Jesus is the Bread of Life
(By Evan. Silvanus D Singh)
Exodus 16: 2-15
Hebrews 3: 1-6
John 6: 22-35
Greetings
Introduction
Summary of the Gospel Passage
The readings today are pointing all towards one thing that will be the focus of our meditation today. Jesus Christ, as the bread of Life. Jesus is mentioned as bread by John to bring out the fact that Jesus will fulfil our needs when we put our faith in him. We need not labour in vain, when we are in Jesus’ name. Jesus has been called as the bread that is everlasting and after eating this bread one would never go hungry ever again. This whole passage in gospel actually points towards very basis instinct of humanity. We try to fulfil our needs, rather than focusing on source. People were approaching Jesus Christ not because they wanted to hear the word of God and be blessed by it, but as Jesus says in verse 26, to stuff themselves with food and bread again. We think Jesus as a bank from where we can always ask what we need, but Jesus actually wants us to grow beyond that ask to be one with the source of blessings. Jesus does not want us to limit ourselves and blessing receivers but evolve to be the source of blessings for other.
We can never fathom what God has kept for us.
When we look in the passage taken from Exodus, we see the Israelites where bickering and complaining to Moses about the diversities and scarcity they were being put under by their migration. They remember the days in Egypt as good and prosperous, just because they were sitting by the pot of meat and eating. Their bickering increased and this made Moses call God to stop the problem and ask for solution. They tested God and God answered by providing them with bread and meat from the heavens. Now here is the interesting part. When the heavenly bread came down from the heavens, the Israelites named it ‘Manna’, which means ‘what is this?’ These people could not fathom the mercies of God and could not even describe what God had planned and provided for them. They named it Manna as they did not know what the blessing was.
Blessings come with a challenge.
God did not drop any bread directly from heavens, because he knew if he did that people of Israel would become lazy and dependent. He gave them task. The passage that we read today says, that God wanted to see if the Israelites would honor and keep the law that God would give them in the coming future. Even when God provided for their needs, he made them work for it. They had to wake up in the morning, go out to collect Manna for the day, come back and process it, knead it into a dough and them bake it into bread and eat. The blessings of Lord are not just for enjoyment, but we have to prove as we grow in faith that we deserve those blessings and for that we need to work to earn these blessings. Jesus Christ also tells the people that he is the Bread of Life, but to eat from that bread comes with a great challenge and cost. We see that Jesus asks us to take up our cross and follow him, he poses a challenge before us and now it is up to us, will we accept the challenge and follow Jesus.
The reward is in the next life.
The bread of life prepares us to have a prosperous life in the next one, where we unite with Jesus Christ as his brothers and sisters. The reward of life is the eternal life that we would get when Jesus will come again to this world to Judge the living and the dead. The reward is achieved by living a life of love and suffering as Jesus did on this earth, spreading the good news of Jesus Christ by our actions and works, and becoming a witness among the people who do not know Jesus yet. God makes us work hard, so that we understand the value of each and every blessing we get from Him. Without effort we won’t recognise what God has given us and like the Israelites we would also say ‘What is this?’ to the blessings, because we cannot recognise the end product.
Conclusion
Jesus as the Bread of life, marks us with a challenge that comes with partaking in this bread. This bread of life will give us life eternal and will help us grow better and better by improving ourselves spiritually, emotionally and socially as we overcome the struggles and sufferings of this life and come closer to being humble and kind like Jesus Christ.