Continuing with the narrative about the bread of life; the people reacted to the words of Jesus. John tells us that the people heard Jesus and that many of them left him disappointed and rebellious. Here is what they heard:
“But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have everlasting life. I will raise them up at the last day.”
To all who would approach him Jesus has made one fact clear…he is not the bread giver; he is the bread itself! He is not the word about life, he is life itself! He is not just a good teacher. He is the truth! We have a strong temptation to bend God to our will, our ideas, and our image. We have somehow come to think that he must be greater than us, but LIKE us, and ready to bless us with prosperity and to validate our will and ideas.
Throughout history there have been multitudes who have welcomed Jesus as the answer, as the teacher, as the friend, as the provider. But when they have the benefit they seek, will they still regard him as the complete Lord of their life? In seeking to move his hearers from bread to the bread of life, Jesus posed the real question…who will he really be in our life? Jesus will not even belong to the expectations of the religious. We are to belong to him. He will not be the kind teacher whose words we are to treasure or the miracle maker whose powerful gifts we are to enjoy. He is instead the Lord of Life without whom there is no life and no eternity. And he has told us clearly what he wants us to do. “This is the only work God wants from you: believe in the one he has sent.”
I sat not too long ago with a desperate woman. Her life had been a career of drinking, affairs, and cheating. At 52 she was done and desperate. She wanted to talk with me because I was her ‘religious’ friend. She asked if I would guide her to a life that would follow Jesus and bring honor to God…her words. Done with feasting on the pleasures of this life, she was desperate for the real thing. She knew that she could be fully human only if she was fully God’s. So she prayed the prayer, confessed her sins, and asked Jesus to forgive her and to become her savior.
And he did. Bread for her hunger, water for her thirst, maker of eternity, door of heaven.
Prayer: “Great Bread of Life, feed my hungry soul and give me the strength of faith. Great River of life, flow over my entire being and satisfy my thirst. I give up my desire for substitutes and I come to you as the real feast of life. I believe in you, and I give myself to you again in this day. Amen.”