'Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the
works of God? 29. Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work
of God, that ye, believe on Him whom He hath sent.'—JOHN vi. 28, 29.
The feeding of the five thousand was the most 'popular' of Christ's
miracles. The Evangelist tells us, with something between a smile and a
sigh, that 'when the people saw it, they said, This is of a truth that
Prophet that should come into the world,' and they were so delighted
with Him and with it, that they wanted to get up an insurrection on the
spot, and make a King of Him. I wonder if there are any of that sort of
people left. If two men were to come into Manchester to-morrow morning,
and one of them were to offer material good, and the other wisdom and
peace of heart, which of them, do you think, would have the larger
following? We need not cast a stone at the unblushing, frank admiration
that these men had for a Prophet who could feed them, for that is
exactly the sort of prophet that a great number of us would like best
if they spoke out.
So Jesus Christ had to escape from the inconvenient enthusiasm of these
mistaken admirers of His; and they followed Him in their eagerness, but
were met with words which lift them into another region and damp their
zeal. He tries to turn away their thoughts from the miracle to a far
loftier gift. He contrasts the trouble which they willingly took in
order to get a meal with their indifference as to obtaining the true
bread from heaven, and He bids them work for it just as they had shown
themselves ready to work for the other.
They put to Him this question of my text, so strangely blending as it
does right and wrong, 'You have bid us work; tell us how to work? What
must we do that we may work the works of God?' Christ answers, in words
that illuminate their confusions and clear the whole matter, 'This is
the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.'