Who is this one who is coming (ho erchomenos) into the world?

I noticed something reading through the Gospel of John this weekend. In John 6, after Jesus performs the miraculous multiplication of the fish and the loaves, the crowd is thrown into a messianic fervor. Upon realizing that he had performed a great miracle, they proclaimed,

“Truly this is the prophet who is coming into the world!” [Houtos estin alēthōs ho prophētēs ho erchomenos eis ton kosmon] (Jn 6:14)

Jesus realizes they want to take him by force to make him king and slips away.

This reminds me of another seemingly similar (but very different) confession in John. After the death of Lazarus, Martha comes to Jesus to speak with him. Here is their dialogue:

Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you."
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:21-26)

And Martha’s response is what I thought of when I read the words of the crowd. She says,

"Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world." [Nai, Kurie, egō pepisteuka hoti su ei ho Christos ho huios tou theou ho eis ton kosmon erchomenos] (11:27)

Both the similarities and the differences are interesting. Both the crowd and Martha say that Jesus is “coming into the world” (crowd: ho erchomenos eis ton kosmon; Martha: ho eis ton kosmon erchomenos). This is a prevalent theme in John (cf. 1:9; 3:17, 19; 10:36; 12:46; 16:28; 17:18; 18:37).

But the differences between the crowd and Martha stand in sharp contrast.

First of all, in the verses themselves, the crowd identifies Jesus as “the prophet” whereas Martha identifies Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of God.” We need a book to unpack the differences between those two. And, while Jesus is priest, prophet, and king, the title of “the prophet” is not a sufficient designation, as we see in Matthew 16:13-16 (note that Peter there confesses the same words that Martha does here in John).

Secondly, the confession of the crowd comes after the sign of the multiplication of the loaves while Martha’s confession precedes the resurrection of Lazarus.

But the sharpest contrast can be seen in the faith of the crowd and the faith of Martha. Jesus had escaped the messianic fervor of the crowd and crossed the sea with the disciples (I think you had just better read this story in John 6). The crowd wants its fleshly passions satisfied (cf. 6:26). Jesus then invites them to something greater:

Do not labor [ergazesthe mē] for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you; for on him has God the Father set his seal."
Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works [ergazōmetha ta erga] of God?"
Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."
So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see, and believe you? What work do you perform? [ti ergaze] (6:27-30).

What does Jesus want here? The work of faith—yet they first want him to do another work. They want the earthly bread but he wants to give them the Bread of Life—his flesh and blood. When he will not and speaks to them about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, many of them go their own way. They do not have the faith, the work that Christ wants from them and so they scatter.

But some do not. When asked if the disciples also “take offense [skandalizei],” Peter answers, “… we have believed [pepisteukamen], and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." Similarly did Martha answer before Lazarus was raised: “I have believed [egō pepisteuka] …” But the Apostles and Martha do not believe in order to get something out of the Lord, but because of the endurance of their faith having begun in the past and continuing to the present moment, as you will notice the perfect tenses of the verb “I believe” (present: pisteuō). Peter and Martha both have the type of perfected faith that does not fly away with the painful moment.

So this is what the one who is coming into the world is looking for. He comes to do the will of the Father and return to the Father. And when he comes again, will he find faith on earth (Luke 18:8)? Or will his disciples be scandalized when things get tough? He will find it if he comes when we are still around, so let us say with Peter and Martha, pepisteukamen!