(Audio)
Jesus answered them and said,
"Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me
not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled."
Jesus gave signs in order to elevate our minds and our desires from changeable things to things that last. He told the crowd not to "work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life" which he himself would provide.
Our preoccupation with the temporal is easily explained since we live in time. The temporal is precisely what presses in day to day, moment to moment, and from which we can never entirely escape while we live our mortal life. We realize that the temporal world is damaged and ultimately incapable of satisfying our deepest desires but we are still predisposed to choose it over and against an eternal perspective. When we first encounter it, the heavenly perspective seems unknown and unknowable, demanding, and possibly misleading. If it is not openly hostile to the temporary it is not always clear in what way it treats temporary things as valuable. Even if it means choosing Barabbas we often do so just because he is a known and controllable entity. This is thinking "as human beings do" (see Matthew 16:23). On the one hand this is understandable. On the other hand it is not sustainable. All things bound by time and temporary will eventually terminate.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
How do we work for that which truly satisfies? We must believe in the Son of Man. When we do so we believe in the one who has united time and eternity, earth and heaven, and a single person, the one on whom the Father has set his seal. The crowds were probably expecting something much more difficult than to simply believe. But belief was the foundation, the sine qua non that would allow them to live lives in right relation to eternity and yet remain good citizens of the earthly city.
It was fundamentally faith in the one sent by the Father that allowed Stephen to himself become conformed to the Son. He too became able to endure the hostility caused by the self-protection inherent in mortal men when the eternal perspective offered a challenge to their paradigm, just as Jesus first endured it. His belief in the Son caused him to be filled with wisdom and the Spirit. Guided by that Spirit he was given words that called these members of the Synagogue of Freedmen to repentance and forgiveness. He never indulged in hostility toward them, nor did he see them as enemies. Because he shared in the love of the Son for them he did not abandon them or run away from them just because they resisted his message. His final act toward them was one of forgiveness. It was not just his words of wisdom. Even his face was a sign of something more, a higher life of sanctity to which all are called.
All those who sat in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him
and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
Our belief in the one sent by the Father is meant to color everything we experience and give direction to everything we do. It can be an anchor when the things that are temporary are shaken (see Hebrews 12:28) Faith is the beginning, yes, but it is also the middle and the end. Asking for more faith will allow God to open us up to everything that he desires to do for us and through us.
For in it is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous by faith will live.” (see Romans 1:17).
Newsboys - We Believe (different song)
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