Reverend Philip Stringer
2 Kings 4:42-44
John 6:1-21

LET US PRAY: Gracious Lord, Bread of Life, feed us with your Word, and speak to our hearts, that we may love and serve only you, now and forever. AMEN
There is enough. More than enough.
It is true, but in many ways, I don’t believe it.
Each person is more than flesh and bones.
Each person is more than who they appear to be in this moment.
Because we are human — flesh and bones and tied to time and place, we will always have needs. But who we are is not defined by these. We are more.
Today, our scripture texts remind us that all things issue forth from God. We are reminded that God provides for us from a position of abundance. And we are reminded that in Christ Jesus we are called to live abundantly. That is to say, we are called to view ourselves, each other and the world around us from a perspective of abundance rather than of scarcity.
We are defined by God’s abundance.
We are defined by God’s grace.
As I considered our texts for today, the theme of abundance appeared over and over — and it seems to me that these stories speak to us of the ways that God meets us and provides for us. So I would like to walk through a bit of “exegesis” with you, and I’d like to begin by looking at place and movement in our Gospel reading.
We begin with Jesus and his disciples on the Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee. That is, the area west of the sea. The “sea” is actually a freshwater lake. It is the lowest freshwater lake in the world, about 300 yards below sea level. The lake itself, is about 13 miles long and 8 miles across.
In the cosmic constructs of the ancient world, land occupied a place between the heavens and the realm of chaos and demons — literally the “underworld.” To the people of Jesus’ day, the surface of any body of water was like a window into the underworld. It was a plain that separated this world from that world.
John writes that Jesus went to the other side of the sea. He walked around this barrier to get to the northeastern edge — and a large crowd kept following him.
Later, John will tell us about Jesus walking across the water — so the first question that comes to mind for me is, “why does Jesus walk around the lake instead of going straight across it?” After all — I assume that Jesus understands the basic geometric principle that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. So why does he go around? And it seems to me that the answer must be that he goes around because that is what the people must do.
If that is true, then it means that Jesus is going ahead, following (as it were) the road we must travel. Jesus is familiar with the place before we arrive at it. That is a profound point for us to remember — that wherever life’s journey leads us, it is already a place that God knows. And God will meet us there.
Next, John tells us that Jesus goes up a mountain and sits. In the scriptures, mountains are always a place where people are encountered by God, and from which God is revealed. Jesus goes up — but not all the way up. He stops at a place where the people can be comfortable. Jesus is already looking out for their needs.
Here is a place where John inserts a comment that is easily passed over (so to speak) — he says, “Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.” Why on earth does John feel the need to insert this bit of information here? We’ll come back to that in a moment.
When he sees the people coming, he immediately feels a responsibility to provide for them.
John tells us that Jesus already has a plan — and from our first reading, it is easy to see that Jesus has in mind the story of Elisha. In that story, a man brings an offering of food to God’s prophet on a mountain, during a time of famine. But Elisha — the instrument of God — says, “give it to the people.” His concern is for God’s people.
Similarly, Jesus doesn’t depend upon others to meet his needs. Jesus is abundantly full. He repeats the miracle performed by Elisha — and even exceeds it. The point — from Jesus we receive all that we need and more.
The people see the parallel between what Jesus has done and what Elisha has done. “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”
They want to “force” Jesus to be their king. That is to say that they see him as the provider for their every-earthly-need, and think, “it doesn’t get any better than this!” But they are wrong. Jesus didn’t come to simply meet the hunger of the moment. The people will be hungry again. The sick will get sick again. All of the people Jesus cured eventually died. Jesus didn’t come to help us maintain the status quo of the moment. The miracles of Jesus were merely signs of something more; something greater. In the crucifixion and resurrection, we see why Jesus ultimately came; to give us a victory over every barrier that would separate us from God. That is why John made the comment about Passover. Jesus is the Passover lamb who takes away the sin of the world.
So the people want to make him king and Jesus withdraws. Jesus goes further up the mountain to a place where even the disciples don’t go. He goes up (more imagery of the resurrection and ascension) and the disciples go down. All the way down to the lowest point on earth and to the surface of the sea — that window of death and trouble.
We are lost in the sea — out of our element. The best we can do is fashion a lifeboat to keep us above the surface. Human hands built that boat and human hands were rowing it — working hard to push them across the surface to safety. But then the wind and the waves began to go against them — and how are we to hold back the sea? And how are we to hold back the wind? We cannot. Eventually — try as we may, we can pour every ounce of our energy into defeating death and avoiding life’s troubles, but eventually we will lose. All of our works and the best that we can do cannot save us.
But then comes Jesus — completely unhindered by the sea. All of the disciple’s hard work has only gotten them to the middle of the sea. They’ve rowed 3 or 4 miles of the 8 miles they need to go. One could argue that all of their hard work has only made their situation worse — they’re in the middle of it now and helpless. And this is where Jesus meets them — at the lowest, darkest, most troubling place they can be. And he says to them, “don’t be afraid. I AM here.” Jesus is with them in the worst possible place — but to him it is like a stroll in the park.
The disciples want Jesus to get in with them — I don’t think it is because they are worried for his safety and want to offer him the safety of their boat; I think they can’t see past their predicament and want Jesus to keep them safe in the midst of their troubles.
Jesus does, indeed, keep them safe — but what they discover is that he has actually removed their troubles from them. They are in the middle of the sea of distress, “and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.”
I wonder how often we can draw a parallel between this story and our own lives.
How often are we fighting against life’s changes and challenges and can see only as far as the moment? How often do life’s troubles cloud our vision and occupy our hearts and minds?
How often is it that we merely long for God to give us what we want in this moment — much like the people who wanted to make Jesus king?
In our scripture texts today, the Word of God speaks to us, reminding us that it is from the abundance of God that all things flow, and that (as Paul declares), God is able to do far more than we need and can even imagine.
John threw out that seemingly trivial comment: “Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.”
Jesus is the bread from heaven that came down to earth — he is the bread that does not fade away.
Jesus comes to us in this meal — the meal he established on Passover. Jesus comes to us in this meal as the bread of life; The paschal lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus comes to us from abundance to feed us with abundance, that we may live abundantly. And he sends us from here like barley loaves and fish, given to the world that all may come to know the abundance of God.
AMEN
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