Bible Society of South Africa

Jesus – Day 12

Jesus: The Bread of Life (2)

Um(Imi)bhalo weBhayibheli

NgokukaJohane 6

32UJesu wayesethi kubo: “Ngiqinisile, ngiqinisile ngithi kini: Kwakungesiye uMose owanipha isinkwa esivela ezulwini, kodwa uBaba unipha isinkwa soqobo esivela ezulwini. 33Ngokuba isinkwa sikaNkulunkulu singuye owehla ezulwini, olipha izwe ukuphila.”

NgokukaJohane 6:32-33ZUL59NOVula kumfundi weBhayibheli

NgokukaJohane 6

35UJesu wathi kubo: “Mina ngiyisinkwa sokuphila; ozayo kimi kasoze alamba, nokholwa yimi kasoze oma.

NgokukaJohane 6:35ZUL59NOVula kumfundi weBhayibheli

NgokukaMarku 8

36Ngokuba kuyakumsizani umuntu ukuzuza izwe lonke, alahlekelwe ngukuphila kwakhe, na?

NgokukaMarku 8:36ZUL59NOVula kumfundi weBhayibheli

NgokukaJohane 10

10Isela kalizi kungengokweba nokubulala nokubhubhisa; mina ngize ukuba babe nokuphila, babe nakho kuchichime.

NgokukaJohane 10:10ZUL59NOVula kumfundi weBhayibheli

NgokukaJohane 6

38Ngokuba ngehle ezulwini kungengukuba ngenze intando yami, kodwa ukuba ngenze intando yongithumileyo.

NgokukaJohane 6:38ZUL59NOVula kumfundi weBhayibheli

NgokukaJohane 6

40Ngokuba lokhu kuyintando kaBaba ukuba yilowo nalowo obona iNdodana, akholwe yiyo, abe nokuphila okuphakade; ngiyakumvusa mina ngomuhla wokuphela.”

NgokukaJohane 6:40ZUL59NOVula kumfundi weBhayibheli

Jesus had recognised the spiritual dullness of the crowd following Him and had cautioned the people not to waste their energy on food that didn’t last – physical food whose function essentially is to keep the body alive. Instead He told them to work for spiritual food that He alone could give, food that would bring them eternal reward. In Mark 8:36 He reinforces this teaching with, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” These are very serious words indeed, but the people don’t get the point that they only need to believe in Jesus and that there is nothing else that they need do, or can do.

They want Jesus to give them another sign before they will believe Him, and cite the example of Moses giving their forefathers manna in the desert. They infer that Jesus had only used common bread to feed the crowd on one occasion, whereas Moses had had “bread from heaven” and had fed the whole nation on it for forty years, missing the point that even then God was the provider, and that, as God, He is free to act in whatever miraculous way He chooses. To the Israelites wandering in the desert He provided manna for their physical needs, in later years He sent His Son to provide for the spiritual needs of the whole world. But in the same way the people did not believe nor appreciate Moses and brought their own trouble on themselves, so their descendants treat Jesus. Do we not see this same unbelieving attitude in our generation?

Jesus is the true bread of God; He has come down from heaven in order to give life to the world. He has come that we “may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) But the life that He gives could only come through sacrifice: the sacrifice of His life on the cross for the world. Those who go to Him will “never go hungry” and those who believe in Him will “never be thirsty”- not in this world nor the next. Jesus says, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me … For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:38, 40)

Many don’t believe in Jesus, do you?

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