GOSPEL MEDITATION
John 6:22–34
“I Am the Bread of Life”, part 1
Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passages of Scripture. Reread them. From memory, determine the central points.
- Following the miracle of the feeding of the 5000, crowds gather about Jesus.
- At first He could not be located, but the people spurred on by the report of a miracle, searched until they found him.
- Someone in the crowd asked Jesus how he had gotten to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Apparently they did not know about the walking on the water.
- Jesus immediately states that they were looking for Him, not that they saw ‘Messianic signs,’ but because they had eaten their fill.
- Jesus now states the most important message they would ever hear. He tells them not to work for that which parishes but instead labor for that which yields eternal life.
- It is not that Jesus does not care about the fundamentals of survival, but there is something of much greater value to receive.
- Jesus is not afraid to disappoint hungry, poor, people. He knows certainly and for certain that before them all was life and death, both of an eternal duration. This shows the love of Jesus in action, risking rejection, maybe even anger.
- The real work of God is to believe in the one God has sent, Jesus tells them. But the crowd wants proof that Jesus is that prophet Moses spoke of, the real and actual Messiah.
- They want bread, like the manna Moses had given in the wilderness (see Exodus 16). Jesus then corrects His hearers and states it was God who gave the bread and not Moses.
- The good reply is, “Sir, give us this bread always.”