Commentary

18th Sunday - B
John 6:34-25

Losing sight of the bigger picture

This passage of John 6:24-35 follows the Gospel of last Sunday (6:1-15), but not directly. In between the two passages, Jesus has sent the disciples across the sea. He then walks on the water to meet them during a storm. That is why the crowd has to come to Carpenaum looking for him.

Regardless of that fact, the crowd’s question, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” is quite lame, given that they have witnessed the miracle of the loaves and the fish. They still cannot recognize who Jesus truly is. And Jesus knows them well, “you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.”

And their shortsightedness seems to be the reason behind their demand for more signs. When Jesus asks them to believe in him, the demand, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do?”

It is also worth noting here in the theology of John’s Gospel, a faith that is based on seeing signs is shallow. Such is the faith of the disciples at the wedding in Cana. John comments, “Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him” (2:11). We know that the disciples’ faith is not strong enough because they will abandon Jesus at the hour of the cross. In contrast, not only does the mother of Jesus believe in his words, she also tells the waiters to do whatever he tells them. Her unconditional faith will enable her to be with Jesus at the foot of the cross.[1]

The crowd, unlike Mary, cannot be satisfied with one sign. They ask for more. That is the danger of the kind of faith built not on a total trust in God, but on our own ideas of God. Our human limits can cause us to lose sight of the bigger picture as we try to make God fit out idea of God.

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

------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Francis J. Moloney, SDB., The Gospel of John. Sacra Pagina Series (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998), p. 69.