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This gospel lesson from St. John today speaks to every heart who will listen. This is the day after Jesus fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. He took what was insufficient, blessed it, broke it, and made it more than enough. And in this lesson, the crowd is looking for him again. Now, you might think that's a good thing, Peter.

People searching for Jesus, people going out of their way to find him. But Jesus knows something about these people that they don't even know about themselves. He knows why they're looking. And in verse 26, he says, Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. In other words, you're not looking for me because you understand who I am.

You're. You're looking for me because you liked what I gave you. You want another meal, another miracle. You want me to make your life easier, but you don't necessarily want me. 2000 years later, not much has changed.

We want Jesus to fix it, no matter what it is. And there's nothing wrong with bringing our needs to Christ. But here's the question. If Jesus never gave you another earthly blessing, would he still be enough? Would bringing you this far be enough for your worship and your praise?

Because there is a dangerous kind of Christianity that loves the gifts of God more than the God that gives them. St. Augustine famously wrote in his Confessions, our heart is restless until it rests in you. And that's exactly what Jesus is confronting here in this Gospel and in us.

We are restless people trying to satisfy an eternal hunger with temporary things. Listen to what Jesus says in verse 27. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. Listen, Jesus didn't say that food is bad. He doesn't say work is bad.

He doesn't say that providing for our family is unimportant. He's telling them that there is something infinitely more important than simply surviving another day. Because you can spend your entire life working to keep your body alive while allowing your soul to starve. You can have a beautiful home and no peace. You can have a successful career and no purpose.

You can have hundreds of friends online and still be desperately lonely. And you can attend church every Sunday, every Wednesday, every Bible study, and still never get the work. For Jesus, religion can become another way of feeding ourselves without ever allowing Christ to change us. The prophet Isaiah asked the same question centuries earlier. Isaiah 55, 2.

Why do you spend your Money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy. What a question. Why do we keep pouring our lives into things that can't save us or others? Why do we act surprised when the world fails to satisfy a hunger that only God can fill? Then the crowd asks Jesus in verse 28, what must we do to be doing the works of God?

Now that's a religious question. Tell us what to do, give us the rules, show us a checklist. Tell us how much we need to accomplish to make God happy. And Jesus answers in verse 29. This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

That's it. Believe in him. Not simply believe that Jesus existed or that his teachings are good, but to trust him and trust our lives to him. Ephesians 2:8 9 reminds us, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Real faith changes the way we live, and it shows. James tells us that faith without works is dead, but our obedience is the fruit of salvation, not the price we pay to purchase it. You cannot earn what Christ has already given his life to offer you. And then something crazy happens. The crowd asks Jesus for another sign, another miracle.

They say in verse 30. Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you? These are the people who have just witnessed the feeding of thousands. They have seen bread multiplied before their eyes, and now they're asking Jesus, prove yourself. Isn't that just like all people today?

God carried us through yesterday, and today we're demanding proof that he hasn't abandoned us. God was faithful last year, but this year we're convinced he may have forgotten us. We have a remarkable ability to remember our problems and forget God's faithfulness. The crowd brings up Moses and the manna. In the wilderness, their ancestors ate bread from heaven.

But Jesus corrects them. It wasn't Moses who gave the bread, it was the Father. And that bread, as miraculous as it was, could only sustain physical life for a little while. The Israelites ate manna, and eventually they died. But Jesus has come to give something greater.

And this brings us to verse 35, one of the most extraordinary declarations in all Scripture. When Jesus says, I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. Jesus doesn't say, I will show you where to find the bread. He says, I am the bread. He is not merely the messenger of Eternal life.

He is the source of it. Because the answer to our deepest hunger is not another self help program or book. The answer is a person. Jesus Christ. Every time we approach the altar and receive Holy Communion, we are reminded that the Christian life is not sustained by our own strength.

We are in need and Christ is generous. And in the Holy Eucharist we truly participate in the body and Blood of Christ according to his promise. But the sacrament is not magic and it is not a substitute for faith. The one who feeds us at the altar is the same Lord who calls us to believe, repent and follow him. As Jesus says later in the chapter in John 6:51, I am the living bread that came down from heaven.

If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. The world is starving and not simply for food. It's starving for truth, forgiveness, for meaning and hope. For a love that doesn't disappear when life becomes difficult. And the tragedy is that people are trying to satisfy that hunger with things that were never meant to feed their souls.

CS Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, writes, if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. That's the hunger Jesus is talking about. You were made for more than this world can offer. And there is one final thing I want you to notice. Jesus says, whoever comes to me, not whoever has lived a perfect life or has a respectable past, whoever comes.

And that includes everyone. But you must come. You cannot feed on the bread of life while insisting on living apart from Him. So here's my question for you today. Are you following Jesus because you want what he can do for you?

Or because you have finally realized that He Himself is what you need? Because the crowd wanted bread that would get them through another day, Jesus was offering Himself the bread that gives eternal life. Stop asking for temporary things to give you eternal satisfaction. Stop trying to fill a God shaped hunger with things that perish. Come to Christ.

Bring him your sin, bring him your doubts, your exhaustion, brokenness, and receive the life that only he can give. Because the world can keep you entertained until the day you die. But. But only Jesus Christ can give you life beyond the grave. The crowd came looking for another loaf of bread.

May we come looking for the Lord Himself, for He is the bread of life. And whoever comes to him shall never hunger. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.