John 6

Today is day six and we are going to take a look at Christ as "the bread of life".  It is a pretty strong theme throughout this passage.  We start with the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 where Jesus takes the lunch of a little boy, two fish and five loaves, to feed a crowd.  The fish were probably more like sardines and the bread more like something you would find in a Lunchable than french bread at a bakery.  The crowd was probably larger than 5,000 since in this day they often didn't count women and children.  Don't shoot the messenger, that's the way it was!  That makes the miracle even more...miraculous!  Jesus took a very small amount of food and was able to feed a very large group of people.  His point?  "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger," (V35).

Notice that the disciples have to keep coming back to Jesus to get more food for this hungry mob!  It isn't out of their power but Christ's!  After this miracle, these crowds keep pursuing Jesus.  Why?  Because they realize that He is the Son of God and that they can have a relationship with the Father through Him?  Not by a long shot!!!  They did it because they got hungry again (v26-27).  They started to look at the Son of God as "McJesus"!  This thought really hit me straight between the eyes.  How many times do we go to God as sort of a vending machine deity?  We put prayer, Bible reading and good deeds in and our hope is that we will get the things we ask for in return.  Did you know that God does not operate that way?  That would make Him an insecure God that needs that sort of attention and a God that is easily fooled and manipulated.  No, God's will is perfect and He does as He pleases.  He does love us and does want to give us good things, Scripture is clear on that (Luke 11:11).  But when we go to God as the source of all that is good in this world and all that is loving, and draw close to Him because we love Him, we begin to realize that He is the "bread of life" (v48).  He is the source of true life.

Cool Fact:
The Sea of Galilee that was mentioned in the beginning, changed names at least three times in history!  It was first called Gennesaret, then Galilee, and finally Tiberias.