This is the work of God...

John 6:22-42 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

The next day the crowd that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there, except one, and that Jesus had not entered with His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples had gone away alone. ²³ There came other small boats from Tiberias near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks. ²⁴ So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the small boats, and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. ²⁵ When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?”

²⁶ Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. ²⁷ Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” ²⁸ Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” ²⁹ Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” ³⁰ So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? ³¹ Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’” ³² Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. ³³ For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” ³⁴ Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.”

³⁵ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. ³⁶ But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. ³⁷ All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. ³⁹ This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. ⁴⁰ For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

⁴¹ Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” ⁴² They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?”

“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life”    We are to behold Jesus. To behold is more than just to look at, it is to observe, to perceive, to gaze upon; to be sure not to miss. Then having beheld Jesus we must believe in Him. It is different to believe in someone than it is to believe about them. To believe in Jesus we must believe all of what scripture and Jesus Himself says about Him. We must first believe that He is God. We must believe that to fulfill the will of the Father, He came as a man, not just any man, but one:    who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.(Hebrews 4:15)   We must believe: that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.(Romans 5:8) We must believe as Jesus says:  "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) It goes on and on, there is no end to what we will believe as we behold Jesus.

Jesus makes a comparison between Himself, “the bread of life” and the manna which God provided daily for the nation of Israel while they were in the wilderness. In Exodus 16:15-21, we read the account of the provision of manna:       When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.  This is what the Lord has commanded, ‘Gather of it every man as much as he should eat; you shall take an omer apiece according to the number of persons each of you has in his tent.’…   Moses said to them, “Let no man leave any of it until morning.”  But they did not listen to Moses, and some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul; and Moses was angry with them.  They gathered it morning by morning, every man as much as he should eat; but when the sun grew hot, it would melt.   There are two things we can see about Jesus as our manna.  First, like the manna God provided in the wilderness, we need fresh manna each day, we need to have a daily provision of Jesus, what we beheld and believed yesterday will not sustain us today. When Jesus taught us to pray saying:   “give us this day our daily bread”, He wasn’t talking about white, wheat or rye; He was talking about our daily revelation of Christ, what we need to know and believe for that/this day.

 The second thing is they gathered it “morning by morning…  when the sun grew hot, it would melt”    We too should seek our daily bread early, before the heat of the day. Once we get busy in the heat of the day our opportunity to gather our daily bread is reduced. We may not have what we need, when we need it. We should behold Jesus daily, early each day we should observe, perceive, gaze upon; to be sure not to miss who Jesus is and what He wants to be for us and through us this day. We must daily behold and believe Jesus.

Today’s text ends saying: Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.”  They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?”    They believed of Jesus, about Him, not in Him. They believed what they saw with their eyes, what they knew by their human understanding. They knew Jesus as a man, not as God. We too, if we only observe and perceive the things Jesus did as a man will miss who He is. If we try to be like Jesus the man and do what He did as a man we fall short of what God wants and has for us. We are to behold and believe. Jesus says:  Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.  Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. (John 14:12-14)   When we behold and believe in Jesus, not of Him, we can do what He did. Just as Jesus said He did not do anything on His own; He only did what the Father showed Him, so too if we will behold and believe Jesus, He will work through us to accomplish the works and the will of the Father.  “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”     We behold and believe, we do the things that Jesus did;  That others would also believe in Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, give me this day my daily bread. As I behold You today help me to observe and perceive, to not miss who You are and what You want to be for me and through me today. By Your Holy Spirit empower and enable me to do the things You did, to fulfill Your purpose for me and through me today, that others too would believe in You.   Amen