Hungry?

John 6: 22:40

25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’ ²⁶Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

Some people are persistent seekers of Jesus and the community of disciples but for the wrong reasons. It’s understandable, people have an ongoing experience of their wants and desires and they hear about the power of Jesus to answer the questions of life or they hear about a community of disciples where people of all sorts are made to feel they belong even if they don’t believe. So they seek more. However there is a problem if we continue to seek the thing that does not actually meet our needs. People end up blaming Jesus or His community of disciples for not being the answer to their need because they don’t actually understand what their need is. After the feeding of the 5000 you would have thought, after Jesus refuses to be made King, people would stop and think about what Jesus has really come to achieve. The people thought He was here to overthrow the Romans and their puppet rulers and that if they throw in their support for the overthrow Jesus will supply their physical needs by setting up a Kingdom where they don’t have to work for their food, shelter and clothing.’ In verse 26 Jesus makes it clear to the crowd that He knows even if they don’t why they are following Him so enthusiastically. There is no doubt they wanted transformed lives. It’s their assessment of personal and community need that is mistaken. Again the people are concentrating on the physical and empirical needs of life and the mistaken view that they can only be met by physical and empirical means. Jesus appeals to them to re-examine how they are meeting their needs (27). This leads them to ask the question that matters (28); what does God require? Are you and I at that point in life yet? Are we ready to ask the question what does God require for us to meet our real needs, individually and collectively His way? Jesus cannot be simpler in His response: ‘Believe in him whom He has sent.’ Jesus is asking them to believe in Him.   But the crowd still want a ‘sign’ they want a reason to believe; their real need is not enough: the teaching and practice of Jesus is not enough they want a ‘meal and a miracle’. The crowd have a view of their leaders; ‘just meet our needs our way Jesus and you’re in; we have already offered to make you our King’. It’s sad to think that God feeds us, protects us and leads us to the point of revealing who He is and we think it’s our ‘kings’ that provide for us. It is God who provides (32) always God.  His provision is not just for our physical needs but each area of our life; His provision is the ‘bread of life’ (35) the physical, social, psychological and spiritual means of life. God’s provision is Jesus; He is the ‘Bread of Life’ and we must eat. We must put into our lives His teaching and practice if we are to experience life. This is believing: accepting Jesus for who He is as revealed in scripture, accepting that we cannot meet our needs our way, turning to Jesus and seeking His forgiveness for meeting our needs our own way and we must  follow Him the way He teaches : this is saving faith.  It’s the only way to meet all our needs the way God has created us for them to be met.        

Steph MacLeod