Bread of Life
They wanted to crown Him King. Jesus had just fed the five thousand and the people were amazed by Him, you would be too, He had taken two small fish and five pieces of bread and fed over 5,000 people (Jn. 6:5-15). Now, everybody knows that the way to anyone's heart is through their stomach, who better to be king than someone who can feed the masses? But Jesus didn't have their hearts, and He knew it, He spoke to them, “You seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled” (Jn. 6:25). They wanted more from Jesus, more bread, and more miracles, the type of miracles that could defeat their Roman enemies. They wanted a king, not because of Jesus's wisdom or the love through which He did all of His deeds, but so that He could meet their wants and needs.
In those days, King was a political title. The scripture says, “Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone (Jn. 6:15). Imagine the crowd, bellies full, lots of new energy and enthusiasm, thrusting Jesus up on their shoulders and carrying Him around town shouting, “King Jesus! King Jesus!” They saw an opportunity to take advantage of this healer and miracle maker, and use Him for their own agendas. While they were daydreaming about a concierge Jesus, He disappeared into the mountain. He wanted to be alone, to pray to His Father. Most people would do anything for the position the masses wanted to place Jesus in. In the contemporary world we live in, people are selling their souls for “likes” and “followers,” they would kill to be declared king or queen. Not Jesus, He wasn’t interested in the pomp and circumstance, the cheers from the crowd. He wasn’t interested in being anyone’s earthly king. Didn’t the people realize that He was already King Jesus?
“So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, ‘You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.’ But when they said, ‘Give us a king to lead us,’ this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: ‘Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them, but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do’” (Sam. 8:5-9).
Samuel had a right to be offended when Israel asked for a king but God had even more of a right to be offended; Israel was rejecting Him, again. We are no different, human beings have a habit of rejecting that which is good for them. The masses did not want Jesus, they wanted what He could do for them. They wanted to make Him their kind of king, all while they disregarded the King He already was and snubbed their noses at the Kingdom that He offered.
“Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures for everlasting life,” Jesus said (Jn. 6:26-27). He spoke to the crowd about what they truly wanted from Him. They were not affected by the spiritual things He had to offer but by that which was material gain. And sure, it is true of most of us, we are more likely to respond to a prompt that says, “free food,” than one that says, “free eternal life.” But there is a reason Jesus describes Himself as the Bread of life because He knows how spiritually malnourished this world can leave us. Jesus wants us to turn our eyes from the things of this world and put our confidence in Him (34).
Are you hungry? Jesus is the Bread of life, those who believe in Him will live forever. Do you find yourself wanting a king, someone to take charge of your life and fight your battles? No need to look any further, God Almighty is already on the throne. Don’t settle for the things of this world, and don’t rely on physical bread and material things to sustain you. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Accept the free gift that God has given through His Son Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16).
