John 6:22-59
Advent Series: One of the emphases of John’s gospel–in fact, the emphasis with which he begins his gospel–is that Jesus existed before the incarnation. Though that’s commonly understood among us as Christians, consider the strangeness and the offense this idea presented to John’s first readers: a man who spoke of existing before he was conceived. To enhance our sense of wonder at the birth of Christ, we’ll examine a few of these places in John where he and/or Jesus himself make reference to the fact that Jesus’ life did not begin here on earth. Rather he was sent to earth from the glory of heaven itself with a very specific mission.
Synopsis: Human beings are hungry creatures, and we hunger for something so much more and deeper than what this materialistic world has to offer. This is the hunger that Christ was sent to this world to satisfy, and this is what he means by calling himself “The Bread of Life.” Having just witnessed the miraculous feeding of the 5000, the crowd is far more interested in actual bread. However, Jesus keeps pulling them away from mere temporal concerns and pushing them toward their deep spiritual need for Him and for eternal life. We too are tempted to fix our priorities on matters of mere temporal concern and ought to heed Christ’s call to pay attention to our much deeper hunger that only He can satisfy. To eat Christ’s flesh (v.51-58) is not only to believe in him, it’s to spend our lives actively feasting on and delighting in who he is and the eternal life he’s won for us.