Bread of Life

John 6:27 – “Do not labour for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

A crowd had come to Capernaum looking for Jesus; the same crowd that had been fed the previous day with five barley loaves and two small fish. Jesus said to them, “you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” Verse 27 then follows. It is hard to understand how the people continued to be so superficial. Jesus was trying to get them to see beyond their immediate physical needs to their eternal spiritual need. They then ask what labour they needed to do in order to do the works of God, for which the answer was simply to believe in the one that God had sent.

So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?

They had watched the miraculous healing of the sick and witnessed thousands receive their fill of food and yet they still did not see the Son of God. It was as if they were saying, so what else can you do to prove that you are who you say? They wanted sign after sign. They even refer to Moses giving their ancestors bread from heaven, which Jesus quickly corrects in pointing out that it was God who provided the bread, not Moses. He continues to explain that the bread that God provides gives life to the world.

“Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

They say that seeing is believing and yet here we have thousands who had seen but still remained blind. Jesus wants us to stop searching after the temporary satisfactions of this life but rather keep pursuing the spiritual treasures that endure eternally.

Food is a necessity of daily life and some of us consume a lot more of it than others, but we do need a certain amount on a regular basis to fuel our physical bodies. Without it, the body will slowly shut down. Likewise, Christians need God’s Word as nourishment to fuel the spiritual body, for without it, the fire within will slowly become an ember.

Never stop craving God’s Word and let it feed your soul always. It will strengthen you and sustain you every day.