The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.
When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
John 6:22-27 (NIV)
I guess you could excuse the people for being a little bit mystified the morning after the feeding of the 5000. They had distinctly seen Jesus’ disciples get into the only boat in sight without Him and head across the Sea of Galilee. And, just as distinctly, they had seen Jesus head up the hill just as night was falling, for what they assumed was some time alone to pray.
But at first light the next morning, there was no sign of Jesus anywhere! They apparently searched the whole area, probably being driven to look all the more intently because it was breakfast time, and they had no more food with them than they had had at dinner time the day before. It would be really convenient if they could find Jesus and have Him whip up another meal for them out of thin air!
But no matter how hard they looked, they couldn’t find Him. Of course, the last thing that any of them would have imagined was that Jesus had simply marched straight across the water to catch up to His disciples. But it was no more likely to them that He had decided to set off on foot around the lake – a trek of several miles in the dark! So they eventually came to the conclusion that He had somehow gotten a boat to take Him across to Capernaum, His home base, without their noticing.
Just then, as luck would have it, several boats from Tiberias showed up, and as many of the people who could fit into the boats crammed into them to see if they could chase Him down.
They finally did find Jesus in the synagogue at Capernaum (verse 59), teaching there as He often did. They were still mystified and, as usual, about the wrong thing: “When did you get here?” “We didn’t see you leave – how did you beat us back here to Capernaum?”
Jesus’ answer hit the nail right on the head: “You are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” In other words, the people only cared that Jesus had multiplied the loaves and fishes because it happened to meet a need that they had at the time; they didn’t receive it as a sign from God that pointed to Jesus’ actual identity as the Son of God in the flesh. It was the same reason that they had wanted Him to be their king the day before: They wanted to be free of the Romans and free from Herod, and they figured that with Jesus as their king, they would always have a ready supply of bread and never have to worry about famines ever again.
But Jesus isn’t interested in people who want to use Him to meet their own needs. All of the needs that He did meet while on earth were not simply for the comfort and blessing of the people He healed, or who He raised from the dead; they were all signs that were designed to turn the hearts of the people to the God who Had sent Him as His emissary, so that they could enter the kingdom of heaven through Him.
We have the same problem today: People still come to Jesus for their own benefit. And it’s not actually their fault – we actually sell Jesus to them like that. It’s almost like an 1800’s snake oil salesman: “Is your marriage in trouble? You need Jesus! Just accept Jesus, and He’ll put your marriage back together. Are your finances out of control? Is debt eating you up? You need Jesus! Just accept Jesus, and He’ll make your finances work out. Are your kids out of control? You need Jesus! Just accept Jesus, and He’ll make your kids behave better. (And, even if they don’t, He’ll make it so that it doesn’t bother you as much!)”
The problem with that is that Jesus didn’t come to fix our marriages, or our finances, or our kids. He came because without Him we were all going to end up spending eternity in hell. He didn’t come to make us comfortable, but to make us into new creations so that we could become powerful witnesses of His love and grace to a sin-torn world. Sure, if you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, let Him change your heart, and follow His commands, a lot of things in your life will probably get better, but that is just a side effect of YOUR experiencing a major change in your life, your heart, and your priorities.
Jesus did His best to get these people to stop looking at the material world so hard, and to focus instead on what God wanted them to do. To stop focusing on the blessings that they might be able to receive from God (like the bread that they had eaten across the lake), but to focus instead on the bread that they could only get from God, the real spiritual food that is the natural results of doing exactly what God wants them to do: producing the fruit of the kingdom. Just like Jesus had told His disciples at the Samaritan well: “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” He then went on to explain, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” (John 4:32-35 NIV)
In the end, I think that it’s safe to say that, if you are following Jesus simply for what you can get from Him, you will probably spend a lot of your time mystified, because a lot of the time you won’t be able to find Him. He isn’t going to be hanging around you waiting for your command like a genie in a bottle. But if you will sign on to work with Jesus, to let Him call the shots in your life, to mess with your schedules and routines and agendas, you will find that Jesus actually comes to you in the most unlikely places, even walking across the water, if that’s what it takes. And when you are together, working in partnership with Him to produce the fruit of the kingdom, you will end up in a lot of unlikely places, hang out with a lot of unlikely people, and experience God’s provision and His sustenance in ways you never dreamed!