Thursdays Child John 6:35-60 Things Aren't Always What They Seem

Well, I hope you liked the last entry "Son Of Man." It was fun for me to research. If you didn't catch it, it is just below this one. We looked at what Jesus meant when He referred to Himself as "The Son Of Man." Check it out.
As we continue in the book of John, we'll take a look at how Jesus tries to explain to the crowd (the crowd of 5000 He had just fed the night before) that He is the "Bread Of Life." This passage has a lot of repetition in it. It probably could have been a lot shorter, but Jesus kept trying to convince the crowd that He had come to give them eternal life, and they just weren't able to accept it. As I was reading it, I was able to understand it from both perspectives. If we look at verse 38, Jesus says "I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent Me, not to do what I want." Then in verse 42 the people said "How can He say He came down from heaven, we know His mother and father." It doesn't say how long they had known Jesus' family, but I was thinking if they knew Him as He was growing up, it would be really hard to accept Him as the Messiah.
As we look at the next exchange between Jesus and the people, this is the part that spans twelve verses. Jesus is trying to explain to them that they are to eat of His flesh, and drink His blood. You can understand why the disciples said in verse 60 "This is very hard to understand. how can anyone accept it." It was back in verse 57 that help me understand. Jesus said "I live by the power of the living Father who sent me, in the same way, those who partake of Me will live because of Me." Jesus is saying here, if you totally take in and consume and live everything I teach, you will have eternal life. I don't know why, but the word "partake" helped me to realize what Jesus was saying. I think it's very cool that, after the people told Jesus they expected Him to take care of them while they followed Him, and brought up how Moses fed the Israelites with manna, Jesus compares himself to the manna. God supplied manna from heaven to sustain life for the Israelites, now Jesus is telling them, and us, that He has come from heaven and He is all the bread we need to "partake" of to have eternal life. When He says we will never hunger and thirst again, He means when we get to heaven. Naturally we will while we're still living as humans on earth, but when we get to heaven, when all is perfect, there will be no need for food or drink. If you were having a hard time understanding what Jesus meant when He said we are to eat His flesh, and drink His blood, I hope this helped make things a little clearer.
Just remember, things may not always be what they appear. The people in this passage would never have expected Jesus to be the Messiah (and some of them still didn't believe.) So keep an open mind, the most wonderful things could come to us where and when we least expect it.
In verse 37, and 44 Jesus said "those the Father has drawn to Me." I'd like to take a look at this next time. I have heard some debate about this in the past, and I'd like to see if we can shed a little light on this phrase. Until then keep questioning, and keep searching for the answers.
Thanks for searching with me,
Paul

Thursdays Child: "Son Of Man" Examined

As I mentioned in the last Thursdays Child, I would like to take a look at the phrase "Son Of Man." It's a phrase that I always wondered what it's meaning was. It is used 88 times in the New Testament, and one that Jesus used to refer to Himself.
What I found is that there are two possible meanings. One is from the book of Daniel, in a prophecy about Jesus being the Messiah. In Daniel 7:13-14 it says, "In my vision at night I looked and there before me was like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations, and men of every language worshiped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed." The second meaning actually means born of a human. An interesting use of the phrase, is in the Old Testament, it is used to confirm a person's relationship to another person. They used the phrase, like we use "next of kin" today. If a person needed to be bought from slavery, or released from jail, the "son of man" could redeem them. Since Jesus was totally human He can be considered our relative by blood, and since He was totally God, He could forgive sins. Therefore, Jesus was able to forgive the sins of those who lived when He did, and since He died and rose from the grave He is also able to forgive our sins today.
It's interesting to learn that Jesus did things that were based in His tradition. He observed the laws that were given by God, but then He would turn around and do things contrary to the man made laws, like having the man at the Bethesda pool carry his mat on the Sabbath.
It's fun to research the things you wonder about. I have wondered about the "Son of Man"" phrase for  a while. I'm glad I decided to finally find out what it meant. I hope it was as interesting for you also.
Thanks for learning with me,
Paul

Thursdays Child John 6:22-35 The Original "Show Me" People

Well, we're back on track after getting sidetracked with a little geography.

As I was reading this passage, I started thinking about 1) How people can be so deceitful and fickle, and 2) It's funny to watch Jesus tell them what they are really thinking, and that they can't deceive Him.  

John doesn't say after Jesus had fed them (the five thousand) and listened to Him teach, whether they went home to sleep, or if they had to sleep on the hill. He just says, they started gathering on the shore the next morning. They knew the disciples had gone across the lake without Him, but what they didn't know was that Jesus had decided to take a walk ACROSS the lake to catch up to the disciples. For some reason they decided to go across the lake and check anyway. I can just imagine the looks on their faces when they found Him there. When they asked Him how He got there, Jesus didn't answer the question, He just said "The truth is you just want to be with me because I fed you, not because you witnessed a miracle." It was like, that crowd was the groupies of their day. As long as the popular prophet was providing them with what they needed, or wanted, they would hang around. When their free ride starts to cost them something (as we'll see later) Jesus' crowd starts to dwindle. But for now, He goes on to tell them not to be so concerned about perishable things like food. They need to focus their energy on seeking the eternal life that Jesus can give them. He specifically told them "I, the Son of Man, have been sent by God the Father to give you eternal life." They did respond by asking what God wants them to do. Jesus told them "Believe in the one He has sent." They had the nerve to say "Then you need to show us a miraculous sign. What will you do for us?" It makes you wonder why Jesus didn't say "I just fed over five thousand of you with five loaves of bread and two fish, what more do you want?" Evidently they wanted Jesus to feed them as long as they followed Him, because they said "Moses fed the people manna while they journeyed through the wilderness." Jesus told them it wasn't Moses that provided the manna, it was His Father, and now God is offering them the true bread of heaven, the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. They said "Sir give us that bread every day of our lives." At this point I picture Jesus pointing to His chest saying loudly in frustration "I Am The Bread Of Life." The people are probably still thinking about getting some breakfast, and having some bread that is edible, and Jesus is talking eternity, and they just aren't getting it.
We'll see how they finally understand later but, I want to stop here for today. I don't want to go too far past Jesus' "Son of Man" statement. I want to take a closer look at that, and what He could have meant by that, next time. Until then,
Thanks for searching with me, as we attempt to understand Jesus' relationship with His followers.
Paul  
             

Thursdays Child-Jesus' Geography

Just a little suggestion before you get started, If you click on the map it shows up better.

As I was getting ready for the next Thursdays Child I was reading John 6:22-59 and I started wondering, where was Jesus when He crossed the Sea Of Galilee, and just how far did He travel (walk) in His ministry. This map can give you an idea how far He traveled. He changed the water to wine at the wedding feast in Cana. Then, He went to Jerusalem to heal the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, which seems to be about sixty to seventy miles or so. After He healed the lame man is when He made all the Jewish leaders angry by claiming to be The Son Of God. That's when it says He crossed the Sea of Galilee and fed the five thousand. Well, the Sea of Galilee wasn't right there for Him to just hop in a boat and go. He had to walk another sixty miles or so. Then I started wondering, where did He feed the five thousand, so we would know where he landed. As I was looking for that I read an article that said, since Jesus celebrated the Jewish Festivals, and the timing of them, He probably fed the five thousand about six months after He healed the lame man. I have been trying to focus only on the book of John when writing this, but I wanted to know where Jesus landed when He crossed the Sea of Galilee, and found it in Luke. Luke says "He took the disciples and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, but the crowds learned about it and followed them there." If you check the map, that's at the top of the sea. Again, checking the map, it looks like the trip over to Capernaum may have just be possible to do overnight. Their route must have taken them far enough out to sea though, that a bad storm could have been very frightening.

If it really was six months from healing the lame man, to feeding the five thousand, that gave Jesus plenty of time to do a lot of other miracles. That makes me think of the very last verse in the book of John. If you're not familiar with it, I won't make you wait 'til we get there it says "I suppose that if all the other things Jesus did were written down, the whole world could not contain the books." He had six months and over sixty miles of walking, to do a lot of miracles, and develop a huge following. Which is probably why He had five thousand people to feed when He got there.

Thanks for taking a break from the next scripture in line to satisfy my curiosity. As I have always said the more we question the more we learn.

Thanks for learning a little geography with me today,

Paul