Hot on the heels of the miraculous feeding of the 5000 by The Lord Jesus, a search party is quickly convened to locate Him because the people realised that something significant had just taken place – John 6:14
When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

So the very next day they decide to organise a search for Jesus – John 6:22 – 24
On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.

They worked hard to locate Him. They engaged in some serious detective work to identify The Lord’s whereabouts. They persevered in their efforts to find Him as can be seen in the verses above. They were tenacious and refused to give up until they finally located Him.

They figured out where Jesus could be after some deductive analysis and eventually tracked him down but they couldn’t quite figure out how he made it across the sea when there was only one boat and he had definitely not boarded it. This was an enigma, a conundrum for them. So, when they finally found Him the burning question for them was, “How?” “How in the world did you make it across the sea unnoticed and without a boat?” They were puzzled, perplexed and probably slightly perturbed too. 

John 6:25    When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”

Jesus did not even bother to answer their question – the answer would have blown their minds anyway and the sign wasted on them: He had just walked on water. The Lord completely evades their question. He was not even sidestepping or tiptoeing around it but brushes it completely aside as irrelevant. Almost inconsequential.

It was their heart’s motive that The Lord clearly saw as consequential and sought to address with immediate effect – as a matter of first priority.  The Lord was more concerned about the reason why they were seeking Him. The why of their action was as important as – if not more than, the what.

The Lord Jesus went straight to the heart of the matter – which was their heart – summarily bypassing – or rather completely ignoring – their enquiry about how He made it to where He was. He did not have time or patience for niceties and formalities but went straight to what mattered most which was the state of their hearts. The Lord Jesus Christ was forthright, direct, brutal and most certainly undiplomatic in addressing the state of their hearts. Their motives for seeking Him were totally wrong and misplaced hence His desire to address that as the principal driving force for their actions.

While what they did seemed highly commendable, the reason why they did it was absolutely not. It was wrong and the Lord did not waste any time in letting them know that their motives for seeking Him were wide of the mark and pretty much disqualified them and the hard work they put in. All the effort they invested and the work they put in was worthless in the eyes of The Lord because their hearts were not in the right place – they were not doing it for the right reasons. What seemed to drive them was the material gain they’d received from Him. They were driven by their bellies.

He went straight into addressing their motives for seeking Him so diligently. They were never really interested in Him for who He was but for what He could provide them with. That, had to be addressed upfront, from the get-go. There was no other way around it. Their misguided motivation needed to be corrected from the beginning, failing which they’d end up in self-deception.

According to Jesus there were two distinct scenarios for which people seek Him – either because they saw the sign pointing to Him or, they were just physically satiated, and these men were only there for their base needs.

John 6:26    Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

The heart must be in the right place for the action – however noble – to be commended.

They were probably expecting to be commended for seeking and finding Him but it definitely wasn’t a commendation they received from the Lord but a brutal rebuttal. He did not even as much as acknowledge their efforts, the great lengths they went to find Him. Jesus neither commended them for their efforts nor was He sidetracked by the expression of their apparent interest.

They doggedly sought Jesus as a result of the sign that He performed – but for absolutely the wrong reason. That was unacceptable to The Lord. He helped them identify the condition of their hearts before bringing them to the solution. He did not just leave them with the diagnosis of but offered the ultimate and full proof remedy… John 6:27          Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

His advice to them was that if they’re going to work for food as they did, they had better labour for the food that endures to eternal life which He alone could give them as The Bread of life –the higher life God created humans for that far exceeds and surpasses that which is temporal and perishable. These people were seriously misguided in their pursuit of Him. They sought the Lord for temporal gain or satisfaction only not realising that He was incomparably more than that – the Bread of life itself.

At the centre of the Christian life is the unmistakable person of Jesus Christ.
He is Christianity’s irreplaceable central figure.
Christianity is nothing and unthinkable without Him at its centre.

Every now and again, it is necessary to examine our heart’s motives in light of the truth of scripture.

What drives our seeking of the Lord?
Are our lives centred on the person of Christ?
Is He truly our cornerstone?

1 Peter 2:6
For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”