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 magine tens of thousands of people being fed by
two fish and five loaves of bread. Imagine these same people traveling many miles on land to find Jesus. When they find Him they are surprised that He is in Capernaum. They
are surprised because they had not seen Him get into any boat. They did not see Jesus walking along any roads in the evening after He fed them. They did not know that He had
escaped from them by walking on the sea. When they found Him, they were puzzled, surprised and thrilled to see Him. But Jesus knew that they did not come to Him because they
believed that He was God, the Messiah, or the promised prophet (Deut. 18:18). No, they came because He had filled their stomachs. They came to Him for selfish reasons. They
came for more food. Did they think that Jesus was into some type of social services or welfare program? Jesus stunned them when He told them that they sought Him for selfish
reasons (John 6:26). The discussion that followed between Jesus and the crowd was difficult. Jesus tried to speak to their spiritually dark souls and help them understand spiritual
truth. He reminded them of the manna that God sent their ancestors in the Egyptian wilderness. The manna came down from the sky. Jesus was greater and better than the manna.
He was the Bread of Life (John 6:35). He was spiritual bread that came down out of heaven (John 6:38). But most of the crowd missed the message. They had self-centered sight
- not spiritual sight. All they could see was themselves. What a loss! Grumbling Leaders. The Jewish leadership did not believe Him. They did not understand and so we should not be surprised that they grumbled.
Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” John 6:41 (NAS95S)
The Greek word that is translated as “grumbling” is in the imperfect tense. It means that they were repeatedly grumbling - repeatedly complaining. If we listen
closely we might hear them criticizing Jesus. “Oh, He said, ‘I am the bread that came down out of heaven.’ Who does He think He is? He must think that we are
stupid or something.” Their words were most likely said with disdain and sarcasm.
It seemed preposterous that Jesus came down out of heaven since they knew His earthly parents.
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’?” John 6:42 (NAS95S) Mark 6:3 indicates that they knew the names of Jesus’ brothers and that He had sisters. Oh, the religious leaders heard the words that Jesus spoke, but they could not
understand His words. They focused on the plain sense of the words and missed the spiritual truth. They were in spiritual darkness. They asked the question, “How can He
say that He came down out of heaven?”
Why did they not understand? Then Jesus explained why they did not understand.
Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:43-44 (NAS95S) At first Jesus’ statement may seem to be completely unrelated to the question of the religious leaders, but the following verse helps us start to understand.
And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds . . . Col 1:21 (NAS95S) When a person finally finds God, repents of his or her evil deeds, and
asks for forgiveness, he or she has spiritual life. But before a person
has spiritual life, each individual is alienated from God, hostile to
God, and engaged in evil deeds. A person who is spiritually dead cannot
understand the things of God. So, God the Father must give one a spark
of spiritual light in order to help one understand spiritual truth. He
must draw them to Himself. No one will come to Jesus unless the Father
draws them. The Greek word that is translated as draw is ELKO and means “to
drag.” God the Father must drag a person to Himself. That is the
meaning of Jesus’ statement.
Both Romans 5:10 and 8:7 send us the same message. We are spiritually dead. Consequently, we need help,
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Rom 5:10 (NAS95S) . . . because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so . . . Rom 8:7 (NAS95S)
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| Life & Heart of Jesus | ||||||
