Be Here Now
When we left chapter 6 of John’s gospel last week, the disciples had mysteriously reached Capernaum across the lake without Jesus in the boat. When those five thousand who had eaten their fill of bread and fish saw that the disciples were in Capernaum, we are told they all got into boats and crossed over to Capernaum themselves, “looking for Jesus.” [i]
After previously identifying Jesus as a prophet, and wishing to make him their king, they now address him as rabbi: “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Like any good rabbi, rather than answer their question, he redirects the conversation significantly: “…you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” Back across the Sea of Galilee he fed them because they were hungry. Now Jesus is talking about a different kind of bread – bread that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.
Eternal life and eternity. One needs to know just what Jesus
is talking about, and it is easy to misunderstand. He is not talking simply
about a future time, nor is he speaking of time after we die. As Frederick Buechner
reminds us, “Eternity is not endless time, or the opposite of time. It is
the essence of time itself. If you spin a pinwheel fast enough, then all its
colors blend into a single color – white – which is the essence of all the
colors of the spectrum combined. If you spin time fast enough, then time-past,
time-present, and time-to-come all blend into a single timelessness or
eternity, which is the essence of all times combined.” [ii]
In biblical terms, and what Jesus is talking about, is more than bread. It is about being with God, which mystics often describe as having a good time with someone who loves you more than you have ever experienced or known before. The biblical term for such experiences, such glimpses of what our lives are all about, is Eternal Life. Another is, Heaven.
The five thousand people who have chased Jesus across the lake to Capernaum think he is still talking about food – about literal bread. And they are thinking they must work for this bread. What must we do to do the work of God? Jesus replies, “Simply believe in him who he has sent?” Their response to this is to ask him to “perform a sign” so that they may see it and believe. Surely, they must be joking! He personally just fed them all with a few fish and a few loaves of bread, and they are demanding a sign? And they don’t stop there. They bring up Moses in the wilderness, and the manna that appeared daily. They even quote scripture: Exodus 16:2-4,9-15.
There is a Yiddish word for this: chutzpah! Quoting scripture to the rabbi! Jesus, nevertheless, is patient, and just warming up as he conveys the essence of the life he calls them to embrace: “It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” It is subtle. Do we see what he is saying? It is the difference between “gave” and “gives.” It’s not about Moses. It’s not about the past. My father gives you the true bread from heaven. My father gives life to the world. Then, now, and forever. Eternity is now. Eternal life is now. Can you see it? Can you catch a glimpse of it? Are you experiencing it here and now?
Thinking he is still speaking of bread they cry out, “Lord, give us this bread always!” This could be one of those moments in John’s telling of the story that concludes, “Jesus wept.” [iv] But John saves that for later when Jesus is told his dear friend Lazarus has died and been buried in a tomb for four days. Instead, he replies, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Once again, here endeth the reading, despite the fact that he goes on to say a whole lot more. And the people begin to grumble and complain. But that is all for next week!
For now, he is offering up himself as a gateway to eternal life – life lived with God, in the presence of God, yesterday, today and tomorrow. What does it mean to be “with God”? Buechner again: “It does not mean you have to be thinking about being with God, or feeling religious, or sitting in church, or saying your prayers, though it might mean any and all of these. It doesn’t even mean you have to believe in God...To say that a person is “with it” is slang for saying that whether he’s playing an electric guitar or just watching the clouds roll by, he’s so caught up in what he’s doing and so totally himself while he’s doing it that there’s none of him left over to be doing anything else with in the back of his head or out of the corner of his eye…If the It you are with when you’re really “with it” isn’t God, it’s enough like God to be his brother!” [v]
Perhaps it is what Ephesians says is to “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace… speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.” [vi]
Eternal life. Building ourselves up in love. To grow up into Christ who is the bread of life. Jesus is calling them, calling us, to live into Eternal Life, here and now. To be here now, as some have said. To really hear what Jesus is calling us to be. Not to do, but to be. To be those people who catch a glimpse of Eternal Life, a glimpse of Heaven, which does not happen at the end of life, but is the beginning of life – a life in which we do not hunger and do not thirst as we grow into the fullness of Christ, speaking the truth in love. Leading a life worthy of the calling to which we have been called. In your mercy, Lord, give us this bread always. Amen.
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