35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away, 38 for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up on the last day. 40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day” John 6:35-40.
Above are some of the most beloved words of Jesus, and certainly some of my most beloved words of Jesus! I have spent some profound years of my life living in the wilderness of Africa, and that has helped me to see one reason why Moses delivered the Law in the midst of the wilderness and not in a city - he intended to show that it was not his own invention but truly the words of God. To this end Moses led the people into a wilderness where their lack of water and food was miraculously supplied by God, and this manna convinced them of the divine authority of what was said to them through Moses. When I lived in Africa I had only my Swahili bible, and whenever I shared with them the teachings, the parables, of Jesus, the reaction of the Sukuma, was remarkable! there was nothing in what we were doing that would pull us away from believing at face value all that Jesus was teaching. Holding up the Bible and reading story after story with the Sukuma, especially the agrarian parables of Jesus, drew them to Jesus by the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ!
In these verses above John in a similar way moves from the miraculous satisfaction of hunger of Israel in the desert (John 6:5–13) to a teaching on the Bread of Life, in which Jesus speaks of the true bread from heaven with an authority greater than that of Moses. In many different ways have we not all learned how foolishly concerned we are, not with the truth, but with food for our bodies. We must all learn, should we not, that there is a bread which gives not earthly but eternal life, and this eternal bread we cannot earn, for it is the gift of the Son of Man, whom God has promised. This whole discourse (in chapter 6 of John) of the bread of Life is summarized in this way: Jesus is the Son of man, and it is in communion with him that men and women have eternal life (vv. 28–40).
We pray so that God may draw us into communion with Him. We are not in control of that movement to union with Him, but we are always drawn by His grace. Even our choice to sit in prayer is the result of being called to sit quietly. Prayer is all about grace, all about Jesus giving us what we need, not what we deserve and certainly not what we can work out on our own volition.
So today, sit. Sit quietly! Ask God to turn your heart towards his heart, and give Him thanks.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“5 When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” 10 Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place, so they[b] sat down, about five thousand in all. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets” John 6:5-13.
"41 Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise that person up on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day, 55 for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which the ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” 59 He said these things while he was teaching in a synagogue at Capernaum” John 6:41-59.
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