47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. (John 6:47-59 – English Standard Version)
As we live in a capitalist society, we are always be reminded about the significance of materialistic possession. We concern about the bread that fulfills our physical needs. We are materialist and continuously seeking for materialistic reward. We prefer tangible reward rather than the intangible. If you are given a choice, would you prefer your boss to give you a word of affirmation / encouragement or a pay raise / 5 extra days of vacation? We know there are many intangible things that are valuable, such as friends, family, relationships, etc. However, we still treasure materialistic things. As long as we are a materialist, it would be very hard for us to value the spiritual treasure that Jesus offers – the bread of life. Jesus is the source and sustainer of spiritual life. He is the One who forgives our sins and reconciles our relationship with God. The natural bread that feeds and sustains our physical body does not give life. It merely sustains our physical life, which allows us to go back to work and continue the cycle throughout the years of our lives until we die. Satan’s strategy is to first convince us that we must first work hard to keep our body and soul together. Then, Satan convinces us to work even harder to indulge the body at the expense of our soul. What is necessary for the sustaining of the physical earthly life can be easily become life-dominating. We cannot fall into Satan’s trap. We cannot exclude the life of the soul. We need to fix our eyes on God, who is the ultimate sustainer of life.
“I am the bread of life.” (John 6:48)
