Monday of the Third Week of Easter

Lectionary: 273

“Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.


If Jesus was distressed when the crowd pursued him from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other for the bread he was giving them, he would be all more disturbed by our materialism.
The American economy depends on salespeople to move the goods from manufacturers to consumers, and they rely on tons of freebies: ball point pens, scratch pads, refrigerator magnets, key chains, baseball caps, etc. Conventions invite sales reps to erect kiosks where conventioneers go from table to table collecting bags of giveaways. People want free stuff.

If you don’t put something in their hand, they’ll dismiss you out of hand.

Today's sixth chapter of the Gospel of John shows how difficult it is to convert that materialistic fascination to spiritual desire. The Lord has certainly won their attention by feeding five thousand people with a few loaves and fishes. They have enthusiastically pursued him back to Capernaum. In fact, there was some discussion of making him king! But that is precisely what Jesus does not want. When they eventually realized that his purposes are not theirs, “many [of] his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”
In this twenty-first century, many people say they are spiritually hungry; they have picked up the Lord’s language of food, bread, thirst, and so forth. But they use the word spiritual. Spiritual, in American parlance, is "What you make of it." For most people it seems like a hobby or pastime, something to explore when you’re not at work. It’s about feelings, and often about excitement. The self and its desires remain foremost in the pursuit of spiritual experience. Their "spirituality" is certainly not about frustration, disappointment, or taking up your cross daily and following the Lord to Calvary. 

As we plunge into this bottomless mystery of John 6, we realize the Lord makes no promises about satisfaction, security, freedom, or power. Although he heals many, he does not promise health and well being. His demand is simple and direct, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” 

If we ask, "What does that mean?" he replies, 

"...unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day."

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. We must know more of the Lord. We must know especially that, for all his demands about faith in him, his life is not about himself. As he explained so clearly in Chapter 5:

Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also.

The way of Jesus -- that way which Saint Paul first persecuted and then pursued -- does not garner much stuff along the way. It collects neither material possessions nor spiritual experience. It seeks not goods but the good of others, not pleasure but the happiness of others, not satisfaction but the well being of others, not recognition but the Glory of God. It finds its way in the darkness of obedience; its light, in the presence of God.