I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world (John 6:51 NIV).
During a trip to Minnesota in September, I attended the “Great Minnesota Get-Together”—the Minnesota State Fair. It is billed as one of the best state fairs in the country and attracts over 2 million people each year. I first went to the fair as a young child. My parents would pack up the car and head to the Twin Cities just before school started. One of the incredible features of this extravaganza is the wide array of foods available for consumption. There are all kinds of “deep-fried” delicacies: Twinkies, candy bars, cheese curds, and bananas.
In case you don’t want to use your fingers to eat the state fair food, many of the items come on a stick: pork chops, corn dogs, “big fat bacon,” olives, and, my favorite, “Ole and Lena’s Hot Dish on a Stick.” During the day, I sampled a wide variety of these foods and left the fair feeling stuffed. But when I awoke the next morning, I was hungry and needed something to eat again.
We see the same phenomena in the miracle of the five loaves and two fish that fed 5000 people who had come to hear Jesus. The day after the crowd was fed, the people discovered that Jesus had travelled to Capernaum, and they followed him there. While some probably came to see another miracle, others most likely came because they were still hungry—even after having all the bread and fish they could eat the prior day. They may have thought that they could get another free meal. Perhaps, some came for both reasons.
His resurrection from the dead demonstrates that he was, in fact, the Son of GodJesus used the occasion to address the spiritual needs of the people rather than their physical hunger. He told them: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35, NIV). He was offering them something greater than the manna that their forefathers had eaten in the wilderness or the physical food they had eaten the prior day. He was offering them food which would not perish or spoil. He was telling them that they needed to come to him, accept him as their Lord and Savior, and trust in him. He was giving his life—his flesh—for the life of the world.
In a previous devotional, I wrote about how we can avoid spiritual dehydration by drinking the “living water.” Besides the living water, we can also partake of the “living bread” for spiritual nourishment in order to avoid spiritual hunger. Jesus proclaims that he is the “living bread” that will provide spiritual nourishment and eternal life to all who would eat it.
Just as the needs of our physical bodies require us to eat and drink in order to survive, so too do we need to eat of the bread of life and drink of the living water to live eternally with him. Are you hungry and thirsty? If so, the table is set for us. You will never be hungry again.
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Mark “Ole” Olson
December 7, 2021
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