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Thursday
Jul 7th, 2022
By: Matthew Sink
The Gospel of John-Day 24

John 6:25-40 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

The more time I spend with Jesus in Scripture, the more convicted I am by the juxtaposition He presents between the things of Heaven and the things of Earth. Jesus came from Heaven, which is eternal, and He lived on Earth, which is temporary. While He was here, He constantly taught people to force their eyes off of the horizontal stuff of this earth, and to focus instead on the things of Heaven. But it was always a hard sale, because the things of earth are all that the people of earth know. It’s so hard to convince people to value things they haven’t seen above things they have.

Store up your treasures in Heaven.

Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven.

Stop the cycle of thirst associated with temporary water. Try living water.

Stop the cycle of hunger associated with bread. Try the Bread Of Life.

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. Give to God what is God’s.

Jesus is describing an alternate reality – something that we can’t yet see with our physical eyes, but He promises that it is there. And we all sense it, anyway. The hungers and desires that we have on this earth point to something deeper than this earth can provide. We are programmed for more – for satisfaction that can only come in Him.

So what does this mean for today? Even as we live on this earth, we need to keep our hope fixed on something greater. We are here for a short time, but eternity will be there, in Heaven, with Him. That realization will keep me from over-valuing the things that happen today; from over-reacting to the bad; from over-reaching for the good. Instead, I navigate today with the understanding that my ultimate hope and satisfaction is not found on this earth. I’m just passing through.