Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Readings: 2 Samuel 11:26 – 12:13 • Psalm 51:1-12 • Ephesians 4:1-16 • John 6:24-35

Michel Gagnon, Lay Reader

“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. This is a phrase that the former U.S. President John F. Kennedy used in his inaugural address to the nation on January 20, 1961 to challenge every citizen to contribute to the public welfare.

Rest assured. I won’t talk too much about politics today. But there is a strong similarity between the last two readings today and the quote you just heard

The goal of John 6 and context of our gospel reading 

The evangelist John always does things differently from the other gospellers. Last weak, we heard that the crowd had received a long teaching from Jesus, at the end of which he fed them. It is John’s version of the place where Jesus feeds a large crowd (4,000 – 10,000 people) with only 2 fishes and 5 loaves of bread.

But John makes it clear that we’re approaching the Passover, the final Passover when Jesus will be crucified. And above all, he uses this teaching to explain the sacrament of communion for an entire chapter. We’ll come back to this later, as we are in week 2 in this series of 5 Sundays.

John likes symbolism, things with a double meaning. Think of the Samaritan woman at the well, for example. And food is a subject that lends itself well to such double symbolism.

Food is a necessity of life. 

• We have to eat to live.
• We spend a lot of time and energy preparing meals and eating.
  • The average Canadian household spends around 15% of its income on food (16.8% for families in the lowest quintile – Statistics Canada 2021).
  • This was around 40% in 1961 and 60 – 65% in 1901 (mainly because housing is relatively more expensive).
• The proportion of the budget devoted to food is much higher in poor countries today, and was even higher in Jesus’ time.
  • It could be estimated at 85 – 90% (less money exchanged, less other direct costs). (less money exchanged, less other direct costs)
  • Harvesting has an even more direct impact on food quality: no harvest means starvation.

Eating is also a social activity 

• Entertaining family and friends, organizing a picnic or a community lunch. Even poor families do that.
• It is socially important to gather around a good meal.

The context of the gospel 

In a nutshell, the crowd received a good teaching and was well fed. Then, in the evening that followed, Jesus and his disciples crossed the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberias or Lake of Gennesaret, if you prefer). Except that in Mark, they go to Bethsaida, at the south-southeast corner of the lake, while in John, they rather go to Capernaum, at the north-northwest of that lake.

The people play detectives (v. 22-24), notice that a single boat is no longer in Tiberias, and therefore that Jesus is gone. Then they go to Capernaum and eventually find him. So Jesus’ “private” time with his disciples has been summed up in one evening.

The crowd finds Jesus and asks him: 

You have fed us!

• The crowd recalls the manna in the desert (cf. Exodus 16).
  • By making the connection between the previous day’s meal and “the bread from heaven” (the manna), they demonstrate that they have understood that Jesus has a close relationship with God.
• The crowd wants more:
  • Their situation is somewhat similar to that in the desert:
    • In the desert, there was physically no food, no water.
    • In Roman Palestine, there was plenty, but only for the ruling class. For the crowd gathered around Jesus, it was (financially) difficult to feed oneself properly. People barely subsisted.
  • “Feed us every day as Moses did in the desert!”
    Jesus replies, “The manna didn’t come from Moses, but from God (‘my Father’).”
  • — “Ah yes, it did!”

Jesus replies: 

• You are here because you want a free meal!
• But the manna was really the bread from heaven, i.e. God’s food.
• The crowd says: “Give us some every day and we’ll have no more problems!”
• Jesus replies:
  • It is a good thing that you want this bread, but not for the reasons you think (i.e. not because you are going to save a lot of money at the grocery store).
  • “This bread from heaven gives life to the world!”
  • This bread feeds not only the body, but also the soul and spirit (a trinity).
  • It leads to eternal life.

In other words, it is essential to life,
as essential as the air we breathe and the water we drink.

And here we have a brief introduction to next week’s topic: “I am the bread of life!”

And what about us? 

Jesus’ invitation is addressed to us too: 

• Stop working for food that fades, but for food that lasts.
  • Don’t work for phoney things but for those that last.

The epistle to the Ephesians 

And the author of the epistle to the Ephesians, no doubt a direct disciple of Paul (Deutero-Pauline epistle, written around 80-100), tells us how to apply the saying:
“Ask yourselves what you can do for the Church”.

• We are God’s instruments, instruments of his mission.
• We are different, we have different talents:
  • Think of a hammer vs. a Phillips, a Robertson or a Torxk screwdriver: they each have their own purpose.
• Let us be sustained with the true heavenly food that fills our soul and spirit and let us use our talents for the common good.

Amen.