The Need for Spiritual Exercises
John 6:41-52
Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz
John 6:41 Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” 42 They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, “I have come down out of heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 “It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. 46 “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 “I am the bread of life. 49 “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
This narrative is a repetition of the previous one. Yeshua repeats the need for spiritual truth as essential. Repetition in Semitic writings was done for emphasis. This spiritual message from Jesus is repeated in the narrative that follows. A three-time repetition adds God into the picture. It is a message from God that it is crucial to understand the truth of the Kingdom of Heaven and the importance of the work of Jesus.
Jesus connects the need for living bread to the Hebrew people’s manna bread in the Sinai desert. It is believed that up to two million people left during the Exodus from Egypt. Some archeologists believe that number is too low. Regardless of whether it was two or three million people, feeding people was a problem. After the people crossed the Red Sea, they found themselves in a desert. Not just a desert but a desert that did not have adequate food or water to sustain such a large group of people.
Yet the people roamed the desert for forty years. They relied upon the LORD to supply them with food and water. God sent them manna and quail. He also showed Moses where the water supplies were in the desert. Moses was their shepherd. The image of the shepherd was used because, in the Near East, shepherds were responsible for taking their flocks to where they would find food and water. Through the help of God, Moses led the people.
An interesting thing happened on their journey. The people grumbled about Moses. They grumbled about the conditions, the food, the water, and an array of other items. You would think that the people would have appreciated being released from slavery. Sure, things were a bit challenging for them. But it had to be better than returning to Egypt and being stripped of their freedom.
When John’s author said that the people grumbled against Jesus’ words, it invokes the image of the situation against Moses in Sinai. Moses led his people out of slavery to Egypt. Jesus tried to lead his people out of slavery to their religious leaders. The Pharisees and Sadducees had convinced the people that the way to salvation was through their methods. However, Jesus knew that these ways did not help the people. Instead, it made them slaves to the government.
The bread of life is an expression that means the world’s truth. The truth is the words Jesus spoke. The way to salvation and forgiveness of sin was not by sacrificing animals in the Temple but rather by repenting and following God’s way. Jesus demonstrated the way the LORD wants us to live. It starts with God’s Word, the Bible, and continues with actions that demonstrate understanding. That is why it is essential to learn the truth of how to live by the Bible. The teacher is Jesus!
Simply put, Jesus emphasizes three times in John chapter six that learning the truth of God’s way and acting accordingly will lead to salvation. The words John uses are to believe in Jesus. Let me say what this means. To believe in Jesus means that you believe in Jesus’ words. It means you try as hard as possible to live in a way that exemplifies Jesus. How do we demonstrate Jesus? The answer is to emulate His ways.
Our lives on Earth are the time we are supposed to learn about the ways of our God. We are tempted while here by all kinds of things. I have said that we do not need a Satan character to push us to sin. We are pretty good at doing this ourselves. Our needs and wants are the instigators of bad behavior. For example, as civilization developed, small towns appeared on the Euphrates River in the Near East. It did not take long for the people of a city to want what the people of a neighboring town had. Most of the time, an economic trade was established, which benefited both towns. Unfortunately, human greed would step in from time to time, pushing one town to take what the neighboring village had forcibly. This action led to war between towns.
These needs and wants are not just at a town, state, or national level. It exists on an individual level. This is such a part of the human psyche that God gave us three commandments of the ten commandments that deal with this problem. Loving our neighbor is a large part of God’s word. The last two commandments deal with the desire to have what our neighbor possesses.
The bread of life, the truth, is that these and other behaviors are unacceptable to God. Then why do we have them? One answer is that the LORD gave us free will. With this, humanity can choose how people interact with each other. If you are a person who seeks the ultimate best way to deal with neighbors, then you need the bread of life. That bread is Jesus’ truth. Why? Because Jesus’ truth is God’s truth. It is the way to live a good and fulfilling life.
As you go about your day, you will have to eat bread, or something else, to stay alive. The body needs food and water to survive. When one or both are missing, both deteriorate and die. It loses the ability to repair itself. So, keep your body well. However, Jesus says in this narrative that your spiritual well-being is just as important. What good is a substantial body with a weak to nonexistent spirit? We need the truth of Jesus to fill our spiritual needs. Our spiritual condition is to learn about the ways of Heaven, Jesus, and God.
The emphasis on Jesus is because spirituality tends to move to the bottom of the to-do list. Do you start with prayer or biblical reading when you plan your day? The busyness of today’s lifestyle can place biblical reading at the bottom of the list. It is generally never accomplished when an item moves to the bottom of the to-do list. So, move your spiritual learning and exercise to the top of the list. You will not regret it.
