Sunday 12 August 2012

Background

At the beginning of John chapter 6, Jesus fed the 5,000 (verses1-14).

Now in today's passage, John is drawing together the threads ofcontinuity between the Jewish people and the developing ChristianChurch of the early 2nd century AD (when the Gospel of John iswidely thought to have been written). He does this by developingthe contrast of manna being God's provision for a hungry people (Exodus16) and Jesus being the bread of life, God's provision forspiritual food and spiritual development.

As the continuity between the Jewish faith and Christianity isdeveloped, the obvious question - why bother with something new ifit is just a development of the past? - needs to be addressed. Johnanswers this by arguing that those who ate manna needed to eatagain and again while those who have faith in Jesus have no furtherneed as Jesus is living bread.

John is not talking about physical need and physical hunger; he istalking of spiritual need and hunger. Specifically, he is talkingabout the quality of the relationship we have with God. He issaying that the history of the Jewish people is one where therelationship with God is repeatedly broken and needs to berestored, which is why there is the need to eat and eat again. Johnis saying that faith in Jesus makes a good relationship with God,which lasts for eternity and does not get broken.

The end of this passage talks about Jesus giving of himself to makethe relationship with God a reality. The giving of his flesh ismost naturally understood in that his death on the Cross was notaccidental but a deliberate loving sacrifice, a gift to all people,to make something new possible.

To Ponder

• How can we show the relevance of a relationship with God whenwe live in a materialistic and scientific world?

• How do we know when we have a relationship with God?

• We all make mistakes. How can we have a relationship with Godthat doesn't get broken?