The day before the Savior gave the
sermon on the bread of life, the miracle of feeding the five thousand
happened. Because this has just happened
the previous day, there were many people seeking out Jesus because they wanted to be fed. Jesus said in
verse 26 of chapter 6, "Ye seek me, not because ye desire to keep my sayings, neither because ye saw the
miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled."
I hope that if I had been there I would not
have followed the Savior in hopes of being feed physically. One thing that
motivates me to follow the Savior is the desire to become like him! I want to
get to know him more
personally. I want Him to become my best
friend. The best way to come closer to
Him is to emulate what He did and serve like He did. And the
desire to live with my family forever and receive all the promised blessings greatly motivates me to seek the Lord
and follow Him.
In response to those who were seeking
bread from Jesus, he taught them in that He is the true bread from
heaven. They were expecting a miracle
like Moses feeding the children of Israel manna from heaven. He taught them
that the bread Moses fed to them was not from heaven, meaning that it would not
bring them eternal life or closer to God.
Instead, Christ is the bread of life and the way to eternal life. They
were too caught up in the belief that because they were part of
the house of Israel they would be saved. They were too caught up in the law, and they missed what was actually
important. Christ was teaching them that what they were searching for was right
in front of them, but they could not accept Him as their Savior. They focused
too much on the law, the meat that perisheth, rather than the meat which
endureth unto everlasting life, Christ.
In John 6:27 the Savior teaches about
"meat which perisheth" and "meat which endureth unto everlasting
life." Another way that he teaches this in the New Testament is in Matthew
6. In verses 19 to 21 he instructs us to lay not up for ourselves treasures
upon earth, but to lay up treasures in heaven.
Treasures on earth will not last, "moth and rust doth corrupt,"
but treasures in heaven will never fade or corrupt. "For where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also." I think that it today's world
it is so easy to get caught up in laboring for "that meat which perisheth. " One thing that people labor
for that is of no worth is the praise of the world and feeling like they need
to fit in with the world. The world teaches that to fit in you need the nice
cars, the big house, all he toys, money, etc. For a lot of people I think this
becomes very consuming in their lives and they lose sight of what is important.
Not that any of those things are necessarily evil, but too much of them and
making them have such a high priority in our lives is not good. It is more
important to be accepted of the Lord and to have Him pleased with what you are
doing in your life.
As Jesus taught these things, many of
the people did not like what He said. They complained, saying that this
was "an hard saying" and many
people stopped following Him. The response of the apostles is one of my
favorite. Jesus asked them if they were
also going to go away, but they answered,
"Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life." They understood and had a testimony that Jesus was the Christ. This enabled them to be able to answer the
way they did.
Another example in the scriptures of a
hard saying was with Nephi and hia brothers. The Lord commanded them to return
to Jerusalem to obtain the brass plates. Nephi's brothers said that it was a
hard thing, but Nephi had courage and said, "I will go and do the
things which the Lord hath commanded." He had faith and had a testimony of the Lord. He knew that the Lord
would not ask him to do anything that he could not do.
This chapter in John helps me to
understand that I need to follow the Savior, that I am expected to follow the
Savior even when it is not easy or
convenient. Because of the knowledge that I have and the testimony that I
have gained of my Savior, He expects me to search for that meat that
will not perish but for that which will lead me to eternal life. If I can do
the simple things each day I will draw closer to Him and He will strengthen me
to withstand all that I need to!
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