Have any of you ever missed the boat? I know I certainly have.
Back in the 90’s, my uncle left some money to me after he passed away, and I very responsibly, decided to pay off some tuition debt. The week after I paid the loan in full, Starbuck Stock went public. If only...
Back in the day, I waited for tickets to go on sale to attend a concert I really wanted to go to. The day came when they went on sale, and I overslept. By the time I got down to the ticket window, no online sales back in the day, the tickets had sold out. If only...
Arriving late to Chicago O’Hare International Airport from Seattle, I only had 20 minutes to make my connecting flight. Too scared and timid to ask for assistance, I was only 13, I tried to make to the gate in time. I missed my flight, broke down in tears, and then had to ask for help. If only...
I’m sure most of us have at least one I missed the boat on that one story we could tell.
In our Gospel this Morning from John, we find Jesus facing a crowd once again who had entirely missed the boat, both literally and figuratively.
As you may recall, last week’s Gospel was the story of how Jesus fed the 5,000. One of my favorite stories.
This week, we find our Lord and his friends making their way across the lake away from the crowds, tired and needing some rest.
But the crowd follows them. They were hungry once again and wanted Jesus to give them more food.
They failed to understand the meaning of what Jesus was trying to teach them about being fed, and could only understand, the physical nature of their hunger, not the Spiritual message Jesus was trying to teach them.
So they ask him a ridiculous question: “Rabbi, when did you get here?” You see, they were looking for another meal, and when they saw Jesus they figured he would feed them again.
They have missed the boat completely, and failed to understand, that while bread and fish will take away the hunger pains, The Real Bread of Life, will forgive their sins and give them life everlasting.
They were following him because they were physically hungry, not because their souls were hungry for forgiveness.
Then they miss the boat again, when they ask him, what they have to do, in order to be feed.
Jesus responds by telling them that they have to have faith. They must believe.
Once again, they miss the boat, by asking him if he is going to send a sign for them so that they will believe.
Jesus finally says to these people: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Jesus had just spoken some pretty profound truths to these people and they misunderstood through unbelief. He did not say he had the bread of life, but that HE WAS the Bread of Life.
The message he wanted them to understand was that In Christ was eternal life and the one who comes to him will never hunger.
Christ satisfies our spiritual hunger and spiritual thirst because HE is the Living Water and the Bread of Life from heaven.....
And these people missed the point....They had missed the boat. They wanted to know what they needed to do in order to get another meal.
This Gospel is a declaration of What God Does....not what we must do.
The “Work of God” is belief, which is made possible only by giving the Son, the bread from Heaven. Faith is always the gracious and surprising accomplishment of God.
The Bread of life then is Literally Jesus, not just a loaf of bread that fills our bellies for a meal, but fills our lives with everlasting food so that we will never be spiritually hungry or thirsty again.
Amen