Food that Endures

Jesus exhorts his hearers in today’s sermon text: “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you” (v 27). Jesus uses a picture of food because he had fed over five thousand people a short while earlier, and now he was being approached by men who wanted him to provide them with more meals. These men were focused on the result of Jesus’ miracle: their bellies were full. Sadly, they missed the real point of Jesus’ sign. They stood before one who was eager to provide them with things far more valuable than a free lunch. Their attention was fixed on consumables of the moment instead of on that which would bless them eternally.

Even though we know that perishable things won’t satisfy our deepest needs and longings (vv 25–27), we don’t seem to be able to shake the conviction that we won’t be satisfied until we have more than “just enough.” Like the Israelites in Exodus today, we aren’t content with our daily bread, but we desire tasty meat. We’re not satisfied with a roof over our heads; we need a house in a gated community. We need all A’s, a date with the prom king or queen, a greener lawn, a retirement place on a golf course . . . the list could go on forever.

We know that these things that don’t last can satisfy our needs and wants for a brief time, but they wear off, wear out, go out of style, get lost, get stale, break, or otherwise fail to maintain satisfaction.

This discovery of our dissatisfaction with what we have even though we get what we want and need is nothing new. St. Augustine said to God, “You have created us for yourself; our heart knows no rest except that it finds its rest in You” (Confessions, book 1, ch 1).

We also recall Jesus’ parable of the rich fool (Lk 12:16–21)? The man’s fields had brought forth enough crops to set him up for many years, and they did give him pleasure for a while. Yeah, one day. And then God came to him and said, “Fool, this night your soul is required of you!”

You can’t take any such perishable things with you when you die. But what’s more important for us to recognize is this: what you see is not all there is to get.

Jesus tells us that we must not pursue only the things of this world. In Lk 12:15: “[He] said to them, ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’ ” And in Mt 4:4: [Jesus said,] “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

One must, instead, pursue earnestly the eternal thing God sets before us. So let us look to what lasts forever, knowing God will provide the things of this world that we really need.

When God promises to supply our earthly needs, Jesus tells us to labor for the food that endures and this is nothing more or less than believing that the Living Bread, Jesus, came down from heaven and has secured life and all its necessities for us. Jesus became our Living Bread by laying down His life on the cross for us. Jesus’ death has secured both heaven and all that’s truly good for us in this life, because Jesus’ death has reconciled us to God, the giver of all good gifts. So how do we keep our focus on Jesus and avoid the temporary concerns of today that seem to redirect us?

We are now in the days of the Church Militant, not yet those of the Church Triumphant. In the Church Militant, we must understand the theology of the cross and await the appropriate time to deal with the theology of glory. Jesus puts our current task this way: Mt 16:24–25: “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.’ ” The only way we can pursue and possess the Food that Endures, the grace of God in Jesus Christ, is to remember that God promises to provide for us each day, and it is in putting service to others in Christ that we truly live.

Bernard of Cluny (twelfth century), in The Celestial Country, summarizes this in a poem that has for us become a hymn: "Brief life is here our portion; Brief sorrow, short-lived care. The life that knows no ending, The tearless life, is there." (TLH 448:1)

Let us hold fast to Jesus, who is the one thing needful now and forever, the one thing that lasts. Jesus suffered and died to atone for our sins. He rose from the dead and has assured us that because he lives, we shall live also (Jn 14:19). He has gone to prepare a place for us. Eye has not seen nor ear heard nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him (cf.1 Cor 2:9). There, we will feast forever on the Bread of Life he gives us. Until that time, abide in His peace. Amen.