Bread of Life

March 1 Bread of Life John 6:30-40

“Now they demand a sign, as if He were unknown. Whence this sudden forgetfulness, save because they are ungrateful to God and are maliciously blind to the sight of His power? There is no doubt that they despise all the miracles they had already seen because Christ does not meet their wishes, and they do not find He is what they imagined… How many there are like them today!” John Calvin “Commentary on John” Vol. 4:104

Throughout history, men and women have approached Jesus Christ with very fixed ideas of what He can and cannot do. But we cannot confine the Word of God; there is always more to learn about Jesus. He is always bigger than our expectations; He is larger than any of our dreams.

Some of those who had been fed on the mountainside and then followed Jesus around the lake must have had some idea that He was the Messiah. They wanted to test that belief and so they asked Jesus for a sign, another miracle. Not content with the feeding of the five thousand, they now wanted Him to repeat the miracle in the wilderness and provide manna from heaven. There was a popular belief, at that time, that when the Messiah came He would identify Himself by renewing the miracle of the manna. They had a box, all prepared, in their minds; Jesus had to fit into it. Moses had given manna in the desert. What would Jesus give?

Correcting them, Jesus pointed out that it had not been Moses who provided the manna, but God. Moses was not the source of the blessing, merely the channel. Jesus pointed beyond the human agent to the divine source; and He pointed beyond the gift that sustains life for a day to the gift that saves forever. Then, in one of seven parallel passages in which He used a simply verbal form to identify Himself, Jesus made the lofty claim that He was the Bread of Life. To come to Him, that is, to accept Him as Lord, is to know hunger never again. The “never” is emphatic in the Greek. There is no one else like Jesus. He satisfies the hungry soul. As the woman at the well learned that only Living Water can quench a thirsty soul, so those who heard Jesus by the lake learned that only the Living Bread fills eternally.

If they were not satisfied it was because they did not believe. And if they did not believe it was because they had not been called. Jesus’ words danced between divine sovereignty and human responsibility, claiming that He would, indeed, draw to Himself all those that the Father had given to Him. Yet, at the same time, there was a challenge in His words. Only those whom God has called will be saved, but they will know that they are called because they will respond in faith. Everyone who looks at the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life.

So, do we choose Him, or has He chosen us? Add that to the list of questions you will ask in heaven. For now, let the weight of Jesus’ words act as an anchor for your soul. No matter how wild the waters may rage, no matter how high the winds may roar, our salvation does not depend upon how tightly we hold on to the boat. God holds the boat, and us, in the hollow of His hand. Jesus Christ will not lose one of those whom the Father has committed to His care.

For further reading: Psalm 62