Instruction
Scripture: John6:35-51
This reading is a portion of a conversation Jesus had after
He miraculously fed five-thousand men (and likely their families). They hoped
that He would continue to feed them, which led to Jesus warning them to seek
heavenly food from Him, not earthly food. In this passage Jesus once again
identifies Himself as the bread of life and warns His hearers that no one can
come to Him or His Father unless God draws that person. He also tells His
hearers that He is there to give eternal life to those who believe in Him.
This reading is challenging. Jesus seems to be excluding
people and making them uncomfortable. He probed their preconceived notions of
who God is, how He works, and how people relate to Him. There is comfort here,
though, because Jesus reveals His Father’s will: to save sinners and give them
eternal life.
Teaching
When Jesus says that He is the bread of life and that He
satisfies the hunger and thirst of all who trust in Him, He is not speaking of
physical hunger and thirst, but spiritual. The hunger and thirst that He
satisfies is that which is fueled by our need for God, His love, grace, and
presence in our lives.
Jesus makes bold claims here. He claims to have exclusive
access to God. He claims to have seen Him and to be sent by Him. This is a
stumbling block to His hearers. What is more, he proclaims that those who
believe in Him were drawn by God Himself and that He gives both resurrection
and everlasting life to those who come to Him.
Life
Have you ever entered a home where bread is baking? Did it
make you hungry? Did you feel like you could hardly wait to taste that
wonderful, wholesome, food? Jesus describes Himself as the bread of life in
this passage. Much like wanting bread to sustain our earthly lives, there is a
longing in our spiritual life for something that satisfies a hunger that goes
beyond the food that we eat and which only sustains us until we die. That
longing, whether people recognize it or not, is for Jesus. His flesh, which He
gave into death for the life of the world, is our salvation; our everlasting
life.
Do we, like the people Jesus dealt with, only long for Him
to feed our bellies? Do we look at our lives primarily as material and
physical? Jesus offers us something better: to draw us to Himself, to bring us
to the Father, and to give us everlasting life. He spoke metaphorically of
being bread, but He did give His flesh so the world might live, and even now,
one of our most intimate experiences of His flesh is when we eat it and drink
it in the Lord’s Supper, where we receive the forgiveness He won by giving His
flesh.
Prayer
This prayer is written
in the themes of Confession and Petition.
Father in Heaven, we confess that we are often more
interested in earthly bread than the bread of life that You give. Forgive us
for thinking that we came to You on our terms and for what we want. Forgive us
because Jesus gave His flesh for the life of the world.
Lord, help us always have in mind that You drew us to
Yourself to give us life. Please keep drawing people to Jesus that they might
also have their hunger and thirst for Your real salvation satisfied. Please
give us the eternal life You have promised, and raise us up on the last day.
Amen.
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