THE BREAD FROM HEAVEN.
John 6:22-35.
JOHN 6:22-24. The details of these verses set the scene for the conversation which immediately follows.
The people saw the disciples getting into the boat, but had lost sight of Jesus (John 6:22). Meantime other boats had come over from Tiberias to a place “nigh unto” where the feeding of the 500+ had taken place (John 6:23). So the people “took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus” (John 6:24).
“Seeking for Jesus” is all very well; but WHY did they follow Him? Were they still seeking to make Him king? Or perhaps they were just looking for another free meal. What is that WE want of Jesus?
JOHN 6:25. When they had found Him on the other side of the sea, the people began the conversation with a question, “Rabbi, when camest thou hither?”
JOHN 6:26. Jesus understood these hardy Galilean folk. They were working day by day trying to scratch a living out of the land, and they were interested not so much in His miracles (which John calls ‘signs’), nor even in Him to whom the signs pointed, but in His ability to produce free meals.
JOHN 6:27. “Labour not for” the perishing things of this earth, Jesus teaches, but for the things which will “endure unto everlasting life.” God is offering not only food sufficient for today, but everlasting life with effect from today. This is the gift offered to them by “the Son of man” whom “God the Father hath sealed.”
JOHN 6:28. They asked, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” It is typical of religious people to want to multiply the one “labour” (same word as Jesus used in the previous verse) into many “works.” But we are not saved by such a plurality of “works.”
JOHN 6:29. The one “work of God” is this, answered Jesus: “That ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” The miracle of Christianity is that it is founded upon such sayings as ‘only believe’ (Mark 5:36) or ‘by faith alone.’
JOHN 6:30. “What sign shewest Thou then, that we may see, and believe Thee?” asked the people. “What dost Thou work?”
It is astonishing that those who had seen the miracles, and eaten the bread, could ask such a thing. Why this clamour for another “sign?” Yet that is typical of the hardness of the human heart.
JOHN 6:31-33. The Galileans acknowledged God’s provision of manna in the wilderness, but Jesus now presented Himself as the true bread which comes down from heaven, who gives life to the world.
JOHN 6:34. Like the woman at the well when she asked for the living water (John 4:15), they were still thinking in earthy and earthly terms when they said, “Lord, evermore give us this bread.”
JOHN 6:35. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh unto me shall never hunger; and he that believes in me shall never thirst.”
“I AM” is, of course, the name of God (Exodus 3:14). Jesus identifies Himself with God, and proclaims Himself to be the all-sufficient Saviour bringing life to mankind. Bread is for all, and as bread Jesus satisfies the fundamental needs of our hearts.
