Our Sermons
A list of our latest Sermons
Bible Passage: John 6:24-35
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date: August 8, 2021
This is Norman Rockwell’s 1957 painting, “Lift Up Thine Eyes.” People are walking on a city sidewalk, all staring at their feet while a church custodian places the final letters of that week’s message in a sign. “Lift Up Thine Eyes,” it reads, quoting from the Book of Isaiah. Rockwell employs every trick in the book to draw your eye upward. The railings, the arches, the ladder, the birds, it’s all meant to, well…lift up thine eyes. The upward force of the painting clashes with the downward view of the people, underscoring just how much the crowd is missing. Some of the people look like they’re rushing somewhere, others look burdened and sad. A few just look distracted. Their posture is the same as most people today; they might as well have smartphones in their hands. Interestingly, Rockwell chose to paint only one person with their face pointing upward. Do you see who it is? The reverend is the only person looking up.
This picture in many ways resembles the scene in our Scripture lesson. In it Jesus is looking up and everyone else is looking down. If you remember last week Jesus fed the 5000 but after they tried to make him king by force and so he withdrew in order to escape them. Now just a few verses later, those same people, hungry for more free bread, catch up with Jesus in Capernaum. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: You are not looking for me because you saw the miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. (John 6:25-26) Jesus points out how petty their intentions are. He says, in so many words, “You came to me for more bread!? Really? You saw that I have power to do miraculous things—things that only God can do—and you’re asking for a sandwich!?”
It’s really silly when you think about it, isn’t it? But just as I start to laugh, I realize that I’m making fun of myself. Because this is me too. This is what we are all inclined to do, isn’t it? We are all too busy looking down at the problems and troubles of the day. We are too busy looking down at the sidewalk contemplating our next step or looking down to others for approval or disapproval. Our most earnest desires focus on this world, on our stomachs, our pleasure, our reputation. We are often the people in Rockwell’s painting or these people who chase after Jesus in Capernaum—people more interested in earthly bread than the Bread of Life.
Now, I want to be clear, Jesus isn’t saying it’s wrong to come to him for small things. He’s saying that we are usually aiming too low. He can give you a sandwich, but he came to give you so much more! C.S. Lewis wrote this: “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” We think we know what’s best. We think we know what’s most important, but if we are looking at the ground we miss the most important promises and purposes God has for us. Just like an oblivious child who chooses to play in the mud over a vacation at sea, just like people meeting Jesus and only asking for a sandwich, there are many Christians who go to church and are yet oblivious of how worldly they are. Some people, perhaps even you and me, come to Jesus repeatedly and yet are unaware of how earth-bound, how often carnal and trivial their priorities remain.
That’s why Jesus tells us to lift up our eyes! He says this in verse 27: Do not continue to work for the food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. My friends, everything in this world—fame & reputation, beauty & riches, everything and everyone you know has been stamped with an expiration date. Like the jug of milk in your fridge. Eventually, earthly things spoil. They break, they die, they are forgotten.
We recently looked at the story of Noah and the flood in Bible Class. The Lord told Noah about the flood many years before it happened so that he could prepare. During that time he lived in the same world he had lived before, yet everything was different for him. He realized that everything he looked at, the shops in the market, the people debating in the city square, the trees, the mountains…everything would soon be underwater. Everything would be crushed and drowned in the flood. To say the very least, the anticipation of this coming destruction clarified things for Noah. He constructed the Ark and was no doubt laughed at for carrying out God’s seemingly ridiculous command. He preached to people and told them to turn to God. He brought up his family in the faith and made sure they looked up to the LORD.
The point Jesus is driving at isn’t that we need to exhaust ourselves in a bitter battle against worldliness. He simply wants us to realize the truth. Worldliness loses its grip the minute you grasp this truth: Food spoils. The house, the cars, the clothes…they spoil. The job, the accomplishments, your body…they spoil. Don’t spend your life running after them! But some things don’t spoil. I bet Noah may have looked up at his three sons as they hammered nails into the ark and had a different reaction: “These won’t be underwater, I get to take them with me!” My friends, food spoils, but souls do not. This truth changes everything. It changes the way you say prayers with your kids at night. It changes the conversations you are willing to have with family and friends. It changes how you spend your money, your time, your Sunday mornings.
And most importantly, if you understand that food spoils, then you will know why it is such an incredible blessing that God promises you food for your soul! Food that endures even to eternal life! Notice how Jesus said it: “Don’t work for food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give you.” Enduring food is a gift from your Savior Jesus! Later on, the people ask Jesus, “What should we do to carry out the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the one he sent.” (John 6:28-29) The work of God isn’t something we do. It is God’s work that allows us both to believe and to receive the Bread of Life! Jesus said it like this: “I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus told them. “The one who comes to me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty. There is a food that doesn’t spoil. There is a life that never ends. It is Jesus Christ himself! He is “the bread that comes down from heaven to give life to the world.” (John 6:32)
Did you know the word “world” is a major theme of John’s gospel? It confronts us 78 times in just 16 chapters. It has a distinct sense in John’s writing. In the context of John’s Gospel, the world is really shorthand for the entire earthbound system of human thinking and human institutions that have no place for Christ. The world is everything and everyone that opposes God. This makes it all the more meaningful when John writes this in chapter 3: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” The Bread of Life was given to the world and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own but his own did not receive him. Jesus was not accepted by the world, in fact, the world hated him. The world could not understand this One who taught that life does not consist in the abundance of possessions, the One who said that we should love our enemies. the One who cared more about the blind and the lame than the powerful and the rich. And in the end, Jesus was condemned and killed by the world.
This is what he tried to explain to those people that day who followed him to Capernaum. Those hungry hopefuls who wanted more bread must have thought Jesus was just being stingy, they probably grumbled because he didn’t use his power more practically. Their viewpoints were as far apart as heaven and earth because they were looking down and he was looking up. And Jesus would continue to look up even though few understood. And one day he would look up from his cross and ask his Father to forgive the world. Jesus came, not to gratify the world in its delusion, but to forgive the world. He came to give more than bread. He came to give himself. My friends, to the extent you understand and appreciate this gift, you will be set free from obsessing over the world which is passing away. You will be able to say with the Psalmist: “Whom have I in heaven but you? Earth has nothing I desire besides you.” (Psalm 73:25) Just as Jesus promised, you will never go hungry again.
So, my friends, “Lift Up Thine Eyes”. Beyond the dirty sidewalk, and untied shoes. Beyond the frenzy of soccer practices, mortgage payments, Instagram posts, and school preparations. Those are all good things, but don’t let them obscure your view of God’s Son, the Bread of Life. Look beyond the ache in your stomach to the empty places in your soul. Because Jesus is the only bread that can truly satisfy. Take and eat of the Bread of Life and make sure you give it to those you love most and anyone who will listen. For this world is passing away, but the Bread of Life never spoils!
Amen.