THE SEAL OF APPROVAL

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?”

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for Me, not because you saw the signs I performed 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. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”

Then they asked Him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.”

John 6:25-29

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

When I was growing up, I remember watching commercials that claimed products had the “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval”. The message conveyed by attaching this credential was that the product had been tested and deemed superior in quality to let’s say other products who had not gained the “Seal”. A consumer could thus purchase the item with relative assurance and confidence they would get their money’s worth out of it.

As we see in today’s scripture passage from John’s Gospel, we see Jesus talking about a “Seal of Approval” that had nothing to do with Good Housekeeping or anything else in this world. For the “seal” is talking about is not of this world but rather from the One who created it. Look again at the words of our Savior here:

When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?”

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for Me, not because you saw the signs I performed 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. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”

Then they asked Him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.” John 6:25-29

Before we dig into this passage, I think it’s important to note what has occurred before it as it will bring more clarity to the situation and what Jesus is talking about.

As John, Chapter 6 opens, we find Jesus and His disciples in a dilemma. There were 5,000 people who had followed Jesus and His disciples after they had seen Jesus heal the sick. As Jesus sat with His chosen twelve, He queried them as to how they were going to feed such a large crowd, a dilemma the disciples had no solution for.

You’ll remember that Jesus had the crowd sit down as He took five loaves of barley bread and two small fish, gave thanks to God, and then directed the disciples to distribute to the people gathered. Much to the amazement of everyone, not only did everyone get fed but there were leftovers, twelve baskets full!

It was an absolutely incredible miracle that could only have pulled off by Jesus.

When nightfall came, the disciples got in their boat and started to cross the Sea of Galilee, headed for Capernaum. On the way, a terrible storm came and the waters grew rough. Scripture tells us Jesus’ followers were three to four miles from shore when they saw Jesus coming to them, walking on the water. The Twelve were terrified but Jesus reassured them as He got into the boat and remained with them until they reached the shore.

The next day, the crowd of 5,000 awoke to find that Jesus and His followers had departed their company, and so they got into their own boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus. As they reach their destination, we see in today’s passage that they do locate Him and ask a simple question:

“Rabbi, when did You get here?”

Note that Jesus doesn’t even address their question but rather their motive for seeking Him. Knowing their hearts, He knew they had sought Him for nothing more than another meal. After all, He had fed them once; surely He would do it again, right?

Indeed, Jesus knew the people needed fed but not the kind of food they were seeking, not any kind of food that you would ever find at a market. He conveys this by saying:

“Very truly I tell you, you are looking for Me, not because you saw the signs I performed 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. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”

Essentially, Jesus was saying that the people who tracked Him down could focus on worldly food but that food would surely spoil. I’m sure many of the people could relate to this happening to food they may have seen go bad before. Rather than opt for this, Jesus commanded the people to seek food that endures and never perish, spiritual food that would lead to eternal life.

Where could the people get such food?

From the same One who fed them before, the same Jesus who provided an abundant meal from meager resources.

Why was Jesus the source of this food?

Because God - the Father of all, including Jesus - had placed His seal of approval on His Son. No one else had received this except Jesus.

Well, armed with this proclamation from Jesus, the crowd of people who had traveled across the Sea of Galilee to find Him had one final question:

“What must we do to do the works God requires?”

In other words, Jesus had told them to work for the food that wouldn’t spoil, the food that would endure to eternal life. The people naturally then wanted to know what work they needed to do to get that food, to which Jesus responded:

“The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.”

That’s it. That’s all that the people needed to do and one would argue it would be the easiest work they would ever take on to get the greatest payoff ever.

All anyone had to do then (and now) is to believe in Jesus, the One God sent to save the world out of love, and they would acquire the everlasting food that would never go bad, ever.

Indeed, anyone who places their belief in Jesus as Savior will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16) and at judgment day, they will all have a seal of approval themselves, a seal that simply says to God that their sins have been covered by the One who He gave the Seal of Approval to in order to bring salvation to all mankind.

Thanks be to God for the incredible gift of His Son Jesus!

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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