After Jesus fed thousands of people with just five loaves of bread and two small fish, the people were rightly amazed.
So much so, the very next day the crowd look for Jesus again – and find him.
But he says to them, “you are only looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill” (John 6:26).
In other words, they don’t want Jesus for himself, they want the free meal he can give them.
Jesus is nothing more than a vending machine to them!
He then says to the crowds, in words that must also challenge us today: "Do not work for food that spoils, for food that endures to eternal life” (v 27).
Jesus offers them something more than physical nourishment, he offers them spiritual nourishment. Something that will last forever.
It’s too easy to be concerned with the temporal reality of this world.
A world in which we become preoccupied with the present, preoccupied with possessions and the physical things of this life.
And we forget, these things won’t last; just like “food that spoils”.
Instead, Jesus says be concerned for the things of the soul, things that will live on beyond the grave.
Desire the food that satisfies eternally, spiritually.
And that deep hunger of our souls can only be truly and forever satisfied when we put our faith in Jesus – the bread of life.
As he says, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).
~ Contributed by Pastor Chris Taylor of the Deniliquin Baptist Church, on behalf of the Combined Churches of Deniliquin.
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