Is Jesus Enough?

In John chapter six we find the record of Jesus miraculously feeding over five thousand people.  This, along with his miracles of healing, John calls, "signs."  They were signs of the presence of God's Kingdom coming into the world in the person of the Jesus Christ.  As such they were pointers to his deity and to his work as God's appointed Messiah.  

That work was to establish in fallen and rebellious humanity the Gospel of God's grace of salvation.  This salvation is salvation from the just and holy wrath of God due to human sin and rebellion against God.  To be under the wrath of God due to our sinful guilt means that we are also estranged from God and cut off from the source of life. Hence we are spiritually dead and we will experience physical death and we will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction.   Jesus came to save us from this and restore us under God's rightful reign so that we would, by the Holy Spirit, be given the grace to live as obedient citizens of His kingdom. 

The miraculous signs that Jesus did pointed to Him as God's appointed Deliverer and King.  Yet his Kingdom was not of this world.   After the crowd had eaten and was thoroughly satisfied they respond to the sign by declaring that Jesus was indeed the Prophet who was to come into the world.  Yet, they completely misunderstood what this Prophet (expected Messiah) was to do in the world.  They had a completely earthly, temporal and this-life-agenda through which they interpreted the sign.   They were indeed enamored with Jesus.  They really liked what he had done for them.  Yet, they did not see beyond their stomachs.  The party ended when Jesus, perceiving that they were going to "take him by force to make him king," sent his disciples back to Capernaum by boat and withdrew to the mountain by himself.  

The next day when the crowd awoke and did not find Jesus (he had walked on the Sea of Galilee, catching up with his disciples who had rowed in the storm three to four miles and then they all arrived in Capernaum), they hurried to find him.   The text states that they were seeking Jesus (6:24).   They were really interested in him, more particularly they were really interested in what they believed he could do for them.   Upon their finding Jesus, he says something that seems to contradict what John stated in 6:14: "when the people saw the sign (feeding over five thousand people from a few loaves of bread and some fish) that he had done."   In 6:26 Jesus is recorded saying to them: "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw the sign."  So which is it?   Did they see the sign or did they not see it?  Yes and no.   They saw it on one level yet on another level they were completely blind to the design of the sign.  It was as though they got stuck looking at the sign and failed to see where it pointed them or better to whom it pointed them.   They were seeing the sign only with their stomachs and not with hearts of faith.   The reason they did not really see the sign was this: "You are seeking me not because you saw the sign but because you ate your fill of the loaves." 

It is so important that you really come to understand what Jesus is teaching in John chapter six.  You need to be clear on what exactly it is that Jesus has come to do and what he offers you based on his work.   The bread with which he miraculously fed the five thousand was real bread, it was earthly, tangible, filling-one's-empty-stomach bread.  Jesus was moved due to their physical hunger to perform this miracle and to sustain them but in doing this He was also pointing them to a more necessary kind of bread, what he calls the “true bread.”   They got all preoccupied with the sign that they did not see where the sign pointed them.  Not one of them was so overwhelmed by the miraculous provision that they became more drawn to Jesus than to the bread.   They liked what Jesus did for them so much that they completely missed who Jesus is!   That is the point.   That is the danger we all face even today. 

Jesus will go on in the chapter to teach about the nature of the true bread, which he is, and how only those who by faith feed on him will experience real life in this age and the age to come.   In this way Jesus sets up a contrast for us between the bread of this life (earthly necessities and niceties, both things we need and things we want) and himself as the true bread.   Jesus is stressing that he must have the priority over our heart's desires.  He is the one who, as our sovereign Lord, provides us with what we need to live in this age, yet these gifts must not become our reasons for looking to him.  Jesus alone must be the end or object of our faith and not the means to the bread of this life.

What Jesus is calling you to do is to continue to feed on Him (6:54-58) by believing the Gospel.  That is believing who he is for you (Savior and Lord) and what he has done for you (saved you from the wrath of God, secured your justification and reconciliation with God) by supplying you with the true sustenance you need.  These realities feed your soul or inner life and give you joy, encouragement, life, hope and peace.   Genuine faith in Christ leads us not to Jesus for earthly bread: money, prosperity, health, good self-esteem or even "your best life now;” but to seek Jesus for Jesus so he is enough!  Then as you in faith feast on the true bread you will find the inward capacities to respond to your circumstances (good or bad, hard or easy) and to the people in your life in a righteous, loving and God-glorifying way.  Feasting on the Bread that is Jesus enables you to live as a disciple of Jesus by calling him Lord and then doing what he says, while trusting that your heavenly Father does in fact know your earthly and daily needs.