Are You Part of the Crowd?© by Holly Younghans (Oct 2022)

In the Gospel according to John, Jesus makes - as I count them - twelve “I Am” statements about himself. I will not explore all twelve in this post, though I will list them here should you care to delve more deeply on your own. They are:

John 4:26 “I am he.” Jesus confirms to the Samaritan woman at the well that he is in fact Messiah who is to come.

John 6:35 “I am the bread of life.” He repeats the same statement twice more in verses 48 and 51.

John 8:12 “I am the light of the world.”

John 8:58 “I AM.” In using this name, Jesus declares himself to be God as it is the name God gives for himself when speaking to Moses in Exodus 3:14.

John 10:7 “I am the gate.” He repeats this again in verse 9.

John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd.” He repeats this in verse 14.

John 10:36 “I am God’s Son.”

John 11:25 “I am the resurrection and the life.”

John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

John 15:1 “I am the true vine.” He repeats this name in verse 5.

John 18:5 “I am he,” meaning he is Jesus of Nazareth. While this is not a divine name, it is meaningful when included in this list. The man, Jesus of Nazareth, is also all these other names. He repeats his self-identification in verse 8.

John 18:37 “I am a king.” Jesus confirms what Pilate has said about him.

I want to focus on the second statement in the list above where Jesus declares himself the “bread of life.” Actually, I don’t want to focus on the “I am” statement at all, but on another part of the story wherein Jesus makes the statement.

The context for this self-declaration is the little miracle of feeding a “great crowd” with five loaves and two fish. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this same miracle and let us know that the great crowd consisted of about 5,000 men plus women and children. This was no small sign of his power and divinity!

The very next day, the people who had been fed by Jesus discover that he is no longer among them but cannot figure out where he went. They hop into some boats and go in search of Jesus, finding him in Capernaum on the other side of the lake. When they find him, they ask, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” What follows is this little exchange, paraphrased by me:

Jesus: “Ha! You are only looking for me because I filled your bellies yesterday, not because of the miracle I did right in front of your very eyes. Listen up: don’t focus on food that spoils but rather focus on food that has eternal staying power, which” – and I quote Jesus explicitly – ‘the Son of Man will give you.’”

Crowd: Missing that whole point, they ask, “What works must we do to meet God’s requirements?”

Jesus: Going along with their question, he tells them they must “believe in the one God has sent.”

Crowd: “Hmmm… Well, what miraculous sign will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna sent from Heaven while they were traipsing around in the desert. In fact, our scriptures say that ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

Of course, the text does not tell us, but I can easily imagine Jesus just shaking his head and sighing and/or smacking his palm into his forehead. The conversation continues:

Jesus: Presumably, the “he” in their prior comment implies they credited Moses with this provision because Jesus clarifies, “Ummm, it isn’t Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is HE who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (Emphasis mine). Notice his use of the present tense versus their recollection of the past.

Crowd: They are all over this idea of dining on the “true bread of heaven,” but still utterly missing the point as they say, “Give us this bread from now on!” Clearly they missed both the present tense and the pronoun Jesus uses in the prior statement.

Jesus: Finally making the point as clear as he can says, “I AM the bread of life!” “It’s ME, you guys! Come to ME and you’ll never be hungry. Believe in MEand you’ll never be thirsty… everyone who comes to ME and believes is going to have eternal life.” (All caps mine)

Well, the conversation continues and gets more complicated from there, but I want to focus on the first part of the exchange, where the crowd asks Jesus, “What miraculous sign will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?” What??? Now I’M smacking my head! Are you kidding? How could they be demanding another sign after witnessing such an enormous one the day before? And, where was their gratitude for having their bellies filled in the first place? Nope, they just hop in some boats, hunt down Jesus and, essentially, demand the groovy new bread from heaven that will make them never go hungry again.

But Jesus knew what was in their hearts, even if they didn’t, or wouldn’t, admit it.

And as I considered this demand for a another miraculous sign, which apparently they would THEN see and so THEN believe, I wrote in my Bible margin, ‘what more does it take, how much more do we need?’

And I was convicted: I have too often been a part of the crowd.

God blesses me with an untold number of things in a thousand ways, sometimes large, but mostly small, calling me to notice them and him. To cultivate an attitude of gratitude through intentional recognition of all that is right in front of me and Who provided it. I also have been guilty of demanding the kind of sign that I define as “proof” of who God says he is or how much he cares. I think I am not alone in this.

Are you a part the crowd?

The crowd in the narrative above was filled up, full, but they wanted more, thank you very much. Where did he go? We’ve got to find him! What hoops do we have to jump through to get the reward? Come on! Show us a “real” sign that we can see and then we will believe you! Translation: it’s not a miracle and you’re not the Messiah until we say you are. They missed the message and the Man right in front of them because it and he did not fit what they wanted.

Sound familiar?

Are you a part of the crowd that pushed and shoved to be near Jesus not because of faith in who he was but because of the next trick he might do, the next gift of healing he might dole out, the next remarkable thing he might say to tick off the religious leaders? Are you a part of the crowed that turned away from following him when what he said got too tough to do or accept? Are you a part of the crowd that celebrated Jesus one day and killed him on another? Are you a part of the crowd that rejects Jesus as Messiah because he doesn’t fit your methods and messaging?

Are you and I a part of the crowd that celebrates and praises him on Sunday and ignores him the rest of the week in ways large and small? Do we proudly proclaim we are “Christians” on our Facebook profiles then post all manner of things that do nothing to advance the kingdom of God or bring him glory, or, at least, do not damage his reputation? Are we a part of the crowd that says some words about believing but has a faith that James would declare “dead”? Are we part of the lukewarm crowd that Jesus wants to spit out of his mouth? Are we a part of the crowd that does the Kingdom of God more harm than good? Are we a part of the judgmental, hypocritical, homophobic, xenophobic, isolationist, sacrosanct goody-two-shoes crowd that turns people away from the loving grace of Jesus? Are we a part of the crowd that defends our religious differences to the death of the unity of The Church?

I know I battle a desire to be a part of the crowd that doesn’t suffer or struggle too much in this life, even for Jesus. I know I intellectually reject the concept of a prosperity gospel but too often harbor a wish to be a part of that crowd of prosperous Christians who have money to give away to all manner of ministries and still have plenty left over. I am guilty of being in the crowd that demands the wrong kind of more.

Are you a part of that crowd?

But, despite my missteps as a follower of Jesus, I also know I am a part of the crowd that seeks to learn and grow and persevere in becoming more like Jesus. I am a part of the crowd that confesses my failures as the Spirit reveals them to me. I am a part of the crowd that sings “more love, more power, more of you in my life.” And I am a part of the crowd who truly wants to be a practical and meaningful contributor to living out the kingdom of God here and now.

I know, though I have not yet been tested unto death, that despite my unbelief along life’s way, that I will be a part of the crowd who never renounces Jesus. I believe in who Jesus is and why he came and that I am his child, a friend of God, and a princess in the Kingdom to come. I know that I will be in the crowd that one day enters in on his right. I know I will one day be a part of the crowd that lays at his feet whatever meager or major rewards I may earn in this life

and shout Holy! Holy! Holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come! I know that I will be a part of the crowd who will rule and reign with him, in some capacity, in the world to come.

Sometimes I find myself hanging with the wrong crowd when I act like those who were full and demanded more, like those who were given a most amazing sign yet looked right past it and demanded something else. The Spirit seeks to lead me out of that crowd and into a better one and I am grateful for his care and patience. I certainly have a tendency to wander back into the wrong crowd more often than I should or like.

There are many lessons to be learned from this story in the Gospel of John. I have only touched on one that spoke to me today and felt led to share it with others.

So, I leave you with this question: what crowd do you find yourself in more often than not? Depending on your answer, you might, like me, need to reevaluate the “company” you keep.