Work that isn't work?

     Our second week of bread texts takes us further into John 6.  We skip a few verses and get a section from verse 24-35, getting a section about the Israelite history: manna in the desert.  The crowd, who had just been fed to being satisfied, continued looking for Jesus.  Jesus again sees that their hunger is not just a physical hunger, but a hunger for something more existential.  And he names it right out:
        Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate
        your fill of the loaves.  Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for
        eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.
I find this an incredibly interesting statement - we are supposed to work for something which the Son of Man will give?  Isn't this a little contradictory?  Working for a gift?
     In a church that so fiercely stands by grace alone (that is, God's forgiveness, mercy, and love given freely, without any works on our part) what do we do with a statement like Jesus'?  But then Jesus saves us, once again.  For his answer gives it away:

This is the work of God: that you believe in him whom he has sent.

     Believing in Jesus, the one whom God sent, is the work that endures for eternal life.  John' gospel emphasizes belief, trust, and salvation, all of which are synonymous in these chapters.  After pondering this for many years, I have come to wonder if the real work is actually believing that we don't have to work at all.
     Yesterday we heard about the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000.  I stated that the real miracle is in the sitting and being together - with each other and with Jesus.  That was again a case in which we didn't have to do anything but clear the schedule for a little down time.  Jesus does the work in us, if we believe and make room for him.
     Work that isn't work?  Well, if that's all it takes I will work hard at not working, a thing more difficult than you would think.  But it is only this work that isn't work that lasts for eternal life - love, mercy, forgiveness, grace.  These are things that cannot be earned, bargained for, or attained by any other means other than the goodness of the person giving them.  So it is with Christ.
     He is the giver.  The Spirit works in each of us to help us actually believe that Christ works for us, so that the work we do isn't actually work at all, but is simply being.  Believing that God loves us, knowing that Christ died for us, trusting that the Spirit helps us.  Work that isn't work?  Sign me up.