Never ignore Jesus!

John 6:30-35

The people said to Jesus, ‘What sign will you give to show us that we should believe in you? What work will you do? Our fathers had manna to eat in the desert; as scripture says: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ Jesus answered: ‘I tell you most solemnly, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven, the true bread; for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’  ‘Sir,’ they said ‘give us that bread always.’ Jesus answered: ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst.’

Food for thought!

As we saw yesterday, the people are still stuck; they just can't go beyond the gift to the giver, can't go beyond the bread of Jesus to the Jesus of the bread; can't go beyond the material to the spiritual. All they ask of Jesus is that He give more physical bread. But this is too little. To come to Jesus to ask for mere bread is just too little. Jesus givens much more than food for the stomach; he gives food for eternity; he gives himself.

Sometimes we are like the people in the gospel; all we ask of Jesus is bread or some material thing or some physical healing. This is too little to ask Jesus; this is reducing Jesus to a social worker. In today's gospel, the people even remind Jesus of the Old Testament miracle of the Manna. They tell Jesus that Moses gave the children of Israel Manna, and they want to know what He is going to do. Christ's response is to remind them that Moses was not responsible for the Manna, but that it was the provision of God. He goes on to tell them that the true bread from Heaven is a person. In fact, it is Jesus himself who is the Bread of Life.

What does it mean for Jesus to be bread of life?

Bread (food) is a substance known and used by every society on the face of the earth; bread is consumed by people everywhere. We cannot live without bread; we can skip a meal, but can never skip all meal all the time. Why? Well, because bread sustains physical life. It is that without which biological life cannot go on.

Jesus is to our souls what bread is to our body. Physical bread can sustain human life for long periods of time. However, after a time, the body will still die, even though it has been well fed. Jesus, on the other hand, is bread that gives everlasting life. When Jesus is received, He gives a salvation that lasts for all eternity. In other words, the Bread of life is not a system or a denomination, or a church, but He is a Person. This truth simply serves to remind us that we can never be saved by some religious system or method. Salvation comes through Jesus and Jesus alone!  Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).

What Jesus is teaching us in today´s gospel is simple. He is saying that He is «indispensable»; that we cannot live without him, cannot do away with him; that we need Him; that we do well not to ignore him or forget him; that we do well to welcome him and be with him as he is with us.