Better Bread

Being satisfied with bread helps us understand what it means to be satisfied with Jesus.

Colossians 1:16 "...All things were created through Him and for Him."

Jesus was performing signs to indicate he was the Messiah

The people saw and understood the signs - see vs. 14

they knew that Jesus had power

they wanted to make him king

And in Jesus’s words to his followers, helping them understand where his signs are pointing, we get both a warning of what blinds us to his work and a description of what it takes for us to see him clearly.

John 6 tells the story of Jesus feeding five thousand people with nothing more to work with than the light snack of a little boy. It’s the only one of Jesus’s miracles reported in all four Gospels. But in John’s story, the sign sets up a conversation on food that won’t run out, that fully satisfies, and that’s available only in Christ.

an overwhelming situation - vs. 1-7

insufficient supplies - vs. 8-9

Jesus is more than enough

Jesus came to offer what we must have if we’re to know true and lasting joy. He offers what we can’t do without. But what he offers is often far different from what we think we need. We’re often focused on what we want from this life. But Jesus doesn’t promise to give us more of what death will only steal anyway. He wants to give us what death can’t touch.

What happens after Jesus’s miracle warns us that it’s possible to believe in his power but miss his purpose. It is possible to believe in him, even look to him, on one level, but not on the level that truly matters. The crowds immediately see Jesus as a means to their ends. They’re attracted to his power and to the prospect that he might use his power for their purposes.

John 6:15 NKJV

Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

They want to make him king (John 6:15). Surely they want him to free them from Roman occupation. And by the next morning they merely want him to feed them again. All of their desires make sense, and they weren’t wrong about his power. They were simply wrong to assume he would use his power to give them what they already wanted.

John 6:26 NKJV

Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Verse 26 is the key to why Jesus withdrew and would have nothing to do with their excitement about his kingship. “Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.’ ” This is why you want to make me king (6:15). To have me as king mean full stomachs.

They hadn’t been changed. Jesus didn’t come into the world to lend his power to already existing appetites. That’s the fundamental mistake of the prosperity gospel. Leave people untransformed in what they crave, and simply add the power of Jesus as the way to get it. That is not the gospel. It is a kind of acclamation that Jesus walks away from. “Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself” (John 6:15). He walks away.

What happens after Jesus’s miracle warns us that it’s possible to believe in his power but miss his purpose. It is possible to believe in him, even look to him, on one level, but not on the level that truly matters. The crowds immediately see Jesus as a means to their ends. They’re attracted to his power and to the prospect that he might use his power for their purposes. They want to make him king (John 6:15). Surely they want him to free them from Roman occupation. And by the next morning they merely want him to feed them again. All of their de- sires make sense, and they weren’t wrong about his power. They were simply wrong to assume he would use his power to give them what they already wanted.

John 6:27 NKJV

Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”

John 6:35 NKJV

And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

John 6:40 NKJV

And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Consider, too, what he says to them a few verses later, contrasting what he came to offer with what Moses offered in the wilderness

John 6:49 NKJV

Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.

Jesus isn’t content for his people to die with full bellies. The bread he offers isn’t what they are expecting, but it has far more power.

John 6:50–51 NKJV

This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”

Jesus wants for them and for us a different quality of life. He wants to set us free from hearts and lives aimed only at good things that can’t finally satisfy us. He doesn’t want to offer more of what we want, knowing full well he can give us all we want and we’ll still end up dead.

These words did not land well on those who heard them.

John 6:66 NKJV

From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

This talk of eternal life—this redirection of their focus from the things they had always wanted—was not what they wanted from Jesus.

Peter speaks the truth, and in what he says we get a crystal clear word on what anyone who comes to Jesus must look to him for. Jesus only makes sense, only tastes sweet, to those who know that what they really need is not more perishable possessions in this life but a deathless life, where joys don’t come into our lives only to pass away. Jesus asks his remaining disciples if they too plan to leave him now. Peter answers, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). Peter himself doesn’t yet fully understand Jesus. He has much to learn, and so do we. But he at least recognizes what all the signs are pointing to. Jesus came to bring a world of eternal life. That’s what he offers, nothing less. He won’t make sense to those focused on their own agendas, pursuing always what comes next. But to those who know they’re dying, who are tired of good things passing away, his words are the only words that ring true.

Embracing death-awareness is how we strip away a heart- breaking attachment to the things of this world. It’s how we’re weaned from the materialistic standards we would naturally use to evaluate Jesus. Otherwise, like those to whom Jesus first spoke, we’ll continue living as if death isn’t a problem, and we’ll resent the fact that Jesus doesn’t offer us more of what we want from life.

It's not that we shouldn't enjoy the good things of life

What if we could enjoy what we have now in the knowledge of what we’ll have then? What if the promise of eternal life didn’t call us to pull away from the transient joys of this life but to press in to these joys as a foretaste of joys to come?

the good things in life are gifts, not gods.

we can fully enjoy them knowing we’ll lose them, precisely because we know we don’t have to have them. We can open our hearts to temporary pleasures precisely because we don’t give our hearts to temporary pleasures. We can only love them for what they are, not preoccupied by what they’re not, when we love them not for their own sake but for the true fountain of joy from which they flow.

Jesus pictured his salvation as a joyful feast, unmatched and unending. Everything we enjoy in this life, no matter how temporary, we enjoy as an appetizer for that feast to come. An appetizer isn’t meant to satisfy someone who is really hungry. Have you ever attended an evening event, expecting a nice dinner, only to find they’re serving finger food? Maybe cheese and crackers, a few assorted fruits, perhaps cookies or butter mints? No matter how fine the cheeses or fresh the fruits, you won’t fully appreciate the quality of the food. You’ll only notice that it’s not enough.

But an appetizer can be delightful when you know the fine and filling main course is on its way. In that case, you savor every bite for what it is, not fearful of or disappointed by what it isn’t. If it’s delicious, you’ll be sorry to reach the last bite. But you’ll know the appetizer has done its job. It has whetted your appetite for what’s still to come.

Jesus’s death and resurrection have purchased freedom to enjoy what you have even when you know you’re going to lose it.

Enjoy your vacation even though it’ll be over in a flash. Enjoy parenting your preschoolers even though they’ll be grown in the blink of an eye. Enjoy your friendships. Enjoy your marriage. Enjoy your productivity at work. Enjoy whatever health you have left in your body. Of course these things won’t last. Yes, it will hurt when they’re gone. But they don’t have to last to be wonderful. They are delicious, God-given, God-glorifying appetizers for the hearty and satisfying meal that’s still to come. They are true and worthy foretastes of the banquet spread for all peoples. And Jesus saves the best wine for last.