God's Word for You (Friday, Mar 5, 2010)
A Daily Devotion by Pastor Tim Smith
John 6:41-45
Jesus, The Bread of Life
41 At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
John chooses his words carefully. Writing more than sixty years after these things took place, John is writing from the perspective of a Christian, and the last living Apostle. When John uses the term “the Jews” (apart from quotations) he’s usually talking about the way the leaders of the Jews opposed Jesus’ teaching and plotted to kill him.
42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
This wasn’t the only time Jesus’ human family was used as an excuse for unbelief. Not that anything was wrong with his family. Joseph, his foster-father, had a respectable trade as a carpenter, but had apparently died by the time Jesus’ ministry was under way, since Jesus will give over the care of his mother to John during his crucifixion (I wondered once whether Jesus’ time in the wilderness for forty days and nights was part of his own mourning over Joseph’s death, but since Jesus was Mary’s oldest son, it would have been his responsibility to look after her while she was in mourning). Apart from being listed in the Gospels, we know little if anything about his sisters (he had at least two) or his brothers Joseph (Jr.) and Simon. But his other brothers at least, James and Jude, later came to faith in him and each one wrote a book of the New Testament bearing their names. It’s a testimony to their humility that just as Peter does, both James and Jude refer to themselves as Christ’s “slave” (Greek doulos, NIV “servant”) in the opening words of their Epistles.
43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. (NIV)
Jesus doesn’t deny his human family, but this is the moment to embrace his heavenly father in public. He doesn’t leave any room for doubt about what he’s saying. Quoting Isaiah 54:13, he says, “They will all be taught by God.” Jesus is quoting freely, bringing both Isaiah’s Hebrew and the Greek translation in the Septuagint into the thought. But he doesn’t change the meaning of Isaiah at all. The point Jesus is making is not just in the one verse he quotes, but the whole context of Isaiah 52-54 where the Messiah is shown in all the gruesome punishment of the cross, and the blessings that will flow into God’s people who put their faith in him; even being taught by the Messiah himself. Jesus is telling the people, and especially the leaders of the Jews, that he certainly is the promised Messiah, and that anyone who truly believes in the God of the Old Testament, the God of the Jews, must finally put their faith in Jesus the Messiah. Truly there is no such thing as a “modern Jew.” Jesus has shown us again and again that he is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies, and that anyone who believes them believes in him.
But we can’t just stop there. There is no other testament after Jesus, either. As Paul stresses again and again in his letters, there is nothing we can add to our salvation beyond Christ. And so any other book—whether the Koran, the Book of Mormon, or anything else—must be rejected, for it would be a rejection of Christ’s perfect work in the world on our behalf.
Just as the universe has its beginning and ending in Jesus, so also our salvation is begun and ended by Jesus, too. It’s all Jesus, and it’s all finished.
Next stop, heaven.
Something Extra:
Ecclesiastes 2:2
2 “Laughter,” I said, “is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?”
This is good verse to show how important it is to take a verse in its context to understand what’s being said. Solomon is not saying that laughter or pleasure are sinful things. God himself laughs (Psalm 2:4, 37:13), and laughter is counted as a blessing from God (Genesis 21:6). It’s even the meaning of Isaac’s name. As for “pleasure,” it’s the word used in the Bible for the rejoicing that God’s people enjoy when they keep his festivals and holidays.
But in the context of Solomon’s quest for God’s wisdom, fun as a thing must be set to one side. Fun, whether “laughter” or the “pleasure” of a celebration, fun is not the point of life. It’s a blessing, like so many things, but it’s not our goal. Our goal is Godly wisdom, the wisdom that is about God, which is a wisdom that comes only from God. And that faith-wisdom accomplishes everything, because it connects us to Jesus.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul's Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn's father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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