The Bread of Life

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

THE BREAD OF LIFE

John 6:30-40

30 So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" 32 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."  34 "Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread." 35 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." 

NIV

Jesus has said a lot here, but we cannot separate his words or we would miss the whole of his point. These people are living in the past of events that were not even theirs but of their ancestors. Jesus is standing right in front of them and all they can see is the record of what happened to their forefathers. Jesus even told them their view of the past is not correct for Moses did not provide the manna from heaven, but it was His Father who gave them the manna. It was a type. Soon after crossing the Red Sea and God providing water for them, they grumbled about hunger and he fed them bread from heaven to sustain their lives or give them life. Jesus now tells them he is the true bread of Heaven, the true bread of life. Even though their forefathers ate the bread from heaven, they had to gather more each day because everyday hunger was once again an issue. The manna was a type of Christ, the bread from heaven. The difference is the manna was only good for one day and Jesus is good for eternity. Once we eat of the true bread of life, we will never hunger again. This speaks to the desires of the heart. There are so many material things we yearn for, we hunger for, so to speak. But no matter how many of them we obtain, it seems it is never enough, we always want more. We will ever get over this insatiable hunger for more?  It is like the more chocolate we eat, the more chocolate we want. This applies to so many material things, the desire to accumulate almost becomes overpowering. For some, it is just stuff like, how many books do we need, or our collection of movies, or some sort of other entertainment? For others it might be just simply accumulating money, never having enough. Some like to collect accolades or praise from men. Whatever things of this world we hunger for, it will never give us life, it will never sustain us, for we can be sure, it will all fade away, we will leave it all behind at the moment of our last breathe. Sure we can enjoy the moments we have it, just as those forefathers enjoy that daily manna, but they eventually died anyway, and they never got to see the land of milk and honey because of their disbelief. So we have eaten of this bread of life, we have accepted Jesus and we have this eternal life, and we praise the Lord we believe. Stuff is just stuff, but Jesus is life. How can we ever want more of stuff went Jesus is all we need? We have enough stuff, and if for some reason that stuff should wear out, Jesus will replace it, for he promised he would provide all our needs. But then many that promise is all about all we need is eternal life. We could go down so many ways with all this, we would never stop. The point is that Jesus is the bread of life and we will never go hungry again. We do not have to keep searching for other ways to attain eternal life. Nothing we can do will brings us eternal life except to believe in Jesus. He is the bread of life.