Week Five: The "Bread of Life" Sermon

The day before Christ gave the Bread of Life sermon, He performed the miracle of the feeding of the Five Thousand. Many people sought the Savior the next day because they had heard of the miracle, and wanted to be fed. I used to seek the Savior only when I thought I needed Him. I would only seek Him when I thought He could do something for me and get me something I wanted. I realize now that I would only seek Him when I thought it would benefit me. Now, though, I try to seek the Savior as often as possible, because I know that He will lift me up and make me stronger, and because I want to do what He asks of me. I suppose that before I was seeking "meat which perisheth" before, whereas now I seek "that meat which endureth unto everlasting life." 

In response to the people who sought to be fed, Christ taught them that while feeding their bodies is important, those who feed their bodies still die in the end. He told them that they need to feed their spirits, because those who feed their spirits do not experience spiritual death. He then told them that the only source from which they could feed their spirits was He, the Son of God and the Savior of the World. He taught that all men must come unto Him in order to be saved, and those who are saved will never die a spiritual death.

Christ not only used meat to teach this principle; He also used treasure, saying that only treasure from Heaven doesn't rust or become corrupted. He warned against those who seek after meat that perishes and treasure that corrupts. Today, this could be interpreted as placing any worldly thing above Christ. Anything we consider more important than Christ is perishable, corruptible.

Many people were offended by what Christ said, saying that His teachings were hard sayings. Many of these people left and no longer followed Christ after that. The Apostles, on the other hand, responded with faith, saying that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and The Source for Eternal Life. The Apostles were able to respond this way because they were in tune with the Spirit. There are many times in the scriptures and elsewhere where people have fallen away because of "hard sayings," like Laman and Lemuel who took "the truth to be hard," the young rich man who refused to give away his riches, people in early Church History who thought the next prophet should be chosen by the people and not the Lord, and many others.

I think that John 6 teaches that we need to follow Christ no matter what. No ifs, ands, or buts. We need to follow Him and do as He says, no matter how hard we think it is, because, hard or not, it's what we need to do. It makes me think of the saying, "I never said it would be easy; I only said it would be worth it."