Episode Transcript
CONSECRATE
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
HEAR
John 6:26–28 ESV
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”
CONSIDER
We want the bread to be the bread and not some kind of metaphor for God. When I am in debt, I want money. If I’m facing a hard circumstance, I want a solution. If I’m in a hard battle, I want victory. If I’m hungry, I want bread. I want God to provide all these things. All the while, God simply wills to provide himself. Jesus is the answer. And the answer might not involve a windfall of money to get out of debt or a solution to the problem or a victory in the battle. That’s a problem. I really don’t so much want Jesus as I want help.
Jesus can spot that from a mile away.
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”
We want Jesus to help us more than we want Jesus to have us. In our shortsighted desperation, what we don’t realize is help in this situation or that one is only a Band-Aid, a temporary fix. Jesus is himself the eternal solution. Watch this:
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. (v. 35)
We look for solutions when we need a Savior. Jesus is not God’s solution to all of our problems. Jesus is God’s gift of himself to us. It sounds cliché to say, but the old adage comes to mind: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime.”
Give a person the answer to their prayer, and you help them for a time. Teach a person to abide in Jesus, and you have changed his life forever.
Jesus can solve our problems and, at times, he will. This is not his primary concern. Jesus cares most about becoming our life, our hope, our love, our joy, our all-in-all.
It sounds simple, but it will be the hardest thing we ever do—to entrust ourselves completely, unreservedly, and continuously to Jesus. This is the path of discipleship. True maturity does not come from pleading for answers to our prayers but from desperately seeking the one who answers.
And isn't it a little bit more than amazing (and ironic) when on the night he would give himself up for us he took bread from the table, gave thanks to God, broke the bread and said, "Take, eat. This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."
Just wow! It's why I call it, "Wonder Bread!"
PRAY
Abba Father, we thank you for your Son, Jesus, who is himself the answer to our prayers. Grow us up to want Jesus more than we want our problems solved, to love him for who he is beyond what he can do for us. Come, Holy Spirit, and give us this bread. We pray in Jesus’s name, amen.
