Today’s Assignment is to read John 6. For more information on the Focus Bible reading plan, please check it out here.
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Jesus’ agenda is always bigger than our agenda. His perspective is bigger than ours. His concerns are more profound.
In John 6, we see crowds of people living in the moment of their present struggles. They crowd around him “because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick” (6:2). Then, after Jesus feeds them and crosses the lake they keep following him. But Jesus knows their hearts and gives them what, in hindsight of the rest of the chapter, can be interpreted as a warning:
“Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” (6:26-27)
The people were concerned with food for the day. Jesus pointed them toward a different sort of food that would endure to eternal life. They wanted the day-to-day benefits of Jesus. Jesus was offering them his very life. They were thinking in terms of merely physical reality, but Jesus spoke in terms of the Spirit. “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life” (6:63).
It’s not that Jesus doesn’t care about our daily needs and concerns. He does. He teaches us to pray for our daily bread. He healed sicknesses. He cast out demons. He multiplied the loaves and the fishes. He does not care only about our souls, as though our bodies don’t matter. He is the sustainer of body and soul.
But his concern is for more than just the body and more than just today. “Work for a food that will last.” What is the work the Father requires? Believe in the one he has sent (6:29).
Like in the story of the woman at the well, Jesus uses a physical need to point to an eternal one. Water gives life. Living water gives eternal life. Bread sustains our bodies. Bread from heaven sustains our very being.
It can be easy, especially in times of stress and anxiety, to be caught up in questions of our daily physical existence: Will we get sick? Will we have enough to eat? Will we have money and savings to make it through? Those are legitimate questions which, when asked in the right way, lead to wisdom. But, Jesus keeps pushing us further, towards matters of ultimate concern. Where will we spend eternity? Will we be raised up on the last day? Will we be partakers in eternal life?
These are concerned that can’t be answered by your next meal, even one miraculously given. They can only be answered by Jesus. The disciples, for all their confusion, recognized this. “Where else can we go?” Peter asked. Jesus, you have the words of eternal life.
Growing in the Gospel 