Soul Food

Soul Food
Okay, be honest…How many people ate more than they should have on Thursday? There’s always so much food on Thanksgiving! There’s turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, bread, green bean casserole, other vegetables, pumpkin pies, and other various desserts…And let’s not forget about the leftovers! There’s always so much food…
The story from John where we encounter Jesus, he has just performed the miracle of feeding the five thousand…Feeding five thousand men, which didn’t include the women and children…And when he goes away and rest, they keep trying to find him! Poor Jesus…He can’t seem to get a break! Maybe it’s just my imagination, but I have to chuckle when we start with this passage…We’re not sure how many people “they” are…It may have been the whole five thousand plus…Maybe it was 12…Maybe it was just a couple…But, when I paint the scene in my head, I picture that they were following Jesus the whole time, knowing exactly where he was and when he turns around to see them, they say, “Oh, Jesus! When did you get here?” Whether that’s really how it happened or not, it’s how I see it!
And Jesus tells them, “You’re not here because you saw a miracle…You’re here because I fed you!” It certainly seems like not much has changed…Whenever food is offered, you can be pretty guaranteed that people will gather…For some Thanksgiving is that time…There’s an undercurrent in society of people not really wanting to get together with their families…The holidays are some of the most stressful times of the year, partly for that reasons…In some families, there are arguments, physical fights, people who refuse to get together, or just plain don’t like each other…And yet they still gather together for the holidays…So, you have to wonder…Is it the food that brings them together? Jesus surely said that it was the food that brought the group of people back to him…Feed them and they will come?
The people then go on and ask Jesus what they need to do to perform the works of God…Are they asking what they can do to multiply food for themselves? So that they can acquire more for themselves? Now this group may be a group of people who really don’t have that much money and to be able to multiply food would be an enormous help! But…This group of people and Jesus aren’t talking about the same things…
Jesus’ response is that they need to believe in the One that God sent…They need to believe in Jesus…And then the question that they ask is one that is also still as relevant today as it was when they asked it…It is still a question that is asked today…I would be willing to guess that it’s a question that most of us have asked ourselves…Maybe not in the exact words and maybe not dwelled on it…But maybe we have…Maybe it’s the basis for some people’s faith…
The question that they asked Jesus after he told them that they needed to believe in Him was, “What are you going give us?” What are we going to get out of this? So, we believe and then what? What do we get? Do we get riches? Do we get glory? Do we get a free pass at life? Do we get a new car? Do we get athletic skills? If there are more than 5,000 people there, we’ve got a lot of questions….What do we get out of this? What do I get for believing?
It is so obvious that this group that is talking to Jesus and Jesus are almost not speaking the same language…the group is talking about something physical…They want something to show that they believe…The want Jesus to give them something…They may still be hungry and want to be fed more…They bring up Moses…
The story of Moses and the manna comes when the Israelites had escaped from Pharaoh and the army and were no longer slaves…They were following Moses & his brother Aaron and they were seeking the land that God had promised them…The Promised Land…But their escape from Egypt was very quick and they didn’t have much food with them…And they were in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights…That’s a long time to go without food…So they asked Moses to give them some help with the food situation and Moses turned to God…So, there came manna from heaven and quail as well…They were given specific instructions about the manna…They were supposed to eat all that they gathered and couldn’t save any of it because there would be some the next day…They were supposed to gather enough on the day before the Sabbath so that they didn’t have to work on the Sabbath…
And this group that is with Jesus has this story of Moses and the manna as a part of their history…And seeing Jesus as someone who is as important as Moses…They say that Moses gave them bread, so what is Jesus going to give them? What are we going to get out of this? What are you going to give us?
And Jesus tells them, first of all it wasn’t Moses who gave the bread…That bread came from God…The bread of God which comes from heaven and gives life to the world…And the people still can’t stop thinking about the physical…So they ask again for the bread…And Jesus, who has already told them that they need to believe in Him…Says to them…I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
The argument continues in the chapter…Jesus trying to tell the group that he is the bread of life and the group still wanting something…
When Jesus said that whoever comes to him will not be hungry or thirsty, he didn’t mean physically…There are times when we are hungry or thirsty even when we believe…Even after a filling meal like Thanksgiving…Or a meal of fish and bread….Physical hunger and thirst are a fact of life…So it’s not that we can just not eat or drink because Jesus said we wouldn’t be hungry or thirsty…Or that we should feel like we don’t believe strong enough because we get hungry or thirsty…
Jesus wasn’t talking about physical food….Jesus was talking about soul food…And I’m not talking about southern cooking…Soul food…Food that feed your soul…
When my family gets together in for Thanksgiving, we have the traditional foods or at least traditional for our family…Sometimes there’s something new tossed in there, sometimes not…Three years ago my brother Matt and my cousin Sean made the claim that they saved Thanksgiving. That year, we almost didn’t gather as a family to celebrate Thanksgiving together, but they worked hard to make sure that it happened. Since they performed the act of “saving Thanksgiving” they decided that they could also rename the holiday to be “The Funniest Day of the Year.” And as we sit together, we laugh and share our lives…Sometimes we play games, some watch football, Matt & Sean make jokes and entertain us constantly…Our stomachs and physical appetites are filled by the food…But my soul is filled by the conversation and laughter…
That’s what Jesus is talking about…Not something physical that you can touch or maybe not even see…But your soul will be full…That’s what you “get out of this.” It’s not something physical like food, a new car, or riches and glory…Your soul is full…
The day after Thanksgiving is a kick off for the Christmas season…Or at least the consumer Christmas season…The stores open early and crazy people wait outside in the cold, far earlier than they would get up on any normal day for the bargains that they can get…What they can get out of it…Now, I have to admit that I am one of those crazy people…My dad and I go out shopping every day after Thanksgiving…We wait in the lines and rush through the people…And yes, sometimes we’re buying Christmas gifts…But that’s not really the beginning of the Christmas season…Because Christmas is not about what we can get out of it…What physical things that we receive…It’s not about the presents under the tree or the sales and bargains…
Christmas is about the One whom God sent…The One in whom we need to believe in and be full…The One who is the bread of life…The One who feeds our souls…