Manna Won't Save Us

The very purpose of Jesus coming into the world was to open the doors to eternal life for all of humanity. Aren’t you glad for that? He was the Lamb of God slain from the foundations of the world that would take away our sins. People of Jesus' day did not know about that. And so as it was getting closer to His crucifixion, Jesus was telling his followers what to expect and things they needed to do in order to inherit eternal life but it did not seem to go well with many of them. Reading from vs. 49 onwards Jesus says:

48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. Jumping down to vs 66 he says "from this time forward many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." Then turning to the twelve Jesus said “do you want to leave to?”

The Jews could not accept that teaching and many left and walked away. It was too radical for them to accept Jesus as God’s son let alone the thought of eating his flesh and drinking his blood as a condition of being blessed with eternal life.

People are walking away today too. Church membership across the world has dwindled. Look at our own Church – how many people do we have here? Go to the Malls, movie theatres and golf courses. That is where you will see most of them! It is a fact that people love the world more than they love the Lord. They pursue “things” instead of the maker of “all things.” You know this -many are called but only few are chosen. What about you my friends? Do you read your bible and pray every day? Are you a faithful follower or do you come to Church when you have nothing else on your calendar!

Not everyone who comes to Church accept his teachings either. They believe what they choose to believe and want “Church to work for them.” You have heard that saying right – “we have always done it this way.” People want to cling on to things of the past. The Jews were no different. They were standing in the presence of Jesus and listening to the Savior of the world but they had no regard for him at all. All they wanted is “manna.” There are some today too who only want manna. By this I mean pursuing earthy goals that fill the belly instead of filling the soul. The bible teaches that we must “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then everything else will be added unto you” but we seek the “everything else” first and not the kingdom.

We are not going to make it if we have one foot in the Church and the other in the world. We must be all in. We must be able to pick up our cross and follow him. It is the only way to eternal life. As you know, he is the way, the truth and the life in whom all fullness dwells. He wants to feed us with spiritual food that will outlast this earthly life. His word and teachings is our food. The word that became flesh and dwelt among us.

My friends please hear me out - beyond this earthly life, there is eternal life or eternal death. What are you preparing for my friends? Jesus wants to give you eternal life and has already prepared an eternal home for you. If you want to be there, it is time to get right with God. We won’t get there by chance – we get there only when we repent and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

Jesus makes no bones about it when he said in order to have eternal life we must eat his flesh and drink his blood. But the Jews had a problem with this saying “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” How slow of understanding can they be! They had no problem enjoying the miracles and having their dead raised to life, the sick healed and the poor fed but other than that, they wanted to be no part of him. It is interesting that prior to asking them to eat his flesh and drink his blood, Jesus said “I am the bread of life.”