15 April 2013 - sealed for freshness

15 April 2013 - sealed for freshness

Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you. 
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” 

Jesus calls us out for having priorities which are too earthly and which give too much weight to things which are passing away.  We are often building on sand rather than rock in our lives.


So they said to him,
“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”

There are a few different reasons we ask this.  We recognize our own weakness and wonder if we can really ever lift our desires from the earthly bread we to lasting things.  There is an undertone of despair in this version of the question.  Others, having their pride wounded by Jesus's criticism now try to ask something which sounds impressive.  They say that they will do the works of God if they are just told how.  They won't just contribute to them but they will in fact accomplish them.  The emphasis here is on their own abilities.  But they ask it in such a way that it seems like a separate issue from caring too much about the earthly bread which is temporary.  They don't realize that if they are so fixated on earthly bread they won't have the freedom they need to contribute God's works. 

In both cases we don't ask a question which addresses what Jesus wants to address.   We want bread too much and the kingdom too little.  And the answer Jesus gives applies to both variants:

Jesus answered and said to them,

“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”

If we reorient our lives around the person of Jesus we can find true freedom.  If we trust him we can lift our wills from earthly things to the lasting things of the kingdom.  And we can do it in a selfless way that allows Jesus to work in us to accomplish the works of the kingdom.  Our Father knows we need our daily bread.  Believing in the one he sends allows us to put his priorities first and to trust in him for the rest.

This is the secret which St. Stephen knows.

Stephen, filled with grace and power,

was working great wonders and signs among the people.

He is accomplishing the works of God precisely because he believes in the one God sent.  The Spirit is therefore able to work with amazing power in him.  He isn't interested accomplishing the works of God in his own way because he is fully convicted that the way Jesus offers him is better than that.

Yes, your decrees are my delight;

they are my counselors.