Jesus offers so much more than what some daily seek from him
By Dean Collins
Missing the point can lead to missing out on real life change.
Ask any professor for a list of things that frustrate them concerning their students, and invariably they’ll include the student question, “Will this be on the test?” The only conclusion is that a passing grade is much more important to such students than learning something that might change or improve their lives. The desire to make the grade is greater than the desire to learn.
Food over life
Maybe that has some similarity to the narrative in John chapter 6. The crowd that less than 24 hours earlier had been fed a belly full of bread and fish traveled to Capernaum looking for their next meal. When they found Jesus, they asked him when he had arrived. Jesus challenged their question and indicated that the only reason they sought him was to get another meal like the one they received yesterday. They were pursuing food over life.
Of course, we do in fact need food to live. Jesus certainly knew this and in his life and ministry, he clearly cared for the whole person. His instructions for his followers included providing for the physical needs of others.
But Jesus wanted something more for this crowd. “Do not work for the food that perishes,” he challenged them, “but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” Jesus was not against a person working for wages to purchase food. But the work of walking or hitching a ride on a boat to find him was not simply about spiritual things. He saw through their questions and pursuits and knew they were not on a spiritual quest but rather a physical one, and a convenient one at that.
As in the interactions with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman, Jesus again made it clear that he was not simply a rabbi, a prophet, or an answer to a supply chain problem. His claims were much bigger. He was the Messiah, the bread of life, living water, God in the flesh.
Stuff over life
It is sobering to consider how often we make Jesus less than he is. Without paying attention, we slip into seeing Jesus as a vendor who supplies our needs and our wants. Jesus didn’t come just to give us stuff. He came to give us life, life that is full of his presence and life that carries us to eternity.
As followers of Jesus, we must daily partake of Jesus. To eat the bread of life and drink the living water is to commune with Jesus daily. And we must not see our work as simply making money to provide for our needs and our pleasures. Just as we live for eternal purposes, our work is for eternal purposes. It is through our work that we are used by God to serve, bless, and bring life to others.
Jesus wants the whole world to experience the will of the father. Jesus affirmed this with words John quotes here: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Jesus calls to us today to partake once again of life in him. And then to share the bread of life and living water with another.
Your time with God’s Word
John 6:25-40 ESV
Photo by Michael Burrows at Pexels.com
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