John 6:1-21
A Miracle Worker -
Not One Who Works Miracles
That was a long Gospel lesson. I hope you were able to retain what happened
in the opening verses. By the time we
got to the end, the content as well as the theme has changed so much it is
difficult to know exactly where to begin a sermon. The temptation is to try to deal with it all
– but I am not sure you would sit still for that long of a sermon – so I hope
you will accept my attempt to compress it all into a few brief paragraphs.
Here is what I make of this lesson
– it is all about convincing us that Jesus is who we believe him to be; yet,
warning us against doing what we would be inclined to do when we found someone
who is who we have come to understand him to be. Did you get that? It is a bit of a confusing sentence. Compression into a few lines is
necessary. We do have a full service.
Pull your bulletins out, and if you
have a pen or pencil you might want to get that out also. Look with me, first at verse 2. Note that the Gospel writer not only tells us
that Jesus has become quite popular, he tells us why. It seems that many are following him because
they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. That is completely understandable,
right? Who would not follow someone who
was healing the sick and sometimes even raising the dead? Nothing wrong that is until you take notice
of verse 15. By this time, it seems, Jesus
has become concerned that the people have seen so many “signs” that they are
about to do something which he does not want them to do. Verse 15 reads: When Jesus realized that they were about
to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the
mountain by himself.
Let’s go back to my confusing,
summation sentence. I believe that this
lesson is all about convincing us that Jesus is who we believe him to be. This lesson tells us that Jesus does have the
ability to feed the multitudes with just a few loaves and fish. This lesson demonstrates Jesus’ divinity by
having him walk on water. This lesson
goes to great lengths to convince us that Jesus is who we believe him to
be. And, yet, this lesson also warns us
- warns us - that we should not do that which it seems natural to do. Jesus will have no part of being captured by
the mood of the crow, taken away, and elevated to some earthly title or
office.
That is not who he came to be. Jesus will have no part of any humanly
constructed office. Jesus takes action
in order to ensure that his followers will see him as Christ, and only as
Christ.
This is a difficult thing to
do. Once his place in the university is
understood, the inclination is to turn to him to solve the problems and
concerns which vex the rest of us humans.
We want him to cure our disease.
We turn to him to solve our conflicts.
We seek in him the ability to fill our bellies and satisfy our
thirst. But this is not the office to
which Jesus aspires.
Even more strongly than in John,
the Gospel of Mark goes to great lengths to preserve Jesus’ Messianic
identity. Over and over, Jesus forbids
those who recognize him (typically those considered possessed by demons or
those who are living unacceptable lives,) Jesus forbids those who recognize him
from telling others what they have come to know. In Mark 6, when he restores hearing and
speaking to the beggar he instructs him to “tell no one.” In Luke, Jesus cleanses a leper. He sends him to the priest for the rites of
purification. He also “orders” him to
“tell no one.” “Why,” we might ask,
“would Jesus want to keep his most powerful witnesses quiet?”
He fears the very thing which we
read in the 15th verse of today’s appointed text. Jesus is concerned that we might start to
follow for the wrong reasons. Jesus is
worried that we might make something of him which he was never intended to be. Jesus did not want to be King; he came in
order to be our Messiah.
I am not trying to discredit,
discount, or dissuade you from reading the miracles stories in the bible. They are very important. These stories give us confidence that Jesus
is who we have come to understand him to be.
But let’s make sure that in telling the stories we do nothing to
distract from the story which
is at the center of our bibles. The story which is at the center
of our bibles is not Jesus’ ability to feed the 5,000 with a few loaves and a
couple of fish. It is not his walking on
water. The story at the center of our
Bibles is Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the tomb. This is the story which defines our Christian
faith.
Jesus works many miracles and
accomplishes many great feats. The Bible
is chocked full of stories intended to convince us that he is who we have come
to believe him to be. But the bible also
warns us against making him something less than what he is. Miracle workers are a dime a dozen. Jesus works the miracle of saving us.
It is a tight line we walk, between
knowing that our Master has all power and authority – and – expecting him to
exercise that power on our behalf. It
seems reasonable to expect that he would do all that he can, for us. And it puzzles us when it seems that he does
not. The Bible uses stories of Jesus’
healing powers in order to assure us that our hope is not in vain. And that same Bible warns us that it is wrong
to seek him out of a desire to harness those powers.
We are, indeed, saved from sin and
death and the power of the devil. But
premature baldness, cataracts, diabetes, and lymphoma are not list of things
that he assures us he will take away. We
do have the witness, of a multitude of saints who have gone before us, that his
grace will be sufficient.
Amen.
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