The Best Thing

John 6
1-13 (read it if you want)
Here we have the good ol Jesus feeds the 5000 story. There's so much we can glean from this...Things like:
God will use whatever you have...and...He's more than enough for you...
All good solid Christian truths. Preached time and time again from pulpits all over the world.
But what's this in verse 14-15? These people are so Freaked out and absolutely astounded at what's taken place, they try to press in and make Jesus King. He's just done this amazing miracle...making something GREAT out of something small, meeting the needs of 5000+ people...filling their stomachs...Proving He has more than what they need. So of course they want Him to rid them of their tyrants of the day. What's he do? He sneaks off. Eluding them.
16-21
Then we have the Incredible story, again preached in pulpits everywhere, where the disciples go out in the boat, sans the Messiah, then what to my wandering eyes should appear? Jesus...WALKING on the WATER! I don't know if you've tried this, but it's hard...you can't get more than a couple of steps before going down. Peter gets out of the boat and there's the stories of Faith and "Never take you eyes off Christ" sermons...again all well and good. True as the North Star. Another GREAT miracle of Christ. Long story short...they get to the other side of the lake and...
22-26
There's all the folks who were at the potluck just yesterday. They ask the obvious question, "When did you get here, Jesus?" Jesus...because He's God...Looks straight into their hearts and splits them wide open, saying "You've come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs—and for free."(msg) Here's where we get to the message. The point of the Feeding 5K and walking on water and water to wine and blind people seeing and people being raised from the dead. Here's the point. You ready?
Jesus says, "Don't waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. He and what he does are guaranteed by God the Father to last."

They don't get it

28To that they said, "Well, what do we do then to get in on God's works?"

29Jesus said, "Throw your lot in with the One that God has sent. That kind of a commitment gets you in on God's works."

BUT who would want to commit?

30-31They waffled: "Why don't you give us a clue about who you are, just a hint of what's going on? When we see what's up, we'll commit ourselves. Show us what you can do. Moses fed our ancestors with bread in the desert. It says so in the Scriptures: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat

It’s here that we come to an escalating point in Scripture. They don’t understand or want to understand what Jesus is saying so they keep making excuses. These people are wanting something they can taste or see. They want Jesus to do another trick. They want Him to fill their bellies right then and there. Jesus goes round and round with them. He even gets to the point of saying “ I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE!” you want flour and water and yeast and such...I want to give you something better. Something that lasts. He finally gets to the point of flat out saying “If you want real life...at MY flesh, Drink MY blood.” They don’t get what He’s saying and leave grumbling...many of them probably disappointed they didn’t get to see Jesus fly or something.

Even the disciples weren’t getting it. They tell Jesus in a kind of “staff-meeting” that , “Uh...Jesus..this is a little hard teaching here. You might want to back off a little. Who can accept this?” He replys to them. Jesus sensed that his disciples were having a hard time with this and said, "Does this throw you completely? What would happen if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he came from? The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don't make anything happen. Every word I've spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making. But some of you are resisting, refusing to have any part in this.”

So..what’s the message here. Why the full page rant about John 6? Jesus is trying to tell us something. He’s done these miracles and proved that His words have validity. The point here is that Jesus is the ONLY thing that really, truly satisfies. HE IS THE BEST THING! So often we seek out Jesus because he filled our tummies, miraculously pulled our bank account out of the red, or healed a disease. These things are not bad things...they are not unholy things. But they are SYMPTOMS of the real miracle that has taken place. Jesus did some really stinkin’ cool stuff when he was on earth. He made a guy’s hand grow back, He got to rub His spit in someone’s eyes and they could see, He fed a college campus with the contents of a lunch box, he took a stroll on liquid, he RAISED PEOPLE FROM THE DEAD! That’s some cool stuff. But if they become the focus of the investigation here, we’ve missed the point. All of those things PALE in comparison to THE miracle. IN our passage here, Jesus is trying to point people to the Miracle, namely Himself, and most can’t swallow it. They think that the bread, or healing, or manna, or tradtition is the ‘thing’. It says that many of his disciples left, not being able to accept what was taught. So...best case...75 out of 5000+ heard it and got it. We only know of 12-15 by name.
The miracles in scripture are wonderful and full of life and light. But the miracle...THE miracle is this.
God come to earth in Christ, Died to atone for our sin, Rose to conquer death. And here’s the best part...Romans 8:11 tells us that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead now resides in us. SO...we have access to Christ...the BREAD of life...our soul’s deepest satisfaction...24/7. Not only that, we have the power to act like it...to behave as sons and daughters of God...as satisfied people. Because of THE miracle...because Jesus is THE ‘thing’. The best thing. That’s the Message.
Jesus is the Best thing.