Not a Good Idea

Not a Good Idea John 6:1-21

For generations, children have been unable to walk out the door of their homes without their mothers running down a checklist of things we needed in order to be safe or prepared for the day. Did you put on sunscreen? Are you wearing your galoshes? Do you have your homework? We learned from an early age that there are some things we need to take with us when we go out into the world.

Several years ago, an advertising company decided to tap into this experience. They turned the question around into an imperative: “Don’t leave home without it.” That was an expression made famous by a credit card company years ago. There is no quibbling, no uncertainty, no confusion about what the company wants you to do with their credit card – don’t leave home without it. It is direct, memorable, and to the point – don’t leave home without it. They wanted you to believe that leaving home without their product is not a good idea.

Other companies and organization found their own ways to make us believe that we shouldn’t leave home without their product. We are not supposed to leave home without eating a good breakfast. We are not supposed to leave home without buying travelers insurance before going on vacation. We are not supposed to leave home without our breath mints, in case you want or need to talk to with someone.

Yet, even with these well-meaning admonitions, we still leave home without things we need – and that isn’t anything new. In our reading for today, John indicates that almost all of the people who have come to hear and see Jesus that day left home without their lunch. They left home without the bread made from the newly harvested barley. They left home without the dried and salted fish that was the staple for a desert-dwelling people who lived on the Sea of Galilee. They left home without any more plan than they had to see Jesus.

Mothers then were no different than mothers today, but even they left home without any of these things, which begs the question: why would they do that? Well, it can be almost impossible to think about food when your spirit is broken. If your child is sick or possessed, all you can think about is that they needed to be touched by Jesus. They needed to hear a hopeful word from Jesus. They needed Jesus to make things right in their broken and hurting lives. That’s what they were thinking about. That’s what they cared about. That’s why they didn’t think about taking the things that they know they should have taken.

It’s not that they were not looking for a free lunch when they left home that morning. Instead, they left home hoping for a miracle – a very personal, “make-an-exception-for- me-today” kind of miracle. Their lives were in turmoil, and they didn’t know how to fix it. They believed their problems were too big for mere mortals to make right. They needed God to step in and fix it now, or they wouldn’t see any point in believing in God any longer. For some people, that is the only proof they will accept that there is a god. From the depths of their despair, they cry out, “God, set aside the laws of your created order, and make an exception for me – or else I won’t believe in you.”

Augustine, the bishop of Hippo in the 4th century, knew the danger of judging God based on personal miracles. In his commentary of the Book of John, he wrote: “God is not the kind of being that can be seen with the eyes, and small account is taken of the miracles by which he rules the entire universe and governs all creation because they recur so regularly. Scarcely anyone bothers to consider God’s marvelous, his amazing, artistry in every tiny seed. And so certain works are excluded from the ordinary course of nature, works which God in his mercy has reserved for himself, so as to perform them at appropriate times. People who hold cheap what they see every day are dumbfounded at the sight of extraordinary works even though they are no more wonderful than the others. Governing the entire universe is a greater miracle than feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread, yet no one marvels at it. People marvel at the feeding of the five thousand not because this miracle is greater, but because it is out of the ordinary.”

Augustine recognized this temptation to keep God out of the ordinary parts of our life. We do this when we believe that God can only be found on the mountaintops, but not in the valleys. We do this when we believe that God spoke through the people of the Bible, but that God cannot speak through the people in my workplace. And we do this because, if God can’t be found in the ordinary places of my life, then I don’t have to be accountable to God for how I live my life.

At the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, it was clear that the tempter believed that Jesus could turn rocks into bread, an extraordinary thing in an ordinary world. It was the tempter saying, “Set aside the laws of your created order, or else I won’t believe in you.” But the hard truth is that people don’t believe because of the exceptions. They know that the exceptions pass, and then it is back to the ordinary concerns of life. That is one of the lessons learned by God’s people during the Exodus. God would do extraordinary things, and a short time later the people would murmur against God words that Janet Jackson would sing: “What have you done for me lately?”

The good news for us is not that Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish – as extraordinary as that is. The good news is not that Jesus impressed the crowd – though many scholars will say that this is one of the signs in John’s gospel that points to Jesus being the messiah. If we read this passage carefully, we see that only the disciples knew how little they started with, and only the disciples knew how much more they ended up with when the scraps were all gathered. The crowd only knows that Jesus taught them, that Jesus cared for them, and that Jesus did not let them down. And if you leave here today believing just that much about Jesus, you will be ahead of the disciples, who still don’t get it. And we know they don’t get it by what they do next.

The day is done, the crowds are fed, and the disciples are still looking to get away for a little rest. Night has come, and they see this as a good time to finally get away. So what do you take with you if you need to be refreshed? John doesn’t tell us because, no matter what the disciples took with them, it is what they left behind that is astounding. They left Jesus on the mountain, and went on without him! And leaving Jesus behind is not a good idea!

Now, I had to think about that for a long time. Why would anyone leave behind the source of abundant life, the living water, and the bread from heaven? Why would they do this when they need to find a way to quench their parched and thirsty souls? Why would they do this when they know they have a need to be nourished and strengthened for this life and the next? Why would you ever leave Jesus behind, when you know what Jesus can do?

Well, I think I know why the disciples left Jesus on the mountain. They thought the feeding of the multitude was a “resource problem” – they didn’t have enough, Jesus made up the difference, everything is fine now, and we don’t need Jesus any more. They saw Jesus as the one who provides the extraordinary when the ordinary no longer works for us.

Like the disciples, we live in a material world that knows how to focus on the resources. When things are going well, when we have enough to live on, and we are comfortable, it is then that many people struggle with why we need to take Jesus with us.

One Saturday a family was cleaning out leftovers from the refrigerator. The mother gave the one remaining portion of tortellini to their 6-year-old son. Their 8-year-old son also wanted the tortellini, so bickering ensued. After several unsuccessful attempts to mediate the dispute, the father decided on a theological approach. Hoping to convince the 6-year old to share his portion with the 8-year old, he said, “Son, what would Jesus do in this situation?” The boy immediately responded, “Oh, Dad, He would just make more!”

That’s the right answer – if the problem is not enough resources. But there is a more fundamental problem being addressed in our passage for today. The “resource problem” distracts us because it is easier to understand a “resource problem.” Either you have enough, or you don’t. You either can get enough, or you can’t. We get that pretty clearly, especially in the church, where resources always seem to be limited.

Congregations that are distracted by “resource problems” ask: “Where’s the money going to come from?” The second question is like it: “Who’s going to do the work?” But those are the wrong questions to ask, according to our passage. Listen again the end of our reading, the part we gloss over because we are still focused on the feeding of the 5000.

After the disciples leave Jesus behind on the mountain by getting into their boat, they encounter a strong wind and a rough sea. And after they tried to manage things on their own, rowing three or four miles against the wind and waves, Jesus comes to them walking on the waters. The wind is not a problem for Jesus. The rough waters are not a problem for Jesus. The disciples don’t see this because they want Jesus to get into their boat, to understand their concerns from their point of view. They, like so many disciples after them, said to Jesus, “This is our problem. This is the answer we want. Now fix it!” But instead of getting in the boat with them, the scripture tells us that the boat is now safely on the other side, and the rough sea and the winds are no longer the issue.

It is not a good idea to tell Jesus how to be Jesus. The faith question we should start with, whenever the wind and the sea are against us, is this: “Is Jesus with us?” And the second is like it: “What do we have to be afraid of, if Jesus is with us?”

It is not a good idea to leave Jesus on the mountain. It is not a good idea, but we do that whenever we live as if Jesus has nothing to do with our ordinary, day-to-day, living. The Good News is that Jesus is with us in the ordinary moments. The Good News is that this is Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. The Good News is that Jesus understands every part of our lives.

Jesus was born at a time of heavy taxation and political oppression. Jesus knew and understood poverty, difficulty, exile, and oppression. Jesus knows that life can be hard, that people can be cruel, and that things can be unfair. For most of his life, Jesus worked hard for a living, dealing with the demands of those who hired his services as a carpenter. Jesus was betrayed, crucified, dead, and buried, experiencing fully the frailty and limits of this human body.

Jesus participated in our life fully; and yet he is also the victor over sin and death, and through the Holy Spirit, victor over time and place as well. Faithful discipleship means living with Jesus Christ all the time – not just on the mountaintops; but also in the valleys, and in the marketplaces, and in our homes, and in our neighborhoods, and even in our churches. Being a disciple means Jesus is not “one hour of your week” but “one continuous presence forever.” When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we can’t leave him on the mountain, because he goes with us in our hearts.

The Good News is that Jesus Christ is here with us, and he goes with us when we leave this place. Let us celebrate the presence of Christ, who chooses to dwell in our hearts.

FWS 2266 “Here is Bread, Here is Wine”