Texts: Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15; Ephesians 4:1-16; John 6:24-35
Today we continue our journey through this amazing sixth chapter of St John's gospel; and not for the first time I wish I knew more about musical composition, because I think there is a sense in which St John has composed this chapter like a piece of music. I seem to remember reading an essay on a piece of music by J.S. Bach, which I think was called The Goldberg Variations. And if I understood the point rightly, I think what Bach did in that piece of music was to start off with a small musical phrase, and then write an astonishing number of variations of that one phrase.
As I say, my ignorance of music is so awful that it may be another piece of music, with a different title, and by a different composer! But the point I'm trying to get at is this; when I started re-reading this chapter in preparation for this series of sermons, it seemed to me that St John has done something similar. He has brought together a number of discrete images, themes, memories or whatever, and woven them together in varying patterns without ever quite repeating himself, and certainly without contradicting himself.
If you were hear last week you may recall some of the themes that we found in that long opening sequence from this chapter – the story of the feeding of the five thousand, followed by the story of Jesus walking on the water. I suggested that the overall theme of the whole gospel is St John's vision of Jesus as the One who has come from above, the One sent by the Father to meet our deepest hunger for God; and if that is right we may agree with those commentators who say that this chapter is the very heart of this gospel, because that idea of Jesus coming to us from above recurs throughout this chapter. Today we find two examples of it. First, when the crowds ask Jesus what they must do (what is required of them by God), he tells them to "believe in the one he has sent".
Remember that this teaching is being given in the synagogue at Capernaum, so his audience is Jewish. They might have expected his answer to draw on the Torah, the Law of God; they might have expected what we know as the Summary of the Law. But no, Jesus calls on them to believe in the one whom God has sent (that is, himself). And the second reference is even clearer: in verse 33 Jesus says this: "For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
Which leads us to the second theme we identified last week. Why did Jesus come down from heaven? According to St John, he comes to bring us "life" or "eternal life"; and that thought is woven in and out of this chapter, and the wider gospel. We're so use to the term that we might overlook the fact that it is very common in this gospel, but not in the others. Conversely, the others talk frequently of the "Kingdom of God" or the "Kingdom of Heaven", as St Matthew prefers; but that term is almost absent from this gospel. So in some sense, St John is using this notion of "eternal life" in place of the term "kingdom of God" favoured by the other gospel writers. But only in some sense. If the "kingdom of God" means something like the realm or rule of God, or the sovereignty of God, it still has a sense in which we, the people of God, are separate from God, subjects of God, or as St Paul puts it, citizens of heaven. But St John seems to go even further than this. He says that Jesus has brought to us God's own life, his divinity, and, as it were, infuses that life into those who believe in him. What he means seems to be in accord with that astonishing expression we find in Second Peter (so important to the Orthodox Churches), when we are told that we "may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires". In Christ, we become like him, with dual natures, the human and the divine.
The third theme that St John plays on again in this passage is the disparity between what the crowds want and what Jesus has come to offer us. Last week we saw Jesus trying to escape from the crowds who were besieging him because they had seen the miracles he performed in healing the sick. So they all went off and rounded up anyone who needed healing, and followed Jesus even though he had tried to withdraw from them. This week, having followed Jesus across the lake and experienced the miraculous feeding, they are looking for him again. Once more St John seems to be laying a lot of stress on these details – who crossed the lake, how did they get there, and how did they get back? In one sense we may see these things as trivial, not worth going on about; but St John doesn't deal with trivialities.
I suspect there are at least two things going on here. First, he is repeating the idea that the crowds pursue Jesus for the wrong reason. Last week it was free medical care; this week it is a free lunch. Jesus himself rebukes them when they once again catch up with him: "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill." Secondly, there may well be a subtext here: they were looking for Jesus, expecting to find him among them still on the far side of the lake. But he wasn't there. Where was he? In Capernaum, in the synagogue, teaching, where they should have been on the Sabbath. Manna was not provided on the Sabbath.
The fourth theme, of course, is the reference back to the great Exodus and the pilgrimage through the wilderness. Perhaps they have begun to see some connection between the feeding of the five thousand and that great historical event. Clearly, Moses has popped into their minds, Moses the Law-giver and Moses the provider of manna. Perhaps that's why they phrased their original question to Jesus in the clumsy way they did: ""What must we do to do the works God requires?" Very much a legal question, that one. And that leads on to the provision of manna. Jesus disabuses them: Moses didn't give them manna to eat; that came from heaven. And now here for you is the true bread of heaven – "food that endures to eternal life".
Another important way in which this gospel differs from the others is that St John, in dealing with the Last Supper and all that happened on what we call Maundy Thursday, makes no reference to the institution of the Lord's Supper (the Eucharist). Some scholars suggest that he substitutes the story of the foot-washing for that episode; but it is surely incredible that St John would not see the need for any reference to the Eucharist. Surely it is beyond argument that he did not refer to the Eucharist in his version of the Last Supper for a very good reason: he had already dealt with it in this chapter. We will come to that directly in a week or two, but already we can see how he is laying the groundwork. The bread comes down from heaven; the bread gives life; Jesus is himself the bread.
And on that Eucharistic note, let's give the last word to St Paul. "There is one body", he says and in our liturgy we agree: "we who are many are one body for we all share the one bread". And he says one more thing in today's reading that ought to sound very familiar to us: "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." Today, as we come to the Lord's Table to share in Communion, we will be surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, and included in that crowd will be St John and St Paul. We are, after all, in communion with them and all the saints.
What then does God require of us? Only that we believe.
No comments:
Post a Comment