Thursday 2nd March
Read John 6:41-51
“At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ 42 They said, ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I came down from heaven”?’
43 ‘Stop grumbling among yourselves,’ Jesus answered. 44 ‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: “They will all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live for ever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.’” (NIVUK)
I remember spending many, many, hours wrestling with the mystery presented in these verses. The mystery that no-one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws them (v44) but also that everyone is invited to Jesus to live (v50). The reason I wrestled so much though is that I was just like the crowd – mumbling against the divine authority over my life that Jesus’ claims, if they were true, made. I needed to hear the rebuke, ‘Stop grumbling’ (v43). Use your eyes and ears, look at what He did and listen to what He said, and ‘be taught by God’ (v45).
John draws upon Isaiah often. As does Jesus. In rebuking the Jews, Jesus draws upon a passage about restoration. “All your children will be taught by the Lord...” (Isaiah 54:13a) (NIVUK). It is an amazing promise that God Himself will come and teach a later generation – give them ears to hear and hearts to respond and believe. It is entirely God’s doing and is nothing we can take any credit in. My wrestling reflects my own pride that I could work out on my own what the truth was. Jesus insists that unless God works in us first, like the Jews, we would never work it out ourselves.
Yet, we are still invited earnestly, just as Jesus was doing in the synagogue, to listen and see and believe in Jesus. God is not going to give us insight and knowledge apart from Jesus – so look to Him! A few verses on in Isaiah, we find a parallel passage that is just as much in Jesus’ mind as He speaks in the synagogue. It is an amazing, unconditional invitation and call to see and listen and pursue the true bread…
“‘Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labour on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.” (Isaiah 55:1-3a) (NUVUK)
