lines. We know that God exists, just as the disciples knew that Jesus was with them in the boat. We question, not God’s existence, but God’s concern for us. Does God want to heal us? Does God want to save our marriage or protect our children or give meaning to our work? The disciples were not the first ones to plead with God to wake up and do something, to show that he cared for them. The psalmists made similar pleas. For example, Psalm 44:23, reads, “Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself!” 

“Peace, be still.” (KJV, v. 39) Those words of Jesus used to calm the storm have become the words of an uplifting hymn Master the Tempest Is Raging www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmLtRae65Bg

Jesus asked the disciples why they were afraid and he probed further asking, “Do you still have no faith?” (v. 40) Trust and obedience in the Lord removes our fear. When we are with Jesus we are safe. The winds will calm. The boat will get to the other side, the other side of the lake or the other side of this life. Either way we are safe with Jesus. That is the faith to which he called the disciples. 

They struggled and so do we. Yet they were amazed at the calming of the storm and, at least tentatively, declared their faith with the question, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” They had much ahead in their journey with Jesus to amaze them. After the cross and the resurrection they no longer asked, “Who is this?” They proclaimed the Gospel, Jesus is Lord! We live with that same Gospel which is able to give us faith and freedom from fear. God grant it!