Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to John · About this commentary
The Work of God
John 6:22-29
22 On the next day, the multitude that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except the one in which his disciples had embarked, and that Jesus hadn’t entered with his disciples into the boat, but his disciples had gone away alone. · WEB
They sail across the lake to find him and are told exactly why they came.
When the multitude therefore saw that Jesus wasn't there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus John 6:24.
The writer takes three verses to explain the logistics — no other boat, the disciples gone alone, boats arriving from Tiberias — which is the kind of working-out a man does when he was there and remembers the confusion. What matters is that a crowd chartered transport and crossed a lake to find him.
"Rabbi, when did you come here?" John 6:25. Their question is about logistics too, and it is never answered.
"Most certainly I tell you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled" John 6:26.
The answer goes past the question to the motive, and the distinction it draws is precise. They had seen a sign; they had not seen it. A sign is something done that means something, and they had taken the meal and missed the meaning.
And he says the true thing rather than the flattering one, to a crowd that has just gone to considerable trouble to find him. Enthusiasm of that size is not treated as evidence of anything.
"Don't work for the food which perishes, but for the food which remains to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you" John 6:27.
Two kinds of food and the contrast is durability. Yesterday's bread was real and it is gone; the crowd is hungry again, which is why they are here. The whole chapter turns on that observation.
And the verb is give. It is the only thing in the sentence that is not worked for.
"For God the Father has sealed him." A seal is a mark of ownership and authentication, and the image will return when the works are called the Father's testimony.
"What must we do, that we may work the works of God?" John 6:28.
The question is the most natural one in the world and it is the wrong shape. They have heard work and gone straight to a list — tell us the requirements. Plural works, and they expect a program.
"This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent" John 6:29.
The answer keeps their word and reduces it to one. Singular work, and it is not a task performed for God but a work of God — which is the same ambiguity the chapter will make explicit later: no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him John 6:44.
The sentence is also the closest this Gospel comes to a definition of faith, and it is worth holding against everything the book says about doing. Believing is not offered as an alternative to obedience; it is named as the thing obedience begins with, and the one thing that cannot be got out of the way first.
settled What this mark means