True and Real Bread
John 6:22-34
A little lad fed
the people literally thru the miracle Jesus creation of food from such a small
amount. 5 barley loaves and 2 small
fishes. Now the people had wanted to
make him a king but Jesus resisted that. 6:15
The crowd followed again in small ships but Jesus says to them that they were
only following him because of the bread they received. They according to Jesus did not follow Him
for spiritual reasons, “ Ye seek me, not because ye saw signs, but because ye
ate of the loaves and were satisfied.” 6:26
People come to
church for different reasons , so it has not changed much. I am glad when people come for whatever
reason they do come. Jesus said we
should not be so worried about work and the money we get from it as if that was
all there was to life. Certainly that is
important. We all need bread so to
speak. Jesus says “ work not for the
food that perishes, but for the food which abides unto life eternal, which the
Son of man will give to you.”6:27
Jesus makes it very
clear when they ask him , “ What do we
do that we may work the works of God?” 6:28 “ This is the work of God,
Jesus answered, that ye should believe
on him whom He sent.” That is where we
must begin as well. Holy Communion is
very important in the life of the Church and the individual Christian. But we
cannot come to it apart from belief in the eternal Son of God whom the Father
has sent, Jesus Christ. I am sorry that
is not apparently now always the case in a lot of places at least in my
experience. Of course we are all
unrighteous and our best days have sins.
We cannot ever be perfect in this life, but look forward to that day
when if we are believers, those who are justified by God , we will be
completely sanctified , that is made holy .
That happens at the moment of death when we are glorified and see God
face to face. That is why I say the
Comfortable Words every Holy Communion.
It gives the assurance that God if for us despite ourselves. “ Come unto me, all ye that travail and are
heavy laden, and I will refresh you.” ST
Matthew 11:28
The people saw
the miracle but they did not come to see Jesus for who He was. They came for the bread . They liked the miracles He did. But as we
know the word John uses for miracle is sign and a sign points to something. It
points to His purpose for coming and that purpose is to give us eternal
life. So Jesus gives them an
illustration from the Old Testament. I like that.
Moses was
blamed for a lot of things. The people
were complaining and murmuring (Exodus 16) because of hunger. Remember this was after their deliverance
from the Egyptians and the miracle of the parting of the Red
Sea ! How we quickly forget
our salvation do we not as well? So in
Exodus the LORD sends from “bread from heaven” that “ I may prove them ,
whether they will walk in my law or no.”16:4
The Lord sends us bread from heaven in the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ. “ My Father gives you the bread
out of heaven, the true bread.” Jn 6:32
Jesus says
something which we should always carry with us in the 35th
verse. The people now understand . Jesus is the one “ who gives life to the
world.” They said therefore to him, “ Lord, always give to us, this
bread.” Jesus said to them and to us, “
I am the bread of life; he that comes to me in no wise may hunger, and he that
believes on me in no wise may thirst at any time.” In our salvation we have this kind of
spiritual everlasting life. It will
never dry up or go away. We may struggle
with many things in this life but in Christ who is our Real Bread we will never
have lack of anything. This life is
temporary. It cannot satisfy us. But Christ can. And wherever we are and
whoever we are with and whatever situation we are in we can trust Jesus to be
our Ever living Bread.
As we take Holy
Communion today we should be joined with Christ by faith first. Then in the bread we spiritually remember His
great sacrifice on our behalf and in our stead.
“ This do in remembrance of me”
Praise Be to His Holy Name for ever and ever. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment