The gospel reading continues the 6th chapter of John. It is the morning after the meal of five loaves and two fish that fed the crowd of 5000 on a mountain outside of Tiberias.
John 6:24-34
24So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 25When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27Do 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.”
28Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” 29Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Repetition is essential for learning. If you’ve watched the Olympics at all this week you’ll have that impressed on your brain. Athletes spend years preparing for the Olympics repeating the same movements, the same start, the same leap, the same stroke, the same routine so that, when their turn finally comes to perform, their bodies know what to do, almost without thinking — preferably without thinking. One of the commentators for gymnastics said the balance beam is more difficult than the other apparatuses in women’s gymnastics because there is time to think. There are required artistic components that break up the physical flow and allow thoughts to creep in. That’s bad. It’s safer to have muscle memory be in charge and the precision learned in thousands of hours of repetition.
On a more practical note, repetition helps us find our car keys or coffee cup, helps us form routines for getting to work on time, or getting to sleep at night. Without repetition, every experience is novel. Can you imagine going through even a day when everything you do or experience is for the first time? Maybe it’s why infants and toddlers need so much sleep. Constantly trying to make sense of new experiences is exhausting.
On the other hand, we all know what it is to repeat ourselves again and again, only to have our words seemly sucked into a black hole. The repetition seems to elicit no learning – muscle or otherwise – in our intended target.
So, to the gospel of John. For one thing, paired with Exodus, I can’t see why God would keep trying. It is almost a direct repeat. God/ Jesus does something amazing to benefit the people involved – parting the sea, providing a meal – and within a day they are complaining. The Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt because they were thirsty. I mean, yes, it is a huge desert, but still, God got them there through Moses’ leadership in performing nine miraculous acts and then leading them through the water. Can’t they imagine that there might be provision? And once they get water, they complain about food. And once they get food they complain about lack of variety in the food.
In the gospel version, the crowd following Jesus participates in the meal that keeps on giving, watching him break those small loaves of bread over and over again until everyone had enough and still there were leftovers, and the next day they ask what sign he is going to do so they can believe that he is of God? Really? They followed him in the first place because they saw him heal diseases that no one else could. He taught with understanding and wisdom no one else had. Then he hosted that meal. Then he somehow beat them to Capernaum, and they wonder what mighty acts of God he might perform so they can believe? Wow.
So, Jesus starts talking and he says the same thing over and over in slightly different ways. Lets talk about bread, he says. You all know what bread is. You eat it every day. And everyday you get hungry again, and want more bread. This is the way of the world. But there is more to your existence than bread. There is more to your life, more to your being, more to do than to scramble around looking for your next meal – as hard as that is to hear when you’re hungry. Life is not defined by your hunger. There is more than the endless repetition of scrounging for bread and preparing bread and eating bread and starting again. The “More” happens in your soul and spirit even while your body continues the routine of acquiring and eating bread. The transcendence happens above that cycle in the realm of relationship with God, trust of God, union with God.
Let your muscle memory deal with physical hunger, but free your minds and hearts to dwell, to abide with your Creator, your Mother, your Father in heaven who gives you daily bread.
“For the bread of God comes down from heaven and gives life to the world,” Jesus said. And they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.” No, let’s try that again, Jesus will say (again and again).
If we had been reading John instead of the gospel of Mark, we would have just heard the Samaritan woman at the well say the same thing: 13Jesus told her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ 15The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to the well to draw water.’
She thought they were still talking about real water, even though she kind of understood that it wasn’t the water from a well. The crowd is asking the same question. They are thinking of manna given to their ancestors every morning for 40 years. They are looking for a repetition of the daily miracle.
To be honest, Jesus doesn’t help. His part of the conversation is not really related to theirs even though they are using the same words. No wonder they’re confused.
Bread and water, the very basics needed for life, are what Jesus is claiming to be and what he is offering from God – not as a one-time meal, nor as a daily provision, but as himself, the Word of God made flesh. The physical item, like the miracle itself, is just to get our attention. The way to the heart is through the stomach, right? And it is our heart that God is after.
As important as it is that all the world be fed, that’s still not what Jesus is about. The Father’s work is more than that. There is more to life than bread. In John’s gospel, bodies do matter – Jesus spends a lot of time healing bodies, feeding bodies – but John doesn’t let us forget that the body is temporary and that a relationship with Jesus endures beyond its limits.
We (and the crowd) are asking for too little if we’re focused on our stomach’s hunger. Being in union with Jesus moves beyond a preoccupation with our temporary physical needs, to ongoing life, to what God is doing and wants to do through us. The signs Jesus performs are not the reason for believing but the beginning of believing.
I kind of like playing with the idea that Jesus is bread. A couple summers ago I did a sermon series on images of God and suggested that God might be water, not be like water or be in water, but actually be water – the basic necessary component for all life. In communion we accept that the bread Barb baked is somehow the real presence of Jesus, we accept the words, “This is my body given for you” as we swallow the bread. And Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of me” or “as often as you eat of it,” not really specifying what. So, maybe your English muffin or peanut butter toast or sweet morning bun or tortilla is Jesus. Maybe we ingest the living Lord with every mouthful. Maybe we in-corporate, bring into our bodies the body of God every day in constant repetitions. Would it help us live into our calling to believe, to be in union, to walk humbly with the God of all life if we think about this? If Jesus is the living bread come down from heaven to nourish the world, is it worth remembering with each mouthful?
Repetition is essential for learning.