Nielsen’s Nook

Commentary

³⁵Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. (Jn 6:35 ESV)

I remember as a younger man walking through a shopping mall one day and stopping in my tracks to ponder a phrase printed on the t-shirt of a man who briskly walked passed me in the opposite direction. It read, “Look busy! Jesus is coming.” I stopped because I was not sure whether it was mocking Christians or a serious exhortation to them.

I believe it is most beneficial to understand the shirt as satire. Many of us chase after many things in the name of religion. For some of us it is the approval of others. For some it is knowledge. For others it is service, or many other religious activities.� These activities in and of themselves are often helpful but for some of us at different times can serve to insulate us from the heat of Christ himself.

Think about prayer for a moment as an example. Paul is working out the profound and the simple truth of Jesus the Messiah. Many of us want our prayers to be as poetry, refined and reverent. A refined and reverent prayer is absolutely appropriate; however, the reality is that our lives, the place where we live moment by moment, is neither refined nor is it always reverent. So waiting until you are in the mood to pray, until the words are right, until you have had time to contemplate all that you would like, or whatever else you may want to do as preparation to pray actually can impede your boldly coming before the throne of grace.

God has included books in the bible like Judges and Job and psalms like Psalm 73 to remind us that His people are to just come to him with their heavy burdens and cluttered lives; for his yoke is easy and his burden is light. These texts are rough around the edges because they reflect the rough world that God is working to redeem in time and space.

That is the miracle of the Incarnation, of God coming to the mess of this fallen world in the person of his perfect Son, Jesus. Let us not chase after things that merely camouflage our prayers and service to God, but let us simply pray and serve. How can Paul say this? Paul knows that no amount of barren ritual or paltry preparation sustain life, especially eternal life. We go to God not through outward actions but “in Christ’s skin and on His back.” ¹ That is the nature and the gravity and the centrality of the Christian’s union with Christ.

¹ Luther, Martin. Vol. 42, Luther’s Works, Vol. 42 : Devotional Writings I. Edited by Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann. Luther’s Works. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999, c1969. Page 23.