Bread of Life
What’s your favorite food? Mine is macaroni and cheese. Kraft is fine; but the homemade stuff is pretty rockin’ too. Then there’s gourmet mac and cheese with all kinds of good stuff in it. As diverse as mac and cheese can get, and as much as I love it, I couldn’t eat it every meal, or every day. So why, in John 6, do people tell Jesus to give them a certain bread every day? They say, “Never stop giving us this bread!” What’s so special about the bread Jesus was giving?
“Jesus then said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I saw to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world (v32-33).'” This bread that Jesus is talking about giving them sounds pretty different. It gives life, it satisfies forever (v. 27), it’s given by God, it comes from heaven, and its…a person…? Still, it sounds pretty awesome. And if it really will satisfy us forever, then we should figure out how to taste it.
“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 (v. 35).'” Jesus is the bread. Jesus was given by God. Jesus comes from heaven. Jesus is what we can feast on. Jesus will satisfy us forever. Jesus is more satisfying than anything we’re currently trying to find satisfaction in.
Better Than Money
Money can get us a lot of stuff, but it’s terrible for us in the long run. There are so many stories of people who became extremely wealthy but ended up completely miserable in life. Ecclesiastes 5 says, “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.” Trusting in money will not satisfy us. If our satisfaction level in life is dependent on the amount of money in our bank account, we’re going to be miserable, like chasing the wind. Jesus offers something better than that. And when we ARE fully satisfied in Jesus, we’ll think of money totally differently. We won’t think of it as a means to be happy, but as a means to bless others.
Better Than Relationships
We were created for relationships, but for many of us it’s tempting to try to find more satisfaction in relationships with other people than in our relationship with Jesus. And when we do that, we learn the brutal truth that every single human relationship will fall short in some way. Our husband or wife could never love us enough, our friends won’t always come through for us, our children will never fulfill us. Only a relationship with Jesus will actually satisfy what we’re looking for in a relationship. Jesus is the only person who can promise what he does in Hebrews 13:4, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” Jesus offers the most satisfying relationship that we could ever have. And, when we’re satisfied fully in our relationship with Jesus, all of our other relationships will be so much healthier because we won’t be placing unrealistic expectations on other people. We won’t live in fear of losing relationships or bitterness and anger of not having the relationships we want to have. Because Jesus will be enough.
Better Than Comfort
The church of Jesus should be a group of people who believe that Jesus is better than our comfort and ease in life. People should see Christians selling everything and moving thousands of miles away to share the Gospel in a different culture. They should see Christians fostering and adopting even when they already have busy lives. They should see Christians turning down jobs that would compromise their integrity or turning down jobs that would provide more money but be in a location without a gospel-centered church for their family. They should see Christians who give away their money freely; Christians who actually believe that the words of the Bible are true and they change their lives because of it. They should see Christians who follow Jesus. Jesus, who left the comforts of heaven to come to this difficult, broken world. Luke 17:33 says, “Who ever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.” Maybe you’ve been trying to preserve your life by finding satisfaction in comfort. But the call to follow Jesus isn’t a call to lead a safe, comfortable life. It’s a call to trust that the way God has called you to live is more satisfying than comfort.
To believe that Jesus is the bread of life is a call to action. It’s a call to be more satisfied with him than anything else in life, and to feast on him daily.