Prove it with bread
Friday, September 29, 2017
John 6:26
Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
Give guys freeness and they will keep coming after you for more. So, having been fed lavishly, and unexpectedly, and freely! The people searched earnestly and intently for Jesus.
This time Jesus confronts them on the real motivation they had for searching for Him. From their perspective they missed the point he was trying to make. They were focused on physical hunger and the satisfaction of physical and present needs. Jesus was pointing to a longer view of life.
Verse 26 is the statement on which this entire section of the narrative turns, John 6:22-40. Jesus, in verse 26, is making the point that what He did when he made one little boy’s packed lunch feed 5,000 men and left 12 baskets full of left-overs, was not really about food. In fact, it wasn’t about food at all. Everything that Jesus says or does has relevance for today and then for eternity. He fed the men who had come out to hear him because they were naturally hungry having come all the way out there. But He also fed them because they were spiritually hungry.
They took the physical food but missed the spiritual lesson. Jesus is now saying to them that they should see the signs and not just eat the food.
As the discussion goes on they begin to demand a sign from Jesus, “Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do?” Jesus had already given them a sign, but they kept demanding a sign because for them, all they got was a full belly.
So they demanded more of Him and started to compare Jesus with Moses, carrying on about the bread that was provided in the desert. “Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
In other words, Jesus, if you claim to be the Messiah – prove it with bread!!! Jesus was always being challenged to prove himself with bread. Early on, after Jesus had fasted in the wilderness for 40 days and night, Satan came with the same thing; Luke 4:4 records it this way, – And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus replied then that, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’” So He is essentially saying the same thing to this crowd following Him, and He is saying the same thing to us today.
And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” Jesus makes the point that if you just keep asking for bread all of the time you are missing the point. You want bread but I am bread.
We cannot dispute that bread sustains life, but the question then becomes, “what is life?” The answer is that life is more than physical existence. Real life is relationship with God, and that comes through Jesus Christ – without Jesus there is no life! Jesus is essential for life.
A godly perspective takes a longer view of life and does not get consumed with living for this life alone. Not living for the here and now alone.
We know enough to know that there are several hungers that cannot be met with physical bread. For example, the hunger for truth, the hunger for life, and the hunger for love. The true hungers and needs of the human heart and soul are satisfied by Christ alone, not by a slice or loaf; even if that slice was miraculously multiplied from a boy’s lunch.
Think on these things:
- Are all of your prayers about the here and now and the satisfying of your immediate and near-term needs?
- Jesus urges a longer view of life that involves the satisfaction of longer term spiritual needs. How do you ensure that those needs are being met?
- Do you get distracted by the things, and opportunities, that God has given you and lose focus on the Giver himself?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would learn to “seek the giver not the gift” so that our heart’s desire would be “to lift Him high and to bring Him pleasure.” (Listen to Ron Kenoly – I bow my knee – on the album Majesty)
In His Grace
Pastor Alex