Soul Food
Scripture Reading: John 6:24-35
Before I moved to South Korea, one of my friends, who happens to have been born in Korea, told me, on more than one occasion, how much better Korean food is in Korea than here in the United States. “Really?” I would say with a skeptical eyebrow raised. “You mean I have to travel 7,000 miles to the other side of the world to taste authentic Korean food? I can’t trust the recipes and the talents of the Koreans who immigrated here and opened restaurants?”
Now, I did not move to Korea solely to test my friend’s assertion, but I did sometimes think about it when I went out to eat there, which was often. For one thing, restaurant prices are much cheaper in Seoul than in New York, and Korea doesn’t have a culture of tipping, so dining out is way more affordable. Plus, there’s a restaurant on every corner in Seoul, so in order to distinguish themselves, restaurants tend to specialize in one type of dish, which leads to lots of variety. Sandy and I could walk down our street past restaurants specializing in tofu, pork stew, raw fish, Chinese noodles, barbecue, or traditional Korean cuisine served with a dozen side dishes.
But as for the taste of the food, was Korean food in Korea noticeably better than that offered back home in the States? I suppose, but I’m not really one to judge. My palate is not that sophisticated. If the world is divided between those who live to eat and those who eat to live, I definitely fall into the latter category. I admire the cooks—professional or not—who put their heart and soul into their dishes and craft a culinary experience to delight the senses, but I eat because I have to, not for the experience. I’d do just fine with a turkey sandwich and a bowl of yogurt.
Similarly, in the Gospel reading from John, Jesus distinguishes between two types of food—that which perishes and that which is imperishable. And to be clear, when Jesus speaks of imperishable food, he’s not referring to Twinkies, which apparently have a shelf life of 45 days, so I’ve learned. What Jesus is saying is that food that perishes feeds the stomach and is necessary for life, but food that is imperishable feeds the soul and gives life…eternal life. That imperishable food, of course, is Jesus himself, who is the bread of life, the bread that feeds all who hunger to be recognized, loved, and forgiven by God, which is all of us.
We pick up today not far from where we left off last week. To quickly recap, last week we read about how Jesus miraculously fed a crowd of 5,000 people with just five loaves and two fish. Recognizing a great prophet in their midst, the people were so enamored of Jesus that they were ready to take him by force and make him king. But Jesus would have no part of this and withdrew by himself back up the mountain, away from the temptation of reigning over an earthly kingdom.
As we pick up the narrative today, the same crowd that had wanted to make him king has followed Jesus and his disciples across the Sea of Galilee to the town of Capernaum. They’re surprised to find him there and ask him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”
This is the first of a series of three questions that the crowd asks Jesus. The response from Jesus each time is to redirect their question to address a deeper, underlying truth. “When did you come here?” is a straightforward question. The crowd did not see Jesus get into the boat with his disciples. They’re genuinely wondering how it is that he crossed the sea seemingly without a boat.
Unbeknownst to them, Jesus walked…not on land but on the water. We skipped over this part of the story, but the disciples had gone ahead of Jesus by boat across the sea. As they were crossing, Jesus met them on the water. This incident is a kind of epilogue to the feeding of the 5,000. The people had wanted to make Jesus king, but in walking on the water Jesus shows the disciples that his kingdom is not of this world. He will not march to Jerusalem at the head of an army; he will humbly walk alone, not only across the sea but even to the cross.
Now, Jesus doesn’t explain any of this to the crowd. Instead, he answers the question “When did you come here?” by saying, “You’re looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of bread.” Jesus has taken their question and turned it back on them, basically asking them, “Why did you come here? Because I fed you with bread? But look, now you’re hungry again even though you just ate. Don’t work for food that perishes but for food that endures for eternal life.”
I want to point out that this crowd is not like the scribes and the Pharisees. They haven’t come to challenge Jesus’ authority. They are genuinely curious. They recognize that there is something different about Jesus, but they don’t have a proper framework for understanding him. They try to place him within an existing framework: he is a prophet like one of the prophets of old.
A similar thing happens in our own day. Even people who identify as atheist or agnostic recognize Jesus as a great moral teacher. They respect that he preached and practiced love of neighbor, welcome to the stranger, and mercy and compassion for those on the margins. He was a good man, they say, a man of noble principles.
But Jesus won’t have it. He will not allow us to place him in a framework of our own design because in Jesus God did something new.
But Jesus won’t have it. He will not allow us to place him in a framework of our own design because in Jesus God did something new. In the Old Testament God did not take physical form. Any reference to the hand of God or the face of God in the Old Testament is meant to be taken metaphorically. But Jesus Christ is the very face of God. Let’s listen again to how Jesus answers the crowd’s question. “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. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”
For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal. We don’t use wax seals much anymore, perhaps outside of the occasional artistic wedding invitation, but that’s the image that Jesus is using. Think of a wooden seal being pressed on to a piece of wax to seal an envelope. It’s as if God the Father has literally left his impression, his seal, upon Jesus the Son. In other words, Jesus is much more than a prophet, a wise teacher, or a man of compassion, he is the very image of God. He doesn’t just provide bread to sustain life, he himself is the food that endures for eternal life.
But for the crowds, this concept is too radical, too inconceivable for them to grasp. This is why they focus on the words of Jesus that they can understand. They understand only that which they can fit into an existing framework. Jesus had told them not to work for the food that perishes, and so they ask, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”
Do you see how they have turned the focus back on to themselves? They ignore the whole notion of God setting his seal upon Jesus and instead ask what they must do. “We don’t understand this whole seal business. Just tell us what we have to do to get into God’s good graces.” That’s what they’re asking.
Grace is such a difficult concept for us to grasp. It was difficult then and it’s difficult now. I think that’s because grace is so countercultural. As Americans, we believe that any problem is solvable if we work hard enough or smart enough. Control is promised to us if we memorize the formula, master the steps, or purchase the product. And so even those of us in the church ask, “What must I do to please God? Do I need to read the Bible? Do I need to pray? Do I need to volunteer at the church? Do I need to work on social-justice issues? What must I do to perform the works of God?”
The only thing you need to be is hungry…hungry for the true bread of heaven, which is Jesus Christ himself.
To which Jesus responds, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” Full stop. That you believe in him whom he has sent. What? No! It can’t be that simple, can it? Isn’t there something more that I must do? Don’t I have to believe and do something?
Let’s go back once more to verse 27. This is the challenge of preaching from John. Each verse is rich with meaning. You can preach an entire sermon from one verse alone. Verse 27 reads in part: “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.”
Will give me? You mean I don’t even have to work for it? I don’t have to prove myself worthy of receiving it? This food is just given to me?
That’s right. The only thing you need to be is hungry…hungry for the true bread of heaven, which is Jesus Christ himself. What Jesus Christ gives to us and is for us is soul food—not Seoul food but soul food. The bread from heaven that sustained the Israelites in their wandering through the desert fed the stomach. But Jesus is the true bread from heaven who feeds the soul. He is the bread that is broken for us and given to us, uniting us around his table as one family. He is the bread of life. And as the bread of life, Jesus satisfies the universal hunger and thirst to be known, to be forgiven, to be loved, and to belong.