Text: John 6: 22-40
Text verse: John 6:30
In verse 30 the crowd asks Jesus to perform a miracle so that they can believe in Him. This is a question that testifies to their spiritual blindness and selfish curiosity.
They argue that the multiplication of the bread is small compared to what Moses did in the wilderness. They want Jesus to feed the whole nation on the same scale as happened in the wilderness (also see Ex. 16).
We hear and see it in people today. People who say they will believe if God heals their child or performs this or that miracle. Yet this type of reasoning is selfish. It’s like a child who has everything already, but then insists that his parents also buy him a car to prove that they really love him. As if the car could be proof of that!
We reason in our relationship with the Lord in the same way. We have already received everything in Christ that we could possibly need, but still we insist that He performs extra miracles in our lives to prove that He truly loves us.
Jesus, on the other hand, did not pray that the Father takes away His suffering if He truly loved Him. It would have been an insult to God’s omnipotence and glory. Still, we do it without thinking about it twice.
Therefore, to love Jesus unconditionally, we must understand what He is teaching us here.
He is the true bread. The bread we need to live forever.
The manna that God gave in the wilderness was temporary and it perished. It was but a shadow of what was to come. Jesus is the bread that gives eternal life. He also does not give this life to just one single nation. His redemptive work is big enough for the whole world to share in.
We have already received more than we need. By setting conditions, we show that we do not yet truly understand the greatest gift we have already received through the salvation of Christ.
He owes us nothing and yet He gives us everything (His life) just to save us.
Also, He gives without conditions.
In verse 40 it says: “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
Do you see how easy the Lord makes it for us? He does not expect us to love our neighbour first. He could demand it of us, but we cannot meet that high standard of holiness (also see Rom. 3: 9-20).
Thus grace… All we have to do is believe! We must believe that Jesus was perfectly obedient, in our place. We must believe that He bore the punishment of our sins on Himself. He was cursed by God so that we may be acquitted.
This is how dearly God loves us. Even though we are weak and sinful, He does everything in His power to make us part of His kingdom. Who then are we to make demands on God to prove His love if He has already shown us such a great act of love?
Don’t demand miracles from God, because in Jesus we have already seen the greatest miracle of all. He has bestowed his love upon us and so we have received everything we need!
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