The Tenth Sunday after Trinity 04 08 24
OLD TESTAMENT READING: 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13
NEW TESTAMENT READING: Ephesians 4:1-16
GOSPEL John 6:24-35
There were many people coming to meet Jesus and in order to have some quiet time Jesus had taken his disciples to the other side of the lake. The people started to look for him and they eventually found him on the other side of the lake and they were quite surprised and queried when did you get here.
Jesus asks them if they had come looking for him because they were part of the great multitude which ate bread while he performed the wonderful miracle of feeding the multitude of people.
The synoptic gospels narrate all the wonderful and extraordinary acts of Jesus and calls them miracles. The fourth gospel writer John was presenting the life and message of Jesus as a theological story and John does not call these wonderful and extraordinary acts of Jesus as miracles but calls them as signs.
Signs point to something and they act as guides. We come across various sign boards that convey a message. It could be regarding speed limit, about turns or diversions. These signs help in our journey, the signs are not an end in themselves but they convey a message to people and are helpful to us.
Jesus asks the people, are they looking for him because they say in his mighty acts of wonder signs from God or just look to benefit from these wonders. Jesus says look out for food that nourishes you for eternal life. Jesus opens the eyes of the people to a new level of living.
Every act of wonder is a sign towards the life that Jesus offers. Every mighty act of wonder helps us to understand Jesus and the love he has for us. This realisation helps us to believe him more and more. Jesus says to believe in him is the work of God that God expects of him. Believing in Jesus is in itself a new life experience of participating in the life of Jesus which flows from him to all those who believe. This experience helps s to walk closer with God.
Jesus offers himself as the ‘bread of life’ to live the way he lived and he is the food that protects from us become enslaved to sin and destruction and to live in close communion with him.
Paul while writing to the church in Ephesus tells the Christians, ‘we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love’.
The greatest sign given to us is the cross that reminds that our sins are forgiven and we are accepted by God. The body and blood of Jesus in the sacrament is the sign that we share in the life and mission of Jesus.