Why do you follow Jesus?

Psalm 78:17-32                  Exodus 16:1-5                   Isaiah 55:1-13                    John 6:22-40

Why do you follow Jesus?

From the Garden of Eden until now, humanity has sought to reshape God in their own image. Modern revisionists with their demands for the Church to conform to their philosophical ideals are no different from the ancient pagans whose gods reflected their cultural values and their societal aspirations, not to mention their all-too human tendencies and appetites. But, if we are honest, we will admit that this is true for all of us…we all tend to think of God in terms of what we want him to be. 

Now, as we have seen a couple of times already, John expected his readers to thoughtfully review numerous texts from the Old Testament and, perhaps, even the other Gospels, while they were reading his Gospel. For instance, last Sunday, we saw how the text was peppered with allusions to several Exodus passages…Passover, the crossing of a sea, the wilderness, the miraculous provision of bread, and so on…as well as a possible passing reference to Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness where he was offered the throne without the cross. 

This is equally true of the passage we read from today, with added references to the writings and the prophets. For John and his first century readers, this intertextual comparing and contrasting exercise was easier as they not only understood and applied the practice, but they had also either memorized the texts or at least knew them well enough as they had heard them read repeatedly during synagogue services and the various festivals. We, sadly, must do a little more homework as it is no longer our custom to commit large portions of Scripture to memory. 

But let it be said that extensive memorization, by itself, does not prevent us from misinterpreting and misapplying the Scriptures. Most of the adults in this crowd knew the Torah by heart and thus correctly connected Jesus with the prophet mentioned by Moses in Deuteronomy 18. But they failed to understand what that passage meant. In their minds, if Jesus was supposed to be a prophet like Moses, he ought to have been like Moses, miraculously providing free bread every day. Pretty basic misapplied theology. 

This misunderstanding was more than likely because they had already decided that Jesus was a provider of the good life. Remember in verse two of this chapter, John told us that the crowd was following Jesus because of the miraculous healings…they followed him for their own benefit…for what they could get out of him. 

In verses twenty-two through twenty-five we see that nothing had changed. And so we conclude that their presuppositions shaped their conclusions. For them, Jesus was their Santa Claus…the ultimate gift-giver…and so, if he wanted them to follow him, he had to continue to supply their endless demands. 

But self-centred theology is the exact opposite to what Scripture teaches. We are not to pursue perishable and corruptible things…treasures that can be eaten by moths and destroyed by rust…food that spoils. No, Jesus said, the food that satisfies comes through obedience…from listening, learning, believing, trusting, and following him. The hardest work for sinful man to do is to submit to God in dependence and trust. So, seek first the kingdom…and the things you truly need will be supplied…not the other way around. 

Following Jesus always requires redirection and a fixed commitment to press on to take hold of that for which Jesus already took hold of us! And so, Jesus corrected them on two levels. Comparing him to a prophet like Moses was partly correct, but it was not Moses who supplied the manna…it was God. And the manna was simply a sign of a far greater reality…the true bread from heaven that gives and sustains life is Jesus.

The critical and crucial central core of the entire passage is found in verse 35. “I AM the bread of Life,” Jesus said. Here Jesus likened himself to that which sustained the Israelites from their deliverance from bondage to their arrival in the Promised Land. 

Now, Jewish tradition likened the Torah to bread. “Where there is no bread,” they said, “there is no Torah; where there is no Torah, there is no bread.”  This is no doubt a reference to Deuteronomy 8: “(God) humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna…to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, but on every Word that comes from the mouth of God.” So, by stating that “the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world,” Jesus was declaring himself to be both the Word and the Bread. 

Jesus is the Word of Life. When John said Jesus was the Word, he didn’t mean that he was the impersonal divine reason behind the ordering the universe that gave all things form and meaning. No, John was using a well-known Hebraic image to show that Jesus was not only the very same Word who spoke all things into existence, and the Word of power who upholds all things, but also the Word who revealed his Person in and through the Scriptures. Withdraw Jesus from the equation and everything implodes…without Jesus, you can’t have life. 

But John also says here that Jesus is the Bread of Life. As such he is compared to the most basic reality of existence…the eating and absorption of food to live. Jesus defined salvation in terms of taking in what had been given to the world by God. Elsewhere Jesus spoke of believers abiding in him and him abiding in them. This is the most intimate description of what it means to believe…to become part of…to absorb…Jesus must become an integral part of who we are. To take in the very Word of God…that which is the very essence of existence…so that we might be sustained by it along the journey of life.

But in verse 36 Jesus says quite a shocking thing. “But, as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.” Keep in mind that he was speaking to those who followed him so zealously that they forgot to pack their own lunches. And don’t forget, these were people who wanted to make Jesus their king! How did they not believe? 

I think it is because what they were following was not the real Jesus. They were following something of their own invention. Jesus was their healer. Jesus was their supplier. But he was not their God. I want you to feel the full impact of Jesus’ statement here. “…you have seen me and still you do not believe.” 

To the ecclesiastical elite in Jerusalem Jesus had said that they diligently searched the Scriptures but had not recognised the one whom the Scriptures revealed. To this crowd Jesus said that they followed him for the wrong reasons…they had seen him and yet not believed in him. It boggles the mind, doesn’t it? How is it possible that someone can call Jesus ‘Lord’ and yet not do what he commands? Why even bother with the pretence?

I remember as a baby believer hearing a regular church goer publicly state that she had no need for God in her life. She had all the money she needed, a wonderful husband, and two healthy sons, a big farm, and a large circle of friends. What did she need Jesus for? At the time, I simply could not understand why she attended church, sang the hymns, said the prayers, took communion…and yet did not believe in Jesus. To be honest, I still can’t understand that. Obviously, ‘God’ was simply part of some acceptable social concept. It was just what you did as a good member of the Church of England. 

But I must hasten to add that when I took Louise to the place where this happened 40 odd years later, all these things this woman prized so highly were gone. The church building stood empty used only for special functions. We must not be deceived, dearest beloved brethren. God will not be mocked. Whatever a person sows, they will reap in return.

So, who are those who believe…how does Jesus define them? I think it might be helpful to return to the question the crowd asked Jesus in verse 28. “What work must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus replied that the work of God was to believe in the one he had sent. Keeping this in mind then, the statement in verse 37 makes better sense. “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” 

Any response to the free offer of salvation in Jesus must come as a gracious gift from God. There is no other way. We are dead in trespasses and sins the Scriptures tell us. No one seeks after God. All fall short of the glory of God. If God did not step in and initiate the relationship, we would never know him. Right from the Garden, it has always been God who comes, God who seeks, God who calls, God who makes a way for reconciliation to be achieved. 

All purely human attempts to “do the work God requires” will fail as they are birthed in death. As we read through the Old Testament and examine history in general, we see that when religion begins in the human psyche, the god they claim to follow is an imaginary construct…a god shaped in the image of whoever created it. 

As Jesus is the Word of Life…the Word that created all that exists…the Word that sustains all that exists…the Word that reveals who God is…as the Word of Life, Jesus is the one who defines life…how to obtain life and how to sustain life. There is no other way because all that exists is his by design and ownership. To rebel against this, demanding that God must be what we want him to be, borders on the insane. 

And so, Jesus gave them a real-life example of what this work of God looks like. “I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.” In other words, the desire of Jesus was the desire of God. He came to be the one through whom God would set the world right side up as promised in Genesis 3:15. In this passage, we saw Jesus refusing to be made king by popular demand, or as in the temptation in the wilderness, to be made king by worshipping Satan. Earlier on, we saw him refuse to conform to the misinterpretations of the ecclesiastical leaders. He came to do the will, or, one could say, the work of the Father. But by refusing to submit to the will of humanity, Jesus resolutely set his face to the cross. You see, when you refuse to bow to the demands of society, they will crucify you one way or another. 

Here in the wilderness, Jesus miraculously fed the multitudes, but they did not believe. In Psalm 78, the Psalmist tells us that despite all that God did for the Israelites, they “sinned even more against him by rebelling against him the in the wilderness. And they tested God in their heart by asking for the food of their fancy.” Why? “Because they did not believe in God and did not trust in his salvation.”

God delivered them from slavery in Egypt. God opened the sea before them. God supplied them with water and God sustained them with food in the desert. Likewise, salvation begins and ends with him, not us. God’s will is the source, the foundation, and the standard of redemption. We cannot change that willy-nilly and expect God to be pleased with it. If we choose to call him Lord, we must obey his Word. You simply cannot separate God from what he has spoken. There can be no “I will follow you if…” 

So, it is a question we must ask ourselves, dearest beloved brethren. Why do we follow Jesus? Are we sure we are following the Jesus revealed to us in Scripture or are we maybe following a Jesus we have created for our own purposes? Unfortunately, it is much easier to the see the splinter in the eyes of others, while neglecting to see the log in our own eyes, isn’t it? 

So, let us turn to the one to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden, and let us ask him to come and search us…to help us know our hearts…to expose our anxious thoughts…our unbelief or misbelief…to see if there is any hurtful and harmful and hypocritical way in us…to test us and reveal to us if we are really truly surrendered to him. Have we seen him, called him Lord, claimed to have followed him, and yet not known him? Why do you follow Jesus?

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2023