The Bread of Life

Jesus... oh sweet and beautiful Savior! I have been watching "The Gospel of John" and pondering the truth of God's Word. It is quite intense. Jesus fed the five thousand and all the people got so excited! The became obsessed with Jesus! They loved Him! What could be better than a king that could make food appear basically out of thin air! They followed him and asked Him time and time again about food and He obliged them and said, "I am the Bread of life!" Then He told them that to be saved, they would have to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Then what happened??? They got angry! What!?!? We saw You make real bread, we can't possibly eat You! Then many quickly lost interest in Him. Jesus was of course talking spiritually, but they had not the faith to accept His words. He could have laid it out and explained it away in the most clear and persuasive ways possible, but He purposely did not. Jesus was interested in their hearts! He wanted their faith! If He had spoken straightforwardly, He certainly would have been followed by larger crowds and who knows what else might have happened, BUT HE DID NOT WANT IT THAT WAY!!! As the Old Testament prophets warned the Israelites, GOD DOES NOT WANT YOU TO LOOK RIGHT, HE WANTS YOUR HEARTS TO BE RIGHT! Time and time again the Israelites heard the law and vowed to uphold it and then regularly visited the temple and did the things of the law to the best of their ability. But they were not doing it in faith! They were just following a list of rules! If their hearts had been rights, their allegiances would not have blown back and forth and over and over and time and time again! Jesus did not care if He only had a handful with Him, because he wanted those whose hearts were right (of course making an exception for Judas, but Jesus knew this and allowed Him to continue anyway).

THE HEART, THE HEART, THE HEART!!! In the Old Testament, God wanted hearts. In the New Testament, God wanted hearts. Today, Jesus wants hearts. Don't focus on the bread, on the earthly things. Look in faith on Jesus, our glorious Lord and Savior! All praise be to Him!