John 6:49-50 : “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.”
Have you ever tried eating the same meal over and over and over? Late last year I started meal-prepping my lunches for the week, cooking a big pot of curried lentil stew to eat throughout the week. On it’s own, it’s not a bad meal; it’s nutritious, very cheap, takes a short time to cook, and I do like the taste. But let me tell you, after eating that same lunch almost every weekday for seven months now, it gets a little tough to swallow some days. But still I’m grateful that I’ve been provided plenty to eat at all.
In John 6, when the crowd at Capernaum asks Jesus for a sign that He has come to do God’s work, citing their ancestors’ 40-year manna diet while wandering the desert. Specifically, they say in verse 31: “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” This bread, which we know as manna, was allotted by God as sustenance for the Israelites in their decades of wandering. Described in Exodus 16 as “a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground,” as well as “like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey,” the Israelites were able to gather it to make bread, owing their survival to this manna, a gift from God. It was partly to test the Israelites’ trust in the Lord, but also an act of great kindness and generosity to a people who were not at all grateful to an abundantly kind Lord. Of course, even then the Israelites grumbled at the prospect of having to live off this bread alone. I can’t say from my human perspective that I can’t relate; not only to eating the same meal over and over (it’s tough enough with the same lentil stew for seven months, I can’t imagine 40 years of the stuff), but how from time to time I can tend to overlook the bigger picture while focusing instead on my few annoyances.
But as Jesus reminds these people, even with day after day of being blessed with manna from heaven, they still died, same as the rest of us. This part of Jesus’s statement is a sobering reminder: yes, God will provide for us. As Jesus says in Matthew 6:31-33, “do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear? …Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” God has promised to meet our basic needs as long as we remain faithful, and in our faith we know He makes good every promise. But nothing the Lord will provide to fill our stomachs, or keep us warm, or protect us from the elements, or any thing of this world, will prevent death. Though they can satisfy us for the moment, no temporal good can hold off sin’s wages. This mirrors our spiritual lives as well; how often we can look to gain fulfillment in things of this world, but end up underwhelmed and spiritually malnourished in this pursuit, no closer to salvation than before.
Thankfully, God always has a plan. In this case, not only for the physical fulfillment, but spiritual fulfillment as well. Just as God provided bread from the heavens for the Israelites, Christ came down from heaven to give us the Bread of Life, of which we can eat and not perish. What better words to hear on this than verses 35 to 40:
“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 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. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.’”
Only through coming to Jesus and living out His word can we experience eternal life in Him. Only by offering our lives to Christ can we endure to eternal life. While God may provide for our needs now, it is our choice to eat the true bread of life. I pray today for the hunger in my spirit; not to be content with the things of this earth, but to fully pursue Jesus with my heart and soul. I know Christ will provide food to fill my stomach and a roof over my head, but none of those earthly things bring eternity with Christ. Lord, help us today to put aside the blessings of this world in favor of something more; to appreciate and be thankful for all you’ve given us on this earth, but even more, in all we say and do, to come to Christ and partake in your word.