you are looking for me not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Let's imagine this from the point of view of the crowd. Their entire lives are directed at ensuring that they and their families have sufficient bread. They work hard to this purpose. It is the main reason why they work at all. Yet it seems that Jesus can provide bread without all of this effort. Wouldn't it be nice to just retire early and rely on Jesus to meet these needs? But if we think about it, such a life would still leave us unsatisfied. If our fleshly needs are our only concern there is no real need to leave Egypt. These basic needs can be met even while we are still entirely slaves to sin. They don't address our lack of freedom. And while they may delay the inevitable, they still don't prevent our eventual death. They leave the sin problem and the death problem ultimately unanswered.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
And yet this confusion of the crowd happens because Jesus gives perishable food as well. He is willing to meet the crowd on their own level in order to elevate them from the "futility of their minds" and from their old self and "former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires". He gives the crowd food not as an end in itself but so that they can stay near to him and listen to him. God gives the manna in the desert not in order to make the desert a perfect place to settle but in order to give the people strength for their journey to the promised land.
“I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites.
Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh,
and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread,
so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God.”
His providential care as they journey is a test to allow them to trust him as much as they should. They are only to gather their daily portion. This is possible if they trust God to provide for them tomorrow. Such trust is the real goal. The LORD wants Israel to know and understand what it means that he is their God.
Jesus is wants to raise our minds from the bread which perishes to the one and only bread that can quench our hunger and thirst for all times.
“Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
Jesus himself is the goal. We learn to trust him for our daily bread. This is enough for us because we know that we are on a pilgrimage to the place where he will be all in all (cf. 1 Cor 15:28).
Man ate the bread of angels,
food he sent them in abundance.
And he brought them to his holy land,
to the mountains his right hand had won.
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