The Gospel of John (12-30-12)
Lesson 17 – John 6:22-36
In v. 22 John tells us that the crowd that had received the
food at the beginning of this chapter had actually been very observant and had
watched all that had gone on. Jesus had sent His disciples away and stayed
behind going into a nearby mountain to pray. They, the crowd as they are
called, began to be somewhat bewildered by the logistics of how this ended up.
The next day when they came looking for Him, but He was nowhere to be found.
They had put 2 and 2 together. He had sent the disciples away in the only boat
that was apparently there and He was not seen to go past them traveling by
land. They questioned…where did He go? Figuring that He must have gone to
somehow catch up with His disciples in some unexplainable way they set out to find
Him hitching a ride on some boats that were passing through the area from
Tiberias and headed toward Capernaum. Their theory was find His disciples and
we will find Jesus!
In v. 25 they catch up to Him and begin to question Him
concerning the details of the last 24 or so hours asking Him how He had gotten
to the other side of the sea. But, in v. 26 Jesus essentially tells them that
that really is not important and begins to confront them with the truth of what
was actually motivating them telling them that they were really not interested
in finding out who Jesus really was, but were in fact only interested in the
neat trick that He pulled off that provided them food filling their stomach.
In the next few verses Jesus will challenge them with their
perception of realty. In v. 27 again He attempts to encourage them to make a
paradigm shift encouraging them to focus on the Kingdom of God instead of this
temporal world which perishes and has no lasting value like food that rots or
only satisfies one temporarily or for the moment.
Instead He tells them to work for something that lasts
attempting to get them to accept Him for who He really is. Like the woman at
the well, it was necessary for them to receive the whole package not just the
morsel or free lunch that they were focused on. They needed to see that
receiving Him would connect them with the Giver of All Life forever not only
providing for their physical needs, but every other need one might have forever
including forgiveness of sin.
He tells them that this life is found only in God’s Son
telling them that He was the One that God had given His seal of approval to,
placing His, God’s, seal on Him, i. e. the Holy Spirit. This verse, v. 27, and v. 63 are the central focus and lesson of this section and would be
good life focus verses to adopt as one’s focus and purpose for living life.
However, as we will see true commitment to this focus and theme for life with
God is not for the shallow or fainthearted.
In v. 28 it appears that they begin to warm up to the idea
and want to see the bigger picture that Jesus was offering and ask what they
should do to earn God’s favor asking Him what is required to do so. They were
apparently thinking in the direction of the Mosaic Law as to what God required
to please Him. But, Jesus gives them a shorter and maybe a somewhat more
difficult answer telling them that all of the required works necessary for
inheriting eternal life are found in one relatively simple but profound
step…Belief in the One that God had sent, the One right in front of them, believing
who He said that He was and joining Him in what He came to do. (Rom. 4:1-8)
But, in v. 30 it is apparent that they had not yet come to
the place of believing on Him asking yet for more proof in v. 31. They bring up
the food issue again revealing where their focus and belief was seeing God as a
meal ticket or someone who meets their physical needs only.
But, in v. 32 Jesus tells them straight and again gives them
the bigger picture. They brought up how their ancestors were cared for in the
wilderness apparently giving more credit than was due to Moses for supplying
manna while they journeyed. After all, Moses was the one they saw when this
provision showed up so they naturally looked to him as the one with the
connections to get the goods much as we give credit to our government and our
world system for our provisions.
However, in v. 32 Jesus reminds them and us that it is not
Moses who gave food to them, also reminding us today that it is not governments
or this current world system that actually provides for us our daily bread, but
that it was and is God the Father that is really the Provider of all things
referring to His provisions as Bread from Heaven.
In v. 33 Jesus narrows their focus really making it simple
for them to understand if they will receive it saying that in essence that He
IS the Bread of Life supplying any and all life to all things in the whole
world that have life. After hearing this they respond in v. 34 by telling Him
in essence that His offer sounds like a better deal than what they had in their
present way of life. However, they haven’t heard all the terms and conditions
yet and Jesus in v. 35 and after begins to reveal them unto them and explains
to them the agreement and commitment needed to receive this Living Bread.
In these verses He begins to make some bold claims that are
hard for them to swallow, no pun intended. In v. 35, just as He did to the
woman at the well, He makes the claim that He is more than just a temporary fix
for the needs and necessities of life making the claim that the one who
partakes of what He has to offer will never again hunger or thirst God becoming
their Provider for all things forever…
It is true that in God’s Kingdom that there will be food,
but this food will not be necessary to survive. Even Jesus ate after His
resurrection. We will be found to receive our life and sustenance directly from
the Giver of Life. The offer that they missed was that He was not only their
Giver for their current need or sustenance, but was also the offer of Life
itself to them…giving them life forever in relationship with Him.
This was a rather large claim that was hard for them to
accept. But, Jesus tells them that they had just seen this to be true, v. 36,
in the feeding of the five thousand providing for more than their need telling
them that they had rejected what He had done for them also rejecting Him and
what He was offering them by asking Him for more signs as proof of His claims.
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