John 6:32

Jesus patiently responds to their assertion, “Listen carefully, it is not Moses who produced bread from heaven.  Don’t you see?  In fact, it is my Father who gives you authentic bread from heaven today as well.” John 6:32 EFP

What is Jesus trying to assert here?  Clearly he is trying to establish what they have obviously overlooked, but that seems so logical in retrospect.  “Bread from heaven”?  That should clearly denote it was not produced by a human, even one as great as Moses.  God sent the bread—not Moses.  Moses was the instrument by which he communicated what God would do, but he had no part in making it happen.  This was probably not a welcomed statement, although they could not argue with its validity.  But it’s what comes next that will set in motion an avalanche that will have lasting effects on the people, Jesus’ disciples, and Jesus himself.

His point?  If what you say is true—God fed our forefathers in the past by bringing bread from heaven, then it must also be true that God is also the one who fed you this time.  But even more than that, he couches the statement in such a way that implies there is more to his statement than what they might hear at first.  What does he mean by “authentic bread”?  Did he intend to imply that the bread given by God recently was superior to the bread given the Israelites in the desert?  That’s pretty serious.  Jesus is just getting started. 

When I am tempted to look back and see God’s greatest miracles as things of the past, I will remember this text.  The God I serve today is the same God who worked the wonders in the desert for the people of Israel and the same God who walked the dusty roads of Palestine and sojourned on the “other side of the sea.”  God’s power has not diminished—that only leaves my faith as the only deficient variable.