March 17

Date: March 17, 2026
Read: John 6:35-40

Devotional:

John 6 is one of those Gospel chapters that can leave people scratching their heads.
If you read the whole chapter, you will see that even the Jews were puzzled about Jesus’s answers. They wanted Jesus to prove that He was the Son of God by performing more miracles, and they were upset when Jesus refused them. For the Jews, they spent hundreds of years reading through the Old Testament waiting for this great savior to come which they called the Messiah or Anointed One. The Jewish people had this very detailed understanding of who the Messiah would be and what the Messiah would do on earth. The Messiah would come as a conquering king, who would save them from their enemies, and crush their oppressors. The Messiah would perform miracle after miracle to prove that He was truly sent from God. They saw the Messiah as this warrior who would be charismatic and everyone would immediately recognize him as the true savior of the Jews. Yet, when Jesus came to earth, He did not come with great fanfare or acclaim. He was not from a wealthy family or family of great honor. He didn’t come from a great city or fight in great battles. He came quieter, but He still came with the power of God.
When we come to John 6, Jesus has just performed his fourth miracle told in the Gospel.
First was turning water into wine, second was healing a nobleman’s son, and third was healing an invalid man. This miracle was feeding 5,000 men plus women and children with five loaves of bread and two fish. All of Jesus’s miracles were used to demonstrate that He was the true Messiah sent from God, and that these miracles could only be done by God Himself. Jesus is proving that He is God. After Jesus fed the 5,000 people, He performs His fifth miracle, walking on water. Then the people who ate the bread and fish followed Jesus across the lake because they wanted to be fed again. Jesus tells the people that they are seeking to fill their physical bodies, but Jesus came to earth to fill their spiritual bodies.
Jesus as Messiah was not sent to simply give hungry people food, though He does provide food to the hungry, but more importantly, Jesus came to give humanity bread that could fill them forever. This bread is the Truth that Jesus is God, and that God wants to save humanity from the destruction and eternal death of sin. When the Jews heard this, they were confused because this did not fit their understanding of the Messiah. Why can’t the Messiah perform more miracles and give them more food? Shouldn’t the Messiah give them a miracle when they demanded it? Jesus explained that seeing more miracles won’t make them believe that He is the Messiah. Jesus is God who came to save humanity and give them real Truth, and this Truth is the bread that will fill their empty spirits. The Truth is that humanity is broken because of sin and only God can save humanity from the destruction of sin. Jesus, who is God, came to save humanity. Those who believe in Jesus as the Savior will be saved from eternal death. This bread (Truth) will fill them so full that their spirits will never hunger for any other truth again.

Reflect:

Sin is like a blackhole that takes anything good and beautiful and destroys it. Sin leaves us hollow. We enter into this world changed by sin, and our spiritual bodies are empty and starving. Sin also separates us from our Creator God because God and sin cannot live together.
Jesus came to give us bread (Truth) that will fill the hollowness from sin. Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior of the world. He is God who can save us from the destruction of sin, and He came to earth as a man in order to become the final sacrifice needed to fix the broken relationship between us and God. When we say that we believe that Jesus is God, we are filled with His Truth, and we will never be spiritually hungry again. We also know that when our time on this earth is over, we will spend eternity with God, celebrating that He sent Jesus to earth to save us.

Prayer:

Dear Jesus, we thank you so much for coming to save us from our sins. We thank you that you willing gave your life so that we could eat of your Truth. Thank you for filling us with life so that we will never be hungry again. Help us to always remember your sacrifice and help us to boldly tell others about your great and unending love. We love you and worship you. In your name we pray, Jesus, Amen.