Life Spark: Work hard for whole-life bread. (John 6:22-42)
When I was a kid, we were happy but poor. Bread was our mainstay. I ate a million peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I liked fluffy white bread. Somewhere in my twenties I came to prefer whole wheat bread, the grainier and heavier the better. (eg. – David’s Killer Bread)
Bread was important to the people who were searching the seashores of Galilee for the man who miraculously manufactured thousands of biscuits. When they finally found Jesus, He told them they were looking for the right person, but for the wrong reason. Working hard for things physical and temporal, they were missing the meal from God that would nourish their ‘lasting life.’ (verse 27).
“OK. Speaking of working,” they say, “What kind of work could we do that would be pleasing to God?” “Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’” (John 6:29, NIV)A little irritated that Jesus kept bringing the conversation back to who He was, they asked Him if He could prove himself by repeating yesterday’s miracle, and keep it up for decades like Moses did.
Jesus told them again that they were looking for a temporal meal that would feed their bellies for a while, and what they should be going after is a man who is God’s means of eternal sustenance. “OK,” they said, “Give us some of that bread.” He replied, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, … I have come down from heaven … ” (John 6:35,38 NIV) Just as the manna came from God in the days of Moses, He came from God. ‘Manna’ means ‘What is it?’ Jesus is trying to bring them to the point where they see who He is, eternal manna from God.
But instead of the lights coming on for them, they dimmed. “We know his family,” they said. “How can he make the claim he came down from heaven.” They missed the fact that God delivered His Bread of Life through the portal of a human womb.
God gave His Son to give us something more permanent and more satisfying than mere existence. He doesn’t want us to settle for the terminal things alone. A life that is only about physical things is fluffy and porous. Jesus came to bring us life that is substantial and wholesome.
Life-challenge: Go without one meal today, and when you think of hunger, thank God for Jesus, your whole-life bread.