Tuesday, June 5, 2012

The Bread of Life

 Read John 6:26-69

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. John 6:36 NIV

In the passage in John chapter six Jesus says I am the bread of life twice and I am the living bread once. Jesus makes these statements while talking with a Jewish audience. They were asking him to show them a sign. They said that their forefathers had eaten manna from heaven and were looking for Jesus to show them a similar sign. Jesus then goes on to explain to them that He is the bread from heaven, the bread of life eternal. Those that partake in Jesus will never hunger or thirst again. He lets them know that just as God had provided for their forefathers in the desert, He is now providing living bread in the form of Himself.

The jews didn't like it because He said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." NIV They knew that he was the son of Joseph and Mary so they just couldn't fathom how he could possibly claim to be from heaven. They only saw Jesus through very human eyes. They were blind to the works of God that they were being exposed to.

When Jesus says, “This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." NIV He explains to them what he meant and yet they did not understand. Many of them found it to hard to comprehend and quit following Jesus.

It is truly amazing as many times as Jesus used parables, examples, scripture and analogies to help people comprehend the significance of His coming to earth, they could not see who He was. It just shows us the limits of human comprehension at times, especially as it relates to spiritual matters. Our minds can be so finite.

Many had left Jesus after this particular lesson. But those closest to Him stayed, as well as did those that had understood Jesus teachings.

When we read about Jesus we see that he uses all the tools at His disposal, to teach those around Him. We also see the same from the apostle Paul. Obviously Jesus and Paul had great success in reaching people with the good news. But there were always those that would not accept the teaching and would walk away.

Lets learn from Jesus and from Paul to use every tool at our disposal to teach the gospel. Lets also learn that persistence pays off and there are those that will understand and respond. But we must also realize, that despite our best efforts there will be those that will not believe and they will turn and walk away.

Keep on keeping on.


© 2012 Leo J. Woodman


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