Monday of the Third Week of Easter

Lectionary: 273

Jesus answered them and said,

“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.

 

 

During the octave of Easter, we heard the gospel stories of Jesus’s appearances and commissioning; during the second week of Easter, we studied the conversation with Nicodemus and especially the words,

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”

This third week of Easter offers John 6 and contemplation of the “food that endures for eternal life.”

 

We had heard of that food already in chapter 4, and the encounter with the Samaritan woman. Jesus explained to his befuddled disciples, “‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.” And then, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.”

We should notice the coupling of the words food and work in chapters four and six. Today’s passage concludes with, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”

We don’t usually think of eating as work. Most employers give their staff time to eat with an unpaid half-hour, which may be anything but leisurely. The work of eating, as Jesus uses the word, is a pleasant, blessed event like eating with one’s family, friends, or colleagues; it is a sacred, necessary leisure.

From its origins in the Sinai desert the Jewish religion was celebrated with festive meals. When the Lord freed his chosen people from bondage in Egypt, he demanded that they show their gratitude with three major feasts every year. (Deuteronomy 16) Their tithe of several annual harvests provided ample amounts of food. No Israelite, no matter how poor or unfortunate, should go hungry during these festivals.

As we ponder today’s gospel, we remember that the crowd pursuing Jesus across the Sea of Galilee had just enjoyed an amazing work in the wilderness. With five barley loaves and two fish he had fed an enormous crowd. But, apparently, they had not put two and two together; they were not reminded of God’s providing for their ancestors in the desert. 

They did not see the sign; and could not understand that he is the food that endures for eternal life. Like irreligious people of today, they wanted only to feed their physical appetites.

The work that Jesus demands of this crowd and of us is that we feast on his flesh and blood. This is a religious necessity, just as eating, drinking, and sleeping are physical necessities for human life. His mission is to feed us: “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”