#DailyDevotion To Come To & To Believe In Jesus Is Key To John 6

John 6:29-35 ²⁹“What God wants you to do,” Jesus answered them, “is to believe in Him Whom He sent.” ³⁰“What miracle can You do?” they asked Him. “Let us see it, and we’ll believe You. What can You do? ³¹0ur fathers ate the manna in the desert, as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'”³²“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the real bread from heaven. ³³God’s bread is coming down from heaven and giving life to the world.” ³⁴“Lord,” they said to Him, “always give us this bread” ³⁵“I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus told them. “Come to Me, and you will never be hungry. Believe in Me, and you will never be thirsty.

So, if you don’t understand verse 29 here you will misunderstand everything else that follows in John 6. It is the work of God in us to believe in Him Whom He sent. Who is he whom he sent? Well Jesus Christ of Nazareth of course. We can only believe in Jesus as the one whom the Father sent if the Father draws us to him through the Holy Spirit.

Now we can see the Jews here understand Jesus is talking about himself. They ask to be given a sign so they may believe in him. Moses after all gave all sorts of sign and miracles (not that the Israelites always followed him either despite the signs and wonders he performed). They even refer to Moses giving them manna in the desert. So what, did these people not see he fed the 5000 in the wilderness with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish? Have they not seen him healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, opening the mouths of the mute and even raising the dead? As Jacky Mason the comedian once said, “Tough crowd.”

Now Jesus tells them God’s bread is coming down from heaven and giving life to the world. He tells them he is the bread of life. If they come to him they will never hunger and and if they believe in him they’ll never be thirty. Now this verse, 35 is also key to the rest of the chapter. Come to and Believe in are in parallel structure here. They are being used together to emphasize the same thing. Faith in Jesus as one who gives life to the world. To come to Jesus is to eat because he says you will not be hungry. To believe in Jesus is to drink because he says you will not be thirsty. Again from yesterday, Jesus is referencing Isaiah Isaiah 55:1, “Oh, come to the water, all you who are thirsty! You who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come and buy grain without money, and wine and milk that costs nothing.”

As we continue to read John 6 where Jesus says his flesh is real food and his blood is real drink, he is not telling us to puncture a vein like a vampire or chew on his leg like a cannibal. Rather it is the work he does, which he accomplishes by spilling his blood and sacrificing his body on the cross to ransom us, to redeem up, to make atonement for our sins, which he calls us to come to him and believe in him that this work of his accomplished our salvation, your salvation. This is not to say Jesus does not truly give us his body and blood in the sacrament to eat and drink, but that is later when he institutes the Lord’s Supper. For now in John 6, eating his flesh and drinking his blood is having faith in Jesus, coming to him as our savior from sin, death and the devil and receiving his life, the life he poured out for us on the cross.

Heavenly Father, grant us faith to believe in your Son Jesus that we may come to him, believe in him and receive from him eternal life. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.