The crowds were bringing children to Jesus so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to his disciples, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” Then Jesus took the children in his arms and began blessing them, laying his hands on them.

This story, of Jesus blessing the children, is well-known story. And, I think, one that is close to our hearts. It is an endearing scene. Jesus, a great rabbi, the Son of God, spending time with children. In most of the depictions of this story you might see, the sun is shining warmly, everyone is smiling, there might be a butterfly lilting in the air, a bird is chirping. Who wouldn’t want to part of such a moment? Well, me for one, and I’ll tell you why: Because I’m an adult. And Jesus, says something very unnerving: If you will not receive the kingdom of God like a child, then you will not enter it all.

I look at the children, and I wonder what Jesus means. And I discover that I am not all that different from Nicodemus. We remember Nicodemus, don’t we? He came to Jesus by night to learn more explicitly the nature of Jesus’ proclaimed “good news.” But explicitly is not what he got. What he got instead was, “you must be born again.” And Nicodemus was puzzled, “What do you mean born again? That is about as possible as me climbing back into my mother’s womb.” And so I say now, “what do you mean, as a child? Life moves in one direction, I couldn’t be a child again even if I wanted to. ”

Perhaps we remember Jesus’ response to Nicodemus. “Flesh gives birth to flesh, and spirit gives birth to spirit. It is of the spirit that you must be reborn.” There is a spiritual dynamic that must take place, not a physical one. So it is with Jesus commanding us to receive the kingdom as children. A spiritual dynamic is being hinted at. Like most of Jesus’ teachings, to receive the kingdom as a child is a parable. It is an earthly example with a heavenly meaning. Jesus is not calling us backwards, he is not commanding us to be retrogressive. No, he is calling us forward and upwards. But he says there is something in the life of a child that is essential to the life of faith. There is some element within what it means to be a child that is meant to be a characteristic of genuine spirituality, at whatever age we are. The question is, What is that element? Again, typical of Jesus’ parables, he doesn’t give us the explicit answer. He leaves it to us to wrestle and search for the answer.

So, this week I have been wrestling with this question. I’ve been wondering what essential quality we associate with childhood. Certainly it is more than just a chronological or biological designation. For we might look at a child who has a hard home life and say, Ah, how sad, he is being robbed of his childhood. And we might say of an elderly person, How wonderfully young at heart that person is! When I think of when I was a child, I’ll share with you what I remember. I remember action figures. Hours and hours of action figures. Mighty, epic wars would be fought on the stairs of my house. Loves would be gained and lost, friendships would overcome galactic dictators, spaceships would take off and land on a formica table that doubled as a space station. For other children childhood was dolls, or a pet, or rollerskates or playing and exploring in the woods, some had an invisible, but trustworthy imaginary friend. It was a time of wonder, when what was inside our heads was not totally dissociated from the world around us.

I think of that as childhood, because I remember it ending. It was some afternoon after I raced home from the last day of school. I got out my figures, their vehicles and weapons. As the afternoon stretched out before me I waited for that blessed immersion into the drama before me to begin, but nothing happened. The figures were just little plastic toys, the rocket sounds were just the sound of a child’s voice and my bedroom floor was not some far away planet. So as I put my toys away, I knew then, that even though I still looked like a child on the outside, childhood had in some way ended – or at least that special quality, perhaps even its briefest and most precious quality, had passed and it would not return.

When childhood goes it goes, and it is all too brief. That is why we treasure it so, and why we love to give children toys and opportunities and why we feel it is such a travesty to steal the wonder years from a child. So, what does Jesus mean when he says, “Receive the kingdom of God as a child or not at all?” To me, he is saying, “Receive the kingdom of God with imagination and wonder, or not at all.” I know it is common to interpret Jesus’ words to mean we should be humble or dependent or simple like a child. We get that from Matthew’s account, where the word “humble” appears. Humility, dependency, simplicity may be qualities we see in children, but we may not. Take away imagination, and you’ve taken away childhood.

And so I think it is imagination and wonder that are the spiritual qualities that Jesus is commanding us to receive. I think we might underestimate just how important imagination is to the way we conceive of the world and, consequently, to how we behave in it. If we imagine the world is basically a hostile place, we will perceive other people as threats. We will think they are always competing with us or saying nasty things about us. Probably they are not, of course, but we imagine they are. And so we become defensive and hostile ourselves. But, if we believe that people are intrinsically lovable, then we are likely to be compassionate with them, and seek to make the world a better place than it is now; even if that means sacrifice and challenge.

When Jesus commands us to receive the kingdom of God with imagination, he is calling us to a certain kind of imagination. It is an imagination that is rooted in the faith that Jesus is himself the Lord of the Universe and the Savior of each one of us. This is an article of faith, but it is also an article of imagination. It is imagination that allows us to conceptualize what is not immediately apparent. That “God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, Jesus, so that any who would believe in him would not perish but would have eternal life,” is not apparent to the natural mind. One theologian said, “faith is the enduring ability to imagine reality a certain way.”

To know Jesus in this way is a gift from God. And depending on whether one receives this gift from God, will determine whether one truly sees reality as it is. That is, the gift of faith, the gift of spiritual imagination, will radically change the way we conceive of the world, ourselves and other people – we will see them as God sees them. This is the holy imagination and wonder Jesus is calling us to. And here is the real twist. It is with imagination – that very thing that the secular mind warns us will lead us into what is imaginary, or false or fanciful – that is redeemed by God to lead us into the truth.

To the eyes of unfaith, Jesus was just an historical figure. But the redeemed imagination sees more, it sees who Jesus really is. He is God the Son in human form, walking amongst us to show us what humanity is meant to be. To the eyes of unfaith, Jesus on the cross is a morbid picture of human cruelty and misplaced zeal. But the eyes of faith see what it really is – it is the picture of the death of our sins and the vanquishing of evil. Without faith-fueled imagination, the empty tomb of Easter morning is simply an unsolved mystery. But faith sees more, it sees our own resurrection with Christ, the promise that one day we too will be with him in paradise. The certainty of these revelations is life changing.

Look around you with imagination. This congregation is not just a gathering of people – this is the family of God, it is a representation of the great universal and invisible church of Christ that spans eternity. How lucky we are to be a part of it! A committee meeting is not just a task force – it is Paul and Silas and Chloe and Lydia, fulfilling the great commission of Christ to spread the Good News of the Gospel.

What an awesome calling! This church is not just a religious artifice – no, it is holy ground, where God’s spirit moves amongst those who enter it. How humbly we should enter it! When we look at ourselves words like beloved, saved, empowered, saint, redeemed, holy, commissioned come to mind.

Maybe for you such words are not coming to mind. Maybe you don’t see around you what I have described. Maybe you never have, maybe you haven’t recently. I remind you, to see in this way is a gift from God. James wrote to us earlier, “if any of you lacks wisdom, or cannot perceive in this way, ask of God who gives liberally and without reproach, and it will be given.” Ask God to reveal or re-reveal these things to you, and he will.

When our imaginations are fueled by the Spirit of God, we know we are finally seeing reality as it is. And we can rejoice with the joy of childhood, we can be humble with the humility of a child, we can be dependent on a faithful Father. We are reborn of the Spirit, just as Jesus said we are; and we receive the Kingdom of God as children, or not at all.

Introduction:

We’ve all had this experience. Every one of us has found ourselves in front of the TV a couple of hours after a satisfying and filling supper and seen a commercial – and not just any commercial. You know what I mean: One of those commercials. There it is: a delicious looking triple bacon cheese-burger or maybe a pizza smothered in mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. It could be any sort of food advertisement. Maybe it’s an ad for a Dairy Queen Blizzard or those Cadbury Easter Cream Eggs. All of a sudden you’re hungry – and you didn’t even know it!

No matter how many times we eat enough to fill us up – even to make us feel stuffed! – we always get hungry again. We don’t have the option – we have to eat again. One meal will never do us forever.

Feeding the Crowd:

Well, the crowd that follows Jesus in this story acts just like us when we see the fast food commercials. And what I mean by this will be clear in a few minutes. First note that this crowd of people had followed Jesus because of the signs that he was doing for the sick. And while they were with him, he had fed them – all five thousand of them, not including women and children. He did so with five loaves of bread and two fish. Not only had this been enough – but there were leftovers! Twelve baskets of leftovers! Having followed Jesus on account of the signs he performed, they become witnesses to another sign: the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Our text says in v. 14, “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’” They did see the sign. They knew that Jesus had fed them miraculously. They knew something had happened that was outside the realm of common experience. They knew something was up here. And they responded by recognizing something of who Jesus was. They called Jesus a prophet. The question is: did they really understand Jesus? Did they really understand the importance and meaning of the sign?

We don’t find out until the next part of our passage. It’s the next day, and once the crowd realized that Jesus was gone they went looking for him. What was their reason for looking for Jesus? Why did they want to find him? Perhaps they wanted to confess their faith in him. Or it could be that they wanted to learn more about who he was. Did they want more teaching? Maybe something intangible about Jesus’ character compelled them to seek him.

Jesus, of course, knew exactly why the crowd sought him out. He tells them: “You are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” Wow. They came because he fed them. He had met their physical need. It seems that the memory of the sign had either disappeared, or been rationalized away, or at least faded enough that all they focused on was the result of the sign: food to eat. They came to Jesus again because maybe he would feed them again. Maybe he would satisfy their hunger one more time.

Now, of course, there’s nothing wrong with asking Jesus to meet our physical needs – “Give us this day our daily bread” is our ongoing prayer – and so we shouldn’t downplay the significance and legitimacy of seeking God to meet these needs. And Jesus, we see, does meet those needs – and here he does so in an incredibly miraculous way that demonstrates the providence, power, and graciousness of God!

But you see, while because of the sign they realized that he might be the prophet “who is to come into the world,” like so many others they ended up completely misunderstanding who Jesus is. Like so many others they just didn’t get Jesus. They missed the point entirely.

That the people missed the point is clear when Jesus takes the opportunity to tell about the “food that endures”: the food that gives eternal life. Using the image of food he tells them that he can give them eternal life. The food that they work for is food that perishes. He can keep giving them loaves and fishes, but they will just get hungry again. Nothing he can give can forever satisfy this basic physical hunger – and that is not the need that Jesus is largely interested in meeting. Jesus is essentially saying to them what he said to Satan in wilderness when tempted: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” In this case, the word that comes from God is Jesus himself, the Word made flesh. It is Jesus that gives life and this is what he offers – something infinitely more important than their next meal.

Another Sign? More Manna?

Then the people do the unthinkable. They ask for a sign that they should believe in him. They ask for a sign! Can you believe this? They want more proof that Jesus is the one who can give them eternal life. As one scholar comments, “The crowd’s request is jarring. How can they make such a request immediately after the feeding miracle in which they shared? The crowd does not recognize the sign that has already been enacted before them.”

So while it seems that they did see the sign of the loaves and fishes, they really had no idea of what it meant. The crowd then refers to Moses’ gift of manna, ironic since you might say that they had already received the equivalent of manna: through the loaves and fishes. And if the crowd failed to see the sign in the loaves and fishes, how likely is it that they will recognize another sign? Even if they see a miracle, why should we think they will see a sign?

Now this is why these crowds act just like us when we see fast food commercials: miracles never satisfy; they are the fast food equivalent of spiritual experience: it just breeds desire for more of the same without ever satisfying that desire. That is why the Gospel of John calls them signs – they point us to Jesus, who can satisfy our spiritual hunger. Just as those who drank the miraculous wine at Cana will get thirsty again, those who ate their fill of bread and fish will get hungry again. And, in the same way, it doesn’t matter how many signs you see, you will never be satisfied. You will want another sign – just one more. And the crowd in our story doesn’t come any closer to Jesus because of these signs. “The people’s confession of Jesus as ‘the prophet who is to come into the world’ is therefore ambiguous, because while it is an appropriate confession, it rest on the evidence of signs.”

The True Bread of Life

And when Jesus offers them the true bread from heaven, they think he means some sort of heavenly manna of the kind that Moses gave the Israelites in the wilderness. They say to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” We hear echoes of the woman at the well who didn’t grasp what Jesus meant by “living water.” She was looking for a kind of water that would prevent her from having to return to the well. This crowd is looking for bread from heaven like manna – something to fill their present hunger. They want another sign. And they want something akin to manna in the desert, thinking that this is what Jesus offers. For them receiving this manna would be sign – but would it be the sign? Would it be the sign that would finally point them to Jesus?

So when Jesus offers them bread – the true bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world – the people say to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Again, they don’t really get it. They don’t. They think he means something like the manna Moses gave the Israelites. While the crowd recognizes that the bread Jesus offers is better, they do not realize why it is better.

So Jesus finally delivers the punch line: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” He turns the conversation in a completely different and totally unexpected direction. He redirects their attention, he adjusts their focus. All this time they were focusing on the signs. They had been focusing on the food they had received. Jesus pulls the rug out from under them and says, “Focus on me. Believe in me. Come to me. That is how to get eternal life.” Forget for a moment your present hunger, whether for more food or more miraculous signs, because none of those things will satisfy you. None of those things gives you eternal life. And that’s what matters here. Jesus tells them that they ought to pay attention to eternal matters, and that the only way to do so is to focus on and believe in him. He wants them to take seriously something other than their earthly needs. He invites them – and us – to do this by drawing upon our own experiences of hunger and thirst. Imagine what it would be like never to get hungry again. Imagine what it would be like never to need or desire another drink – imagine being forever satisfied. It is this that Jesus invites the crowds to consider.

What Are You Hungry For?

Once again we see that miracles have little value unless they point us to Jesus. “A basic theological tenet of the fourth Gospel is that a sign alone is not an adequate ground for faith; the believer must come to understand the theological and Christological truths revealed in that sign.” Miracles and signs are there to point us to Christ and have little value unless they draw us to him and deepen our relationship with him.

The crowds wanted another sign. Perhaps they wanted more food. Why are you following Jesus? They wanted more from Jesus rather than more of Jesus. You see, Jesus was not interested in simply feeding the crowd and satisfying their immediate needs – he wasn’t going to give in to their notion of a prophet or king and he wasn’t going to give in to their need for instant gratification. Jesus isn’t there simply to fill our needs. Sometimes we don’t even know what it is that we really need anyway. Sometimes we come to Jesus with desires that he is not there to fulfill. Sometimes people come to Jesus with wrong expectations. What Jesus wants to give us is himself. He is the bread of life. Jesus himself is the gift, not any miracle he can perform.

So the question is: what are you really hungry for? And what am I really hungry for? What are we really hungry for? Are we willing to look past our immediate physical needs to something that is really important, namely, eternal life, real life, everlasting life? We all know what it’s like to feel famished. We all know what it’s like to be thirsty. Jesus is saying that the real hunger and thirst we ought to be focusing on is the hunger and thirst for eternal life, for the truth that is revealed in Jesus, for the righteousness only he can give, for the hope only he offers, for the salvation only he can provide, and for the love that only he makes available. Is this what you want or will you be satisfied with more fast food?

We like winners. Our culture, our country, our society are caught up with the idea of winning. Winning, succeeding, getting ahead, overcoming great obstacles these are the ideals, these are the goals that society places on all people. We can see this as evidenced by our preoccupation with sports. We like to see our team win. We like to follow a winner. Not only in sports, but throughout all of life, we like to see and know about people who have succeeded. We like to read, or watch stories on TV of people who have overcome great mental or physical obstacles, then making a success of their lives. A recent article in ESPN magazine describes the struggles of a high school track star who was involved in a car accident. He was paralyzed from the neck down but through his determination to walk again, he worked himself back to the track and barely a year after the accident, he was running the 100 meter dash with record times.

I wonder if they would have printed the article, if this boy had remained paralyzed from the neck down and then had to live the every day unglamorous struggle of having someone feed him, dress him, and help him in the toilet. I wonder if they would have printed this article showing the frustration, the hurt, and the helplessness that someone who is paralyzed feels. I wonder if they would have told about the pain of isolation, the hurt of rejection, the feeling that society doesn’t like losers only winners? I wonder why we only hear about those who make it back, and not about those who are daily struggling with the brokenness of life? There are many people who live lives of quiet brokenness and frustration, sensing, feeling the strong cultural preoccupation with winning, getting ahead and knowing they have given their all, they have tried, but cannot break out of their individual brokenness and have to live day in and day out with the consequences of this struggle.

A paradox is taking place in their lives. A paradox which says though they are weak in the eyes of society, they are strong in God’s eyes.

Our lessons this morning speak of a paradox. They speak of being strong while being weak.

A statement from 2 Corinthians is a paradox, it says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” How can a person have power when he or she is weak? According to our human standards, this is a paradox.

Jesus lived in the weakness of God and in that weakness he became strong. He lived in the paradox of life. There is a paradox between the demands of our world, and the demands of our God.

Our world calls us to be strong, to succeed, to be upward mobile, but our God calls us to surrender, to be dependent on him, to worry about our neighbor, to treat others with kindness, humility and honesty.

Yes, this a paradox that has been around for a long, long time.

Jesus was a paradox to the people in his time.

His life style, his birth, his death was a paradoxical statement of how God’s power would be manifested on this earth. Jesus himself appeared weak to many of his contemporaries. They were expecting a kind of Superman. They anticipated spectacular signs and unmistakable evidence of his divinity. They saw only a carpenter’s son, a local boy, a prophet without honor. Our text says this of the people: “Where did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to him? What mighty works are wrought by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?”

Our text says: Yet all the power of God came to expression in that “weakness”. The weakness of God proved mightier than the strength of men. Jesus didn’t fit the image people had of the Messiah. They expected a mighty king after the fashion of King David. A man who would lead a mighty army, a man who would make this small nation of Israel strong and powerful. A leader who would defeat the Romans.

But they got a babe born in a stable, a carpenter’s son who for approximately 30 years didn’t even make a stir among the people. When Jesus did finally go about his ministry, he walked, he lived with outcasts, he ate with sinners; he made enemies of the priests and the rulers.

His closest followers were a band of twelve men who were uneducated fishermen or tax collectors. He was followed by all manners of sinners, religious radicals, and even women. He didn’t say anything to the Romans but talked to the house of Israel. He healed people, he forgave sins, he made wine, he calmed the sea.

He talked about the love the Father had for his children, and he said he was the Son of God. Jesus died because he didn’t fit the expectation and did not have the value system the people of Israel expected. Jesus came as a servant to people. He came to show that God didn’t want people of superhuman ability, but he wanted people who would believe in God’s power for their lives. He showed that God wanted people who would live in this paradox. He showed that when you are weak, believing in God and not self, then you are really strong.

Jesus lived the ultimate paradox.

Paul says: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

If we are true to ourselves, we must admit that we struggle with this paradox. We want to succeed and better ourselves despite the fact that we are at our best in our weakest moments. While God does reach out to us in our moments of joy and happiness, it is in our weakest moments – when we have sinned, when we are grieving, when we are tossed about by the circumstances of life that God works the greatest things in our lives.

In our weakness moments, God’s grace is sufficient for us.

In my life I have seen the power of God to work in my weakness. I have made mistakes that I have come to regret and some of those mistakes have had some long-term impacts on my life. I wonder what good can come out of them but then God shares grace and through my weakness, God shines through. God uses my weaknesses and my mistakes to help others.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Six -year-old Brandon decided one Saturday morning to fix his parents pancakes He found a big bowl and spoon, pulled a chair to the counter, opened the cupboard and pulled out the heavy flour canister, spilling it on the floor. He scooped some of the flour into the bowl with his hands, mixed in most of a cup of milk and added some sugar, leaving a floury trail on the floor which by now had a few tracks left by his kitten. Brandon was covered with flour and getting frustrated. He wanted this to be something very good for Mom and Dad, but it was getting very bad. He didn’t know what to do next, whether to put it all into the oven or on the stove and he didn’t know how the stove worked! Suddenly he saw his kitten licking from the bowl of mix and reached to push her away, knocking the egg carton to the floor. Frantically he tried to clean up this monumental mess but slipped on the eggs, getting his pajamas white and sticky. And just then he saw Dad standing at the door big crocodile tears welled up in Brandon’s eyes. All he’d wanted to do was something good, but he’d made a terrible mess. He was sure a scolding was coming, maybe even a spanking. But his father just watched him. Then, walking through the mess, he picked up his crying son, hugged him and loved him, getting his own pajamas white and sticky in the process!

That’s how God deals with us. We try to do something good in life, but it turns into a mess. Our marriage gets all sticky or we insult a friend, or we can’t stand our job, or our health goes sour.

Sometimes we just stand there in tears because we can’t think of anything else to do. That’s when God picks us up and loves us and forgives us, even though some of our mess gets all over Him.

But just because we might mess up, we can’t stop trying to “make pancakes” for God or for others. Sooner or later we’ll get it right, and then they’ll be glad we tried…

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Make some pancakes.