Just Believe – Longing Fulfilled
Longing Fulfilled
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”John 6:29
‘Believe’ is a theme of John’s, mentioning it in his gospel 99 times.
‘to believe’ in Jesus is about relationship, and another way of translating ‘to believe’ is ‘entrusting oneself to’.
Entrust = ‘to put into the care or protection of someone’
Our theme today – longing fulfilled – follows on from the pivotal verse of verse 29, and needs to be reflected on in light of the ongoing conversation and the previous event of the feeding of the 5,000.
The crowd seem to want to believe, but first ask for proof, for some kind of sign (v30) – which seems slightly ironic considering what they’ve just witnessed!
Jesus sidesteps their request, and taps straight into their inherent human need for fulfillment.
This need for fulfilment, this longing, expressed in numerous forms and guises, at its most intrinsic level comes from a void than can only be filled by God.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.Ecclesiastes 3:11
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”John 6:35
- Jesus is the fulfilment of longing, ‘I am the bread of life…’
- Movement is required, ‘Whoever comes to me…’
- Entrusting/believing is required, ‘…whoever believes in me…’
- Seeing is not believing, ‘…you have seen me and still you do not believe.’ (v36)
