4 August 2024 John 6:24-35
“You are looking for me not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.” John 6:26
Trackers in the old west used to say that you could find anyone, as long as you knew where the water was. People on the move traveled from water to water – they had to, their lives depended on it. In the same old west, the reason why buffalo were slaughtered in such outrageous numbers was to disrupt the food supply of Native American tribes. If you take away their food supply, you make them move, making way for railroads, ranches and towns.
People go where the food and water is. It is still true. If you want to make a crowd hostile as quickly and effectively as possible, disrupt their access to food and water. If you want them on your side, give it back. It is still true. It is always true.
So, it makes perfect sense that the most memorable signs that Jesus performed had to do with food and water. Water into wine (John 2:1-11), the Woman at the Well (John 4:1-42), the Feeding of the 5000 (in all four gospels), the Feeding of the 4000 (Matthew 15:32-39, Mark 8:1-9) – all these stories got the attention of massive numbers of people, but most of them drew the wrong conclusion. Jesus meant all these to be signs, and signs are important not because of what they are, but because of what they point to. The food and water signs of Jesus pointed to Him. He was the important thing. He was the way to heaven. His life was the one that lasted forever. Most people, however, thought of these events not as signs, but asobjectives. The food was important because of what it was, not because of what it pointed to. Jesus provided food – that, and that alone was the important thing, which Jesus clearly saw: “You are looking for me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled” (John 6:26).
Many have pointed out that these days are afflicted by a “crisis of meaning,” which is simply to say that people are not seeing the signs, or are misinterpreting the signs. Over 100,000 young people are dying every year from fentanyl overdoses, but why are they taking fentanyl in the first place? Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid prescribed as an analgesic, a painkiller. People become addicted to it not to feel something; they take it to feel nothing because that is far easier than the shallowness and despair they are otherwise stuck with. The desire for fentanyl, in other words, is a reaction to pain, but pain is like a flashing red light, a warning that something is desperately wrong. Fentanyl just turns off the light, but doesn’t do anything about the cause of the pain, which inevitably makes the pain worse. It is a misinterpreted sign, and like all such, it eventually kills. Across the world tens of thousands of young people protest in favor of fascist organizations that are even more rabidly anti-Semitic than the Third Reich, and yet they seem utterly blind to the grotesque alliance they have made. It is a moral disease, but they can’t see the signs, and so they get sicker.
“You are looking for me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled” (John 6:26). There is no shortage of signs from God that all point to Jesus as the way to life, the meaning of life, the gate to heaven. The Bread of Life is still here, still consecrated, still offered everywhere, in every Church, every day. The only shortage is eyes to see.
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