Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

           Text: St. John 6:22-35, but especially these words –

 Jesus answered, ”Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear Friends in Christ Jesus:

           Think of the hours, days, months, and years of our lives that we spend at our jobs to earn a living. A major part of our time and effort goes to provide the food we consume, so our work is a very important activity in our lives.  From the beginning God has intended for us to work. He wants us to do whatever our hands find to do with all our might and to enjoy our work, and He warns that if anyone does not work, he should not eat.

           Now we hear the amazing words that Jesus spoke to those who had participated in His miraculous feeding of the 5,000. When they found our Lord the next day on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, He told them – “Do not work for food that spoils.” On the surface it appears that Jesus is opposing what we just said about work. However, He added that they should rather work “for food that endures to eternal life.” So He doesn’t mean for us to stop working for food to eat. He instead is helping us to answer the question – “Do we really have our priorities straight?” What is the most important, the most valuable thing we should be doing?

           Our Lord was prompted to make a value judgment about the work that people do by the thoughts of those who looked for Him after He fed them in a miraculous way on the Galilean hillside with the five loaves of bread and the two fish. Jesus allowed them to find Him on the other side of the lake. Out of concern and love for them He pointed out that they looked for Him – “not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” The people had come to make Him a king by force. So He confronted them with the shocking warning – “Do not work for food that spoils.” They had been making the pursuit of food their number one priority in life. They had their eyes and hearts fixed on a present but passing goal.

           Translated into present-day terms, their chief concern in life was to work day after day to put food on the table and groceries on the shelf. We should include with food also the many other things that people strive to obtain. They work for money, clothing, furnishings for the home, new cars, and the many new high-tech products. Other pursue health, education, recreation, sex, and positions of influence and honor. These things can so easily become obsessions for which we labor hard and long. We place top value on them and strive for them to the exclusion of all the other things in life.

           Why should we think about working for these kinds of things in the first place? Jesus reminds us that they are perishable in nature. Food is consumed. It easily rots and just doesn’t last forever. Clothing wears out and is thrown away. Relationships change. People are here today and gone tomorrow. Influence and honor are elusive and unpredictable. Money is spent, lost, or inherited by others. Cars end up in the junkyard. In the words of our Lord on another occasion – “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.”

           All of our possessions and other desires in this world are of a limited duration. Sooner or later they all pass away. Can anything good be gained from working all our lives only for things like these? The man in one of Jesus’ parables planned to tear down his barns and build bigger and better ones to store all of his food and possessions in. He assured himself – “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.” But when God demanded his soul that night before he could accomplish any of the things on which he had placed the highest priority, all of his plans came to nothing. Jesus called him a fool for storing up treasures only for himself but not being rich toward God.

           Jesus not only warns us against setting our priorities on things that just won’t last, but He also urges us to work – “for food that endures to eternal life.” This food is quite different from bread for the table. The bread that endures to eternal life is Jesus Christ Himself. Later in His words to the people in the text our Lord refers to Himself as – “the bread of life.”

           Jesus used one of the most common foods in the world to communicate one of the most important truths. Yet the crowd couldn’t understand what He was saying to them. The day before they had all eaten from a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. As Jesus went on to explain to them what He meant, the people asked Him – “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?” They thought our Lord should do some great miracle, like Moses did when their fathers received manna from heaven before they would believe Him.

           Jesus corrected them by pointing out that it wasn’t Moses who had given them the manna, but God. Now in Jesus God is giving them the true bread from heaven. Jesus is the bread of God! In Him God comes down and “gives life to the world.” Our Lord became the source of life by His perfect obedience to the will of His Father. He became the perfect Bread, from which people may receive life, by substituting His sinless life for their sinful and death-deserving lives. As bread satisfies hunger, so the death of Jesus satisfied God’s just sentence of death for every sinner in the world. Furthermore, there is life for the world in Jesus’ death, for He rose from the dead and now lives forever. That’s why He can claim that He is the Bread of life. He is living. And He is able to give life to all who will only eat this Bread.

           “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” That was Christ’s answer to the question – “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Believe, have faith in Jesus Christ, put your confidence in what He has done as the Bread of life for the whole world. This is what He wants us to do above all else. Work here signifies an activity of our mind and will to receive and trust in the work of Christ. It does not mean that we can do something to achieve our own salvation. Dr. Martin Luther said of this work – “Christ is speaking of the work which we should do, namely, believe. For faith is a work that must be done by man…But where this faith comes from (for no one has faith of himself) Christ teaches us later on when He says, ‘No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.’” Jesus Himself pointed out to the people that it is He who gives us the food that endures to eternal life through faith.

           Work for that food of faith in Jesus Christ that endures to eternal life. Jesus is saying that working for this spiritual food of faith is to be our top priority in life. He wants us to spend time, a good amount of time in the pursuit of spiritual food, the Bread of life, which will produce and nourish eternal life, beginning right now. Only a little time here and there is not enough. Putting in the effort to feed our faith in Christ first means that we’ll spend a great deal of our time, as the early Christians did, devoting ourselves – “to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Our Lord said – “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

           Christ values that kind of work so highly that He would have us share with others what He worked for all of His life, so that they too will be able to work for the food that endures to eternal life. He is the true Bread – “who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” His work was for all the world! We need to bring that true Bread to everyone so that they will never hunger but have everlasting life.

           Why should we value so highly and strive so diligently for the food that endures to eternal life? It is written – “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” The loss of eternal life, ending up in eternal separation from God, is the result of placing our values in the wrong things. However, going with Jesus will result in possessing eternal life now and being with God forever. Our eternal destiny lies in the balance. That is why we will make Jesus’ priority our own.

           We all know of people who have everything they want but still are not satisfied. They are still searching. They are restless and are still hungering and thirsting for something that they can’t quite achieve or even describe. There is no deep, lasting satisfaction in the things of this world. But our Lord promises that all who come to Him, who believe in Him, will never hunger or thirst again. There is perfect peace for those whose minds remain on Jesus Christ.

           The value that the Father has set on Him is another reason why we should establish our priorities in harmony with the will of our God. Jesus said that we should work for the food that endures to eternal life – the food that the Son of Man will give us – because “on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” The Father has given Him power from heaven, He was well pleased with what the Son was doing, as He said at Jesus’ Baptism and Transfiguration. Jesus has the seal of God’s authority, what Jesus has said and done for us is worthy of our acceptance and trust. Jesus Christ has turned our everyday values upside down and has made working for the food that endures of the greatest importance and worth. How deeply and eternally rewarding it is to have our priorities straight! Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  Amen.