1.
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word comes from the
Gospel reading for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost, from John
6:22-35, it’s entitled, “For What Lasts.” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
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 Happy Meal from McDonalds. Their attention was fixed
on consumables of the moment instead of on that which would bless them
eternally.
3.
So,
in our text today, Jesus tells them and us to Labor for What Lasts. Perishable
things won’t satisfy our deepest needs and longings (vv 25–27). We, of course, have upped the ante
considerably on things that don’t last. Simple
bread won’t do for us. We need not a
meal out but an upscale meal out, not Mac and Cheese but Ruth’s Chris Steak
House.
We’re not satisfied with a roof over our heads; we need a house in the
wealthy part of town. We need Waupaca
High to win state this fall and our favorite to be a starter. We need all A’s, a date with the cutest girl
and the cutest guy, a greener lawn, a luxurious retirement home, a retirement
that provides a big chair, NFL Network, and vacations to Europe, Hawaii, and
Australia. These things that don’t last
can satisfy a need and many a want 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.
4.
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). Remember
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. Actually, for one day. And then God came to him and said, “Fool, this night your soul is required of
you!”
5.
You
can’t take any such perishable things with you when you die. Have you ever seen a hearse pull a U-Haul? 1 Tim 6:7: “We brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of
the world.” Job 1:21: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and
naked shall I return.”
6.
What’s
more, what you see is not all there is to get.
One must not pursue only the things of this world. Lk 12:15: “And [Jesus] 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.’ ” 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
things God sets before us.
7.
In the
classic 1947 movie Miracle on 34th Street,
Doris Walker and Lawyer Fred Gailey have an intense discussion after Gailey
quits his job at a law firm to pursue the legal defense of old Santa Claus. Doris
is upset that Fred would throw away his career over a sentimental whim. Gailey
feels compelled to defend Santa Claus, who represents kindness, joy, love, and
all the other intangibles. Doris tells Fred, “You’re talking like a child. . . . Those lovely intangibles aren’t
worth much. You don’t get ahead that way.” Fred’s final contribution to the
discussion is this: “Don’t overlook those
lovely intangibles. You’ll discover they’re the only things that are worthwhile.”
For once, the lawyer got it right! Rom
14:17: “For the kingdom of God is not a
matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the
Holy Spirit.” Mt 6:19–20: “Jesus says, Do not lay up for yourselves
treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and
steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor
rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
8.
So
let us look instead to the things that last forever, knowing God will provide
the things of this world that we really need.
God promises to supply our earthly needs. Mt 6:25–26, 33: [Jesus said,] “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious
about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body,
what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than
clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather
into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value
than they? . . . But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and
all these things will be added to you.”
9.
Our
pursuit, then, should be of the things that do not perish (vv 27–29, 35) To
labor for the food that endures 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. That he did by
laying down his life on the cross for us.
That, you see, 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. Rom 8:32: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave
him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all
things?”
10.
Finally,
there will be a great reward for delaying our gratification. 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. 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.’
11.
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) Rom 8:18: “For
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing
with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
12.
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. Amen.
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