I love soul food, I love the taste, I love the feeling I get when I eat it, I love the rich history of the food because I know that Soul Food came from people who did not have a lot of time, nor the best ingredients and they had to improvise in order to make the food tasty. I know a little bit more about healthy eating now that I am older I don't eat Soul Food as much as I used to. I know that the reason the soul food tastes do good is because it is filled with sugar, salt, starches, and fat. Not very nutritious. However, there are still some times I will have some Ox tails. I have an emotional attachment to other foods as well. I love a good steak, and I won't eat watermelon. My mother says that when she was pregnant with me she ate a lot of steak and watermelon, I love steak, and I don't care for watermelon. I know how to pick great watermelon, but growing up in a house where you saw one every day from the start of the season to the end you might get tired of looking at watermelon.
I'm sure we all have food that makes us feel a certain way. There are foods that take us back to a time we enjoy. Food that brings back memories, food that nourishes our souls.
We find Jesus in this passage of scripture right after he finished feeding the multitude and walking on water, now both Jesus the disciples are not around the crowd anymore and the crowd starts to look for Jesus. I commend the crowd for this action at least, because the crowd saw that the men of God had moved on and they went to search for them. Do we search for Jesus or do we just expect him to show up on our terms?
The Motives were impure
The crowd of people found Jesus and when they found him, they asked him a question, Rabbi when did you come here? Jesus saw right through that, Jesus knew that the people's motives were impure. They claimed to come for the teaching but Jesus saw they really came for the bread. The crowd was attracted to Jesus but not for the right reasons. I've read about missionaries running into this type of issue abroad. The missionaries would go to an impoverished area to teach the people that lived in the area about Jesus.
They converted, were baptized, joined the church, and remained active members as long as their physical needs were met though the generosity of the congregation. But once their prospects improved and they and their families no longer needed rice, they drifted away from the church. Hence missionaries called them “rice Christians.” That name calls to mind those who flocked to the churches in East Germany and Romania just before the liberation of eastern Europe—when the church was manifesting courage, and pastors were speaking out against Communist regimes. The people came to cheer the church on, and to join the congregation in its opposition to the tyrannical state. But after liberation from the heel of the Soviet boot and local dictators, the crowds dispersed and the churches began to look as straggling and abandoned as they had before the stirrings of political liberty took hold.
That kind of behavior is not exclusive to foreign mission trips. We see the same behavior here in the United States in our churches. Are you on a board or committee to do the work, or do you just want the title and the control? Are you really following a call God placed on your life or do you just want to be on stage and be seen? Are you really here to minister to the people or do you just want a check?
The people misunderstood the work.
In the text Jesus told them not to work for food that perishes but to work for food that brings eternal life. The crowd was thinking about the law, and thinking about the type of work where one labors and gets something in return for their labor. What Jesus was talking about was belief. Over and over again Jesus will ask people before he performs a miracle, do you believe? There will be times when Jesus can only do a little bit in the text and not a lot, why? Because the people lack faith. Jesus wants to know do you believe? Do you believe Jesus is a doctor in the sickroom? Do you believe Jesus is a lawyer in the courtroom. Do you believe Jesus is a friend to the friendless? Do you believe Jesus is hope for the hopeless? Do you believe Jesus can you of your disease? Do you believe Jesus is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all you could ever ask or imagine? Do you believe Jesus can really make away out of now way?
The crowd of people are talking about work like it is performance on a job but what Jesus wants to know is do you believe?
The people misapplied the manna
The people are starting to get it but not quite yet. Jesus walked on water, Jesus feed the multitude with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread and the next question the crowd asks is what other signs are you going to perform? What else you got Jesus? What have you done for me lately? They still want more.
It is the crowd in the text that says our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness.
Jesus gets one thing clear for them. That 'he' that the people refer to in the quote, is not Moses, it is God. Moses did not give them bread, God did. Understand that God provided the means for the Israelites to survive for years and years in the wilderness. It was God that gave them food when their own supplies ran out. It was God that kept the Israelites fed when no one else was able to do it. Jesus lets the crowd know that Moses was a great prophet, but the power to keep the people fed in the wilderness came from God.
Now they don't need manna anymore, they have the bread of life. Jesus lets them know with an I AM statement that he is the bread of life. Food that will make you feel good and something that will save your soul. Jesus provides a bread that makes sure you are never hungry again after eating it, water that makes sure you never thirst again. The Bible says that God loved the world so much he gave his only begotten son, and if you believe in Jesus his only begotten son you won't perish but will have everlasting life. Moses was the first redeemer Jesus is the final redeemer. With Moses, the people got manna that only lasted a day, with Jesus you get a supernatural bread that will feed you for all eternity. Jesus is giving us soul food that will provide forgiveness and new life in the Kingdom of God. This is food not only for us to eat, but food for us to share with others.
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