John 6:30-31 30So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, so that we may see and believe you? What work do you do? 31Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
The assumption from verse 30 is that they of verse 30 includes those who received free bread and fish across the lake and had followed Jesus to the area around Capernaum. These are the same people who have been in dialogue with him in the previous verses. Their repeated comment about work suggests their slow faith and the problem with their presuppositions. Had they somehow been clueless across the lake, so into the materialism of bread and fish that they could not see the miraculous? Was it not enough that over five thousand people were fed with just a few fish and barley loaves? Yet, this group of people wanted more and wanted some proof of what Jesus was talking about. The reader should be flabbergasted at the audacity of these people, which may be why John records the details of this dialogue. He wants the skeptical reader to realize that the proof is already there for all that Jesus claimed about himself. No more revelation was needed, but since people were slow to believe, John continues the story and his Gospel with more “signs.”
Like the people of Israel, these people grumbled and wanted more. Their unbelief and unwillingness to change are evident in their questions in verse 30. They were asking Jesus for more work (ergazē), which refers to something he would do. He had been doing works never before seen yet they still wanted more. The miracles were right before them, but they could not see. Their response to their own question in verse 31 shows that they had some understanding of the miracle of the loaves and fish but wanted more.
They were like ancient Israel in the desert who complained about the blessings God had provided for them. They never went hungry for forty years in the desert, yet they were not satisfied with the miracle of manna. The crowd in Capernaum condemned themselves by bringing up the example from Israel. They wanted bread from heaven, but they did not know what they were asking because the bread was right before them in the person of Jesus. There are a lot of modern “desert Israelites” today who deny the miracles right before them or recorded throughout history. The core requirement is faith, which comes from a repentant and sincere heart. Both ancient Israel and the crowd confronting Jesus missed the whole point of God’s miracles. Miracles are not to boost up our pride but to humble us in faith.
For older posts, click here.