FOOD THAT ENDURES (John 6:24-35)

What are you striving for in life? There are so many answers to this question. Some people are striving for achievements. Other people want to have health, or happiness, or fun.

Jesus warns us not to “work for food that perishes”. Think about the effort involved in work. Maybe it’s physical effort, the back-breaking effort of farming or labouring. Maybe it’s mental effort, using your mind to figure things out in science or finance. It could be taking risks in business. Or, applying yourself to a trade or craft that mixes physical and mental effort.

What’s wrong with all of this work? Why is Jesus warning us not to engage in this type work? It’s fine to some extent, but it won’t last. If we reflect on the results of our efforts, we would see these results slowly crumble over time. The Bible says that the whole of creation is subject to futility.

What is the food that lasts, and how can we work for this food? Jesus says that the work of God is to believe in the one he sent. Jesus is asking the people seeing Him, to see God’s unique representative. In order to explain this, He recalls how God fed their ancestors with manna in the desert. Their own history tells them that this is what God does: He feeds His people.

But the great miracle of the manna did not sustain. Jesus then reveals that not only is he the one sent by God, but He is Himself the bread of God, the bread of heaven. When people ask for the bread that endures, He calls Himself “the bread of life”. We will receive God Himself, when we receive Jesus.

Today we are all seeking and striving for bread that will endure. We want love and life that lasts. This is the promise of faith in Jesus. The gates of heaven open to us when we come to Him and believe in Him. He will feed us with himself, so that we too have life eternal.