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There is a strange moment in John 6 that most people read past too quickly.
The day before, Jesus has fed five thousand people from a boy's packed lunch. Everyone eats. Everyone is full. It is one of the most spectacular miracles in the gospels.
The next morning, the crowds come back.
This week's theme: Hunger.
Today, what they came back for, and why Jesus refused to give it to them.
BREAD THAT LASTS
The crowds who returned the next morning were not looking for Jesus.
They were looking for lunch.
They had experienced something extraordinary, and their response was not, "who is this man?" It was, "when's the next meal?" Jesus, being Jesus, named it directly.
"Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill."
He wasn't angry. He was diagnostic.
They had come to him hungry the first day. He had filled them. And the moment the food ran out, the same hunger came back, and they came looking for him to fill it again.
That is the exact rhythm of a life feeding a spiritual hunger with material things. You get the thing. You feel filled. The feeling wears off. You go looking for the next thing.
The problem with the crowds wasn't that they wanted bread. Everyone needs bread. The problem was that they had experienced the Son of God multiplying loaves, and their imagination had stopped at the loaves. He was offering them something the loaves could not offer, and they were coming back for more loaves.
Jesus tried, in that same conversation, to reframe it. He told them not to work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life. He told them he was the bread of life. Whoever came to him would never go hungry.
Most of the crowd walked away.
Not because they were bad people. Because they had come for something specific, and Jesus was offering something different, and they preferred the specific thing they had come for.
This is what makes hunger week uncomfortable to sit with.
We are the crowd more often than we would like to admit. We have real spiritual experiences, and then we go back to God the next morning still trying to get bread out of him. A better job. An easier week. A resolved situation. A quieter house. A specific outcome we have been asking for.
None of those things are wrong to want. God is not annoyed by the asking. But if the only thing we come back for is the bread, we are missing what he actually came to offer.
He is the thing. The bread was only ever a signpost pointing at the thing.
If you have been chasing bread from him for months without noticing, that is not a failure. That is just what humans do. The invitation today is small. Come back to him for him. Not for the bread. Not for the resolution. Not for the outcome. For him.
The bread lasts a morning. He lasts.
YOUR ONE THING FOR TODAY
Ask yourself one question honestly.
When I go to God, what am I usually going for? Him, or something I want him to give me?
Do not spiral on the answer. Just notice it. Then, once today, go to him for nothing. Just be with him. That is the whole practice.
Father, forgive me for the times I have come to you for bread and missed you sitting there offering something better. Retrain me. Teach me to come for you first, and to trust that what I actually need will follow. Amen.
OVER TO YOU
What have you been going to God for lately? Him, or a specific outcome? Hit reply and le me know. I read every one.
God bless you, my friend.
The LowKey Christian
P.S. my newest eBook ‘Known: Discovering Who God Says You Are’ is out now. Newsletter readers get an exclusive 50% off this product - just use discount code ‘Newsletter’ at checkout: https://thelowkeychristian.com/products/known-ebook